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Entered at the Post-Offlce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 

 Published Weekly at 9I.OO a. Year by Oeorge W. York Jk. Co., 33<t Uearbom St. 



aBORQB W. YORK, Editor. 



CHICAGO, ILL, JAN, 19, 1905. 



Vol, XLV.— No. 3. 



^ 



€bitortaI Hotes 

 anb (Eomments 



J 



Popularizing the Value of Bees and Money. 



Last week we mentioned having received a beautiful 

 bee and red clover calendar from Mr. W. F. Marks, of New 

 York. Since then we got the following letter from him 

 concerning it, and offering a further suggestion : 



Dear Mr. York ; — Yours of the Sth inst. received. I 

 hasten to say that I am not entitled to any credit for the 

 design on the calendar in question. The design is used as 

 a cover for the Red Clover Writing Pad, sold at many sta- 

 tionery and book stores. I only took this means of calling 

 your attention to thedesign, which I considered very unique 

 and appropriate for bee-culture, and it seems to me it em- 

 bodies a suggestion that we, as honey-producers and bee- 

 lovers, should be prompt to grasp. 



For instance, how can we reach the great mass of the 

 people any quicker and easier than by placing a school 

 writing pad upon the market with an appropriate and at- 

 tractive cover design, one page devoted to the natural his- 

 tory and importance of the honey-bee, a denial of the comb- 

 honey canard, and the importance of honey as food, etc.? 



It seems to me that such a pad placed upon the market 

 would naturally go into thousands of schools, and tens of 

 thousands of homes, and having an intrinsic value, it would 

 be preserved, read, re-read, and remembered by the class 

 we want to reach. We could have such a pad manufactured 

 for us in large quantities, and could dispose of them at 

 wholesale at a price sufBcient say to cover expense ; in fact, 

 we could, under the circumstances, sell them at less than 

 cost, but that would not be necessary, and certainly not a 

 good business proposition. 



Perhaps this suggestion is visionary, but I trust you 

 will not put it aside without giving it careful consideration. 



W. F. Marks. 



We believe the suggestion Mr. Marks makes is a good 

 one, and ought to be followed up by the National Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association. No doubt there are many other things 

 used by school children that might have printed on them 

 something about bees and honey. We really think that if 

 the Board of Directors, of which Mr. Marks is chairman, 

 would take hold of this matter some of the funds of the 

 National could be better invested than in some other ways 

 that might be recalled. Such expenditure would be aloug 

 the line of advertising a wider use of honey, and thus would 

 help increase its demand. Whatever increases its demand, 

 if persisted in, will surely help the price of honey, and thus 

 be a benefit to every honey-producer. 



Why not put a little thought along the line suggested 

 by Mr. Marks and others, and see if a more extended use of 

 honey can not be secured ? There seems to be little trouble 



now about producing honey. What is needed is a larger 

 demand or outlet for it. The National Association can do 

 no better, we believe, than to put some of its effort and 

 money in the direction indicated. 



Doolittle's Queen-Rearing Methods. 



The following item appears in Praktischer Wegweiser : 



"TheDoolittle American method of bee-culture — also 

 much extolled by many German theorists — appears, accord- 

 ing to the Imkerschule, not to fulfill expectations ; indeed, 

 even Americans themselves are allowing it gradually to 

 sink into oblivion ; for them, also, nothing excels after- 

 swarms for queens, quality considered." 



Our worthy contemporary, the Wegweiser, may say to 

 Imkerschule that some one has been fooling it ; the Doolit- 

 tle plan, under different names, and with more or less varia- 

 tion, is more firmly established in this country than ever 

 before. The probability is that if all queen-breeders had 

 to depend upon af terswarms to the exclusion of Doolittle 

 cells, many of them would go out of the business. Indeed, 

 it is getting to be considered more or less of a reproach to 

 have af terwarms at all. 



Illinois Leads in the National Association. 



We learn from General Manager France that there are 

 now more members of the National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion in Illinois than in any other State. The others in order 

 follow thus : California, Wisconsin, New York, and Texas. 

 All other States have less than 100 members each. lUinqis 

 has over 300. New York State, at one time, claimed to lead 

 in membership, and, if we remember, some one from there 

 thought on that account New York was justified in having 

 three of the twelve- members of the Board of Directors. 

 Illinois has only one member on that Board, and we don't 

 know any one in this State that thinks we should now have 

 one-fourth of the Board. Of course, New York is not to 

 blame for having a majority of the Board. They were all 

 duly elected by ballot by the membership. It is simply 

 New York's good luck, or because she has so many able 

 bee-keepers. 



What Is Honey ?— Definitions and Standard. 



This question has often been asked, and has recently 

 come up again. Prof. A. J. Cook, of California, answers it 

 in this way : 



I have been amused at the way this question has been 

 answered by several of our bee-keepers. 1 feel certain that 

 there is but one legitimate logical answer. Honey is the 

 sweet that bees store in the hives. It is impossible to give 

 any other answer. It usually is digested nectar, for its 

 source, for the most part, is from flowers. But no one can 

 know at any time that there may not be an admixture of 

 honey-dew, cane-sngar, possibly filched from some store, or, 



