not think there were so many " green 

 'uns." 



One bee-keeper of this State who vis- 

 ited me, and who is a more than ordi- 

 narily shrewd man, showed me one of 

 these loving circulars, and said : " I 

 guess I won't patronize this fellow. My 

 wife (who is the smartest man in the 

 family) says he ' loves ' us too much for 

 a stranger." 



Xow, I am inclined to think that the 

 main trouble with our business and us 

 as a class, that causes such questions as 

 " Are bee-keepers more dishonest than 

 others ?" to find their way to the " ques- 

 tion drawer," is because'we are not in- 

 clined to look this business squarely in 

 the face, and realize the fact that we 

 must expect to earn our money like other 

 producers, and do our business upon 

 common commercial principles. Take 

 up a bee periodical and read it and one 

 would be led to think that apiculture 

 was the very best business in existence. 

 The same nonsense is to be found in 

 horticultural and poultry journals of 

 their respective callings. The solid old 

 agricultural papers make no such 

 claims, and yet it is their calling that 

 has less failures, and more fine houses 

 to boast, than any other business in ex- 

 istence. 



This puts me in mind of another 

 thought, and that is one now agitating 

 some New York bee-keepers, whether 

 an editor has any right to reject arti- 

 cles, cull, prune, etc. I see it something 

 like this : If his paper runs down in 

 quality who is blamed ? If subscribers 

 fall off who is the loser? In view of 

 the fact that these questions answer 

 themselves, it seems to me that it is his 

 duty to his family and himself to keep 

 his paper up to as high a standard as he 

 can. I don't want to take a paper that 

 contains the shucks and meats all mixed 

 up, and without any culling. I am al- 

 ways willing to concede to others what 

 I ask for myself (or at least I should 

 be), and I cannot object to your reject- 

 ing this article, Mr. Editor, as long as 

 I want you to keep out that senseless 

 article of John Smith's. When I think 

 you reject any from personal motives 

 alone, then I will quit your paper. In 

 my judgment, he who undertakes to 

 hold up the claim that an editor has no 

 moral right to control his sheet just as 

 he thinks proper, will meet with an ig- 

 nominious failure. 



I wish to say a word for the ears of 

 the editor of Gleanings. He seems to 

 have entirely forgotten the wants of his 

 older subscribers, who helped to start 

 the machine, and only thinks of the " A 

 B C class." This is what I allude to : 

 Old bee-keepers are not too old to learn, 



but they are capable of passing judg- 

 ment on certain theories for themselves. 

 Very many articles are not worth read- 

 ing, and what they most need is their 

 journal so well arranged that they can 

 quickly cull out the weaker portion from 

 the stronger, or perhaps those articles 

 pertaining to more advanced subjects, 

 in which they feel more interest and 

 need more light. Gleanings is so ar- 

 ranged that it is just about a necessity 

 to read lots of trash in order to get at 

 the points sought after, that it may con- 

 tain. "Order is heaven's first law." 

 says Pope, and if this is really true. 

 Gleanings will never get there, even if 

 its editor is sure of a sofa seat. 

 Dowagiac, Mich., May 8, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Where Honey Conies From— No. 4. 



WM. TKELEASE. 



In many parts of the South is culti- 

 vated a plant known as cow-pea, and it 

 is generally known among planters that 

 bees and other nectar-loving insects 

 " suck the stems " of these plants ; that 

 is, they collect nectar or some other 

 fluid from certain parts of the plant. 



As it commonly grows, the leafy stem 

 of this plant trails along the ground, and 



here and there from the axils or angles 

 above the leaves a flower stalk grows 

 upward and bears a cluster of blossoms 

 near its top, and it is the end of 

 this flower stalk that the bees visit, 

 but they do not go there for the flow- 

 ers. An examination of a peduncle 

 shows that among the flowers or pods, 

 and just beyond the last one, there are 

 several rounded prominences (g fig. 9), 

 on the surface of which a number of 

 depressions may be detected. Under a 

 lens each of these appears a hollow, 



