THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



435 



WEEKLY EDITION 



OF THE 



^^^M^^iGAn..^ 





TC~~- 



BiEjimN'^ 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Vol. XXI. July 15, 1885. No. 28. 



APICULTURAL NEWS ITEMS. 



EDITORIAL AND SELECTED. 



lille is a burden— bear it ; 



Life is a duty— dare it ; 

 Life is a thorn-crown — wear it ; 

 Tlioug-h it brcali youi' lieart in twain, 



Thoug-h tlie burden crush you down, 

 Close your lips and hide the pain. 

 First the cross, and then— the crown. 



A Good Honey Crop is generally re- 

 ported, so far. We have received a few 

 corapliunts, but the preponderance is in 

 favor of a large yield. 



Do not forget the National Bee-Keepers' 



TJuion. Send the tees ($1 .2r>), and a printed 

 blank will be sent to you by return mail, to 

 fill up with your vote for permanent officers. 



Xlie Calll'ornla Bee-Keepers are again 

 attacked. An exchange states the case in 

 this manner : 



"The Fresno fruit-growers are going 

 directly to work to crush bee-culture. A 

 complaint has been filed in the Superior 

 Court of San Diego County, charging a per- 

 son living :!0 miles distant, with keeping 

 hundreds of colonies of bees, willfully and 

 maliciously to eat up and destroy the fruits 

 of the labor of citizens living in that vicinity. 

 The prayer of the iilaintiff is that he may 

 have judgment and decree of the Court 

 that the keeping of said bees is a nuisance 

 and that it be abated, and that he -nay recover 

 from defendant, as damages for injury done, 

 the sum of Jl.OOO," 



ft seems as if the bee-interests are being 

 attacked from all quiifters. Where is the 

 sane man who says we have no need of an 

 organization to protect our rights '/ 



We shall publish the names of members 

 of the National Bee-Keepers' Association 

 ue.xt week. Let every one who has the 

 interest of the pursuit at heart, become a 

 member at (mce. Before laying this paper 

 away, let us hear from you. The only way 

 to meet ignorant and selfish attacks is by 

 facing the enemy— meeting force by superior 

 /iircc- trusting in the right, but " keeping our 

 powder dry." We want no half-hearted lag- 

 gards in the army, but the vigorous, stouts 

 hearted, patriotic, undaunted and daring 

 are welcome '. If we can raise a column of 

 patriots sufficiently strong to present a good 

 front, we shall dare the envious ones to 

 " bring on their law-suits," and by " an im- 

 posing array" and " unbroken front," gain 

 a lasting and permanent victory ! 



Rendering Beesivax. — In answer to 

 many inquiries for the best method of 

 rendering beeswax, we give the following 

 from a correspondent. He uses a wax extrac- 

 tor, and the wax coming from it is allowed 

 to drip into a large pan, and is again warmed 

 over and then set aside to cool. Just as soon 

 as it has cooled sufficiently to form a crust 

 over the top, break a hole in this crust and 

 pour out the warm wax into dishes or pans, 

 greased a little with lard to keep from stick- 

 ing. Pour gently, and if any pollen or 

 colored matter makes its appearance, it is 

 not sufficiently cool. All sediment or foreign 

 substance will rise to the top or settle to the 

 bottom of the wax. In cooling, this is held 

 in the crust, and the clear, pure wax is 

 poured off. A good wax-extractor is indis- 

 pensable, and pays for itself very soon, by 

 the additional quantity of wax secured. 



FIgbt betiveen Bees and Hornets.- 



A correspondent in the Baltimore Herald 

 gives the following particulars of such a 

 fight, which he says be witnessed ; 



"The most remarkable and e.xciting scene 

 I ever witnessed, was a fight between a 

 swarm of bees and a colony of hornets. Hor- 

 nets build their nests out of a material not 

 unlike paper, which is molded into concentric 

 layers. 'The nests often attain the size of a 

 man's head, and are occupied by about 200 

 hornets. One day a swarm of bees took 

 flia-ht from a bee-hive of my father's, and 

 made its way through a peach orchard, for a 

 piece of underbrush about 200 yards from 

 the hive. They alighted on an apparently 

 deserted nest of hornets. It took about two 

 seconds for the 200 hornets to come out of 

 their den and attack the invaders. The bat- 

 tle was hot and furious. The air was filled 

 with a prolonged buzz as the combatants 

 Hew at each other and tried to use their 

 stings. A great many on each side were 

 killed, but the hornets carried the day." 



More Ijying about Bee-Keepers.— The 



Chicago Daily News of last Thursday repeats 

 another of those bare - faced lies about a 

 Michigan bee-keeper, who, it says, feeds 

 glucose to his bees in order to have them fill 

 the combs with it, and sell it for honey. The 

 falsity of the article is at once shown by the 

 fact that honey can now be bought as cheaply 

 as glucose, and people are not liable to 

 adulterate unless they can malse something 

 by such dishonest practices. The daily press 

 of the Country are now, more than ever 

 before, cravingfor sensational matter. They 

 pay largely for such, no matter whether 

 there is a grain of truth to build on or not ! 

