152 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



March 8, 1900 



PUBLISHT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 



116 Michigan Street, Ghicaoc 111. 



[Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago 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 $1,013 a year, in the United States, 

 Canada, and Me.\ico: all other countries in the Postal Union, 50 cents 

 a year extra for postage. Saniple copy free. 



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

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

 label shows that it is paid to the end of December, 1900. 

 ubscription Receipts.— We do not send a receipt for money sent us to pay 

 subscription, but change the date on your wrapper-label, which shows 

 you that the money has been received and duly credited. 



Advertising Rates will be given upon application. 



VOL. 40. 



MARCH 8. 1900. 



NO. 10. 



No'TE— 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 "e" af- 

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



Gathering Grapes When Bees are on the Bunches. 



— The Critic of the Bee-Keepers' Review refers to Mr. 

 Hasty (American Bee Journal, page 711), " gently apolo- 

 g-izing- for the grape-man," and thinks there is danger of 

 granting too much as to the trouble of bees in vineyards. 

 Away from home bees do not volunteer to sting, and Mr. 

 Hasty is granting too much when he speaks of the man in 

 the vineyard with " one eye closed, and hands swollen too 

 stifiF for service." Mr. Taylor says : 



" I, at least, am glad of the help of the bees in gather- 

 ing up the juices so that it may not aid in hastening the 

 bursting of the sound grapes adjacent, and only regret that 

 they can not gatherit more quickly." 



Isn't that a new theory, that moisture on the outside of 

 a grape will hasten its bursting ? If confirmed it will cer- 

 tainly not be objected to by bee-keepers. 



Newspaper Rot About Bees and Honey Why is it 



that books and papers reliable in other respects will be so 

 utterly unreliable in matters pertaining to bees ? It is 

 doubtful that there is a better, brighter, cleaner, and more 

 reliable daily paper in the world than the Chicago Record, 

 and yet its issue for Feb. 17 shows that it has been imposed 

 upon to the extent of a column and a half of stuff whose 

 chief distinction is its improbability. It is headed " Cave 



of Wild Honej'," and a few extracts will show that it is 

 much after the usual manner of yarns about big caves filled 

 with honey : 



" Bees work the year round " — " they never have to stop 

 working on account of lack of material or bad weather" — 

 " tons of it ; in clefts in the rocks ; in hollow trees, in caves, 

 and in the famous ' Devil's Punch Bowl,' " " out of which 

 bees swarm always in clouds so thick that at a distance of 

 two or three miles it has the appearance of a great signal 

 smoke." 



How's that ? These best honey-districts, it is said, are 

 about 125 miles from Del Rio, Texas, and when the honey 

 is strained and brought on burros to Del Rio it brings IS 

 cents a pound 1 A man could make a lot of money by buy- 

 ing up extracted honey in Chicago and shipping it to Del 

 Rio. 



Sticking Labels on Tin — The Australian Bee-Bulletin 

 says that for sticking labels on tin, flour and water well 

 blended and boiled, with perhaps a little alum to preserve 

 it, is as good as any. 



Improving Our Stoclc.— Except by buying new queens 

 there probably never was a time when so much attention 

 was given to improvement in breeding as at the present. 

 But that " so much " is comparatively little, and Editor 

 Hutchinson, of the Bee-Keepers' Review, helps to send the 

 ball rolling after the following fashion : 



" Our hives and methods of management are probably 

 not perfection, but they are pretty fair, at least ; our meth- 

 ods of putting up honey and marketing it may possibly be 

 considerably improved ; but at present the most promising 

 field in which to turn our energies loose is in that of im- 

 proving our stock. Too many of us look upon bees as bees, 

 in something the same way as a country merchant buys 

 butter — it's all butter. The man who has kept bees many 

 years, trying different strains, and keeping his eyes open, 

 well knows that there is a difference in bees. The most of 

 us know this. The trouble is, that we do not put our 

 knowledge into practice." 



Addressing Packages of Honey. — There has been 

 quite a little said lately about the honey-producer putting 

 his name and address on the packages holding his crop of 

 honey when shipping it to market. We want to give a few 

 words of caution on this subject. We have had a little ex- 

 perience in handling honey produced by others, and believe 

 we express the desire of the great majority of honey-dealers 

 when we say we don't want the producer's name and address 

 on the packages of honey we purchase. 



Does the farmer put his name and address on the bags 

 of wheat, corn and potatoes he sells ? Does he brand the 

 cattle, hogs, horses and poultry that he raises for market ? 

 Does he put his name and address on the eggs, butter, etc., 

 that he produces for others to eat ? Of course not. Then 

 why put it on honey ? 



For example, we have spent a good deal of money and 

 time in advertising and working up a demand in Chicago 

 for " York's Honey " — is any one fool enough to think that 

 we would put honey on the market here with somebody 

 else's name and address on it ? Suppose we should furnish 

 some grocer with a case of nice comb honey having on it, 

 "Produced by Walker Wheelering, Honeytown, Wis." 

 What is there to hinder that grocer ordering his whole sup- 

 ply next year from Mr. Wheelering? Then, of course, he 

 would sell to the grocer at two or three cents under the 

 market price, as some unbusinesslike bee-keepers do here 

 every year. What is the result ? Our salesman calls on 

 Mr. Grocer, and is met with, "Oh, I'm supplied. I bought 

 this fine lot of comb honey in Wisconsin, at 13 cents a 

 pound, while your price is 16 cents." 



Or, the grocer may go down on South Water Street and 

 tell some honey-dealer there that he bought "just as good 



