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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Dec. 17, 1903. 



have, but we are not related, that I know of. Suppose this 

 man owns a farm, and possibly 200 colonies of bees on it. 

 Suppose my friend. Dr. Miller, buys a farm and puts 200 

 colonies on it, and I buy a farm between them, and put on 

 it 1000 colonies of bees. Who has a right to the range ? 



Mr. Crowder — I have had as much experience in mov- 

 ing apiaries, and having to move in different localities, as 

 much, I think, as anybody in the State. If you don't own 

 the land somebody may make you move off. I started in on 

 one piece of land, and another bee-keeper came in and 

 bought this land, and I had to go. 



W. D. French — I think that any man who respects his 

 neighbors — any bee-keeper, it seems to me — should know 

 better than to infringe upon his neighbors. The moral 

 part of if it is good, but this Association never can do any- 

 thing, and no laws could be passed that would be legal, that 

 would prohibit one man from operating on his own terri- 

 tory. It is very good to talk it up, but it is not within the 

 jurisdiction of the people themselves, because any law of 

 this kind passed by any legislature would be unconstitu- 

 tional, and there is nothing that would prevent any number 

 of men keeping bees together. The moral part of it is very 

 good, indeed, but it can not be helped by any legislation. 



Mr. Abbott — What can we do to keep the other fellow 

 from selling supplies where we sell ? 



Mr. Corey — Like Mr. Harbison, go far out in the moun- 

 tains, where nobody wants to go, and nobody wants to go 

 to church, school, or anything of the kind, and buy all the 

 land that joins you, and if you can not do that, lease all 

 that is around you 1 



BEST SBPARATOR — COMB HONEY IN CARTONS. 



"What is the best all-around separator for comb 

 honey ?" 



A. I. Root- -Fence. 



" Will it pay the comb-honey producer to put his best 

 grade of comb honey in cartons ?" 



Dr. Miller — I think that depends entirely upon the mar- 

 ket. There are markets which will pay for cartons, and 

 give the advanced price. Other markets will not stand it 

 at all. 



Mr. York — As a dealer, I would prefer not to buy the 

 honey in cartons with the producers' card on, as I wish to 

 put it up in cartons with my own name on as seller. 



STOPPING THE ADUl.TERATION OF HONEY. 



" What is being done to stop the adulteration of honey, 

 and what can we do to stop it ?" 



Mr. Benton — There has been a great deal of effort in 

 the city of Washington to secure the passage of a Bill which 

 should forbid the adulteration of honey, and putting it on 

 the market under the name of honey — not to forbid the 

 adulteration of honey, but to forbid its being put forth un- 

 der the name of honey, when it is some other substance 

 than honey. This Bill was introduced into Congress by a 

 congressman from Pennsylvania, now deceased. At the 

 same time one was introduced into the Senate, and year 

 afte«- year the Pure Food Congress met there and urged the 

 passage of this Bill ; not this Bill alone, but a Bill for pure 

 food in general, and it included honey. It is now simply 

 awaiting reintroduction. In that case a standard would be 

 adopted for honey as well as other substances, and the sub- 

 stance would be collected and examined by the Chemist of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture, who would 

 then be empowered to decide as to the purity or non-purity 

 of the substance ; the parties could then be proceeded 

 against under statute of the United States. This would 

 regulate the sale of these articles in States and Territories 

 under the government. It would still depend upon the 

 States to take similar action. It depends a good deal upon 

 people who are interested in the sale of these articles to 

 push forward such a Bill as a model for all the States. It 

 will come up at the next session of Congress. 



Chairman— Is it not a fact that there was a Pure Food 

 Bill slipped through, and the United States Government is 

 now getting in shape to get it enforced ? 



Mr. Benton — There was a Bill regarding foods from 

 foreign countries, but that covers only the importation of 

 goods from foreign countries. 



Prof. Cook — I think this is a very important matter. 

 As I understand it, the Pure Food Law passed the lower 

 house, but did not get through the Senate. I think we 

 sho-ild do all we can to get it through. We ought to have 

 it. It is one of the great necessities. We ought to reach 

 out as strongly as we can in our State. That is something 

 we ought never to lose sight of, and use every occasion we 

 can to push legislation in that direction. 



