XH© JIMERICSIIH BEE JQURNJtt. 



435 



EDITOR. 



VoinV. July 13, 1889. No. 28, 



The ITational Flower, what shiUI it bo '! 

 (5t all tbo llowci-s where men have trod 



lu mountain home, or near the sea- 

 Give me the stately g-olden-rod. 



—Justus Chapman. 



Woodville, Mich., June 30, 1889. 



Fatlier Liane^troth is still iu poor 

 health, and is yet this side of the border- 

 land. Those who subscribed to his annuity 

 last year, will please not forget to send him 

 the amount for this year. He is needy, we 

 know, and will appreciate it to its full 

 extent. 



Xlie I>'atioiiaI FIo-\ver.— Since our 

 article on this subject appeared, several 

 papers have noticed our advocacy of the 

 claims of the " Golden-rod " for the Na- 

 tional flower. The New Yorli Tribune for 

 June 2G, notices it thus : 



Mr. Thomas G. Newman thinks that bee- 

 keepers should vote for golden-rod as " the 

 National tlower." 



We expected that the Tribune would 

 either approve of the golden-rod or advocate 

 some other flower— but it leaves that for 

 others. 



The Tribune sums up an interesting 

 article from the Amekican Bee JotrBKAL 

 into a paragraph, and adds : 



Marvellous, indeed, from every point of 

 view, are these useful little insects, and if 

 the foregoing data— condensed from a cur- 

 rent column article — incite any young reader 

 of the Tribune to desire further knowledge 

 of their wonderful ways and mechanism, 

 we commend to him or her the reading of 

 Prof. Cook's admirable book ; and in the 

 way of periodical publications, Mr. Root's 

 standard fortiiiiihtly Gtomi?!gs,and Thomas 

 G. Newman & Son's old and always peren- 

 nially-inviting weekly, the Amekican Bee 

 Jouii.v.vi,. 



A <iira»<1 Pivct'tlent is established 

 by the decision of the Supreme Court of 

 Arkansas, that " bee keeping is not per se a 

 nuisance!" Bro. A. 1. Root* in Gleanings 

 for July, makes these comments on it, and 

 the defense carried on by the Union : 



The aid of the Bee-Keepers' Union was 

 at once solicited, and the case was tried in 

 Circuit Court, wliere it was decided that 

 "the city ordinance was illegal and void;" 

 that " keeping bees is not a nuisance." The 

 ctse was carried to the Supreme Court, and 

 Brother Newman just announces that the 

 Union has, after an immense amount of 

 worry and expense, aaaiu won the suit, and 

 that a gnmdj3)rccd(//ithasbeen established. 



In no single instance has the Union been 

 defeated; and it begins to seem now that, 

 in view of its past victories, to enlist its aid 

 means success every time. 



It would be a terribly bad thing to have 

 bees declared a nuisance by a Supreme 

 Court, and perhaps there are but few bee- 

 keepers who realize what the decision in 

 the case of Mr. Z. A. Clark means. 



Mr. Newman, the Manager of the Bee- 

 Keepers" Union, informs us that $1,000 will 

 be needed to prosecute the ca-ies now on 

 hand. Remember, you cannot expect as- 

 sistance from the Union unless you are a 

 member. The fees are $I.00per annum. 



Perhaps we should say here, that we are 

 not in favor of trades-unions in general ; 

 but the Bee-Keepers' Union, under its pres- 

 ent able management, we are sure has been 

 productive of good. After we have a few 

 more precedents established like the Arka- 

 delphia case, outside parties will be slow to 

 declare bees a nuisance. 



We are just as much opposed to "trades- 

 unions in general," as Bro. Root— the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Union is quite another 

 thing, however ! It simply sets up a de- 

 fense when iti members are unjustly at- 

 tacked ! It will not defend even a member, 

 unless his cause is just ; and attacks grow- 

 ing out of ignorance, jealousy, prejudice, 

 and the like, which threaten the pursuit in 

 general, should of necessity be repulsed 

 vigorously ! 



