(Entered at the Post-Office at Cuicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 334 Dearborn Street. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL., JUNE 21, 1906 



Vol. XLVI-No 25 



An Independent Bee=Paper 



The American Bee Journal is absolutely an independent publica- 

 tion, and neither is it nor its editor connected in any way with any 

 bee-supply business whatsoever. It stands entirely upon its merits 

 as an educative force in the field of bee-keeping, and as a medium 

 for legitimate advertisers in Apicultural or other lines. It i6 the 

 oldest, and only weekly, journal of its kind in America. Its 

 publishers believe that it deserves to be in the hands of every 

 would-be progressive, successful bee-keeper in the land. It is in 

 its 46th year, and to-day is acknowledged to be better in every 

 way than at any time during its long and honorable history. 



Cdifortal ^Nofes 

 and Comments 



Marketing the Honey Crop 



The honey crop of 1906 will soon be here, and it will 

 need to be marketed. 



Whether it will be sold in the producer's home market, 

 or shipped away, will depend upon several things. 



It is a good time now to talk about this honey-market- 

 ing question. It is a big question to many bee-keepers. 



Suppose some of those who have had successful experi- 

 ences in both the home and outside markets, just write out 

 their methods for the good of others. We will be pleased 

 to publish such articles. We can use a number of them if 

 they are brief and to the point. 



So, kindly send on what you have to say on the honey- 

 selling subject, and we will publish it very soon — in good 

 time to be of practical use this year. 



An interchange of successful experiences in this matter 

 can not help being a good thing for all. 



If you do not wish your location published, lest some 

 one might run in on you, what you write can be published 

 with name and State of writer only. 



with my old grade drones. To say that I was disappointed is putting 

 it very mildly. 



Facts are stubborn things to butt up against. I have but little 

 doubt that an inferior strain of pure Italian queens crossed with black 

 or hybrid drones would give bees less productive than pure-bred bees 

 from some better strain ; but a cross between our best strains of pure 

 Italian queens and black or grade drones, I am satisfied, will give 

 larger yields of honey than it is possible to secure in any other way. 

 1 wish it were otherwise, for I like the pure bees much the best, as 

 they are so much nicer to handle, and withal so handsome that it is a 

 constant pleasure to work them. 



My present practise is, so for as I can, to breed from the best pure 

 queen I can find, and pay no attention further. My own yards and 

 my neighbors' furnish enough black and grade drones to give vigor to 

 my stock. 



Crosses vs. Pure Italian Bees 



J. E. Crane, as he relates in Gleanings, had mixed blood 

 in his hives, but found a distinct improvement upon getting 

 a choice Italian queen and allowing her royal offspring to 

 mate with his grade drones. He concluded that if this 

 made so much improvement the improvement would be 

 greater still if his bees were pure Italian. So he got a 

 choice Italian queen from a different source, and secured 

 young Italian queens purely mated. Mr. Crane says : 



But, alas! they did not come up to my expectations, for not one 

 of them was equal to some of those colonies whose queen had mated 



The National and Local Associations 



We have received the following letter from Leo F. 

 Hanegan, Manager of the St. Croix Valley Honey-Pro- 

 ducers' Association, in Wisconsin : 



Editor American Bee Journal— 



Dear Sir : — Your article on page 461, about some local and State 

 associations dropping the National, hits us exactly; but in our case 

 we are prepared to show that our reasons for dropping the National 

 were other than what you evidently anticipated. 



In dropping the National we did not explain wby we did it, nor 

 will we explain to them or anyone without good reasons, as we do 

 not care for friction. The fact is, that we have given the National no 

 small number of members it probably would never have enlisted were 

 it not for our help, and yet, on the other hand, the National is a 

 " good thing," and deserves the support of every bee-keeper in our 

 land. 



We had arranged to make our members also members of the Wis- 

 consin State Association, but at the last annual meeting of the State 

 Association some resolutions were passed which barred us from con- 

 tinuing that membership. We regretted this, as it is largely due to 

 the encouragement aud help of Wisconsin State Inspector N. E. 

 France, of Platteville, that we are in existence, and we have a great 

 deal of respect and good feeling for this gentleman, not only for what 

 he has done for our Association, but for what he has done for Wiscon- 

 sin bee-keepers. 



We dropped the National, but not the State — the State dropped 

 us, and so notified us. 



In the case of this Association dropping the National, it was not a 

 case of trying to " rule or ruin," but a business proposition which 

 was influenced by no one but the Executive Committee of this Asso- 

 ciation, every man of which has the highest opinion of the officers 

 and manager of the National Bee-Keepers' Association. 



Trusting you will square us with the fraternity, inasmuch as we 

 are being accused through your Journal, we are, 



Your6 respectfully, 

 St. Croix Valley Honey-Producers' Association, 



Leo F. Hanegan, Manager. 



N. B. — Inasmuch as we have over 280 members, were we to use 

 our influence against the National, we certainly could be harmful to 

 it; but kindly 6ay that we are not sousing our influence. We have 

 simply stopped sending memberships to the National, for reasons we 

 have not published to date, and probably won't make known. 



L, F. H. 



We may say, in the first place, that we did not know 

 until we received Mr. Hanegan's letter that his association 

 had dropped the National. So, of course, we could not have 

 had him or his association in mind when writing the edi- 

 torial on page 461. We made no accusation against any 

 particular association, as it will be clearly seen that we did 



