310 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



a consignment goes into Chicago, only 

 to be shipped out again into the 

 country. Every crop of honey sold in 

 a local market keeps just that much 

 out of the great trade-centers. Of 

 course, every crop of honey can't be 

 sold in the home-market. Mr. Gill, 

 with his two car loads, must seek dis- 

 tant markets; but even when the home- 

 markets will not take all of the honey, 

 there is often no necessity for shipping 

 honey to commission men and jobbers. 

 Mr. E. D. Tovvnsend told me, at the 

 Grand Rapids fair, that he had sold 

 nearly all of his crop of extracted honey 

 (over 20,000 pounds) at an average of 

 7>^ cts a pound, while producers that 

 sent their honey to jobbers got very 

 little over six cents a pound, and had 

 to pay freight. Nearly all of his honey 

 goes to actual consumers, or else to re- 

 tailers. He has been several years 

 building up this trade, and now he is 

 reaping the harvest. 



The men who are members of the 

 Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion will certainly have no trouble this 

 year in disposing of their crops of 

 honey. This Assoctation has printed 

 5,000 copies of a little pamphlet which 

 gives, among other things, the names 

 and addresses of its members, together 

 with the amounts and kinds of honej' 

 that they have for sale. Each member 

 is furnished as many copies as he can 

 use to advantage, and leading grocers 

 of the State are furnished with copies. 

 I have received several inquiries lately 

 as to where honey can be purchased, 

 and my reply is simply to mail the in- 

 quirer a copy of this pamphlet. Any 

 one reading this who wishes to buy 

 honey should write E. M. Hunt, Bell 

 Branch, Michigan, and ask him for a 

 cop3' of this pamphlet. 



The Central Lake, Michigan-Doty-Case. 

 This is a suit that, from first to last, 

 has cost the National quite a lot of 

 money, yet there has been no attempt 

 on the part of the plaintiff to prove that 



the bees were a nuisance. The prin- 

 cipal objection was that the defendent 

 built a high board fence along the side 

 of his apiary that was next to the 

 street, and this fence obstructed the 

 view of the plaintiff. Instead of at- 

 tempting to prove that the bees were a 

 nuisance, and thus secure their re- 

 moval, the common council was induced 

 to pass an ordinance prohibiting the 

 keeping of bees inside the corporation. 

 Mr. Doty was arrested on the charge 

 of violating this ordinance, but the 

 justice decided that the ordinance was 

 unconstitutional, and discharged the 

 prisoner. Laterhe was arrested again, 

 and taken before another justice, who 

 upheld the ordinance and fined Mr. 

 Doty. The case was then appealed to 

 the circuit court, and the judge has de- 

 cided that the village has no authority 

 to prohibit the keeping of bees. Of 

 course, the village may yet carry it to 

 the supreme court, but this is doubtful. 

 It would seem that common councils 

 would have learned by this time that 

 any legitimate business can not be suc- 

 cessfully prohibited. There is no 

 question that some kinds of business 

 (and bee-keeping is one of them) may 

 be so conducted as to be a nuisance in 

 a village, and there is a remedy in 

 proving that the business is a nuisance, 

 and securing an order for its abate- 

 ment, but, for some reason, probably 

 ignorance, this course is seldom fol- 

 lowed; instead there is an ordinance 

 passed prohibiting, in a wholesale way, 

 the keeping of bees inside the corpora- 

 tion. This is, in many cases, a rank 

 injustice. I have 104 colonies of bees 

 inside the corporate limits of Flint. 

 They are in the outskirts of the city, 

 back away from the street. They are 

 peaceable Italians and molest no one. 

 Suppose a man should set an apiary of 

 hybrids down right close to the main 

 street, in the heart of the city, and stir 

 them up at all hours of the day, in 

 season and out of season. Hundreds 

 of people would be stung. The apiary 



