April 19, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



249 



loss of $1.00 on 200 pounds of honey — enough to pay a year's 

 membership in the National Bee-Keepers' Association. And 

 yet only a comparatively small number have their eyes 

 opened to see that it is a profitable investment to send in 

 that dollar. 



Look at what has been done in the past by united 

 action. At the present time the one great foe of bee-keep- 

 ers is adulteration. The National association can work 

 only as it has "sinews of war." Even with its present 

 small membership it is making itself felt. If you who are 

 npt now a member will join, it can do just so much more. 

 Your joining will help to induce others to join. Will you 

 stand idly by, while the battle is being fought, and allow 

 others to pay the cost while you share in the benefits ? Is 

 that entirely honorable ? True, many honorable men are 

 holding back, but have they correctly weighed what they 

 are doing ? 



Honey in an Unexpected Place. — Rev. Louis Albert 

 Banks, of Cleveland, Ohio, gave the following incident in 

 the New Voice some time ago : 



In May, 1898, while one of the volunteers from Dover, 

 Maine, was waiting for the government to call the troops to 

 the front, he went out one afternoon and shot some rabbits. 

 On his return a messenger met him in the doorway and told 

 him he must take the next train for the State capital. As 

 his hunting-coat was wet with the blood of the rabbits, he 

 hung it up on a limb of an apple-tree, remarking that it 

 would be well washt by the time he returned from the war. 

 Upon his return he thought he would try his luck partridge- 

 shooting before settling down to farm-work. The canvas 

 coat was hanging from the limb in the orchard ; but when 

 he went to put it on he found that it was already occupied 

 by a swarm of bees, vhich had taken possession of the gar- 

 ment during his absence. With the aid of a sulphur- 

 smudge fire he expelled the bees and secured 22 pounds of 

 delicious white comb honey. 



What are the Best Queens Worth ? Is a question dis- 

 cust by W. A. H. Gilstrap, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. He 

 thinks some queens that have been mentioned might pro- 

 duce royal progeny that would raise the average yield per 

 colony 40 pounds, and figures that with 100 colonies such a 

 result would pay the interest on more than $200. To the 

 objection that such a queen is a freak, not transmitting her 

 desirable qualities, he replies : 



" Perhaps Messenger was the greatest desirable freak 

 among horses. His desirable qualities have been intensi- 

 fied by judicious breeding until the world wonders at the 

 result." 



Mr. Gilstrap bred from a queen that excelled in an api- 

 ary of 100 colonies. The result was a gain in surplus of 

 $1.00 and $2.00 per colony, as compared with other colonies. 

 He concludes that the question of hives is a small one com- 

 pared with the question of stock. 



Fool Writers Still Lying Mr. E. S. Miles, of Craw- 

 ford Co., Iowa, sends us the following reprinted in his local 

 newspaper, and credited to the daily New York Mail and 

 Express : 



FOOL THE BEES AND THE PEOPI,E. 



" People buy comb honey," said a man from the coun- 

 try, "believing that the fact that it is sealed by the 'honest 

 little bee precludes the possibility of fraud. The fact is, 

 that the bees of many professional ' honey '-raisers do noth- 

 ing the livelong summer but pack glucose into their hives 

 from an open barrel that is left standing close bj'. 'The bee 

 will not search fragrant flowers the livelong day for a 

 trifling amount of pure honey when it can get glucose. 

 The honey-men see that there is plenty of glucose handy, 

 and instead of one pound of pure honey they aid the bees 

 in putting ten pounds of glucose on the market. 



"Human ingenuity has not devised a way for making 

 and sealing the honey-comb, or the bee would be dispenst 

 with altogether. In handling the glucose the bees give it 

 a honeyish flavor, and if you complain to the bee-man that 



it is not as sweet and sticky as it should be, he will tell you 

 that it is the early crop, and that the heavy rains make it 

 thin. 



" I know a man who keeps 50 hives of bees on the roof 

 of his store in the city, and by hustling up plenty of glu- 

 cose he gets enough ' honey ' out of the buzzing slaves to do 

 a wholesale business in honey. Why, his bees never saw a 

 flower, and would shy at a honeysuckle if they happened to 

 come near one. He will not even let the poor things have a 

 recess to get a drink of water, but keeps a pan of fresh 

 water near the hives for them to drink." 



Accompanying the foregoing clipping were these words 

 by Mr. Miles : 



Mr. York : — You have publisht in times past some 

 queer information (?) about bees, taken from the general 

 newspaper press ; I hand you herewith what I think is en- 

 titled to the " belt " as the champion lie of the world about 

 bees and honey. It may have been intended only as a 

 " pleasantry " by the writer, but I guess the average editor 

 (not bee-editors) doesn't know enough to think so. 



E. S. Miles. 



How any self-respecting newspaper can deliberately 

 publish such falsehoods as are contained in the clipping 

 above is more than we can understand. But ten chances to 

 one, should we undertake to show to the editor of the New 

 York Mail and Express that one of his reporters had been 

 writing what he (the reporter) knew was only a bunch of 

 lies, that editor would only laugh and call it a fine joke. 



The awful degeneracy of the modern daily newspapers 

 is something sad to contemplate. They care not for truth 

 or honor, nor the reputations of men or business interests. 

 We know of nothing else that is so much needed, and of 

 which there seems to be such a limited supply, as honest 

 men — absolutely honest and incorruptible. 



Reformed Spelling has attention in the Inland Printer, 

 which copies approvingly from the Dial an arraignment 

 "of certain eccentric spellings, among which ' thru ' and 

 ' program ' are typically objectionable examples." That edi- 

 tor takes comfort in the belief that English spelling will 

 not succumb. One smiles at such a belief in the face of the 

 fact that the spelling " programme " is rarely met even 

 now. The Inland Printer will no doubt continue to spell 

 the word with nine letters (at least for a time), and as ap- 

 propriate company also " labour " and " honour." 



Per contra, the same paper copies without hostile com- 

 ment from Leslie's Weekly' an item headed " Common- 

 Sense in Spelling," which closes as follows : 



" Silent letters and fantastic combinations in words 

 impose a useless and wholly unnecessary tax upon the mem- 

 ory and intellect, and they ought to be ruled out of the 

 English language as rapidly as possible. Life is too short 

 and time too precious to be spent in trying to master the 

 absurdities of the spelling-book which have no excuse for 

 existence." 



York's Honey Calendar for 1900 is a 16-page pamph- 

 let especially gotten up to create a demand for honey among 

 should-be consumers. The forepart was written by Dr. 

 C. C. Miller, and is devoted to general information concern- 

 ing honey. The latter part consists of recipes for use in 

 cooking and as a medicine. It will be found to be a very 

 efi'ective helper in working up a home market for honey. 

 We furnish them, postpaid, at these prices : A sample 

 free ; 25 copies for 30 cents ; 50 for SO cents ; 100 for 90 

 cents; 250 for $2.00 ; 50O for $3.50. For 25 cents extra we 

 will print your name and address on the front page, when 

 ordering 100 or more copies at these prices. 



Our Wood Binder (or Holder) is made to take all the 

 copies of the American Bee Journal for a year. It is sent 

 by mail for 20 cents. Full directions accompany. The Bee 

 Journals can be inserted as soon as they are received, and 

 thus preserved for future reference. Upon receipt of $1.00 

 for your Bee Journal subscription a full year i)i advance^ 

 we will mail you a Wood Binder free — if you will mention it. 



