THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



887 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 





^iijiiiDii« 



PUBLISHED BV 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



KniTOK AND PUOPKIETOK, 



925 WEST MADISON-STREET, CHICAGO, ILL 



Weekly, S2 a year : Monthly, 50 cents. 



Vol.-XXI. June 24, 1885. No. 25. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



Tlie Kansas Bee-Keeper has removed 

 its location from Columbus, Kans., to Liberal, 

 Barton County, Mo. 



Xlie R«v. Ij. Ii. Laiigstrotli has so far 



recoverefl from the attack of paralysis sus- 

 tained last February, as to have the comfort- 

 able use of his limbs. His p;eneral health is 

 also improving. His many friends will be 

 glad to hear of this improvement. 



Xlie best honey iveatlier is when it is 

 warm and moist— when the air is full of 

 electricity and a storm approachinji:. We 

 have had so much of that kind of weather 

 lately, that we may confidently e.xpect a g-ood 

 honey harvest. That is what, not onlj' the 

 bees but apiarists generally, arelong-ingfor. 



Let it be a National Union,— Messrs. 

 Dadant & Son make the following- as suggests 

 ions : *' We are willing to put our shoulder 

 to the wheel for a National Bee-Keepers' 

 Union, and to pay our share, whether it may 

 be Jl.OO or S'i.'j.OO. We suggest that a special 

 request to unite in this Union, be sent to all 

 the bee-papers and their subscribers. We 

 must have a National Union or none." 



This suggestion is " good and timely," and 

 we publicly invite the editors of all bee- 

 papers to unite in this noble work, and would 

 cheerfully vote for the following as the 

 officers of the temporary organization, if 

 these editors will co-operate with the Union : 



President— A. I. Root, Medina, Ohio. 



First Vice-President— A. J. King, New York. 



Second Vice-President— A. G. Hill, Kendall- 

 vrlle, Ind. 



Third Vice-President— Silas M. Locke, Wen- 

 ham, Mass. 



Fourth Vice-President— H. Scovell, Liberal, 

 Mo. 



This would unite all the bee-papers in the 

 Union, and we sincerely hope that it may 

 induce all of them to work together for the 

 general good. As soon as the organization 

 is completed, we will cheerfully relinquish 

 our position to any one the Union may 

 choose, but the Bee Journal will give its 

 unswerving support to the Union and all its 

 offlcei-s. 



If Canadians, who are governed by other 

 laws, find such an organization necessary or 

 desirable, the editor and subscribers of the 

 (.'anadian paper are all cordiallj' invited to 

 co-operate with this Union. 



Ber-Keepers' Union. — We have had 

 many enthusiastic letters endorsing the plan 

 of organization— and some suggestions about 

 amendments to the Constitution submitted 

 last week. Wo have incorporated the sug- 

 gestions, and publish it again on the next 

 page. The chief alterations are, that as a 

 fund is needed at once for the Freeborn 

 case, an entrance fee of one diiUar should be 

 paid, so as to make the fund available at 

 once. Now we think the organization is 

 ready to commence work, and we are ready 

 to enroll members as soon as they send in 

 the meml)ership and entrance fees— $-1.2.5. 



Throtving Dirt. — When the Canadian 

 bee-paper started into life, each of the editors 

 of the bee-periodicals in the United States 

 gave it a g<iod notice, bidding it welcome. 



The AMEUit'AN Bee Journal objected to 

 its name because of the danger of mixing 

 things up, but added : " We have none but 

 the kindest feelings toward the new paper ; 

 but its name should be changed." 



The editor of the Canadian paper then 

 remarked, on page .50: " We are determined 

 to work harmoniously with all other bee- 

 periodicals." With this assurance, and 

 desiring such a result, we concluded not to 

 criticise anything in it, so as to cement "the 

 bonds of peace," all around. But imagine 

 our surprise, after reading the editor's 

 further assurance in these words : " We 

 know, no jealousy, and strive to carry out our 

 motto, ' the greatest possible good, to the 

 greatest possible number,' " to find, in the 

 same paper, much that was "offensively 

 personal " by his correspondents, of which 

 the following is a sample. One says : 



" If you ' run out ' all other American 

 bee-papers and occupy the iand, all right. 

 N'ewnmn. of the A. B. J., and Root, of 

 Glcanin(fs, have both been in the harness so 

 long that they are probably looking for a 

 place to rest." 



Does our Canadian neighborcall that living 

 up to its motto ? It looks more like declaring 

 " (I U'ar of extei-m inntion "-and if that comes, 

 there will be " lots of fun " for " the boys," 

 as that writer puts it. But that kind of 

 " fun " is not what should engage the atten- 

 tion of the bee-pajiers when there are so 

 many subjects of vital importance before us. 

