lA. 



D 



;Jt^ 



(Entered as second-class matter at tii 



i-,i office at Hamilton, 111., under Act of March 3, 1879.) 



Published Monthly at $1.00 a Year, by American Bee Journal, First National Bank Building 



C. p. DADANT. Editor. 



DR. C. C. MILLER, Associate Editor. 



HAMILTON, ILL, JUNE, 1913 



Vol. LIIL— No. 6 



Editorial 



Comments 



Shipping Bees or Queens— Cer- 

 tificates Needed 



Many States now have laws which 

 forbid the sliipment of bees without 

 the accompanying certificate of inspec- 

 tion of the apiary from which they are 

 shipped. In States having no inspec- 

 tor, a sworn statement made before a 

 notary or justice of the peace is usually 

 sufficient. We will gladly inform those 

 of our readers needing additional in- 

 formation, and ask the different inspec- 

 tors to forward a copy of their regula- 

 tions to this office. 



MailinsJ Queen-Cages in Cotton 

 Bags 



We are in receipt from Mr. Frank 

 Rauchfuss, of Denver, of four queen- 

 cages with bees, packed in a light cot- 

 ton mailing-bag. The bag is of very 

 light texture, admitting the air through. 

 This package has the advantage of pro- 

 tecting the cages from strong air cur- 

 rents, keeping them together more 

 efficiently than a string of twine, and 

 yet leaving sufficient air for their 

 breathing. It is worthy of further 

 trial. 



Foul Brood, Wastefulness and the 

 High Cost of Living 



The writer one day noticed a little 

 cluster of excited bees on the ground 

 in a poultry enclosure. Upon exami- 

 nation he discovered that they were 

 bent upon gathering a lump of granu- 

 lated honey, which had been thrown 

 there with other table-waste. The 

 chickens had eaten everything but the 



wasted honey, butter and bones. 



We complain of the high cost of liv- 

 ing and seek a remedy in every direc- 

 tion but the right one. The American 

 way is to waste, waste in all directions. 

 We wasted our forests, under the plea 

 that it was more profitable to burn 

 them off than to save them. We waste 

 our coal at the mines, in many places 

 allowing the slack to consume itself by 

 spontaneous conbustion, or by contact 

 with the air. We waste our land, leav- 

 ing innumerable spots uncultivated, 

 even in the heart of civilization. We 

 waste our manures, often even con- 

 taminating our streams by using them 

 to wash away useful fertilizers. But 

 above all things we waste our food. 



This reproof is not intended for the 

 foreigner who has been raised on 

 economical methods in a thickly set- 

 tled country. In all probability, the 

 foreign-born American who reads this 

 has been taught, in his young days, to 

 consider bread and meat as sacred, 

 under the plausible plea that he might 

 starve some day, for want of such food 

 as he proposes to throw away, and also 

 because so many millions in the world 

 do not get as much as they want 

 to eat. But our American education is 

 different. Many a bright, neat, sensi- 

 ble and educated American mother 

 thinks nothing of teaching her chil- 

 dren to take a heaping plate-full of all 

 kinds of food, and leave half of it un- 

 consumed, in a disgusting heap, made 

 of a mixture of all the dainty dishes 

 served upon the table. Nay, in many 

 cases, children are taught that it is 



ffooci manners to accept or take more 

 of one dish than you can possibly use 

 and leave two-thirds of this upon your 

 plate. Thus meat, gravy, bread, pota- 

 toes and other vegetables, fish, butter, 

 jellies, pie and honey are carried to the 

 back-yard or thrown into the slop-pail. 



When this waste takes place upon 

 the farm, it is but half waste, for the 

 hogs and the chickens consume most 

 of the remnants, so however expensive 

 it may be to feed bread, cakes, jellies 

 or honey to the hogs, the food is not 

 altogether wasted. But what of the 

 cities ? How much of this willful and 

 unnecessary waste is made to clog the 

 sewers or sour and rot in the refuse 

 can in the back-lot ? 



What has this to do with bee-culture? 

 Why should a bee-journal take notice 

 of this bad custom and sound a note of 

 warning? Because, as far as honey is 

 concerned, the waste constitutes a dan- 

 ger. Because if one-fifth, or even only 

 a tenth, of the honey served upon the 

 tables is thrown away, there is a 

 chance in many instances of the bees 

 getting at this honey second-hand and 

 bringing to the hive, with it, undesir- 

 able bacteria. The very best honey 

 may contain in it germs which, abso- 

 lutely haimless to human beings, mean 

 ruin to the brood. 



Why are brood diseases almost per- 

 manent around many large cities, in 

 this country, if it is not owing to the 

 fact that some of the honey shipped 

 from all parts of the country is, to a 

 large extent, exposed where the bees 

 can reach it ? 



One will say that, in most cases, the 

 honey is healthy for the bees and en- 

 tirely free of germs. True. But we 

 know that in case of contamination, 

 the microscopic germ which causes 

 brood diseases is so small and so spar- 

 ingly scattered in the honey that scien- 



