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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 28, 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 lis JMfoiig-an St., - CHICAGO, ZLX,. 



REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS : 

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



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



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



Barnett Taylor, of Minnesota. Mrs. L. C. Axtell, of Illinois. 



Cbas. Dadant & Son, of Illinois. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Entered at the Post-office at ChicaRO as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



VoLfflVL CHICAGO, ILL,, MAY 28, 1896. No. 22. 



AdTantasfe of a Long Xongue.— The value of 

 tlie bee lies in its tongue, and, as the usefulness of this mem- 

 ber as a honey extractor is supposed to vary with its length, 

 efforts are being made in Prance to develop an improved, or 

 long-tongued, race of bees. The tongue is measured by two 

 methods, says one of our exchanges. M. Charton uses a box 

 having a cover of wire-netting and a slightly inclined bottom ; 

 the bees which reach through the netting and suck sweets 

 from the bottom farthest down the incline being those with 

 the longest tongues. The apparatus of M. Legros is a vessel 

 of sweetened liquid, with a perforated tin-plate cover, which 

 can be adjusted at any desired height above the liquid. Ordi 

 nary bees are found to have tongues with a length of 6.5 

 millimeters (about one-fourth of an inch), while those of the 

 black French bees reach 9.2 millimeters, and those of the 

 best American bees have a maximum length of 8.73 millime- 

 ters. The colonies whose bees extract syrup from the greatest 

 depths are preserved as stock for reproduction. 



Apis Dorsata.— Both Gleanings and the Review have 

 recently spoken out quite plainly in regard to the importation 

 of Apis dorsata. Editor Root says this : 



In view of what some of the correspondents of the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal have said, a sample of which we give in this 

 issue, and in view of the further fact that Ai)ls dorsata would 

 be of but little or no use to us for the purpose of fertilizing 

 the flora of this country. Gleanings is opposed to any action 

 on the part of the general government for importing these 

 bees to our country. It would involve considerable expense, 

 and very little if any good would result, even if the expedition 

 were successful. Moreover, if money is to be used by the 

 general goverment for the benefit of bee-keeping, it can be 

 much more wisely expended in other ways — for instance, the 

 United States Experiment Station, under the wing of the De- 

 partment of Agriculture ; or a national honey and bee show 

 at Washington would be more acceptable to the mass of bee- 

 keepers. 



Editor Hutchinson has this paragraph in the May number 

 of his paper : 



Apis dorsata and its importation has received some atten- 

 tion of late in the bee-journals. A York State Association, 

 seconded by Prof. Cook, is in favor of asking the government 

 to try to import these bees. E. T. Abbott, Dr. C. C. Miller, 



and H. D. Cutting, in the American Bee Journal, oppose their 

 Importation. It is evident that there is a little prejudice in 

 the matter — some think Mr. Benton is after the job, and they 

 don't want him to get it, as he has not proved himself to be a 

 true man. The only real, fair opposition against the scheme 

 is that we don't know but their importation maybe a mistake. 

 The Australians wanted the rabbits, but they don't want them 

 now. We wanted the English sparrows, but don't want them 

 DOW, neither do we want any more Cyprian bees. The sug- 

 gestion that they be thoroughly tested in their own country 

 before being brought here, strikes me as reasonable. 



We agree fully with Editor Root, that if the general gov- 

 ernment has any money to spend for bee-keeping, it can do so 

 much more profitably in the directions indicated in the closing 

 part of his editorial paragraph quoted. 



California Bee-Keepers. — Rambler says in 

 Gleaning.-! that there are over 1,000 bee-keepers in Southern 

 California alone. We have seen the estimate somewhere that 

 there are 3,000 bee-keepers in the whole of that great State. 

 If such is the case, we think we are safe in saying that not 

 one in three of them read bee-papers. We often wonder why 

 they, as well as bee-keepers elsewhere, do not more generally 

 read the bee-papers. Surely, any bee-keeper can well afford 

 one dollar a year — about 8 cents a month — for bee-literature, 

 no matter where he lives. 



Again, we are often surprised that what is sometimes 

 called the " Bee-Keepers' Paradise " — the wonderful South — 

 takes so little interest in reading literature devoted to bee- 

 culture. But the very portion of our country where one would 

 naturally expect to find the largest proportion of bee-peepers, 

 it seems right there are the fewest readers of bee-literature. 

 Hence it is that scarcely can a bee-paper be successfully pub- 

 lished in that region. They fail to give sufficient support. 

 But with the continual migration of Northern people south- 

 ward, in time that defect will be remedied, and the South will 

 become, as it should be, the greatest bee-couatry in the world, 

 and its apiarists will then read, as do their more northern 



friends. 



*-—*■ 



"California 'Strained' Honey."— Accompa- 

 nying two samples of what was sold for "honey," came thi» 

 letter from Mr. J. H. Wing, of Syracuse, Kans., dated May 14: 



Mr. Editor : — I send you samples of " California strained 

 honey " that is sold and laid down in our market at a price 

 somewhat less than will buy a good article of pure honey on 

 the Pacific Coast by the carload. 



Two parties or firms in St. Joseph, Mo., appear to be en- 

 gaged in this business. 



I take it the article is not honey at all, but glucose 

 brightened with chloride of zinc. 



The dark sample is several years old, and grows darker 

 with age. 



The light-colored sample is fresh, and is warranted "not 

 to granulate," and to keep several months. 



I have sent samples to several persons for the purpose of 

 getting their opinion of the stufif, and assistance in getting 

 suitable laws passed for the protection of producers and con- 

 sumers of honey from competition of such counterfeits. 



Would you mind giving it a write-up in the " Old Relia- 

 ble," and telling us what you think of it ? 



I think I will also send samples to some of my friends who 

 are producers and dealers in honey, and reside in California 

 and Colorado, that they may see what is selling on the reputa- 

 tion they have so successfully established for first-class honey. 



How long will it take to ruin our markets for extracted 

 honey if consumers are supplied with stuff like the samples I 

 send you ? James H. Wing. 



The samples were received and simply sampled — that was 

 quite enough. We doubt very much if they ever were within 

 ten miles of a bee-hive. Surely, bees would not be guilty of 

 putting up such vile stuff. 



The dark sample looks more like ordinary cough medi- 

 cine, and tastes much worse. The light colored sample tastes 



