98 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



in this connection. Last fall we read 

 a live!}' editorial in a certain publica- 

 tion devoted to bee culture words very 

 much like these : "We are doing finely ; 

 subscriptions are coniing in rapidly, 

 etc., etc." Presto! change. When the 

 next number of that paper came to 

 our office, we saw, in its editorial col- 

 umns, something like this : "On Jan 1, 



1887, the subscription price of the 



•will be reduced from §1.00 to 25 cents 

 per year. 



The question is this : If that publica- 

 tion was doing half as well as the pro- 

 prietors stated, why did they reduce the 

 subscription figures seventy- five per 

 ceut? Draw your own conclusions, 

 dear readers, we have no comments to 

 make. No doubt the parties who run 

 that cheap bee paper really supposed 

 thatall other bee journals would have to 

 go under as the tuenty-five-ceut publi- 

 cation would sweep the board. Time 

 will tell, or has told, whether it will or 

 not. 



Editor Newman intimates in pretty 

 strong teruis that some of those who 

 subscribe forthe cheap bee publications 

 will lose the money they invest. No 

 one will lose much at the price some 

 of them can be had for. 



While we are not opposed to new 

 bee papers, we do predict that twenty- 

 five-cent bee journals must go under, 

 and the fact is as plain to every thought- 

 ful person as anything can well be. 

 Everybody knows that no decent bee 

 journal can long run at twenty-five 

 cents per year. As aiulesuch cheap 

 literature is merely an advertising sheet 

 for those who publish it. 



The Apicultuiiist will keep on its 

 course and maintain its reputation as 

 the best bee journal published in the 

 English language, and further more, 

 we really believe that the "A pi" is the 

 only paper devoted to bee cultuie that 

 is paying its running expenses, a fact 

 that speaks well for our journal. We 

 are doing verj' well, as our subscrip- 

 tion list is slowly but surely growing 

 larger each month. AVe acknowledge 

 that we are not supported as well as 

 we should l)e, but in this respect our 

 condition is the same as all the other 

 bee journals. 



A beekeeper in Pennsylvania wrote 

 to the "Api," a few days ago, about 

 thus : "No bee journals are taken here. 

 Beekeepers say that there is not enough 

 in them to pay for taking them." 

 "When ignorance is bliss, etc." There 

 are lots of people in this world who 

 want and expect to get two dollars for 

 every one they put out. Now we con- 

 tend that there is not a bee journal pub- 

 lished, not even a twenty-five-ceut one. 



that does not contain information in 

 the course of the year that is worth 

 twenty-five dollars to any beekeeper. 

 The one article in the March number 

 of the "Api" by Mr. Doolittle is worth 

 ten dollars to any person who has ten 

 or more hives of bees. 



Now, friends, after reading this, if 

 you think you can publish a bee jour- 

 nal and make a success of it, go in and 

 spend a few thousand dollars, and you 

 not only will be poorer in the end but 

 wiser for having tried the experiment. 



Note the Change. — Our readers, 

 and especially those who think the 

 propi-ietor of a bee journal has no right 

 to advertise the goods he deals in in 

 his own paper, will notice that all our 

 owu "ads" have disappeared from the 

 columns of the "Apiculturist." 



We have made this change not whol- 

 ly to appease the parties aboA'^e referred 

 to, but to give our subscribers from two 

 to four more pages of reading matter 

 each month. Unless advertisements 

 compel us to use some portion of the 

 four extra pages, which have been oc- 

 cupied by our advertisements the "Api" 

 in future will contain twenty-eight 

 pages devoted to general articles, ed- 

 itorial notes, etc. 



Our own advertisements, price-list, 

 etc., will be sent out in the Apicultu- 

 KisT Extras which will also contain 

 the eleven essays on "How to winter 

 bees" by the best apiculturist writers 

 in the world. As we shall send 10,000 

 copies of the e:ctra to people who have 

 sent their address for sample copies, 

 advertisers will find the extra Apicul- 

 turist one of the best advertising me- 

 diums. We have the names of 50,000 

 beekeepers to whom the extra will be 

 sent in the course of the season. 



Please forward copj' at once as the 

 first edition will be mailed April 1. 



A Law suit has just been decided 

 against a beekeei)er in Canada. It 

 seems that a man who keeps an apiary 

 was annoyed l)y a neighbor who per- 

 sisted in maintaining a nuisance in the 

 shape of a pig-sty — to the utter disgust 

 of the entire neighborhood. A row 

 was the result, and then a law suit. 

 The lower court decided, and unjustly, 

 too, that the owner of the apiary must 

 remove his bees beyond the town lim- 

 its. Tiiis same thing was tried in 

 Wenham twenty years ago, but it did 

 not work well. They have a queer way 

 of interpreting laws and treaties in 

 Canada — as evidenced by the fishery 

 question, for instance. 



