441 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



Chin.s? wax is the product of a scale insect 

 related to the cochineal insect. 



" In speaking of the willow," says Prof. 

 Cook, "it is stated that it does not furnish 

 honey, and the late Mr. Quinby is quoted to 

 the same effect. This is certainly not true of 

 all our willows." One is at a loss to know 

 how it is possible for any one so to misread. 

 The author says he has had little or no expe- 

 rience with the willow ; but as it does yield 

 honey and pollen in some localities he yields 

 the floor to Mr. G. M. Doolittle, who has had 

 much experience with it, and is, withal, one 

 of the most careful observers. Mr. Doolittle 

 ranks some of the willows, the large growing 

 kinds, as exceedingly valuable honey-plants, 

 the pussy willows that grow in his locality be- 

 ing valuable for pollen alone, in which he 

 concurs with Quinby. 



An^usti/oltu-in epilobiuin, says the profess- 

 or, should be Epilobium atigustifolium, and 

 it is so corrected in the latest ediiion. 



The ABC gives white honey the preference 

 to dark for wintering, but says that, although 

 the dark is a little more apt to give dysentery, 

 it usually does not have that effect. Prof. 

 Cook makes what is no doubt a proper dis- 

 tinction, by saying that buckwheat and other 

 dark floral honey is good, while that from 

 scale lice is unfit for wintering. 



In the glossary. Apis is given as the family 

 to which the bee belongs, when it should be 

 genus, as it is found in the latest edition. 



But it should be understood that all these 

 crilicisms relate to an old edition of the ABC, 

 and not to the new one out last January, and 

 now offered for sale. 



HtGH-PRICED BREEDING-STOCK — IS IT RIGHT 

 TO ADVERTISE IT ? 



It is well always to be on guard against such 

 excitement as shall attach fictitious valuations 

 far beyond the real worth of an article. Many 

 a town site in the West has had its boom when 

 corner lots went skyward in price, and the man 

 who paid his hundreds or thousands for a sin- 

 gle lot has seen the price come down, down — 

 never to rise again. On the other hand, there 

 have been cases in which a man has been laugh- 

 ed at for paying what seemed to be a fictitious 

 price for a piece of ground, but who, with very 

 shrewd foresight, has held on to it and made a 

 fortune. A good many things need to be tak- 

 en into consideration in getting at the actual 

 value of an article. Even in the matter of 

 queen-bees it may be possible greatly to over- 

 estimate values, and it may also be possible to 

 undervalue. An editorial in the American 

 Bee-Keeper reads as follows : 



When a queen breeder offers as his greatest induce- 

 inent to buyers to send oiit queens from a mother val- 

 ued at 50, 100. 200. ,5( or 10 dollars, he should be re- 

 garded with suspicion. If he is not a fakir pure and 

 sininle, he is not what he appears to be in the eyes of 

 the honest business world. 



According to the dictionary, "fakir" is a 

 slang word which means " one who originates 

 a f ike, humbug, or swindling contrivance." 

 It can not be that a man would be considered 

 a swindler who should urge, as the chief in- 

 ducement for purchasers to order from him, 

 that the stock from which he bred was of 



great value. Evidently the thought is that 

 no queen can have so high a value, and that a 

 queen-breeder who claims to have a queen 

 valued at SoO 00 or more is, in the eyes of the 

 honest business world, a swindler. If our co- 

 temporary had given the matter sufficient 

 thought to make a proper estimate of the pos- 

 sible value of a queen, it never would have 

 published that paragraph. 



When hens' eggs can be had in abundance 

 at 12 cts. or less per dozen, the man who ad- 

 vertises to sell a sitting of 13 for $1.00 is not 

 considered a swindler. When the average 

 price of a horse is less than .?100 there are a 

 few animals which change hands at prices 

 away up in the thousands ; and the men who 

 receive such prices are not considered swin- 

 dlers. The man who buys such an animal is 

 not considered a swindler if he puts a still 

 higher price upon his purchase, even though 

 he should never sell at the price set. The 

 only question is whether he would rather keep 

 the animal than to sell it at any thing less 

 than the price set. 



Queens can be had by the thousand for one 

 dollar each, and many are sold for the half of 

 that ; yet it is a common thing to see adver- 

 tisements of certain queens at much higher 

 prices ; and the man is not considered a swin- 

 dler who has received $2 00, $5.00, $10.00, or 

 more for such a queen. There is no question, 

 then, that a man may be an honest man and 

 sell a queen for more than the ordinary price. 

 The only question is as to the limit beyond 

 which a man may not go without appearing as 

 a swindler in the eyes of the honest business 

 world. 



A great many queens are sold at a price of 

 $5.00 each or more. The man who buys such 

 a queen does not expect to get his money back 

 on it if he uses it as the average queen is used 

 for securing a crop of honey. But by the im- 

 provement of his stock he may get back his 

 money many times over. The results obtain- 

 ed from it give it its value. The question is 

 whether such results can be obtained in any 

 case as to warrant a valuation of $50.00 or 

 more. Suppose a queen -breeder who sells a 

 thousand queens in a year has a queen of such 

 qualifications that he can get an extra dollar 

 for every queen of her stock that he sells. It 

 matters not whether the extra value be in col- 

 or, length of tongue, working qualities, or 

 what not ; if it is what his customers want, 

 and if they are glad to pay the price, he gets 

 an extra thousand dollars in the couse of the 

 season, not for extra work on his part, but 

 simply and solely for the value there is in that 

 queen. Suppose at the beginning of the sea- 

 son some oue should say to him, "I'll give 

 you $50.00 for that queen." He might reply, 

 "I get $100 extra on each queen of that 

 stock. I expect to sell 1000 queens this sea- 

 son at that advanced price. If I hold on to 

 her I shall be worth $1000 more at the end of 

 the season than to let her go and breed from 

 another queen. I should be foolish to take 

 $50 00 now for the prospect of $1000 at the end 

 of the season. True, she may die to-morrow; 

 but the chances in favor of her living are such 

 that I should hardly be willing to take less 