 Anything tor a sensation .' 



The Neu's is clever at arguing and chuckles 

 over the following : 



"The Michigan apiarist has opened a field 

 so broad that it seems almost boundless. 

 The possibilities suggested by his successful 

 experiment are bewildering. If by straining 

 glucose through bees a man can get honey, 

 why may he not strain chalk and water 

 through them and get choice milk or cream, 

 or banquet them on soap-grease and get 

 prime Orange count.\- butter '/ Why may he 

 not feed them on logwood and cheap alcohol 

 and obtain a first-class brand of port wine ? 

 or, by substituting some other ingredient for 

 the logwood, get a ' superior article' of any 

 other convirial beverage '^" 



The National Bee-Keepers' Union 



has been formed, for the purpose of defend- 

 ing the rights and protecting the interests of 

 the bee-keepers of America. Every person 

 interested in the pursuit should at onee 

 send for a copy of the Constitution, voting 

 blank, etc., and become a member. Address 

 "National Bee-Keepers' Union," 93,'j West 

 Madison street, Chicago, 111. 



Organize for DcfenMe.- Mr. A. G. Hill, 

 editor of the Bee-Keepers' Guide, remarks as 

 follows about the necessity of bee-keepers 

 organizing in defense of their rights : 



" ' Necessity is the Mother of Invention.' 

 Whether our liees have a right to free pas- 

 turage, or whether from a different stand- 

 point bee-keepers ought to be compelled to 

 keep their bees entirely on their own premi- 

 ses, and should they not do so, be liable to 

 damages, real or imagiiuiry, for trespass, is 

 a matter which sooner or later will require 

 settlement by law. ' A stitch in time saves 

 nine,' is a very plain adage and will apply, 

 perhaps, in a way, to this matter. We cannot 

 afford to have a decision in court brought 

 against us— that is positive. When it comes 

 to legal proceedings, bee-keepers will all be 

 on one side— the side of right and truth as 

 demonstrated by the very nature of bees to 

 go and come whithersoever they will. Con- 

 siderable money is being used up by bee- 

 keepers to carry on petty suits against 

 them, whereas even a decision in our favor 

 in a common court amounts to no decisive 

 victory to us as a body, for a verdict rendered 

 here in favor of bees might elsewhere be 

 given against them. If bee-keepers would 

 unite on some plan of action in this matter, 

 and carry it out, much Individual expense 

 wotild be saved, and good to all would be 

 achieved. It has been suggested that a good 

 plan would be for each bee-keeper in the 

 United States to put in one dollar toward 

 making a defense, which would require the 

 value of .jO farms like the one in question, 

 to oppose. The importance of the decision 

 would justify a very extensive defense or 

 investigation. This method would make 

 necessary an organization made up by a 

 prompt enlistment of members." 



Relative to the Article on page 387, 

 concerning the correspondence by Mr. Allen 

 Pringle in our Canadian cotemporary, we 

 notice in the last issue of that paper the 

 following from Mr. Pringle : 



"After reading Mr. Newman's explanation, 

 I feel that I ought in justice to him, as well 

 as myself, to add a few more words on the 

 subject. The editorial note in the American 

 Bek Journal of Dec. '24, 1884, to which Mr. 

 Newman refers, and in which he says he 

 noted the birth of the Kansas weekly, must 

 have escaped my attention, as I had no 

 knowledge of the Kansas weekly when I 

 corrected the pi-ocif of my article in February 

 or March ; and it had no existence at all when 

 the aiticle was uritttn." 



Immediately following this the editor 

 remarks "that the article on 'Apiculture' 

 was duly ci-edited to the Popular Science 

 Montlily on page m," and then adds: "We 

 were not at fault as the American Bee 

 JouBNAi, has, through error, we believe, 

 decided." 



To this we will briefly say that the article 

 was published in the Canadian paper in two 

 numbers, neither one of which was credited 

 either at the beginning or end, as is usual in 

 suili cases: The item on page 9:i, being en- 

 tirely disconnected from the article in ques- 

 tion.does not really givi' credit forit, because 

 it may so easily be overlooked by any one 

 seeing the article itself, and hence wrong 

 conclusions be arri%'ed at, as was the case by 

 the Ka}isas Bee-Kecper, the editor of which 

 remarks in substance as follows, last week : 



" Taking it for granted that the article in 

 question was oriuinal with the Canadian 

 paper, we saw no reason why Mr. P. should 

 omit to mention the Kansas Bee-Keeper in 

 connection with the American weeklies, fin- 

 its advertisement as a weekly was then in the 

 very paper in which the article appeared as 

 original." 



With these explanations the subject is 

 dismissed from our columns. The Canadian 

 paper is young and inexperienced, and evi- 

 dently intended to credit the article. All 

 should be magnanimous, and " take the will 

 for the deed. " Now, " let us have peace !" 



