1900 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



135 



piade from this couiitry for service 

 as a pollenating agent in agricult- 

 ural and fruit-growing districts, as 

 none were originally found there. 



Now that the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association is actively en- 

 gaged in the work of suppressing 

 adulteration of honey, let every 

 producer contribute his dollar, and 

 thereby make it easy to wipe the 

 adulteration business from the 

 Mississippi River otf into the seas 

 east and west, from coast to coast. 

 When this is done the development 

 of our markets for pure hooey will 

 be undertaken. Let's be done with 

 it. 



The American Apicultiirist once 

 reported Captain Hetherington as 

 saying, -'Usually the man with the 

 least experience is the most posi- 

 tive." There is a world of truth in 

 it. Young experimenters who have 

 met with success in a single trial of 

 some idea new to themselves, should 

 not hastily accept such success as 

 evidence that they were born to 

 enlighten a world of ignorant bee- 

 keepers and • revolutionize their 

 crude methods. A few years of 

 practice may disclose the fact that 

 the ground has been gone over 

 quite thoroughly by others, years 

 before; and perchance, that some 

 equally brilliant mind has well ex- 

 plored the same field. 



Mr. Doolittle, in American Bee 

 Journal, gives queen shippers a 

 valuable pointer on the selection of 

 attendant bees of the right age. 

 His experience and study of the 

 matter has proven that, in opening 

 a hive, the bees which immediately 

 thrust their heads into the cells of 

 unsealed honey and forthwith begin 

 to fill themselves are of the right 

 age to accompany the queen in the 

 mails. These, he says, are neither 



too old nor too young. Concluding 

 an editorial comment on the subject 

 the Bee-keepers' Revitto well says: 

 " Fortunately this is an easy way 

 to determine which are the bees of 

 the best age; and, fortunately too, 

 such bees are in the correct position 

 to be picked up very easily." 



Some correspondence with East- 

 ern honey dealers and commission 

 men elicits the information that 

 there is almost no demand for ex- 

 tracted honey at this time. Buyers, 

 it appears, are inclined to hold ofT, 

 in anticipation of lower prices later 

 on. The present prices are less 

 discouraging to the producer than 

 quotations have been for several 

 years previous to 1899. It will not 

 be difficult to maintain living prices 

 for this season's crop if bee-keeper's 

 will not rush into the cities too 

 early with their product. It is not 

 good business policy to ship when 

 the demand is so inactive. The 

 supply is limited and the market is 

 not stocked; neither does it appear 

 that the buyers are heavily loaded. 

 The best houses in New York City 

 are now advising shippers to with- 

 hold consignments for a while, in 

 their efi'orts to strengthen the mar- 

 ket. Producers should heed the 

 suggestion. This is as it appears 

 to us at this time 



Speaking of the Ferris wax ex- 

 tractor and its inventor the Bee- 

 heeijers Review says : ' ' Whether 

 the discussion of a year ago in re- 

 gard to the need of pressure in get- 

 ting all the wax out of 'slum-gum' 

 stirred up Mr. Ferris to further 

 invention in that direction, I do. 

 not know. Be that as it may, he 

 has added a screw and follower that 

 can be applied while the ' slum- 

 gum' is still under steam heat. It 

 would seem as though this left 



