1917 



AMF,RICAN BF.F. JOURNAT, 



11 



garding the quantity of honey produced 

 in the United States is in a large meas- 

 ure covered by the Bureau of Crop 

 Statistics, but this bureau has nothing 

 whatever to do with the prices secured 

 by producers. It is the intention of 

 the National to get definite informa- 

 tion for the beekeepers regarding the 

 quantity of honey they have on hand, 

 size of packages, etc., and by offering 

 it collectively to buyers, secure better 

 prices than have usually been paid to 

 the beekeepers individually. 



Prof. Jager and Sec. Millen are ac- 

 quainted with nearly all leading bee- 

 keepers throughout the country, and 

 judging by what has been done in Min- 

 nesota and Michigan, we feel sure the 

 National meeting will be one of the 

 largest and best ever held. We urge, 

 therefore, that every one who can pos- 

 sibly attend the convention do so and 

 help make this meeting what a National 

 Beekeepers' Convention should be. 



Honorary Members of the Michi- 

 gan A.ssociation 



The Editor has been elected Honor- 

 ary Life Member of the Michigan State 

 Association, in company with Dr. C. 

 C. Miller and Mr. A. I. Root. He feels 

 very proud of the distinction and still 

 more of the company in which he finds 

 himself, with two of the oldest and 

 most renowned beekeepers of America, 

 who are his seniors in both years and 

 experience. 



What About that Home Market ? 



"I have sold all of my honey locally 

 and could sell as much more if I had 

 it." It is not an unusual thing to get 

 letters with the above quoted phrase 

 in them, even this early in the honey 

 selling year. Unfortunately the ma- 

 jority of these beekeepers make no 

 effort to supply that demand. It is 

 these whom we wish to urge. 



You should by all means make every 

 effort to keep your customers supplied 

 with honey at any time they want it. 

 If you do not, what happens ? Most 

 assuredly the desire for sweets will be 

 satisfied and they substitute, instead 

 of the wholesome honey, the poorer 

 articles on the general market through- 

 out the year. The following year, they 

 may have found a substitute which they 

 think is as good as honey, and you 

 lose a customer. 



Nowadays it is not hard to find adver- 

 tised a grade of honey which will rank 

 in flavor with that of your own pro- 

 duction, and you should be able to get 

 It so as to make sales at the prices you 

 have been getting for your own. If not, 

 there is something the matter. Very 

 possibly you have been getting too lit- 

 tle for the honey which you sold your- 



self. Then, too, every pound of some 

 one else's honey you dispose of will 

 help relieve the t indency of over sup- 

 ply and help bring up the price. 



Far and away the greatest reason 

 why honey is not sold more readily to- 

 day is because the majority of beekeep- 

 ers, small and large combined, do not 

 over-produce, but under-supply their 

 customers. 



l.sle of Wight Disea.se 



We acknowledge with thanks the re- 

 ceipt from Mr. John Anderson, M. A.; 

 B. Sc, of the North of Scotland College 

 of Agriculture, of two bulletins on the 

 Isle of Wight disease in connection 

 with A'osema afis. 



The observations and experiments 

 recorded were conducted mainly in 

 Lewis, Outer Hebrides. This island, 

 east of North Scotland, is at about the 

 latitude of Juneau, Alaska, or above 

 the 58th degree. 



The conclusions reached in these 

 bulletins do not agree with those of 

 some other investigators, for the 

 writers do not charge the iVosema apis 

 as being the cause of Isle of Wight dis- 

 ease. It is only sufficient to quote the 

 statement made on page 51 of the 

 "Observations and Experiments": 



"Our main conclusion regarding 

 Xosema af^is is that SO far we have 

 been unable to recognize any casual 

 relation between the presence of this 

 parasite and the disease. We have 

 found it to be present over prolonged 

 periods in healthv stocks, while we 

 were unable to find it in other stocks 

 in the apiary, nor did Isle of Wight 

 disease spread under these conditions 

 although various races of bees were 

 present. Deliberate infection of a 

 stock with Xosema did not produce 

 the disease. It is well established also 

 that the disease occurs where the para- 

 site cannot be found. We have numer- 

 ous instances of this on Deeside." 



This much debated question will 

 sooner or later be settled by further 

 evidence. Errors occur in observation 

 as well as in diagnosis. But very few 

 scientists are unwilling to give up to 

 evidence, when it becomes flagrant. 

 Time will clear the now obscure ques- 

 tion. Isle of Wight disease, as well 

 as our mysterious "bee paralysis "and 

 "May disease," will soon be classified 

 and controlled. 



Weight of Bees 



The Beekeepers' Review, in its Octo- 

 ber number, page 370, contains an in- 

 teresting article by O. L. Hershiser, in 

 which he gives the weights of worker- 

 bees and drones. He figures 5088 work- 

 ers or 2528 drones to a pound. B. F. 

 Koons, in the "A B C of Bee Culture," 

 gives about 5000 workers or 2000 drone's 

 as weighing a pound. An old and very 



accurate writer on bees, L'Abbo Col- 

 lin, in 1805, gave the number of drones 

 as they leave the hive for a flight at 

 1925 to a pound, while the number of 

 drones coming home from a flight was 

 2070. Inversely, the workers are heav- 

 ier when they come home than when 

 they fly out. 



From all this it appears that drones 

 are at least twice as heavy as worker- 

 bees. They certainly cost fully twice 

 as much to rear. Hence, the advis- 

 ability of limiting their numbers, ex- 

 cept in select colonies that are desir- 

 able for breeders. 



Changes Proposed in Iowa Law 



In his annual report which has re- 

 cently been filed in the governor's 

 ofiice, Frank C. Pellett, the Iowa in- 

 spector of b;es. proposes that the law 

 be so changed that the office be placed 

 in the extension department of the 

 Agricultural College. In this way the 

 appointment will be taken out of poli- 

 tics, and it will be possible to change 

 inspectors at any time instead of wait- 

 ing for a term to expire in case condi- 

 tions are unsatisfactory. 



As proposed, the law will be drawn 

 to permit inspection as at present upon 

 call of the beekeepers, but will provide 

 for enforcement of the provision re- 

 quiring proper attention to diseased 

 colonies, by another officer rather than 

 by the inspector. Apiary demonstra- 

 tions similar to those now conducted 

 in Ontario will also be provided for It 

 IS proposed to require all the inspec- 

 tor s time for work in bee diseases, 

 development of markets, etc. There 

 are several advantiges which will 

 accrue if the change is made. The 

 beekeepers in attendance at the Iowa 

 convention approved the proposed 

 change without dissent. 



The inspector suggested that the 

 present law places too much power in 

 the hands of one man, and that while 

 the inspector's orders should be carried 

 out, It should be possible for the 

 owner of the bees to have some kind 

 of an appeal to prevent unjust injury 

 in case of a mistake in diagnosis or of 

 prejudice on the part of an officer. 



This is the fifth year that Mr. Pellett 

 has served in the capacity of State bee 

 inspector of Iowa, and he proposes to 

 retire from the work to devote his en- 

 tire time to his bees and to his work 

 for the American Bee Journal and 

 other magazines. 



Field BooJs of American Wild 

 Flowers 



This ofliice is in receipt from the pub- 

 lishers, of a 600-page book entitled, 

 " Field Book of American Wild Flow- 



