120 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 20, 



^f?y^^^ ^PB|'©4^ 



PnBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 



Editors and Proprietors, 



Se FiftJi Aveaue, - CHICAGO, ILI^. 



REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS : 



O. M. Doolittle, of New Yorli. Prof. A. J. Cook, ot California. 



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



J. H. Martin, of California. Rev. E. T. Abbott, of Missouri. 



Chas. Dadant & Son, of Illinois. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Entered at the Fost-Office at Cbicaeo as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



VoLXmi. CHICAGO, ILL, FEB. 20, m No. 8. 



Xlie Wisconsin StsUe Convention was held Feb. 6 

 and 7, at Madison. The officers elected for the ensuing year are : 

 President, Franklin Wilcox, of Mansion; Vice-President, J. J. 

 Ochsner; Secretary, N. E. France, of PlatteviUe; and Treasurer, 

 H. Lathrop. We have a number of the very valuable essays read 

 at the meeting, which we intend to publish as soon as possible. 



Alfalfa oi- l.,u<-«>rn is the title of Farmers' Bulletin No. 

 31, issued by the Department of Agriculture at Washington, D. C, 

 some time ago. It not only gives excellent illustrations of alfalfa, 

 but an immense amount of information in the line of its cultiva- 

 tion and value as a forage plant. A copy of this Bulletin can be 

 had for the asking. Write for it if you are interested — and what 

 bee-keeper is not interested in so valuable a honey -yielder as alfal- 

 fa has proven itself to be in certain localities of our country ? 



V. I. Sage A: Son Failure. — We were greatly surprised 

 to see in the New York Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bul- 

 letin, for Feb. 10, an account of the failure of F. I. Sage & Son, on 

 Feb. 8. This firm have been well-recommended for a long time, 

 and we had every reason to believe them an honorable firm, but it 

 seems they left things in pretty bad shape, for from the published 

 account they very suddenly left for parts unknown. We hope no 

 bee-keeper has lost through them, though we fear they have, for 

 this firm dealt largely in honey as well as other farm produce. 

 Some of their creditors think the liabilities are all the way from 

 $25,000 to .$50,000. P. I. Sage & Son were originally from Wethers- 

 field, Conn. 



■*-»-*• 



Xliat Heuton Uee-ltook Hon. Eugene Secor of Forest 



City, Iowa, has this suggestion to offer in regard to Bulletin No. 1, 

 prepared by Mr. Benton : 



Mr. Editor:— Let me suggest to the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal that they write to their Congressmen for a copy of 

 bulletin No. 1. issued by the Department of Agriculture, called 

 "The Honey-Bee." It was written by Frank Benton, of the Divi- 

 sion ot Entomology. It is a book of 118 pages, well written, 

 clearly printed, and handsomely illustrated. The reason they 

 ought to write to their Congressmen is that the limited number of 

 copies already printed is exhausted. No more can be issued with- 

 out an appropriation. 



If they ask their Congressman for a copy, he will know they 

 are interested in the matter, and will be more likely to vote for a 

 resolution authorizing the Secretary ot Agriculture to print an- 

 other edition. 



A resolution has already been introduced, to authorize the 

 printing of 20,000 more. You might say to him, if he cannot get a 



copy you hope he will use his influence and vote for the passage of 

 this resolution. This will inform our National Legislators that 

 there is such an industry as bee-keeping — a fact which perhaps 

 many of them do not know, and it may aid us in procuring 

 further legislation in our Interests. Eugene Secor. 



Mr. Secor's suggestion is a good one. We regretted that it 

 came just a little too late for our last issue, but it may yet result 

 in much good to do as directed. It can surely do no harm, and as 

 Mr. Secor says, "it may aid in procuring further legislation in our 

 interests." That's a good point. Let those Washington folks 

 know there is such an industry as bee-keeping, by literally flood- 

 ing them with requests for copies of Bulletin No. 1, called "The 

 Honey-Bee," by Frank Benton. 



A review of this Bulletin we expected to give this week, but 

 there was not room for it. We wUl try it again next week. 



V. IE. Ilorrie & Co. — In a recent editorial referring to 

 this well-advertised firm of Chicago honey-dealers (?), we men- 

 tioned their having bought all the list of names of bee-keepers 

 from Mr. Hutchinson that he had for sale. We did not intend to 

 even intimate that Mr. Hutchinson furnished the names after 

 Horrie & Co.'s unsatisfactory dealings with bee-keepers were 

 known. Mr. H. let them have the names befure be had received a 

 single complaint against them, or of course he wouldn't have sold 

 them the names for any price. 



We understand that Horrie & Co. will drop the honey part of 

 their business. It is a great pity that they didn't stop before they 

 began it. Many bee-keepers would be better off now if they had 

 done so. We personally and very strongly advised them to get 

 out of the honey-business long ago, as we decided, after learning 

 of their way of doing business, that they knew no more about the 

 honey-business than a boy 10 years old. 



Commission for Selling' Honey.— Dr. Miller writes 

 us as follows on the percentage charged by Chicago commission- 

 men for handling honey : 



Mr. Editor:— I got myself into trouble when I said that 5 per 

 cent, was the regular commission for selling honey in Chicago. As 

 I have already said, that statement shows that I haven't very re- 

 cently shipped honey to commission-men in Chicago. Please say 

 to the friends that no more of them need write to correct me. 



I think I am correct in saying that in past years 5 per cent, 

 was the regular thing, no matter whether the amount sent 

 amounted to a dollar or a hundred dollars. But from what a 

 number write, I can hardly make out just what is the rule now, or 

 whether there is any fixed rule upon which all the Chicago houses 

 are agreed. Some say 10 per cent, on all amounts under SlOO and 

 5 per. cent on amounts over, but others say they have been 

 charged 10 per cent, on amounts of more than .saOO. Now can you 

 tell us anything about what the rule is, or is there any rule ? 



C, C. Miller. 



Doctor, we have about concluded that there is a " rule " on the 

 subject among commission-men, and that rule is to charge 10 per 

 cent, on any and every shipment, unless the shipper makes too big 

 a " kick. " We think it is all right to charge 10 per cent, on a ship- 

 ment amounting to lexs than .*100, but to charge the same per cent, 

 on a liuY/er sale is next door to robbery, in our opinion. 



An Iowa bee-keeper writes us that S. T. Fish & Co. charged 

 him 10 per cent, on a shipment amounting to over .$200; and a 

 Utah honey-producer says in a private letter that J. A. Lamon 

 charged him 10 per cent, on a shipment that sold for over .S500. 



We have come to the conclusion that bee-keepers can well 

 afford to peddle their own honey from door to door, rather than 

 hire commission-men to sell it, and, besides, stand the freight, cart- 

 age, and possible breakage or leakage. 



Coal-<»il Can IVands.— After reading the following 

 letter received by a Chicago honey-dealing firm, from one of their 

 customers, we think you will agree with us in saying that it is a 

 fraud to use second-hand coal oil cans for holding honey: 



Dear Sirs:— I am very sorry to inform you that I have just 

 returned all of your last shipment of extracted honey. I thought 

 that the California sage was all right, but 1 found, on heating a 

 couple of cans (as we always do to melt the grain), that the honey 

 had been packed in coal-oil cans, and I did not detect the fraud 

 until the heat developed the oil. You will find that the honey is 

 worthless, and should be returned to the producer at his expense. 

 One can seemed to be worse than any of the others, so I emptied it 

 into a clean can and cut the top out to see just what condition it 

 was really in. On the inside I found that the oil had not been 

 washed out at all— the sides of the can are covered with oil so 



