856 



THE SMERicaif mmm j©^rksiu. 



Court of Arkansas. These not only 

 save trouble and annoyance to bee- 

 keepers, but also expense to the Union 

 —by the prevention of petty lawsuits. 



Now, if City Councils or Town 

 Boards are anywhere troubled by a 

 complainant, and asked to pass an 

 Ordinance ■declaring bee-keeping a 

 nuisance, and to prohibit it within the 

 corporate limits," etc, every member, 

 together with the Mayor, the City 

 Attornej-, and the one making the 

 complaint, are all dosed with copies of 

 the Supreme Court decision, that • 'Bee- 

 Keeping is not a nuisance " per se, and 

 the matter is at once dropped — killed 

 by the • ■ Decision of the Supreme 

 Court of Arkansas ! " 



That Decision is our •• Corner-stone 

 of Defense ! " It calls a halt in all 

 such "careers of madness." and de- 

 mands justice for the 300,000 Americans 

 who are now engaged in the keeping 

 of bees ! 



This good work should go on until 

 we have such decisions in every State 

 in the Union. 



BEE-KEEPING NOT A NUISANCE. 



The cry has been set up, that -'Bee- 

 Keeping is a nuisance " — that bees are 

 trespassers, — and have no rights out- 

 side the apiarj- which ought to be 

 respected ; and that feeling was grow- 

 ing 5 years ago, and even threatened 

 the veiy life of the pursuit. 



Contemplating such a state of things, 

 of robbing a person of his reputation, 

 well did Shakespeare say : 



" Who steals my purse, steals trash; 

 But he that filches from me my ^ood uume 

 Kobs me of that which enriches him not 

 And makes me poor indeed." 



If the pursuit was to be robbed of its 

 reputation and good name, it would 

 soon cease to exist. To set up a 

 Defense, was, therefore, a necessit}'. 



BEES NOT TKESPASSERS. 



Instead of bees being trespassers, 

 while gathering a few drops of honey 

 from the tiowers. they are positively 

 required by the plants to fertilize them, 

 and all Nature invites them to come to 

 the feast, simply to carry the pollen- 

 masses from flower to flower, and thus, 

 as marriage-priests, to cause them to 

 become prolific, and bear fruit in 

 great abundance. In ignorance of 

 this, many imagine that bees are tres- 

 passers, and destroyers of the fruit ! 

 Such nonsense vanishes before the 

 revelation of scientific facts ! 



"If bees can trespass there is an end 

 to bee-keeping (writes one of our 

 members) for every bee-man will be at 

 tlie mercy of a surly neighljor. Apart 

 from their merits as honey-gatherers, 

 bees are of incalculable benefit to mar- 

 ket gardeners, florists, etc., in fertiliz- 

 ing flowers. If we had bees that could 



reach down to the honey-cells of red 

 clover, they would be of inestimable 

 value to the farmer, as red clover 

 depends for fertilization on insects, 

 mostly bumble-bees. We are satisfied 

 that the reason why the first crop of 

 clover has so little seed, is because 

 there are not enough of the bumble- 

 bees to fertilize it, so early in the 

 season. We noticed in our meadows 

 some Iieads were full of seed and 

 others apparently equally as ripe with- 

 out a grain. The bumble-bee had 

 evidently been on the one and not on 

 the rest. Some wise men maj' laugh 

 at this, but it has been carefully 

 devionstrated bj' Darwin, years ago, 

 that when the bees are excluded, the 

 clover seed does not form." 



PROOF OF IDENTITY. 



Then again, if anyone should claim, 

 in a lawsuit, that bees trespass, it is 

 the duty of such an individual to prove 

 the." identity " of the bees — that such 

 bees belonged to the defendant. Can 

 the plaintiff produce an)' one of the 

 bees charged with trespassing ? Sup- 

 pose he can ! Can he swear to identitj- ? 

