1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



329 



Keepers' Union, and a vote taken thereon, it would carry with 

 a whoop. The General Manager has favored it heartily, and 

 we believe almost every member would, too, if each had a 

 chance to vote upon it. 



We would suggest that the Committee on Amalgamation, 

 appointed at Toronto, get up an address setting forth some of 

 the advantages of amalgamation, and request General Mana- 

 ger Newman to submit the same to the membership of the 

 Union, accompanied by a "Yes" and "No" voting-blank. Wo 

 think the thing can be settled promptly and satisfactorily very 

 soon in this way. If the majority vote "No" on the question 

 of amalgamation, then at the next meeting of the North 

 American steps can be taken to re-organize on a different 

 basis, if thought best. Surely, there is much that the Union 

 should undertake in furthering the interests of bee-keeping, 

 but if it adheres to its present policy of simply defending api- 

 arists in their rights as to keeping bees, then the North 

 American must take up the other issues and push them to a 

 settlement. 



The Union has done a magnificent work, but we believe 

 there are other lines that it should now advance upon. And 

 we think that with the added benefits of amalgamation, it 

 could go forth and win even greater victories in the future 

 than it has in the past. 



Cyprian Bees> — One of our subscribers wishes to get 

 some pure Cyprian queens. Who knows where they can be 

 had in this country ? If any one can tell, will you please 

 write us, and we will see that the information gets to the per- 

 son desiring it. 



Ne-w Subscribers to Bee-Papers.— One of our 

 Iowa subscribers wrote us in the following strain recently, 

 when renewing his subscription, about our endeavor to in- 

 crease the number of subscribers to the Bee Journal : 



Mr. Editor :— Just a word please. If you will quit giving 

 premiums for getting new subscribers, I will give ."^LSO a 

 year, or $2.00, for the American Bee Journal ; or if you de- 

 crease the number of bee-keepers, and raise the price of the 

 Bee Journal as you do so, I will pay it up to $10. I have 

 hurt my pocket-book badly by giving information, and even 

 showing others how to keep bees. We have nearly ruined the 

 business. Now I am too old to take up something new. 



No, don't ask your patrons to send new subscribers, for it 

 is their ruin. Send us a good journal, help us to keep our 

 business paying, and make us pay you for it. Nary more new 

 suhseHbers will I ever send for a bee-paper. 



Old Subscriber. 



The foregoing letter was shown to two bee-keepers with 

 the question, "How's that?" After reading it over, the 

 younger said, "That is all nonsense ?" 



The old man looked thoughtful for a minute, and then 

 said, "I am not so sure of that. Why is it nonsense." 



"Because," said the younger, " it won't make much dif- 

 ference, no matter how many new men go into the business." 



" Won't it, indeed?" said the elder. "If another man 

 sits down beside me and divides the pasturage with me when 

 I have already as many bees as the ground will support, why 

 isn't that a damage to me ?" 



" Yes, but he won't keep at it long, for the experiment 

 will be a failure, and in a year or two he'll get out of the 

 way." 



" Very true, perhaps," said the elder, " but in the mean- 

 time I have to pay the penalty for his foolishness, and duri:ig 

 that year or more the loss will be more to me than the cost of 

 all the bee-journals for a lifetime." Then he went un to say : 



"Bee-keepers as a rule are very liberal in their Ideas, and 

 like to give information to others, and many of them would 

 scoff at the idea of laying a straw in the way of any one going 

 into the business, but after all, the man who wrote that letter 

 has only said what many a man thinks, but perhaps hasn't 

 the courage to say. I believe in bee-journals, and believe in 



increasing their circulation, but still, if their main effect is to 

 increase the ranks of bee-keepers. I'd rather pay $5 or !$10 a 

 year for a good paper and have it confined strictly to those 

 who have 25 colonies of bees or more. That is nothing more 

 than is done in other lines of business. There is a florists' 

 paper published right in the city of Chicago, and if you send 

 the subscription price for the paper, your money will be 

 promptly returned to you, unless you furnish satisfactory 

 proof that you are a professional florist. No matter bow val- 

 uable the information contained in that journal might be to 

 you as an amateur cultivator of flowers, you can't come in. 

 Now, if that's all right, why isn't it right for those who make 

 their bread and butter out of their bees to try all they can to 

 keep out those who will do little more than make a failure and 

 spoil the markets for others?" 



Evidently, like most other great questions, this one has 

 two sides to it. With all the liberal-mindedness that bee- 

 keepers in general possess, it is only human nature to look 

 out for number one. But it does not necessarily follow that 

 increase of subscribers means increase of dabblers in bee- 

 keeping. There are thousands already in the business who 

 take no paper on bee-keeping, and it is from this class that 

 recruits are obtained, not one in a thousand subscribing for a 

 bee-paper until after he has become a bee-keeper. Is it not a 

 fact that more harm is done to the business by the ignorant 

 than by the well-informed ? And when a man is already in 

 the business, is it not better that he should take a bee-paper, 

 so as to be shifted from the ranks of the ignorant to those of 

 the well-informed ? 



Admitting for the sake of argument that "Old Subscriber" 

 has the right view in thinking that it would be better to have 

 a limited number of subscribers at a large price, the question 

 is how that could be brought about. The man who should 

 start a journal with a circulation of only 1,000, at a sub- 

 scription price that would afford a living, would only invite 

 certain failure. If our friend will yurtra?itce us a circulation 

 of 1,000 at $10 each, or 4,000 at $2.50 each, we stand 

 ready to make an agreement. But suppose that could be 

 done, how much would be accomplished? For it would only 

 make the difference of having other papers catch the new 

 subscribers, and how much would be gained ? 



When our friend looks at the matter fairly, he will prob- 

 ably see that beginners will continue to enter the ranks, and 

 that they enter the ranks before they become subscribers, and 

 the publisher who has at heart the best interests of his readers 

 will do all he can to increase his circulation, that he may 

 thereby afford to give them all a better paper. 



Xlie Position of Apiculture among other pur- 

 suits is sometimes belittled by those who are not well-informed 

 about its progress and development during the past half cen- 

 tury. Mr. P. H. Elwood, in commenting on this subject in a 

 recent issue of Gleanings, called attention to the fact that 

 apiculture has a record and history of which no one need be 

 ashamed. He said : 



The history of apiculture is a record we need not be 

 ashamed of. " Langstroth on the Honey-Bee," written more 

 than a third of a century ago, was the ablest and the best 

 written hand-book that had appeared upon any rural pursuit, 

 and there are very few works at the present time that will 

 bear comparison with it. The first volume of the American 

 Bee Journal occupies nearly the same position among rural 

 journals. The invention of the honoy-extractor antedated by 

 nearly a score of years the invention of the centrifugal cream- 

 extractor ; and but for the former, the latter might never 

 have been thought of. Comb foundation, zinc excluders, the 

 bee-escape, smokers, etc., bear favorable comparison with 

 agricultural inventions. The discovery of parthenogenesis, 

 by the blind Huber, followed since by the unraveling of so 

 many of the scientific mysteries of the bee-hive, makes a 

 record not surpassed in any branch of husbandry. In litera- 

 ture, in invention, in discovery, or oven in practical results, 

 we do not fear comparison with any branch of agriculture. 

 There is no need of belittling the pursuit because a few of us 

 are not well posted. 



