1-6 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



Jdtiiuiry 



is melted, to allow the dirt to 

 separate from the body of wax ; then 

 it shovild be cooled slowly to pre- 

 vent cracks or checks in the cake, 

 and thereby render it more easily 

 removed from the mold. Keeping- 

 it in a thin liquid state by the con- 

 stant application of heat is essen- 

 tial to the purifying process, and 

 renders the product more free from 

 specks of dirt: but all this is foreign 

 to the absurd assertion that slow 

 cooling is the secret of obtaining 

 bright yellow wax. 



It may be that the editor of this 

 journal lacks experience, as in- 

 ferred by our worthy contemporary ; 

 but we are quite willing to risk our 

 reputation on the assertion that 

 "slow cooling is the secret of get- 

 ting bright yellow wax," as the 

 veriest nonsense, the American Bee 

 Journal to contrary notwith- 

 standing. 



We have asked the opinion of 

 several of our contributors in i-e- 

 gard to this, and their i-eplies 

 appear in this number. It will be 

 noted that, where the questions 

 were understood correctly, the ver- 

 dict coincides with our own ex- 

 pressed opinion. 



Editor York should know that 

 vexy many of the business "secrets" 

 of a qvuirter of a century ago are 

 now dead. 



IIUNDRED-nOLLAR QUEENS. 



That the practice of placing a 

 fabulous valuation upon breeding 

 queens is becoming very common is 

 a fact which was noted in these col- 

 umns some time ago, calling atten- 

 tion to the ease with which a queen 

 breeder could take advantage of 

 such a drawing card in his advertise- 

 ments as the possession of a hundred- 

 dollar breeding queen. Editor Root 

 of Gleani)i(/s, who goes them one 

 better, by advertising a two hun- 

 dred-dollar breeder, very frankly 



acknowledges that the thing does 

 have the appearance of a money- 

 making scheme, but is evidently 

 sincere in the opinion that the great 

 superiority of his slo;k justifies the 

 valuation, and says: "If Editor Hill 

 could see what that queen really is, 

 he would be as enthusiastic as I." 

 Brother Root must have had a 

 private tip in regard to our weak 

 points; for if any one thing more 

 than another tends to arouse our 

 enthusiasm it is good stock, but he 

 completely fails to grasp our idea 

 of the matter. The American Bee- 

 keeper would be the last to offer 

 discouragement to the work of im- 

 provement in our stock. In fact, 

 we hold that thei'e is but one 

 branch of our industry which is en- 

 titled to more immediate and thor- 

 ough attention than this. This, 

 however, does not alter the obvious 

 fact that dollars and cents is a most 

 misleading, inconsistant and unfair 

 standard by which to designate 

 merit in breeding stock; and that 

 it only invites deception and im- 

 position for personal gain, among 

 the unscrupulous. Already the 

 opportunity has been recognized 

 and appropriated to the extent of a 

 promise that it will b3 thoroughly 

 vulgarized within a short time. 



If a breeder pays an excessively 

 high price for a queen in which he 

 recognizes corresponding merit, or 

 if he refuses . a bona-fide offer of 

 such a price, we presume there is 

 no valid reason why he should not 

 be entitled to any benefits which 

 might accrue to him as a result of 

 a public statement of his sagacity. 

 That is one thing; but for a breeder 

 to simply "estimate" the value of 

 his breeding queen away above all 

 reason as an advertising dodge — a 

 practice that has and will continue 

 to result from such an insignificant 

 system of expressing merit in our 

 stock, is another matter. 



