696 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Oct. 29, 



6BOR@B W. YORK, . Edltar. 



PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 118 Mlcblgaa St., - CHICAGO, ILL. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Bntered at the Poat-Offlce at CbicaKO as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 



VoLinVL CHICAGO, ILL, OCT. 29, 1896. No. 44. 



EDITORIAL CDMIWENTS. 



Here's a 'Whopper !— One of the would-be honey- 

 commission firms of ChicaRO is still sending out circular letters 

 — this time on white paper instead of yellow, the latter color 

 seemingly being abandoned. Perhaps the misrepresentations 

 printed on the suspicious yellow paper were too evident even 

 to the writers of the same. At any rate, here's a sentence 

 taken from a "white letter" sent to some of our subscribers, 

 dated Oct. 9 : 



" Now we have been corresponding with you for a great 

 many years in regard to honey, and you certainly must be 

 familiar with the fact that we are one of the largest dealers 

 in the same in this country, and it would be no mistake for 

 you to ship yours to us and let us handle your goods." 



When it is known that the firm signing their name to the 

 above statement started only last year, and that we have re- 

 ceived more complaints against them than all other firms in 

 the whole country combined, it surely will be very clear that 

 the quoted sentence is about as wholly untrue as anything 

 possibly can be. But we presume our readers are pretty well 

 warned by this time, not to notice such pleading letters as the 

 one from which we have just quoted. 



As we have said before, bee-keepers would better eat their 

 honey themselves, or donate it to their less sweetened neigh- 

 bors, than to ship it to some city firms like the ones we have 

 had occasion to discountenance the past few months. 



Unbusinesslike l>IetIiods.— We have received 

 the following letter from Mr. Geo. W. Brodbeck, in reference 

 to the way the publisher of the Pacific Bee Journal tries to do 

 business : 



Los Angeles, Calif., Oct. 10, 1896. 



Mr. Editor:— I notice that B. S. K. Bennett, in his last 

 Pacific Bee Journal, advertises for consignments of honey, 

 and gives as " References hy permission" the following banks 

 and agencies: "Merchants' National Bank, Southern Cali- 

 fornia National Bank, Security Savings Bank, Dun's Mercan- 

 tile Agency, Bradstreet's Mercantile Agency, and Saginaw 

 Lumber Co.," all of which, on being asked for information 

 (with one exception) stated positively that no such permission 

 to refer to them had been given, and the one exception 

 (Security) could not remember whether they had, or had not. 

 And this is the man who attempts, by false statements, to re- 

 flect on the character of the writer. 



The above I trust is sufficient evidence to prove to what 

 class of individuals Bennett belongs. My unselfish interest in 

 behalf of the bee-keeping interests of this State is too well 

 known for such as he to question, and I am confident that this 

 brief statement is enough to stamp his charges as false. 



Geo. W. Brodbeck. 



Of course, it is not a pleasant task to publish such reports 

 as the foregoing, and yet, when a man like Bennett publishes 

 such senseless, malicious and false attacks as he did against 

 Mr. Brodbeck, in the October issue of his quarterly, we feel it 



a duty to come down on him, and come down hard, too. The 

 fact is, sometime ago we arrived at the conclusion that it is 

 high time that honest and respectable bee-journalism should 

 step flat-footed upon all fraud and misrepresentation whether 

 attempted by a member of the bee-fraternity, or by those out- 

 siders who would endeavor to cheat and defraud bee-keepers. 

 A leading California bee-keeper, in a letter to Mr. Brod- 

 beck recently, said this : 



" I do not think you need have any trouble ; people know 

 you too well to doubt your unselfishness or want of integrity. 

 I am sure you may face such attacks with the utmost 

 serenity." 



Editor Root, in Gleanings for Oct. 1, after calling the last 

 number of the Pacific Bee Journal " a pleasant surprise," 

 somewhat modifies his compliment by saying : 



"It is unfortunate that such a good start-out should be 

 marred by the publication of an open letter from the editor 

 directed to and attacking one of California's leading bee-keep- 

 ers — Mr. Geo. W. Brodbeck, of Los Angeles — a man whom we 

 have found to be the very soul of honor. Among California 

 bee-keepers none stands higher. Elsewhere in the same jour- 

 nal Is a paragraph that evidently refers to the same man in 

 anything but complimentary terms, accusing him of slander 

 to gain his ends." 



Perhaps we have now given enough to show our readers 

 that Mr. Bennett is utterly unworthy of patronage, and that 

 any bee-paper starting out in a similar manner cannot hope to 

 achieve success, for it would be entirely undeserved. 



Honey Broken Do^rn in Stalppingf.— About 



two weeks ago we happened over on South Water street, 

 when a large honey-dealer called our attention to a shipment 

 of comb honey from Wisconsin, that was nearly all broken 

 down — the comb had completely broken from the section all 

 around. It was a bad mess. The honey was in double-tier 

 24-pound shipping-cases, not crated. 



We think the principal cause of the break-down, was that 

 the double glass front of each case was completely covered 

 with a thin board nailed on, thus preventing the railroad men 

 from seeing what the contents was. 



Another thing, the comb of honey in each section was not 

 well fastened to the section-box — merely attached — the cells of 

 honey being perhaps the width of two cells from the wood. 

 Possibly only small foundation starters were used, and no 

 bottom starters at all. 



It is risky to ship comb honey, any way, and so about the 

 only safe way is to put the cases in crates of about 200 

 pounds each, first putting in several inches of straw or hay 

 packed down, and arranging the cases so that the glass fronts 

 will show through the crate all around. The crate will of 

 course have handles at each end, so that two men can handily 

 carry it, or it can be trucked around. 



Every bee-keeper knows what a sticky mess leaky honey- 

 packages make, and he also knows that when honey is re- 

 ceived in such condition by commission-men, it is almost im- 

 possible to get anything for it — it is so much work to melt it 

 up, etc. Being aware of these facts, it behooves all who send 

 comb honey away, to be extremely careful in packing for ship- 

 ment — at least use every possible precaution to insure safe 

 shipment. It won't pay to do otherwise. 



Lincoln Convention Comments.— One of the 



things that interested us most, outside of convention hours, 

 was the morning chapel exercise held for the students. Gen- 

 erally some professor or the Chancellor leads, after which all 

 join in a closing song. It is very impressive. We wondered 

 why this service was not held say at 8:30 — that was the time 

 set apart for it when we were In college. At Lincoln they 

 begin at 10 o'clock — somewhat late for so enterprising a school . 

 The first morning all the bee-keepers were invited to take 



