Published Monthly at 50 ots. a Year, by George W. York & Co., 118 W.Jackson Blvd. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., MARCH, 1908 



VoL XLVni— No, 3 



ISfT 



editorial ^ofes 

 and Comments 



'^" 



.^ 



Making More Bee-Keepers 



We have received the following letter 

 from one of our Michigan subscribers : 



Editor York : — I am a bee-keeper and 

 a subscriber to the Atnerican Bee Jour- 

 nal. Believing that you have no ax to 

 grind by selling supplies, I would like 

 to ask a few questions. 



I see so much in another bee-paper 

 about Prof. "Bugaboo" teaching people 

 how to keep bees. Knowing that he 

 isn't paid by the producers of honey, 

 I would like to know who "feathers his 

 nest" for him. It must be some bee- 

 supply dealers. Of course, he is a curse 

 to the bee-keeping industry. If people 

 believe one-half that he tells them, he 

 would turn out about ten thousand new 

 bee-keepers every year, and in 5 years 

 honey wouldn't bring over 5 cents a 

 pound. The supply influences the price. 

 We have that illustrated every few 

 years. It doesn't make any difference 

 whether it is potatoes, sheep, cattle, or 

 some other produce, if everybody goes 

 into the business the price flunks. 



There is no other business in which 

 men are hired to run all over the coun- 

 try to boom. I think the National Bee- 

 Keepers' .\ssociation would better wring 

 Prof. "Bugaboo's" neck, if they want to 

 keep up the price of hon«y. If it is the 

 bee-supply dealers who are booming the 

 business we want to know it. 



This letter is the sentiment of all the 

 bee-keepers in my locality. I wish you 

 would print it in the American Bee 

 Journal. Edward Corwin. 



Dowagiac, Mich., Jan. 8. 



You arc right, Mr. Corwin, in think- 

 ing that the American Bee Journal is 

 entirely independent of any bee-supply 

 business. It is interested only in the 



spread of the best literature among the 

 bee-keepers through its own columns, 

 and various most excellent books on the 

 subject of bee-culture. We certainly 

 have no ax to grind through selling bee- 

 supplies, but of course we would like 

 to see all of the dealers who patronize 

 our advertising columns make a success 

 of their business. If it were not for the 

 advertising patronage the American Bee 

 Journal certainly could not be furnished 

 at 50 cents a year. 



We are not certain that Prof. "Buga- 

 boo" could do as much harm as you 

 seem to think, even if he should be try- 

 ing to make more new bee-keepers. In 

 all probability not a large percentage 

 would make a success of it, or stick to 

 it for more than a year or two, but 

 after having a taste of honey, they no 

 doubt would make good customers for 

 those who had stayed in the business of 

 honey-production as a specialty. Of 

 course, the beginners' outfits of supplies 

 that they would buy might in one way 

 be considered a loss to them, and yet 

 the information that they might get in 

 handling a few bees might be worth all 

 the experiment cost them. Certainly 

 the little honey that new bee-keepers 

 might produce would not affect any 

 market. About the only difficulty we 

 can see in their starting and producing 

 a little honey is, that they don't care 

 anything about getting a fair price for 

 it. However, their honey never gets 

 very far from home, so that in all prob- 

 ability it docs not affect the large city 

 markets. 



After having said this much, we 

 would like to add that we know noth- 

 ing about who pays Prof. "Bugaboo" 

 for what you say he is doing. It may 

 be that he has a good wad of money 



laid by so that he can spend most of 

 his time in the way he seems to be do- 

 ing, without much expense, and at the 

 same time he may be a sort of "feeder" 

 for the business of bee-supply dealers. 



We might say that the American Bee 

 Journal is anxious to get as many sub- 

 scribers as possible, but it has never 

 been our aim to increase the number 

 of bee-keepers. What we have always 

 wanted to do is to get every one who 

 now has bees to subscribe for and 

 read this Journal, so as to learn to pro- 

 duce the most honey in the best possi- 

 ble way. We also believe that the read- 

 ing, up-to-date, educated bee-keeper will 

 not be a detriment in the open honey 

 market, but will be as anxious as the 

 largest specialist to keep the price of 

 honey up to where it ought to be. We 

 think that if every bee-keeper who is 

 now a reader of the American Bee 

 Journal would try to educate his neigh- 

 bor bee-keepers by getting them to read 

 not only the Arrierican Bee Journal, but 

 also the best books on the subject of 

 bee-keeping, it would tend to the better- 

 ment of every one connected with the 

 business. 



If there were more local bee-keepers' 

 conventions held, so that every one who 

 has bees would be able to at end them 

 and learn the best methods of honey- 

 production, and also as to marketing, 

 etc., who would doubt that in a very 

 short time the bee-business would be 

 put upon a more substantial basis, and 

 the demand for honey be greatly irn 

 creased? 



Liquefying Extracted Honey 



When heat is applied to extracted 

 honey to liquefy it, it will be found that 

 the center of the mass will remain solid 

 long after the outer part has become 

 melted, and the danger is that the outer 

 part will become overheated while the 

 center is melting. This danger is the 

 greater, the lower the temperature of 

 the whole mass when the heat is ap- 

 plied. If the entire lot be at the freez- 

 ing point, the center may easily remain 

 solid while the outer part has been 

 spoiled bv boiling. The plain suggestion 

 is that we should have the mass warm 

 before beginning to melt it. Let it re- 

 main in a room whose temperature has 

 been raised to 100 degrees, or as near 



