176 



member the experiments he made last 

 season in sending bees to Chicago and 

 back ; the bees were in good condition. 



Mr. Frank Boombower has sent us a 

 new queen cage. It is a good one, and 

 answers the requirements of the law 

 for mailing very well, with the excep- 

 tion of the tin water bottle— liquids are 

 unmailable. It also has a tin cup for 

 candy. 



We have also received several other 

 queen cages. All more or less defective 

 concerning the requirements of the 

 law. It is astonishing that so many 

 should seem to be so eager to use a cage 

 according to their notions, than to con- 

 form to the postal regulations. 



Let no one assume to endanger the 

 rights of all apiarists, by using any 

 cage not having a double-ivire screen. See 

 our remarks on pages 181, and 182, of 

 this Journal.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Just How it Appears to Me. 



CLAUD HOPPER. 



Are bee-keepers a truthful and honest set of men, 

 that is, take tbem as they run ?— Question Box N. 

 E. Convention, p. BO, Bee-Keepers' Magazine, for 

 March. 



After carefully perusing and re-perusing 

 the "full report of the North Eastern Bee- 

 Keepers' Convention, held at Utica, N. Y., 

 Feb. 11, 12 and 13, 1880," I concluded the 

 above question must have been prompted by 

 some disinterested spectator, and I doubt if 

 he was fully satisfied with the answer ; at 

 least, so far as that Convention and some of 

 its controlling spirits were concerned. 



Supposing the report to be full and 

 official, as it is signed by the Sec, and at- 

 tested on p. 43, of Magazine, by its editor, 

 who says the report " savors of investiga- 

 tion, and a spirit which prefers solid truth, 

 to mere acquiescence for the sake of agree- 

 ment," I, for one, as a member of the 

 National Convention beg to notice it in my 

 humble way. Perhaps there may be others 

 who feel aggrieved, and possibly some who 

 feel that it as a feeble effort to insult them ; 

 but they probably "consider the source, as 

 the boy said," etc. 



Can it be " truth'''' to charge such gentle- 

 men as Prof. Cook, liev. O. Clute, Dr. Fami- 

 ly, Messrs. Jones, King, Schofield, Dadaut, 

 Oatman, Chapman, Bull, Godfrey, Kice, 



Heddon, Harris, Murphy, Winslow, Haw- 

 ley, Collins and a host of others, equally as 

 good men as those mentioned, perhaps less 

 prominent, and several ladies (who as scien- 

 tific apiarists are an honor to their calling) 

 with forming and becoming component 

 parts of a ring to run the National Associa- 

 tion for selfish purposes ! 



Past Events are said to be precursors of 

 the future, and Byron has said "coming 

 events cast their shadows before." As the 

 purling brook ripples down the hillside it 

 gathers force and magnitude till it forms the 

 broad river, and still rolling on through 

 undulating valleys, it finally reaches and 

 becomes part of the ocean, and its identity 

 is lost in a magnitude that puts to shame its 

 unpretending origin. So in the N. E. Con- 

 vention. The poor, weak, " selfish National 

 Association" is made to run down the hill 

 till it reaches and is absorbed by the Bee 

 Journal ; which likewise runs down hill 

 till it reaches and is used up by the irresist- 

 ible river Detwiler, and again rolling on all 

 is lost in the roaring Betsinger ocean. 

 Each is only a progressive step in the work 

 of building up that great co-operative paper, 

 which will be a " bee journal purely for the 

 interests of the producer, and with a view 

 of advancing the science of apiculture;" a 

 journal whose editor under the guise of 

 disinterestedness shall not sell supplies; 

 nor charge bee-keepers with fraud when 

 adulterating honey, thus "deprecating" 

 honey to the detriment of producers ; nor 

 buy honey for what he can get it ; nor muti- 

 late articles of correspondents ; nor lop 

 out personal allusions ; nor correct gram- 

 matical errors ; nor change punctuation ; 

 nor alter manuscript to make it intelligible. 



Well, it is a long and tortuous way of 

 reaching a small point. A few irresponsible 

 persons would like to have another paper, 

 and to get it they must have money, or good 

 credit, or good backing ; and to get that 

 must tear down those now existing, to build 

 up the new out of their ruins. But what 

 cheek ! To abuse the National Association, 

 and then by resolution instruct their Secre- 

 tary to correspond with its members and 

 invite their co-operation, in bringing about 

 the desired end — as it were, to lick the hands 

 that smote them. 



The new paper will be started ; of course 

 it will. It has been decreed, and what is to 

 be must be. "Verily, I say unto you," it will 

 be a spicy paper, even though it may have 

 no regard fortruth ; and like Esau, its hand 

 "will be raised against every man, and 

 every man's hand will be raised' against it." 

 I think I will subscribe for that paper, and 

 pay a year's subscription — provided some 

 responsible bee-keeper will guarantee the 

 return of money for unexpired subscription 

 when the collapse takes place. 



The average good bee-keeper will stop as 

 he runs, and join the National Association 

 when it reads this epitaph on the registering 

 slate of the defunct, but "unselfish," co- 

 operative paper : 



" Conceived in sin, brought forth in strife- 

 How soon my troublous days are over ; 

 Scarce yesterday 1 was born to life. 

 To-day I lie beneath the clover." 



Peculiar, O., March 18, 1880. 