F. G. Teachout — Would it not be in order to appoint a 

 committee to look after this matter, and urge it on, to do 

 anything that can be done? 



H. H. Hyde — I think the proper man to help it on is Mr. 

 France. Let all of you work on your Senators, and let us 

 request Mr. France to do all he can. 



Chairman — Would it not be well to pass a resolution 

 embodying these sentiments? 



Mr. Hyde offered the following motion, which was sec- 

 onded, put, and carried : 



Resolved, That the National Bee-Keepers' Association 

 urge upon their representatives in Congress, and in the 

 Senate, to take up the matter of the Pure Food Bill in the 

 interests of the people, and urge its passage. 



OUEEN-BREEDER'S right to A LOCALITY. 



" The right of a bee-keeper to the undisturbed posses- 

 sion of the honey-field he occupies has received considerable 

 attention and recognition of late. Should not the field 

 occupied by a queen-breeder with a given race be similarly 

 respected?" 



J. K. Williamson — If you will all read Carlisle's " Title 

 Deeds to Land," it will settle some of the difficulties of this 

 question of property rights. 



Frank Benton — It seems to me you are mistaking the 

 scope of these questions, somewhat. Nobody claims that a 

 man has a legal right to control honey produced on his 

 neighbor's land or the public domain. Nobody has sug- 

 gested a legal right. The whole question, it strikes me, is, 

 as bee-keepers, should we not respect the rights of others 

 in these matters from a moral stand-point ? If a certain 

 man, Dr. Miller for instance, has located his bees some- 

 where, would it not be, to a certain extent, immoral if I 

 should go right across the road and start up the same busi- 

 ness ? I do not for one moment think I would not have a 

 legal right to do that. 



Speaking more to the question, a queen-breeder should 

 have a moral right from the same stand-point. He is 

 located in a certain region ; let him have a fair chance, at 

 least, of a pure mating of queens with the drones of a com- 

 mon race — the right of mating there for a large area. He 

 may have a great many colonies of Italian bees ; I may 

 have a right to bring in a lot of those dastardly (1) Cyprians 

 and spoil his Italians. Then I might bring in Carniolans; 

 I might even put blacks in there. I might take an actual 

 occurrence. I have been trying the Cyprian race of bees, 

 and one reason I tried that race was I did not know they 

 were supplied by any other apiary in the United States. I 

 did not know to whom to recommend them. Another thing, 

 the Department of Agriculture has sent out queens of this 

 race. As they happen to own no bees, I put into the De- 

 partment there an apiary of Cyprian queens, and furnished 

 the stock to the Department free of cost, never receiving 

 one penny for them. The A. I. Root Co. have an establish- 

 ment three blocks below them, where they sell goods. You 

 all know the stand taken by this firm on this point : that it 

 was a moral wrong to encroach upon another man's ter- 

 ritory. Yet they, or their agents, have put into that piece 

 of property below there all sorts of bees, and that destroys 

 utterly any experiments I might be making in that locality. 

 Now, I doubt not they are not living up to the idea advo- 

 cated as to the right of a person to the territory. I would 

 not go down and set up an apiary beside one of pure Cypri- 

 ans, and put Carniolans in it. I think the point as regards 

 a queen-breeder is even more important than a honey-pro- 

 ducer, because a queen-breeder goes into a locality he has 

 selected, and it will be, perhaps, harder for him to select a 

 locality free from contamination. Furthermore, his queens 

 are going out all over the country, and the injury extends 

 beyond him. 



Emerson T. Abbott — I want to tell something the A. I. 

 Root Co. did. They got a letter from a man in my town, 

 asking if he could buy supplies from them, and they wrote 

 back, saying : " Mr. Abbott sells supplies in St. Joseph, 

 and we prefer not to sell to you." And I am not their agent, 

 either I 



BEES WORKING ON DIFFERENT FLOWERS. 



" Bees are never seen working on two kinds of flowers 

 at a time. Thus, Nature's plan is for bees to work on one 

 kind of flower at a time, and carry its pollen from flower to 

 flower, which helps the fruit." 



Dr. Miller — The only question in that is a statement, 

 and the statement is not strictly true. Bees do work on 

 more than one kind of flower. I have seen them, but not 

 very often. 



Frank Benton— Pollen from distantly related flowers, 



