January, 191 1 



American Vee Journal 



National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



I don't believe in papers and speeches 

 at bee-conventions. We can read the 

 papers in the bee-periodicals and re- 

 ports. Time taken up with a speech of 

 welcome and reply, in which speeches 

 we are told that we are welcome at 

 Smithville, and how many pairs of 

 stockings are made at the Smithville 

 stocking factory, is time wasted. There 

 are two things that we go to the con- 

 vention for, and we can not have them 

 without going there. First, meeting 

 face to face old and new friends ; sec- 

 ond, face-to-face discussions. So the 

 more time taken up with discussion 

 the better the convention ; and every 

 paper left out increases the interest of 

 the convention. 



Exception, however, must be made 

 in the case of the President's Address 

 at the National convention at Albany. 

 (See November American Bee Journal.) 

 It is so actively aggressive, so brist- 

 ling with suggestions, that it challenges 

 attention, and the resolution of the 

 committee with regard to its discus- 

 sion emboldens me to say something 

 about it, even though it proves a " live 

 wire." 



Along with the encouragement that 

 "the National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion has done most excellent work for 

 its members during its many years of 

 existence " is the discouraging word 

 that "The organizations of the future 

 must be far ahead of those of the past 



or they will fail utterly." Is it so 



bad as that ? Even though the work 

 of the National merely hold on its level 

 way, will the failure be utter ? Still, if 

 there is room for improvement, by all 

 means let us have the improvement. 



About the cutting out part of the 

 Board of 12 Directors. It is argued 

 that it takes the general manager too 

 long to get replies from so many. Will 

 it take longer to get answers from 12 

 than from 3, provided the most distant 

 director be the same in each case ? 

 But I must say that the business has 

 not seemed to be any better done since 

 the number was increased to 12 than it 

 formerly was done with only -5. With 

 the smaller number there is likely to 

 be a greater sense of responsibility, 

 and there is more likely to be found 

 one negligent among 13 than among 5, 

 so that likely after all the smaller num- 

 ber would tend toward greater dis- 

 patch. 



" We must get away from discussing 

 the minor things of bee-keeping " is a 

 statement that will hardly receive a 

 hearty " Amen " from the rank and file 

 of bee-keepers. With them the dis- 

 posing of the crop is not a matter of 

 greater concern than the different items 

 involved in the securing of it. Likely, 

 however, the thought was as to its im- 

 portance from the view-point of tniiled 

 action. And when it comes to that, 

 there can hardly be any diversity of 

 opinion. Take 10 bee-keepers in the 

 same locality, and one of them may 

 conduct his apiary in the most approved 

 up-to-date manner, even if the other 9 

 are all back numbers. He is entirely 

 independent of what they may do. But 

 when it comes to the matter of selling. 



he is anything but independent. If the 

 other 9 sell honey for half price, he 

 may as well give up all thought of get- 

 ting full price foi' his honey in that 

 market. 



The matter of disposing of the crops 

 can only be properly done by united 

 action, and among all the things that 

 require united action that same dispos- 

 ing of the crops stands first and fore- 

 most. 



The suggestion that the meetings of 

 the National be changed as mentioned 

 is revolutionary. The proposition is 

 really to change the annual meeting 

 from a convention to a legislature. 

 And there is much to be said in its 

 favor. When you come right down to 

 it, the National convention is largely 

 a matter of local attendance. It is a 

 State convention, with just a few 

 added from farther away. And if in- 

 stead of the annual convention of the 

 National we can have a number of 

 representatives meet to devise schemes 

 and lay plans to help all of us in the 

 disposal of our crops, there might be 

 a great gain. 



But when it comes to carrying out 

 the scheme in detail, the thing looks a 

 little foggy. The President, in his ad- 

 dress, suggests the meeting of 100 rep- 

 resentatives. For one, I should feel 

 like being still more revolutionary, 

 offering, if only as a question, whether 

 25 might not be better than 100. Per- 

 haps I better not say anything more 

 'about details lest I get too far beyond 

 my depth. 



