210 



AMERICAN BElE JOURNAL.. 



seems to keep close track of what's 

 going on in this country. I know no 

 other paper that quotes so much from 

 the query box of the American Bee 

 Journal. 



seditious preaching ! 



Dr.'Peiro is a good-hearted sort of a 

 man, but he isn't smart a bit. The idea 

 of getting people into the notion of try- 

 ing to keep well so they'll have less use 

 for a doctor ! And to use their common- 

 sense ! Why, Doctor, it's seditious to 

 preach such doctrine. Let such notions 

 get abroad, and it will be the ruin of 

 many a flourishing firm that are just 

 coining money selling patent medicines. 



A bee's "disposition." 



I have some doubts as to the correct- 

 ness of that Crawford county bee-keep- 

 er's theory on page 141. Did you ever 

 know a loaded worker on its way to a 

 hive to become enraged ? When a bee 

 is at work on the flowers, you may strike 

 it or do what you please, and it never 

 offers to touch you unless you pinch it. 

 Doesn't It carry that same disposition 

 with it until it enters the hive? 



sowing seeds for honey-plants. 



Isn't it well to be a little careful how 

 we raise the expectations of beginners? 

 If one of them should start out with the 

 idea given on page 144, that he can 

 keep 500 colonies in one apiary if he 

 rightly uses 30 cents worth of seeds, 

 he'll likely be a very disappointed per- 

 son. I don't believe there's a spot in all 

 Illinois where 500 colonies can be 

 profitably kept in one apiary, no matter 

 how much seed. 



Marengo, 111. 



m MWwinter Fair Apiarian ExUMl. 



Written Jor the American Bee Journal 

 BY W. A. PRYAL. 



As the International exhibition at 

 Han Francisco is now over, it seems al- 

 most useless to say anything about it or 

 the exhibits that were displayed there. 

 Still, as I had something to say about the 

 honey exhibit (page 789 of last volume) 

 that called forth a reply from the gen- 

 tleman who was supposed to be respon- 

 sible for the non-success of the honey- 

 show, I think it no more than justice to 

 him that I should give his side of the 

 affairs. It will be observed that what 

 he states bears me out in what I had to 

 say in regard to his connection with the 



matter. I then stated, as nearly as I 

 can recall without having the words be- 

 fore me, that as I knew the young gen- 

 tleman (the correspondent I am about 

 to quote) to be an energetic and capable 

 person, the fault of not getting up a 

 creditable exhibit could not be/iue to 

 him. Here is what he had to say, on 

 June 25th : 



With regard to the space, I had only 

 two places to choose between — the one 

 where the honey is, and the other a very 

 dark place on the first floor where it would 

 hardly be possible to distinguish one grade 

 of honey from another. Honey granulates 

 quickly in San Francisco, and I thought 

 the heat would have a tendency to prevent 

 granulation. 



' There were two reasons why I did not get 

 a better exhibit, but you did not guess 

 either one of them. I do not know a single 

 bee-keeper that refused to send honey to be 

 exhibited, if he had any, but nearly every 

 bee-keeper in Ventura county hatl sold his 

 honey, or tlid not have any suitable to ex- 

 hibit. The other reason was that the 

 manager of the Ventura county exhibit sold 

 about half of the honey exhibits shipped to 

 him, without placing them on exhibition. 



Mr. Mercer, Mr. Mendleson, Mr. Archer, 

 and myself, went to San Francisco and 

 placed our own exhibits, and if we had not 

 done so the honey exhibit would have been 

 a worse failure than the California exhibit 

 at Chicago. 



My " pass " did not cost the Fair mana- 

 gers a cent, and was only good for one 

 month, and after paying about $20 out of 

 my own pocket in traveling expenses, and 

 not finding much honey outside of this 

 county, I gave it up. 



That settles it. All hall to the Ven- 

 tura quartette who did so much to give 

 California a fair exhibit of honey at the 

 late Midwinter Fair at San Francisco ! 

 As all the four gentlemen received high 

 awards for their exhibits, I trust they 

 feel repaid for their trouble. I have not 

 heard whether they had to pay for the 

 space tliey occupied at the Fair or not. 

 It seems to me that an arrangement 

 should have been made by the State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association to have secured 

 sufficient space, and then tried to have 

 filled it with suitable honey. But there 

 is no use "crying over spilled milk," so 

 we can afford to let the matter rest 

 where it is. 



We have the consolation that no other 

 State b(!at us at this Fair, though Ne- 

 vada brought forth some of its prize 

 gilt-edge honey, in the hope of knocking 

 us out. 



North Temescal, Calif. 



Cireat Premium on page 196 1 



