424 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



July 5. 1900 



PUBLISHT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. York & Company, 



118 Michigan Street, Gliicaoo, 111. 



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



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. Sneli., R. C. Aikin, "Old Grimes." 



IMPORTANT NOTICES: 



The Subscription Price of this journal is $L00 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 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. 



JULY 5. 1900. 



NO. 27 



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 Need of a Text=Book on Bee=Keeping; A cor- 

 respondent, in sending in a number of questions, stipulates 

 that he shall not be referred to a dollar-and-a-quarter text- 

 book, as he reads the American Bee Journal and another 

 g-ood bee-paper. Which is probably equivalent to saying- 

 that he has no text-book, and should not be askt to g-et one. 

 Our good friend is standing very much in his own light. 

 Altho earnest effort is made to send out every vreek a bee- 

 journal that shall be excelled by none in the world — one 

 which shall be of value to the veteran and the beginner, so 

 good indeed that it shall be felt indispensable— yet there 

 need be no hesitation in saying that one who has no text- 

 book will do well to dispense with its weekly visits for a 

 year or more, if that is the only condition on which he can 

 obtain a text-book. 



The department of " Questions and Answers " has its 

 purposes and limitations. It can not be expected to fill 

 the entire place of a text-book. A text-book is supposed to 

 contain answers to all the questions that will be askt by 

 every beginner in bee-keeping, and many of those askt by 

 those of riper experience. Now suppose it should be un- 

 derstood that the purpose of " Questions and Answers " was 

 to give all the information needed by each new subscriber, 

 so that he should need no text-book. Keep in mind that 

 each week new subscribers are added to the list. One who 

 has just begun sends in the question, " Is it the old or the 

 young queen that goes off with the swarm ?" A week or 

 two later, a new comer who has not seen previous numbers, 



asks the same question, and as each week brings in more 

 recruits, the question appears again and again, " Is it the 

 old or the young queen that goes off with the swarm ?" 

 Naturally the one who first askt the question would feel 

 that such a question should have a long vacation, and that 

 the space thus occupied should be filled with something a 

 little more fresh. As there are hundreds of questions that 

 each beginner has a desire to have answered, if all should 

 depend entirel)' on " Questions and Answers " for the in- 

 formation needed, each number of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal would be crowded with such matter, and after the first 

 year or so each reader would feel there was nothing worth 

 his time to read, after having already read it so many 

 times. 



" Of what use then is the department of ' Questions and 

 Answers ' if one can not ask for the information he needs ?" 

 One ran ask for the information he needs, and after having 

 carefully studied a text-book he will still find plenty of 

 questions to which he desires answers. New things are 

 constantly coming up which have not as yet found their 

 way into the text-books. Some things in the text-books 

 may be a little hard to understand, and a little side-light 

 will help. One will have difficulty at one point, another at 

 another. After a careful study of what is contained in the 

 text-book, no one need hesitate to ask any question that 

 troubles him. But if any one should think that he should 

 find answered in " Questions and Answers " everything he 

 desires to know as a beginner, he will himself plead most 

 earnestly to be protected from such questions and answers 

 in the future, after they have become ABC to him. 



An Experimental Station has been establisht by W. 

 Skarytka, in Schletz, Austria, where any one can send 

 bees, hives, etc., for trial and comparison without charge 

 for such trial, providing all are sent prepaid. Here's a 

 chance for several would-be American inventors to have 

 their " ideas " tested. 



The Chicago Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association meets the last week in August, as will be noted 

 by the following from Secretarj' Mason : 



Editor of American Ebb Journal : — 



Please allow me to remind the readers of the American 

 Bee Journal that the next convention of the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association is to be held in Chicago, 111., on the 

 28th, 29th and 30th of August next, commencing Tuesday 

 evening, the 28th, at 7:30 o'clock. 



The sessions will be held in Wellington Hall, No. 70 

 North Clark St., about a block and a half from the Bee 

 Journal office, and about five blocks directly north of the 

 Court House. The hotel at which members can secure 

 lodging, etc., is the Revere House, southeast corner of Clark 

 and Michigan Sts., only one-half block from the hall. Rates 

 of lodging will be SO cents per night, and several will have 

 to occupy one room. To many bee-keepers this will be an 

 " added attraction," especially as they will have good beds 

 to sleep on, as Mr. York has been assured by the hotel pro- 

 prietor. It may be possible that this hotel will not be able 

 to accommodate all of the bee-keepers, altho the proprietor 

 will do his best to see that it does. Each one attending the 

 convention should secure a lodging-place as soon as possi- 

 ble after arriving in the city. There is usually no trouble 

 in getting enough to eat at reasonable rates. 



The program for the convention will be different from 

 what it has usually been. There will not be to exceed one 

 paper at each session, and the remainder of the time will be 

 occupied in the asking, answering, and discussion of ques- 

 tions. The question-box will be in charge of such veter- 

 ans as Dr. C. C. Miller, of Illinois; Rev. E. T. Abbott, of 

 Missouri ; D. W. Heise, of Ontario, Canada ; C. P. Dadant, 

 of Illinois; R. L,. Taylor, of Michigan ; O. O. Poppleton, of 

 Florida ; and the editor of the American Bee Journal. 



On Wednesday evening the editor of Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture will give an "Illustrated stereopticon talk on bee- 

 keepers I have met, and apiaries I have visited." 



The papers will be from such noted ones as Thos. Wm. 



