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^ERICA.]^ 



43d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, SEPT. 17, 1903. 



No. 38, 



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Editorial Comments 



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Marketing the Honey Crop will be next in order. The 

 tendency will be to rush it all off to the city. Don't do it. Do your 

 best to sell nearer home. 



Some bee-keepers seem to get scared if they have a thousand 

 pounds or so of honey on hand. They think if they don't sell it 

 within a month or two after taken off the hives they might have to 

 carry it over winter, or perhaps be compelled to sit down and eat it all 

 in their own family. 



It is a great mistake to rush it off to the market, when, perhaps, 

 a lot more have done the same way, and thus have shattered the prices. 



In a wholesale way, the best comb honey should never sell for 

 less than 15 cents a pound; and the best extracted should bring from 

 7 to 8 cents. Of course, in a season like the past, when there seems to 

 have been a pretty fair crop, it may be necessary to shade prices a lit- 

 tle. But don't do it unless you have a good reason for so doing. 



Queen-Cages Smashed in the Mails. — We have had sev- 

 eral instances where queens sent through the mails have been lost by 

 reason of the cages becoming smashed. It seems in throwing the 

 mail-sacks oft' the trains, books or other heavy articles come down on 

 the cage edgewise, and of course it is crushed. 



It seems to us the cages might be made a little stronger — left a 

 little thicker by not boring out so much of the wood, which would 

 leave a little stronger bottom to the cage, and thus prevent such easy 

 crushing. 



We suppose all queen-breeders have often been troubled in the 

 same way. It certainly is very annoying, both to dealer and custo- 

 mer, to say nothing of the loss of the queens that have to be replaced. 



Formalin and Formaldehyde. — The present possibility, if 

 not probability, is that formalin, or formaldehyde, will be used to a 

 considerable extent by bee-keepers. It certainly will if the claim is 

 substantiated that thereby the combs of a foul-broody colony can be 

 disinfected so as to kill both bacilli and spores, making it perfectly 

 safe to use such combs in healthy colonies. It is, therefore, of some 

 consequence that the readers of this journal be informed as to the best 

 and most economical form in which to use the drug. So far, the 

 advice given in these columns has been plainly in the direction of 

 using formalin, that name being copyrighted and apjilied alone to the 

 drug as prepared by a single tirm. For some time it was diflicult to 

 get any information regarding the drug, and when such information 

 was obtained through those who enjoy a monopoly of the term 

 " formalin," it was placed in good faith before the readers of the 

 American Bee Journal, notwithstanding the fact that it was a free 

 advertisement. 



There have been, however, intimations from more than one <|uar- 

 ter that the information given in these columns was somewhat mis- 

 leading, and now comes a letter from A. Richter, a pharmacist of New 

 York State, who is also a bee-keeper, which is outspoken on the sub- 

 ject, and which bears evidence on its face that it comes from one who 



knows what he is talking about. Mr. Richter is entitled to hearty 

 thanks for his letter, which is as follows; 



Editor American Bee Journai,:— I should like to correct you 

 on the article on Formalin. Formaldehyde can be purchased for 17 

 cents per pound. Formalin — a trade name— the product no better, but 

 costs 4.5 cents a pound. Our business is full of these licensed ways of 

 robbing, and I am sure it looks bad for a paper like yours to help 

 along Shirring A Gatz, who know both to be the same— but charge 

 more to pay for the advertising they must do. Pond's Extract and 

 Witch Hazel, another example of this kind— antikamnia — costs .?1.00 

 per ounce, made up of acetenated 17 cents a pound, bicarbonate of 

 soda, 3 cents a pound. 



I hope something wi'.l be done to keep the bee-men from any of 

 these reflned ways of cheating, for if some one does not step in they 

 will be selling some secret food preparation to promote long-tongued 

 or long-lived honey-bees at fabulous prices, and give the novice sugar- 

 water colored up. 



I have looked at the unselfishness of your paper and admired it, 

 as I do the same quality in all the big bee-men, and I am quite sure 

 you made the statement from want of knowledge, and not as a paid 

 advertisement. Truly yours, A. Richter. 



In a nutshell, the situation is this: The American Bee Journal 

 has been advising the use of a special preparation at a high price 

 when something just as good can be had for less than half the money. 

 The regret at having done this is only softened by the thought that it 

 was done in good faith in the interests of bee-keepers, without any 

 sort of pay, even by the use of space in the advertising columns. 





Association Notes 





Amendments to the National Constitution.— The following 

 are the amendments as presented to the Los Angeles convention by 

 the Committee on Amendments, and which will be sent to the mem . 

 bership of the National Bee-Keepers' Association in December, for their 

 approval or disapproval : 



ARTICLE III.— .VlEMBERSHir. 



Sec. 1.— To be amended to read as follows : 



Sec. 1. — Any person who is interested in bee-keeping, and in 

 accord with the purpose and aim of this Association, may become a 

 member by the payment of one dollar annually to the General Mana- 

 ger or Secretary ; and said membership shall expire at the end of one 

 year from the time of said payment, except as provided in Sec. 10 of 

 Article V of this Constitution. Any person may become an Honorary 

 Member by a two-thirds vote of all the members present at any annual 

 meeting of this Association. No member who is in arrears for dues, 

 as shown by the books of the General Manager, shall be eligible to any 

 office in this Association ; if such disqualification occur during the 

 term of any officer, the oflice shall at once become vacant. 



Sec. 2. — To be amended to read as follows: 



Sec. 3. — Whenever a local bee-keepers' asseciation shall decide to 

 unite with this Association as a body, it will be received upon pay- 

 ment by the local secretary of fifty cents per member per annum to the 

 General Manager. 



ARTICLE IV.— Officers. 



Sec. 1. — To be amended to read as follows: 



Sec. 1.— The officers of this As.'^ociation shall be a General Mana- 

 ger, a President, a Vice-President, and a Secretary, whose term of 

 office shall be for one year; and a Board of twelve Directors, whose 

 term of office shall be four years, or until their successors shall be 

 elected. 



Sec. 3. — To be amended to read as follows : 



Sec. :j.— The President, Vice-President, Secretary, and General 



