1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



57 



ative, and evidently the majority so understood it, as they 

 answered in the negative. 



Then the racy reviewer of the Review preached a sermon 

 upon it, and made a mistalie in making just the deductions 

 and applications he did upon his text, or at least in nialving 

 his statements so that a man usually so clear-headed as B. 

 Taylor could make the mistake of saying to Hasty, on page 

 20, "You hold up to the public gaze seven of your brother 

 bee-keepers to the charge of Rascal." For it is a mistake to 

 understand that Hasty calls those seven men rascals. Then 

 it was a mistake for Mr. Taylor to go to calling names just 

 because he thought some one else was doing it. For that has 

 no bearing on the case. Finally, the editor, on page 2-i, 

 makes the same mistake as some of the repliers in misappre- 

 hending the question. He speaks of the correctness of the 

 " advice to buy and sell another bee-keeper's honey when your 

 own crop is all disposed of." Of course, that's all right, Mr. 

 Editor, but that isn't at all the point upon which the ques- 

 tioner asks light, unless I am making a mistake bigger than 

 that made by any one else. If I at all understand the ques- 

 tion, it is this : " Would it be right for me to buy honey from 

 others and sell it, provided I should put my name on it and 

 make my customers believe it is from my apiary ?" 



Mr. Hasty having finished his sermon, let me add a short 

 exhortation: Brethren, bee-keepers are, in the main, a pretty 

 good set of men, and mean to do about the straight thing. 

 Like others, they sometimes make mistakes, and it's all right 

 to speak out and speak the truth, but please don't forget the 

 injunction about " speaking the truth in love." 



C. C. Miller. 



Replying to the question in your second paragraph, we 

 should say : No^ sir; it is not rUjht to deceive under any ctr- 

 cumstances. No bee-keeper need try to make customers be- 

 believe the bought honey came from his own apiary, for any 

 reasonable customer wouldn't care a fig where the honey came 

 from, so long as he was satisfied of its purity. We are willing 

 to say again, and over and over, that it is the proper thing for 

 bee-keepers to buy honey to supply their customers, when 

 their crop is all disposed of. If customers ask about the 

 honey, tell them the truth, of course; it they don't care 

 enough to ask about it, we say : Go ahead, and sell them all 

 the good, pure honey you can get them to eat. 



Good 'Word for the Bee-Papers.— Somnam- 

 bulist, who writes so charmingly for the Progressive Bee- 

 Keeper, had this to say lately : 



Friends, have you noted the efforts that the different 

 editors of the several bee-journals are and have been making 

 to give us acceptable and attractive matter ? Regardless of 

 the generable hard times financially, and the especial hard 

 times apiculturally — in the face of business failure, north, 

 east, south and west, undaunted they stand at their posts and 

 issue to us just as much in quantity, and of just as good 

 quality, as when times were at their best. These thoughts 

 were forced upon me while noting the rounding-up numbers 

 of 1895. 



Thank you, Sommy. We believe if all the bee-keepers, 

 regardless of all discouragements, would help the bee-papers 

 as enthusistically as their publishers are trying to do their 

 duty, every bee-paper would have twice as large a list of sub- 

 scribers as they now have. But we don't complain, for our 

 friends have been very good to us and the American Bee 

 Journal, and we sincerely appreciate it. And we have such 

 confidence in them that we believe they will yet do more for 

 the " Old Reliable " and its publishers. 



Xlie "Vermont State Con-vention will be held 

 Jan. 29 and 30, 1896, at the Van Ness House, in Burlington. 

 It will be the 21st annual convention. A splendid program 

 has been arranged. Reduced hotel and railroad rates. Better 

 go, if you can. Address C. W. Fisher, Secretary, 97 Cherry 

 St., Burlington, Vt., for further information. 



Every Present Subscriber of the Bee Journal 



should be an agent for it, and get all others possible to sub- 

 scribe for it. 



CONUnCTED BY 



DR. J. P. H. BROWX^, AUGUSTA. GA, 



[Please send all questions relating to bee-keeping In the South direct 

 to Dr. Brown, and he will answer in this department.— Eds. 1 



Report of tlie International Bee-Keepers' Con- 

 gress at Atlanta, Oa., Dec. 4 and 5, 1895. 



(Continued from page 43.) 

 Mrs. L. Harrison, Peoria, HI., read the following essay on 



Bee-Keeping for "Women. 



How many women say to themselves, " O if I could only 

 earn some money, and spend it just as I want to, without hav- 

 ing to give an account of it ! If I could earn the money my- 

 self I would take a little recreation— go to the sea-shore or the 

 mountains, and get something new to think about." 



A lady who had traveled the world over, and had every- 

 thing she desired that money would buy, was asked what had 

 given her the greatest pleasure ; she replied : " A few dollars 

 that I once earned." Representative women from different 

 sections of this great land of ours would have been present 

 with us to-day could they have earned the necessary funds. 



There are many avenues of emolument open to young 

 women ; they are teachers, bookkeepers, typewriters, and 

 many find employment in manufacturing-plants. The number 

 of occupations open to women have increased from TO to more 

 than 500 in less than iO years. The want is something that 

 home-keepers can do to earn money. There was a wide field 

 open to the ingenuity of our grandmothers. Tbey spun wool, 

 cotto.i and Qax, dyed and wove, cut and made garments, but 

 now the inventive genius of man has superseded this with 

 nimbled-fingered machinery. Butter and cheese are made at 

 factories. The ever busy mind of woman must now seek 

 other avenues for the exercise of her faculties. 



There is much more in a colony of bees than the honey 

 and wax they represent. They offer to any intelligent and in- 

 qusitive mind a rich field of thought. Nature is rich in re- 

 sources, and the honey-bees are in close relation with it. Sex 

 in plants is now attracting more attention than formerly, and 

 bees act as marriage-priests ; while gathering the pollen to 

 make the bee-bread for their brood, they disseminate the 

 father dust from flower to flower. The cultivation of the 

 honey-bee opens up a new world to a woman of inquiring 

 mind, for every plant that grows possesses new interest to her, 

 for it may mean dollars and cents to her purse. The little, 

 modest white clover, wherever it rears its head, is petted and 

 caressed, as it holds within its petals nectar, fit food for the 

 gods. There is a lesson to be learned from the inmates of 



the hive. 



'• So work the honey-bee- 

 Creatures, that by a rule in Nature teach 

 The art ol order to a peopled kingdom." 



The government of a colony of bees is all in the hands of 

 the females, and a woman may gain inspiration by its study as 

 to how best to manage her household. When the young bee 

 issues from its cell, weak and downy, it has not strength to 

 roam the fields, and carry heavy loads of honey and pollen- 

 it is then given the care of the young, to feed and nourish; 

 digest the food and feed the queen and drones; secrete wax 

 and build the comb ; and is daily given a play-spell in the open 

 air to locate its hive, and gain strength for the heavy labors 

 of the field. 



The office of the queen is no sinecure, as she lays at her 

 best 3,000 eggs a day, and, let her reproductive powers fail, 

 her throne is given to another, for their law is like that of the 

 Medes and Persians, which change not— the greatest good to 

 the greatest number. 



Bee-culture opens an avenue for woman which has long 

 been a want, as it gives to her the means of acquiring money 

 in the retirement of her home, and at the same time look after 

 the comfort of her household. Bee-culture requires no great 

 outlay of strength at any one time ; but to be a success there 

 must be a faithful performance of many little items. Any 