 Perhaps he will be advised to say that 

 he cannot. The moment he does that, 

 the attorney for tlie defendant should 

 demand a non-suit, saying that he can 

 produce cases decided in favor of the 

 bee-men on that very point. Custom 

 makes law, and law is based upon 

 equity in all constitutional countries. 

 Such cases on " identity " have been 

 decided in different countries — but 

 always in the same way, where abso- 

 lute proof of identity is lacking — bj' a 

 dismissal of the case. 



Under the actual administration of 

 the law. the bee-keeper almost always 

 escapes, for no one can recognize his 

 bees; and alone, out of the hive, a bee 

 has no owner, etc. 



KILLING BEES MALICIOUSLY. 



Take the question of killing bees by 

 j'east or other poison, — because igno- 

 rant persons think tliey spoil fruit, etc. 

 — should we stand this ? I say. no. 

 most emphatically. The owner of 

 bees thus annoyed, should quietly 

 proceed to get absolute proof that cer- 

 tain parties did on certain days 

 set a poison to kill certain animals or 

 insects, and when the proofs are all 

 ready, then the National Bee-Keepers' 

 Union would " go for " those parties, 

 and force the case into court. 



This brings to mind an amusing 

 case decided some years ago in France. 

 Mr. H. had an apiary within one-half 

 of a mile of the largest sugar refineries 

 in Paris, The sugar refineries brought 

 suit against him for interrupting them 

 in their business, stealing their sugar, 

 etc, and the refineries lost tlie day, 

 not once, but twice, and I think a third 

 time. 



Upon asking upon what point they 

 were beaten, Mr. H. stooped to the 

 ground, and, picking up a dead bee, 

 said : "I filed a demand that they pro- 

 duce in court the bees that did the 

 robbing, etc., and they brought a 

 bushel of dead bees. Picking out one 

 verj- carefully, I demanded of the 

 plaintifi", will jou swear that that bee 

 is one of my bees ? But there was no 

 answer. I won the case each time, 

 and moreover the Judge admonished 

 the refineries to cover eveiy door and 

 window with wire gauze, and use 

 every reasonable precaution to keep 

 the bees out, or I might have just 

 cause to go against them for killing 

 my bees without necessity." 



Suppose now that in America it wei'e 

 once established by law that to wan- 

 tonlj- kill bees was a punishable crime ! 

 How quickly- the owners of the deadly 

 cider press and sugar refineries would 

 have to screen out the bees — or the 

 Union would be after them ! 



MAKING HISTORY. 



Now, for half-a-dozen years we have 

 been "making history," and getting 

 ■decisions of law," for the future 

 guidance of judges, and for the instruc- 

 tion of attorne3\s who may be called 

 upon to defend lawsuits against those 

 who are keeping bees, and who may 

 incur the displeasure of their neigh- 

 bors, either through ignorance or 

 malice. When such persons under- 

 stand that bee-keepers stand by one 

 another, and have a Union for Defense, 

 they will respect us, and freely accord 

 to us our rights. 



THE WORK BEFORE US. 



At Piano, 111., vve have a lawsuit 

 begun which may yet reach the Su- 

 preme Court of Illinois. In Iowa. 

 Wisconsin and Indiana there arc also 

 several suits begun — and if the plaint- 

 iffs develop sufticient stubbornness and 

 wealth, any of them raaj' land us in 

 the Supreme Courts of these States — 

 just where we want to try them ! ! 



It will take money to do it, but it is 

 the Supreme Court decisions that we 

 need, for they will do more to guar- 

 antee to bee-keepers their rights ^nd 

 privileges, than anything else ! 



We have some hundreds of dollars 

 in the Treasury for instant use when 

 needed, and when we get some thous- 

 ands (instead of hundreds) of dollars 

 there, we can lead our opponents on 

 to the Supreme Courts, and there gain 

 decisions which will be of more value 

 to us than any amount of monej-. 



now TO BECOME MEMBERS. 



As this Report will be sent to many 

 not members, but who should become 

 such, it may be well to say that the 

 entrance fee is 11.00, and that pays 

 for the Dues of any portion of the un- 



