40 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 16, 



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PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 Editors and Proprietors, 

 S8 Blttli Avenue, - CHICAGO, 1 



KEGULAK CONTRIBUTOKS : 



G. M. Doolittle, of New Vork. Prof. A. J. Cook, of California. 



Dr. C. C. Miller, of Illinois. Dr. J. P. H. Brown, o& Georgia. 



J. H. Martin, of California. Kev. E. T. Abbott, of Missonri. 



Chas. Dadant & Son, of Illmols. 



$1.00 a Year — Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Bntered at the Post-Offlce at Chicaco as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



VoiniYI, CEICA&O, ILL, JAN. 16, M No, 3. 



Hon. R. Tu. Taylor, of the Michigan Experiment 

 Apiary (whose interesting article appears in this issue), will 

 talk on bees at eight Farmers' Institutes in Michigan, at the 

 following places : 



Bad Axe, Jan. 22; Sanilac Centre, Jan. 23 ; Port Huron. 

 Jan. 2i ; Lapeer (his home), Jan. 25 ; Grand Bianc, Jan. 27 ; 

 Corunna, Jan. 2a; Alma, Jan. 29; and at Mt. Pleasant, 

 Jan. 30. 



Every bee-keeper living in the localities mentioned should, 

 if at all possible, arrange to attend those meetings, for Mr. 

 Taylor is a practical bee-keeper, and undoubtedly will give 

 the best he has in his bee-talks. 



•*-»-*■ 



Large Yields of Honey, as given in the Question- 

 Box department this week will be very entertaining reading. 

 It shows what bee-culture has been in the past, and although 

 it may never again come up to "ye olden time," still it no 

 doubt will again rise to the dignity of a fairly remunerative 

 industry. Very often crops on the farm do not pay, yet who 

 would stop farming because a few unfavorable seasons come 

 in succession ? If publishers of bee-papers were to stop when 

 their papers failed to prove profitable investments, where 

 would be any of our bee-papers in a short time? There is not 

 a publisher of a bee-paper to-day who is making any money on 

 his paper alone ! And yet, would you have them quit pub- 

 lishing them ? Oh, no I we must all hold on, and labor on, 

 trusting that the great Future may have some sort of reward 

 for those who are faithful to their posts of duty. 



The CbicagO Meeting: of the Illinois State Bee- 

 Keepers' Association was held last Thursday and Friday, 

 there being present between 30 and 50 apiarists. 



Just as we predicted, it was a very interesting and help- 

 ful meeting. There was no previously-arranged program, and 

 none was needed. Beginning with the very first session, the 

 time was well occupied. There wasn't a single lag. Essays 

 of any kind would have been almost useless. It was one con- 

 tinuous box of apiarian interrogation points, in the discussion 

 of which nearly every oue present took some part. If conven- 

 tions were always certain of having good presiding officers, we 



would say that essays are always unnecessary at such gather- 

 ings. But nearly all depends upon the president. If we were 

 sure Dr. Miller wouldn't see this, we'd say right out that he is 

 a model presiding officer. He certainly was, at this Chicago 

 convention. 



Editor E. R. Root, of Gleanings, was chosen Secretary, 

 pro tern, in the absence of the regular Secretary, Jas. A. Stone, 

 who unfortunately was compelled to be in bed on account of 

 sickness. We expect to begin Mr. Root's report of the meet- 

 ing very soon. We think it will be an unusually good one, as 

 we noticed he worked like a " nailer " all the time — which in- 

 cluded meal-time as well. (We might say, as some know, Mr. 

 Root is on a wholly meat diet, and at one meal we positively 

 saw the waiter bring him a whole porter-house steak — about 

 4 pounds. Only the harder bones remained when he left the 

 table. But he didn't eat quite all of it alone. The next day 

 it was noticed in the Chicago newspapers that the price of the 

 best beef had advanced considerably in price ! Of course, our 

 fellow-editor received the credit — or blame — for this. He took 

 them — the credit or blame, and the meat — in his usual quiet 

 and modest manner.) 



Several ladies favored the meeting with their presence, 

 among them being Mrs. N. L. Stow, of Evanston, III., who 

 has 55 colonies, and had, in 1895, about 1,200 pounds of 

 mostly comb honey frbm 37 colonies, spring count; Mrs. 

 Poindexter, who, a few years ago, had 200 colonies in DeWitt 

 county. 111., and one year produced 12,000 pounds of honey ; 

 and Miss Mathilda Candler, of Wisconsin, who, from some 80 

 colonies produced between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds of honey 

 in 1895. 



The convention was held in the comfortable parlor-like 

 club-room of the New Briggs House, which was probably the 

 nicest place in which a Chicago bee-convention ever was held. 

 This hotel is a first-class one, and did all they could to make 

 the stay of the bee-keepers pleasant. 



Many of those who have been familiar figures in previous 

 Chicago bee-keepers' conventions were this time very con- 

 spicuous on account of their absence ; among them might be 

 named, W. Z. Hutchinson, H. D. Cutting, Hon. Geo. E. Hil- 

 ton, C. P. Dadant, Dr. A. B. Mason, and Hon. Eugene Secor. 



We will not attempt to speak further of the meeting at 

 this time, only to say that we believe, after reading the report 

 of the proceedings, all those within 200 or 300 miles of Chi- 

 cago will wish they had been present. 



C. R.. Horrie & Co., of Chicago, have been getting 

 quite a good deal of free advertising lately — but of such a 

 nature that we think it will hardly tend to increase their 

 business very much. Gleanings for Jan. 1 refers to our recent 

 explanation concerning them, and adds: "Complaints have 

 also come in to us, and, for the present at least, we must cau- 

 tion bee-keepers against sending them honey." 



Several of our readers have insinuated lately, in private 

 letters, that we had "opened our books" to Horrie & Co., 

 furnished them our list of bee-keepers' names, etc. Such 

 suggestions are utterly false. We have never given or sold to 

 any commission firm, or any one else, any of the names of 

 bee-keepers in our office. 



Editor Hutchinson, in the Bee-Keepers' Review for Octo- 

 ber, when giving the firm in question a very complimentary 

 notice, said : "They bought my entire list of names of bee- 

 keepers in the United States, and sent out circulars soliciting 

 consignments." But that is nothing against Mr. Hutchinson, 

 for Horrie & Co. could easily have gotten those names through 

 a third person. But we question the advisability of offering 

 special lists of names publicly. Still, that is a matter for 

 each list-holder to determine. 



But what has surprised us most is this: That any intelli- 

 gent bee-keeper should permit himself to be induced 