But of one thing I feel pretty certain, 

 and that is that if there is to be any 

 getting together of bee-keepers to 

 spend anything in the line of advertis- 

 ing, the matter must be so arranged 

 that those who furnish the money will 

 see some special advantage accruing 

 to themselves. Ask bee-keepers to 

 chip in a dollar each for something 

 that will benefit alike every bee-keeper 

 in the country, whether he contributes 

 or not, and the responses will be ex- 

 ceedingly few. Get the wide-awake 

 bee-keeper to see that benefits will 

 come to those, and to those only, who 

 " chip in," and his dollar is promptly 

 ready. 



Marengo, 111. 



Improvement in Honey-Bees 



BY DR. A. F. BONNEY. 



However desirable improvement in 

 our honey-gatherers may be, we have a 

 problem which will not be solved in 

 this generation of men ; not because 

 more or less intelligent effort is not 

 being constantly made, but because we 

 are dealing with an animal in which 

 development ceased ages and ages ago. 

 Its environments changing its progress, 

 physical and possibly mental, stopped. 

 For all we know, the bee we have to 

 deal with is the same insect man found 

 when he came on the scene — the identi- 

 cal creation the ancient Egyptians 

 carried up and down the banks of the 

 river Nile to keep in touch with the 

 flower-bloom. There is sufficient proof 

 in Holy Writ that man had the bee in 

 olden times, for therein we read of "a 

 land flowing with milk and honey." 

 There must have been some pretty 

 good honey-gatherers in those days 



thus to name a country. I can not help 

 wondering how the honey-gatherers of 

 today would compare with those old- 

 time bees. 



The bee is often pointed to by enthu- 

 siastic investigators as the most per- 

 fectly specialized insect in the world ; 

 but while I cheerfully admit much that 

 is claimed for it I can not assent to 

 this, for it is apparent that all insects — 

 each in its own way — is as highly spe- 

 cialized. I even incline to the opinion 

 that the entire insect world ceased to 

 develop some time in the great Past, 

 ages untold before the vertebrated ani- 

 mals came on the scene. There is no 

 evidence that the bee of today is one 

 whit different from the bee of 4000 

 years ago ; that the silk-worm offers 

 characteristics which will separate it 

 from others of its kind which the an- 

 cient Chinese used ; that the ant, 

 pointed to by the inspired writer, is not 

 the same ant it was untold thousands 

 of years ago ; and in connection with 

 this, let me ask, " What is specializa- 

 tion." 



Not one bee-keeper in a thousand 

 can give an intelligent answer — per- 

 haps not in five thousand, for it is hard 

 for even the lexicographers to make it 

 clear to inquiring readers. However, 

 I may state that "to specialize " is to 

 put a stop to a particular kind of devel- 

 opment. " Limit to a particular kind 

 of development," the Century says. The 

 animal, or the specie to which it be- 

 longs, has done one thing so long that 

 it has ceased to do or even tliink any- 

 thing else ; and the question early 

 came to my mind, if it is possible to 

 improve an individual of a specie. Can 

 we take an animal which, ages ago, 

 ceased trying to do anything else than 

 gather honey, and " improve " it, using 

 the word in its most flexible sense ? 

 Let us see ? 



The Century, again, for there is no 

 better authority, " Specie, in biology, 

 that which is specialized or differen- 

 tiated." 



" Strain, a variety, especially an arti- 

 ficial variety of a domestic animal." 



Because a good friend once asked 

 me, while arguing about non-swarming 

 bees, if there are not " sports " among 

 bees which might be developed into a 

 non-swarming strain, I introduce the 

 word sport here, for I may find occa- 

 sion to refer to it further on. 



"Sport, in zoology and botany, an 

 animal or plant, or any part of one, 

 that varies suddenly and singularly 

 from the normal type of structure, and 

 is usually of a transient character, or 

 not perpetuated." (The italics are mine.) 

 The Good Book says: "Go to the 

 ant, thou sluggard," and the reason 

 this insect was used is because it is 

 more apparently busy than the bee, but 

 differing from the more valuable insect 

 in that while it toils unceasingly there 

 is nothing to show for it which will 

 interest man — merely stores to last 

 them over winter and another genera- 

 tion of ants. As in the case of the bee, 

 progress ceased ages ago, so long since 

 that the memory of man runs not to the 

 time when the ant was different from 

 what it is now. 



I can best illustrate this by telling of 

 something I once saw out in the desert 

 of New Mexico. Away up at the head 

 of Canyon Laguna is a cave. This is 



