98 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



May 



with the bluebird aud the almanac 

 proclaim the arrival of summer, 

 then may the dangers of spring 

 dwindling be considered safely over 

 for this year. 



The Progressive Bee-keeper has 

 proclaimed itself on the slow cool- 

 ing and yellow wax question; and, 

 having had experience in handling 

 tons of wax, of course, truthfully 

 says "the color will not settle." 

 The American Bee Journal, however, 

 clings to the fallacy that "slow 

 cooling is the secret of securing 

 bright, yellow wax," although every 

 bee-paper in the United States at 

 the time the discussion opened, has 

 expressed itself in support of The 

 Bee-keeper's original statement, 

 that slow cooling will do nothing of 

 the kind. We desire, however, to 

 give Mr. York the benefit of any 

 consolation he m a y fi ii d in a 

 knowledge of the fact that this 

 office is in receipt of a letter from 

 an experienced handler of wax who 

 says the editors are all off; and that 

 he will later clear 'matters up. We 

 pre informed that this gentleman, 

 through sorne private process of 

 treatment, secures from three to 

 four different grades of wax from 

 the same combs. He says, though, 

 that all this talk about slow cooling 

 being the secret of getting bright, 

 yellow wax, "is the rankest 

 nonsense." 



"We value The Bee-keeper 

 highly; it is very practical and in- 

 dispensable," writes Mr. H. G. Bur- 

 net from far-off Kingston, Jamaica. 

 It will be seen how widely scattered 

 ai'e the patrons of The Bee-keeper. 

 It goes regularly to subscribers in 

 every civilized land where English 

 is spoken to any extent; and our 

 readers will appreciate the impossi- 

 bility of so editing as to have its 

 contents strictly applicable to any 



one locality. Mr. Burnet has kept 

 bees since 1879, in the northern 

 states, in the southern states and 

 in the West Indies; and he there- 

 fore readily appreciates the condi- 

 tions under which we labor. At 

 this early date in the history of api- 

 cultural journalism, our readers 

 should exercise charity. Patron- 

 age and space are necessarily limit- 

 ed, as it is also in the case of all 

 other bee-papers at this time. The 

 southern subscriber should not 

 begrudge the space which may be 

 devoted to a discussion of wintering 

 problems, neither should the north- 

 ern reader growl because his unfor- 

 tunate brother in the South relates 

 at length his troubles with mosquito- 

 hawks, ants, moths, bears, hurri- 

 canes and earthquakes. All should 

 lend a hand toward the extension of 

 the subscription list by sending 

 sample copies and talking the paper 

 up to bee-keeping acquaintances 

 until such times as the support will 

 justify us in increasing the space 

 to, say a hundred pages, and en- 

 gaging the services of a staff artist 

 and leading writer for each state 

 and foreign country. A northern 

 subscriber who joined us but last 

 year, recently wrote that The Bee- 

 keeper was becoming a power in the 

 field, and that there were wonder- 

 ful possibilities before the apicul- 

 tural journals of the country. He 

 says, "the field has hardly been 

 touched." While we believe with 

 our correspondent that there are 

 great possibilities before not only 

 the journals, but the bee-keepers of 

 the world, we think the high spots 

 have been severely ' ' touched ;" so 

 much so that they have been nearly 

 leveled to the common surface of 

 the rather low plane which our in- 

 dustry yet occupies among those of 

 the world. It now remains for the 

 enthusiastic and studious to dig be- 

 low the surface and bring to light 