 We fully endorse a hind but stinging rebuke 

 administered by Bro. Root in the last issue 

 of Oleaningn in these words : 



"When new bee -papers start up (and 

 doubtless they will start, as they have started) 

 will they please to bear in mind that it is 

 neither " courtesy " nor "policy" to com- 

 mence " pecking " at old-established papers '^ 

 Suppose you should attend an evening party, 

 and comi'iienee right out, before all, abusing 

 some one who is present ; what would be 

 thought of you, if you persisted in dragging 

 your personal likes and dislikes into the 

 presence of a well-bred company? You 

 would probalily be severely let alone, and 

 you might possibly be shown the door, in 

 some circles. Well, whatever appears in a 

 public paper is, in one sense, before the 

 people, and in a place where everybody is 

 bound, by all rules of etiquette, to behave 

 himself as becomes a gentleman. I have 

 sometinii's thought that the opinion seems to 

 have olituiiiril a lodging in some hearts, that 

 a man mii^ht build up himself or his paper, 

 by saying ancn-inti and insulting things of 

 those who had acquired at least a tolerably 

 fair standing, by years of tolerably fair 

 service." 



Now, let us have no more of such nonsense, 

 but let the new papers (fet d^twn to work for 

 the good of the pursuit of bee-keeping, if 

 that is the object of their existence. They 

 can never build themselves up by trying to 

 run others down ! Never I ! 



Foollsli Jealousy.— We dislike to have 

 any controversy with other bee-papers, but 

 it seems to be necessary to straighten out an 

 entanglement which some of them have 

 gotten into. 



A (luarter of a Century ago, when the 

 Ameuican Bek Jouh.val wasstarted, it was 

 Hieoiiiy publication devoted to bees and honey 

 in America— now there are six others, besides 

 some 1.5 or 'JO which have ceased to e.xist I 



In 1881 when the Weekly Bee Journal 

 was started, there was not another bee-paper 

 published weekly in the World— now there 

 are three (one of them being 6 months old, 

 and the other .'! months), and like all little 

 children, they have their "squabbles" about 

 small matters. The facts are as follows : 



The Kansas paper was a monthly until last 

 September, when it ceased to appear until 

 the middle of December, when it issued the 

 three numbers to complete the year, in that 

 month, so as to begin the year 1885 on time. 

 and then continued the weekly issue. 



Just at that time Mr. Allen Pringle wrote 

 the article, which we re-publish in this issue 

 of the American Bee Journal, from the 

 Popular Science Monthly, which stated that 

 the American Bee Journal was the only 

 weekly devoted to bee-culture in the United 

 States. This article was in the hands of the 

 publishers of the Science Monthly -" several 

 months." When it was "put in [type " a 

 proof was sent to Mr. Pringle, and he added 

 the sentence about the Canadianjbee-paper 

 then about to be published. He knew nothing 

 about the Kansas weekly and said nothing 

 about it, for it did not exist when the^article 

 was written ! Had the matter stopped there, 

 no trouble would have occurred, in all 

 probability. But the Canadian bee-paper in 

 May re-published the article, and failed to 

 give credit to the Popular Science; Monthly, 

 as it should have done, leaving its readers 

 (and particularly its Kansas cotemporary) to 

 think that the article was just then written 

 for the Canadian bee-paper. Thereupon the 

 Kansas weekly administered a rebuke to Mr. 

 Pringle, for presuming to write about Jthe 

 apicultural literature of the United States 

 without knowing that the Kansas paper was 

 being published weekly. 



Mr. Allen Pringle rfeplied in our Canadian 

 cotemporary that as the American Bee 

 .Journal has for years claimed to be "the 

 only Weekly bee-paper in the World," it 

 also must have been ignorant of the existence 

 of one in Kansas! We did riylitfully claim 

 until last December, that it was "theZonly 

 Weekly bee-paper in the World ;" but we 

 promptly noted the birth of the Kansas 

 weekly, in an editoi-ial on Dec. 24, 1884, and 

 of the Canadian weekly on April 13, 1885. 

 Could more be reasonably required ? 



The cause of the whole " muddle " was the 

 re-publication of that article without credit 

 by our Canadian cotemporary. 



We have none but the kindest feelings 

 toward all other bee-papers (both monthly 

 and weekly), and desire, above all things, 

 that "without strife or vain-glory," all will 

 devote their whole energies to the advance- 

 ment of the pursuit of apiculture, and work 

 together harmoniously for that end. 



Tlie Preniiiiin List of the Nebraska 

 State Fair, at Lincoln, Sept. 11-18, 1885, is 

 received. The premiums in the Apiarian 

 Department amount to $120— $25 each being 

 offered for the best crate of comb honey and 

 the best colony of bees. M. L. Trester, of 

 Lincoln, is the Superintendent of this Dept. 