The " Union " orders no strikes, and 

 makes no attacks— it simply defends the 

 pursuit of bee-keeping, and fights in a 

 moral and legal way, forrio?it, justice and 

 truth 1 



We publish a condensed history of the 

 case in this issue of the Bee Journai,, so 

 that all may get a proper understanding of 

 it, and the points ruled upon by the Supreme 

 Court. We shall also print it and the ar- 

 guments and decisions of the Courts in 

 pamphlet form, so as to be useful in all 

 cases of similar import. Anyone interested 

 can obtain copies free at this office, by send- 

 ing a stamp to pay the postage. 



Kncourajfiiisr Science.- The Ver- 

 mont Microscopical Association has just 

 announced that a prize of $2.50, given by the 

 Wells & Richardson Co., the well-known 

 chemists, will be paid to the first discoverer 

 of a new disease uer[ii. The wonderful dis- 

 covery by Prof. Kocli of the cholera germ, 

 as the cause of cholera, stimulated great re- 

 .search throughout the world, and it is 

 believed this liberal prize, offered by a 

 house of such standing, will greatly assist 

 iu the detection of mioro-organisras that are 

 the direct cause of disease and death. All 

 who are interested in the subject and the 

 conditions of this yirize, should write to C. 

 Smith Hoynton, M. !>., Secretary of the 

 Association, Burlington, Vt. 



Taxing: ll«>e» — Henry Stark, Plier, 

 Wis., on .Inly i, is^si*, asks this question : 



The assessor valued my bees last year at 

 54.00 per colony, and this year at .151.00. 

 1 here are others who have bees, which 

 were not taxed. The assessor did not tax 

 all the bees in the town or county. Must 1 

 pay a tax on my bees, or not ? 



It was the duty of the assessor to treat all 

 alike— either to assess all, or not to assess 

 any. It is very difficult to get justice done 

 in this matter, and place every locality on 

 the same basis. In some counties bees are 

 always taxed, and in others they are never 

 assessed. An assessment on the basis of 

 one dollar per colony is quite reasonable— 

 if all were treated alike. As you have this 

 rate, it will not pay to kick very much. It 

 may be increased, perhaps. 



Xiie Union.— Here is a letter just re- 

 ceived from Mr. J. E. Pond, of North Attle- 

 boro, Mass., and dated June 39, 1889, which 

 speaks for itself: "Bko. New.man :— I 

 have read the exhaustive argument of Judge 

 S. W. Williams with pleasure, and us a 

 lawyer, I wish to say that no Court can 

 honestly differ from it or decide against it. 

 When I say 'exhaustive,' I mean just what 

 I say. It covers the whole ground ; the de- 

 cision in the Clark case mu.st be for the 

 defendant on constitutional law, and local 

 law cannot avoid the Constitution. The 

 decision must be for the defence ; it cannot 

 be otherwise." 



Now what will our bee-keepers do ? Will 

 they say the Union is fighting for us, and 

 we need do nothing ; or will they do as they 

 ought in reason and honor to do ? viz : to 

 aid the Union by becoming members there- 

 of ? Common decency would imply that 

 they sh(mld. Now will they, or not ? 



On llif I*i-«-Tention ol S>varni- 

 insr. Dr. C. C. Miller writes for Gleani)igs 

 that he thinks he would give more to learn 

 the best possible way to prevent swarming 

 than to find out any other thing connected 

 with bee-keeping. To the objection that " it 

 is natural for bees to swarm," he replies : 

 "It is just as natural for the swarm to go 

 off." That is true ; but the aim of the bee- 

 keeper of to-day is to improve upon Nature's 

 ways, by judicious breeding. Whether the 

 propensity to swarm can be modified or 

 bred out, remains to be seen. 



Pransr's Kational Flower is the title of a 

 beautiful iiainphlet wbieh contains two colored 

 plates of the two most popular candidates for 

 selection as the .National Fbjwer of America. 

 It also lias two poems, and a postal card 

 addressed to Messrs. L. Pran« & Co., Boston, 

 Mass., with a vote to be tilled up for the 

 selection of a National flower. The pamphlet 

 costs 25 cents, and can be obtained at this 

 office. , 



lleeM settled in the top of a house near 

 Atlanta, Ga., eight years ago, and the other 

 day, when the gable end was removed, the 

 entire roof was found to be filled with 

 honey. So says an exchange. 



