THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



"5 



COMPENSATION FOR I'OII. RKOODY COLO- 

 NIES THAT AKIC DICSTKOYED. 



In the last issue of the Review I men- 

 tioned that the bee keejiers of Wisconsin 

 were trving to have an amendment made 

 to their foul brood law, allowing owners 

 of foul broody colonics some compensation 

 for their colonies when destroyed. Com- 

 menting upon this, Stenog., in Gleanings, 

 says that this could not be done, proba- 

 bly, as such colonies have no value any- 

 how. If we are to be compensated be- 

 cause our bees contract this disease, he 

 thinks that we ought to be given a pen- 

 sion when we get the grip. A foul broody 

 colony does have some value; unless too 

 far gone with the disease it may store a 

 fair crop of honey. A cow diseased with 

 tuberculosis would be of value to her own- 

 er if he kept on selling her milk and but- 

 ter, but it is because of the menace to the 

 public that the law says she nmst be kill- 

 ed. It is done for the public good, and it 

 is no more than fair that the public should 

 bear a part of the burden. If the State 

 reimburses a man for the loss of his cow 

 that is killed because she has the tuber- 

 culosis, there is no reason why it should 

 not do the same by the bee-keeper who 

 destroys his foul broody colonies for the 

 sake of the public good. 



"TO MUCH MICHIGAN IN IT." 



Mr. F. L. Thompson says that he con- 

 siders the Review as good a journal as 

 can be made by a sta}-at-home editor. 

 Just going to Wisconsin and Canada he 

 considers the same as staying at home. 

 There is too much cellar-wintering, and 

 fruit-bloom, and small hives, and fall 

 corn-weather, and the like. To sum it 

 up in a few words, "To much Michigan 

 in it." The Western beginner gets false 

 ideas, and the western specialist has con- 

 stantly to apply a sifting jjrocess. There 

 may be something in this criticism. I 

 have no doubt that a different manage- 

 ment is sometimes needed in Colorado, 

 or in California, than is needed is Mich- 

 igan. It is true that I have had no ex- 



perience in Western bee-keeping, but ar- 

 ticles from bee-keepers living in the 

 West have always been welcomed in the 

 Review. We have several times had 

 Western bee journals that were started, 

 ostensibly, because the eastern journals 

 had "too umch Michigan in them," but 

 I was never able to discover that they dif- 

 fered s:reatly, in this respect, from the 

 Eastern journals. 



Supposing that Mr. Thompson is cor- 

 rect, there is this to be said in defense: 

 Nine-tenths of the readers of the Review 

 live in Canada and the Northern part of 

 the United States east of the Mississippi, 

 and in the first row of states west of the 

 Mississippi. 



It is true that on my trips among bee- 

 keepers, I have not yet visited any very 

 distant parts of the country. I may do 

 so in the future. I hope that I can. It 

 seemed more sensible tome to begin near 

 home. To man\' of us are inclined to 

 look for great things away off somewhere, 

 while something just as good may be 

 overlooked right under our noses. 



*n»»»r»»*»*» 



A TRUST, OR CO-OPERATION, NEEDED IN 

 BEE-KEEPING. 

 Gleanings contains articles from sev- 

 eral men advocating, or setting forth a 

 need, of a trust, or combination among 

 bee-keepers. A discussion on trusts was 

 once started in the Review, and I cut it 

 off because it seemed to be wandering too 

 far from bee-keeping. If all of the in- 

 dustries of the country could be organized 

 into trusts, each kind b}- itself, the bee- 

 keepers forming a trust, the wool growers 

 another, the glass makers another, and 

 so on, then we would all be on an equal 

 footing. As it is now, with part of the 

 industries taking the advantages of or- 

 ganization, and other industries with no 

 organization, there often comes injustice. 

 The trouble in forming a combination of 

 bee-keepers, or of farmers, is because of 

 their large number and scattered condi- 

 tion. Notwithstanding these conditions, 

 some bee-keepers, notably those of Cal- 

 ifornia and Colorado, have bettered their 



