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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 10, 1900 



PUBHSHT WEEKLY BY 



QEORQE w. York & Company, 



118 Michigan Street, Cliicago, III. 



[Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.] 

 EDITOR: 



DEPARTMENT EDITORS: 



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 Mexico; all other countries in the Postal Union, 50 cents 

 a year extra 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, "DecOO" on your 

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



Subscription Receipts. — We do not send a receipt for money sent ns 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. 



MAY 10. 1900. 



NO. 19. 



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 "e" af- 

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



The Brosius Pure>Food Bill We received the follow- 

 ing from Mr. Abbott, May 4 : 



Editor York :— I have just received word that the 

 Inter-State Commerce Committee has reported favorablj' 

 on the "Brosius Bill." Very truly yours, 



Embrson T. Abbott. 



Every honest producer of honey will be glad to hear the 

 above. Now, we trust the House will approve the report of 

 the committee, and that the Senate will concur, and thus 

 the long-hoped-for National anti-adulteration legislation be 

 completed. 



The Question of Separators or No Separators is one 



upon which there always has been a difference of opinion, 

 and it is not likely there will ever be entire agreement. One 

 man says he has straight enough work without separators, 

 another says he has not. As a matter of fact, the work 

 may be alike in both cases ; but one man is more exacting 

 in his requirements than the other. A man who ships 

 honey to a distance, whose honey will be handled by care- 

 less and inexperienced hands, needs sections built more 

 true than one who produces honey merely for his own 

 use, or who furnishes sections to a grocer near by, with 

 whom he keeps in close touch. 



Under favorable conditions good work may be done 

 without separators. Those conditions, however, are not 



always — perhaps not often — under the control of the bee- 

 keeper. Under any and all conditions one is sure of 

 straight work with separators ; so it is probable that the 

 general trend will be toward the general use of separators ; 

 and, indeed, that seems to have been the general trend for 

 some time. 



Bees for House= Apiaries Should Be Oentle. — So says, 

 in his circular, Mr. Jewell Taylor, son of the lamented B. 

 Taylor, who has had experience with house-apiaries, and 

 favors their use. Mr. Taylor says ; 



" If you contemplate building a house-apiary do not 

 stock it with anything but gentle bees. Handling bees 

 that stampede over the outside of their hives is a disagree- 

 able task under any circumstances, and is especially so in 

 the house-apiary." 



Barrels for Honey do not suit C. Davenport. He says 

 in the Bee-Keepers' Review that he has never been able to 

 get any that would not leak honey after a time, no matter 

 how well made, seasoned, tightened, and waxt. He had a 

 large alcohol barrel full of white honey, and before he knew 

 it the barrel was empty from leaking. Rethinks of having 

 several cans of galvanized iron large enough to hold 1,000 

 pounds of honey each, these cans or tanks standing high 

 enough so the honey can be drawn from them into shipping- 

 cans. After the honey has stood in these cans 24 hours all 

 impurities will rise to the top to be skimmed off, so it will 

 need no straining. 



Organized Marketing has an earnest plea made for it 

 by R. C. Aikin, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. He cites the 

 case of a local organization of fruit-growers of which he is 

 a member. He picks his fruit and delivers it at the depot, 

 and there his care of it ends. The manager ships it to so 

 much better advantage than he could, that Mr. Aikin gets 

 more net money than if he shipt himself, and has none of 

 the trouble. He says : 



" The manager or shipping agent puts himself in com- 

 munication with all possible customers or outlets for fruit, 

 selects his customers before the fruit is ready, has access to 

 commercial reports, etc., and, when the shipping season is 

 on, he gets daily quotations showing supply, demand, and 

 prices in the various localities. The growers deliver the 

 fruit some time before trains are due out, and the agent 

 ships according to supply and demand. If the supph' here 

 exceeds orders, he divides the surplus, shipping it to the 

 market that is most likely to be able to use it, favoring the 

 most reliable customers. This avoids a glut in one place 

 and a scarcity in another, and results in far less numbers of 

 losses, both of overripe or soft fruit because of delay, and 

 in defaults of payment by irtesponsible firms. Besides the 

 saving to shippers in this way, any unavoidable losses are 

 prorated among the members, and the association bears this 

 loss, and not individuals." 



Light-Weight vs. FulUWeight Sections. — The prob- 

 lem of the section is a many-sided and a perplexing one. 

 Not the least troublesome phase is that of weight. There 

 is no question that in many, if not most markets, light- 

 weight sections are most called for by grocers. Vigorously 

 do many bee-keepers object to light-weight sections, and in 

 some cases, at least, there is good ground for the objection. 

 The grocer wants to buy by weight and sell by the piece, 

 or, to put it very bluntly, he wants to buy at the actual 

 weight and then sell for a pound a section that weighs less 

 than a pound. There is nothing immoral in producing or 

 selling sections that weigh 13, 14, or IS ounces each, provid- 

 ing they are sold for what they are, with no deception. If 

 each section is weighed and sold at so much per pound, it 

 matters little whether the weight be 13 or 18 ounces. 



But some insist — and they give good reasons for insisting 

 — that every section should be sold by the piece. It is also 

 insisted that every section should be full weight. No man 



