104 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Feb. IS, 1900 



PUBLISBT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 



118 Michigan Street, Ghicaoo, III. 



[Entered at the Post-Office at Chicag^o as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 

 EDITOR: 



DEPARTMENT EDITORS: 



Dr. C. C. MILLER, E. E. HASTY, 



" Questions and Answers." * * " The Afterthought." 



LEADING CONTRIBUTORS: 



G. M. DooLiTTLE, C. P. Dadant, Prof. A. J. Cook, 



F. A. Snell, R. C. Aikin, "Old Grimes." 



IMPORTANT NOTICES: 



The Subscription Price of this journal is $1.00 a year, in the United States, 

 Canada, and Me-vico; all other countries in the Postal Union, 50 cents 

 a year e.xtra for postage. Sample copy free. 



The Wrapper-Label Date of this paper indicates the end of the month to 

 which your subscription is paid. For instance, "DecUO" on your 

 label shows th.-it it is paid to the end of December, l')00. 



Subscription Receipts.— We do not send a receipt for money sent us to pav 

 subscription, but change the date on your wrapper-label, which show's 

 you that the money has been received and duly credited. 



Advertising Rates will be given upon application. 



VOL.40. FEBRUARY 15, 1900. NO. 7. 



Note— The American Bee Journal adopts the Orthography of the follow- 

 ing Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philolog- 

 ical Association and the Philological Society of England: — Change 

 d" or "ed" final to "t" when so pronounced, except when the " " ' 

 lects a preceding sound. Also some other changes are used. 



af- 



The National Bee-Keepers' Association is the neve 

 name of the society resulting from the amalg-amation of 

 the two org^anizations, viz.: the United States Bee-Keepers' 

 Association and the National Bee-Keepers' Union. We 

 have received notices from the general manager of each 

 former society— Messrs. Eugene Secorand Thomas G. New- 

 man—informing us of the result of the balloting, vphich ex- 

 pired Feb. 1st, and the vote of each organization was prac- 

 tically unanimous in favor of amalgamation. 



We wish to take this occasion to congratulate the whole 

 memberghip, and all the bee-keepers in the land, upon the 

 happy outcome of the last effort to unite tl^e two national 

 bee-keepers' organizations into one strong body. Now let all 

 " bend to the oars," and roll up the membership to a thou- 

 sand strong, by the time of the annual meeting here in 

 Chicago next August 28, 29 and 30. 



In the number following this we will have more to say 

 regarding the result of the recent balloting on amalgama- 

 tion, etc. 



Oldest Honey-Comb in the World The British Bee 



Journal recently copied the following account of a " find " 

 of what is supposed to be the oldest honey-comb on earth : 



There is in the possession of Mr. W. Drake, of Broad 

 street, Cambridge, a curiosity of great antiquity in the 

 shape of a perfect honey-comb, in the center of what was 



once an oak-tree, which, according to naturalists who have 

 viewed it, is hundreds of years old ; in fact, it is impossible 

 to say what age the comb and tree may not be. The tree 

 was raised on land in the occupation of Mr. Gale Cornell, of 

 Brick-kiln Farm, Bottisham L<ode. It had been known to- 

 be imbedded in the fen land for a long period, and when six 

 feet of peat had been taken off the surface, it was decided 

 that the tree, which is of the species known as bog-oak, 

 should be raised. It was found to be no less than 100 feet 

 long, and the men were in the act of splitting the tree into 

 logs, when, in the center of it, they came upon a honey- 

 comb, which, with the oak, had been imbedded in the peat. 

 The comb was in a perfect state of preservation, and dotted 

 about it and lying at the base of the aperture were bees. 



The Wisconsin Convention, which met last week, was one 

 of the best ever held by the State organization of bee-keep- 

 ers. We were permitted to be there, and had a splendid 

 time in the land of the fur overcoat and basswood honey. 

 Next week we hope to have more to say about it. 



The officers elected for the ensuing year are : Presi- 

 dent, N. E. France ; vice-president, Jacob Huffman ; secre- 

 tary, Ada L,. Pickard ; and treasurer, Harry Eathrop. 



"Phonetic Spelling" is the caption of an editorial in 

 the Bee-Keepers' Review, in which Editor Hutchinson, 

 after spending a page or so upon the difficulties of the case, 

 ends with the following despairing paragraph : 



" I sorrowfully admit that our spelling is something 

 fearful to contemplate, and herculean to accomplish, and it 

 will remain such so long as our alphabetical characters are 

 so sadly lacking- in numbers. This being true, it is better 

 that we continue to spell as other folks do, rather than 

 waste our energies in attempting to make changes which, 

 even if accomplisht, would bring us no nearer the goal — 

 phonetic spelling." 



Which seems to say, " The case is so desperately bad 

 that we must just stand it with no eff<3rt to make it any bet- 

 ter," Apparently Mr. Hutchinson has in mind the few re- 

 forms introduced in the columns of this journal and some 

 others, from what he says ; and he should understand that 

 in these reforms the only thing attempted is to make a lit- 

 tle improvement in a limited number of words, and not an 

 entire system of phonetic spelling. The worst feature in 

 the case is that so many, while admitting with Mr. Hutch- 

 inson " that our spelling is something fearful to contem- 

 plate," will at the same time insist that it must in 'no wise 

 be marred by any change. It is awful, but it is venerable, 

 and it would be eacrilege to rid it of any of its horridness. 

 Possibly Mr. Hutchinson woijld join hands with those who 

 say, " If you will give us a genuine phonetic system, I am 

 with you." But such persons ought to know that men have 

 worn out their lives trying to have accepted a truly phonetic 

 system, have printed books and journals phonetically, but 

 the public would none of it. The public will stand isolated 

 and gradual changes much more readily, as may be seen by 

 some of the changes in the Review as compared with the 

 printed language a century ago, and admitting that every 

 change makes a shock, as Mr. Hutchinson suggests, the 

 more rapidly these shocks come the sooner will they be 

 ready to accept what he seems to consider a desired goal. 



Mr. Hutchinson emphasizes the fact that very few of 

 our words are spelled phonetically, indeed, putting rather 

 too much emphasis upon it, for he says that in a hundred 

 consecutive words in the Review he found only hvo spelled 

 phonetically, while of the first five words in the column in 

 which this statement is made, five of them may be said to 

 be spelled phonetically — " clip and fix over as." That is 

 on the supposition that by "phonetically " we mean that 

 each letter has its one sound, and each sound its one letter. 

 Possibly Mr. Hutchinson has some other idea of what pho- 

 netic spelling is, for in a list of words that he says he looks 

 upon as spelled phonetically occurs "pi," and if that is the 



