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THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



153 



highest possible figure. They can- 

 not see it aiyce, of course; but good 

 barrels are in use, as a shipping- 

 package for honey, to stay, and the 

 middleman must adjust his business 

 accordingly if he will continue to 

 speculate in honey. 



OUR FRIENDS AGAINST US. 



A .New York Mall and Express 

 reporter some time since, it is said, 

 met "a man from the country." 

 This man, it is stated, knew another 

 man who lived in the country, and 

 the "other man" was known to 

 produce comb honey extensively by 

 supplying his bees with glucose 

 from an open barrel. A city ac- 

 quaintance of ' ' the man from the 

 country" had an apiary also, and 

 so entirely unaccustomed were the 

 bees to natural flowers that they 

 would shy at a honeysuckle; yet he 

 did a wholesale business in honey. 

 Free access to a supply of liquid 

 glucose was the secret of his suc- 

 cess, which enabled him to do a 

 "wholesale business in honey" with 

 but fifty colonies of bees. 



City newspapers of the present 

 day are keenly alert for anything 

 and everything that savors of the 

 mysterious or wonderful. The cel- 

 lars and garrets of Christian and 

 heathen lands are ransacked for 

 something to surprise the readei"s 

 of their mammoth Sunday editions. 

 "Interviewing" is the reporter's 

 great hold. The personal responsi- 

 bility for his ideas of the ocean's 

 depths is shifted to the shoulders of 

 the noted diver " interviewed." 

 Some eminent mineralogist or min- 

 ing expert is made to stand between 

 him and personal responsibility 

 while he relates a hair-raising story 

 of the recent discovery of some de- 

 fective flue in the bowels of the 

 earth. He never — hardly ever — 

 fails to quote good authority in 

 laying before his readers the recent 



very startling revelations through 

 exploits around the celestial bodies 

 while taking temperatures of inter- 

 planetary space for scientific pur- 

 poses, or draws a map of this mun- 

 dane sphere as it will appear a few 

 thousand years hence. He must 

 have what is called in the profession 

 " a nose for news," and be able to 

 round out and convert into a read- 

 able story any traces of something 

 new. He is often required to draw 

 entirely upon his own imagination 

 for readable matter with which to 

 please the managing editor and feed 

 the hungry linotype; that is, if he 

 would hold his job. 



Is it then any wonder that he 

 should "interview" a man from the 

 country, and learn something start- 

 ling in regard to the mysteries of 

 the little boxes of comb honey of 

 commerce? We think not; and so 

 long as such trashy reading is con- 

 fined to the columns of the news- 

 papers we can probably do no better 

 than to work on, trusting to the 

 developments of our industry to 

 dispel the ignorance which now 

 prevails in regard to bees, honey 

 and bee-keepers' methods. When, 

 however, the agricultural press 

 lends its influence to the propaga- 

 tion of such damaging and exceed- 

 ingly unjust yarns, we draw the 

 line, and in defense of the industry 

 whose interests we cherish as the 

 source of our livelihood, we cannot 

 afford to be unduly modest in ex- 

 posing the actuating cause of such 

 publications. Since they rely for 

 support wholly upon the agricul- 

 tural industry, of which bee- keeping- 

 is but a branch, it appears quite 

 improbable that the motives are 

 malicious. We are then forced to 

 the conclusion that ignorance is 

 responsible for the injustice which 

 they persistently continue to inflict 

 upon the industi'y whose interests 

 they are pledged to guard and 



