that get crazy over the bee business ; 

 spend their hard-earned dollars coined 

 in some other calling, for bees and sup- 

 plies, only to sink the whole and turn 

 from the business in disgust. Again I 

 would repeat what I have written be- 

 fore : " If you buy bees, do not go to an 

 expense of over $40 or §50, and do not 

 lay out any more on them after that than 

 they earn you, remembering that if you 

 cannot make 2 colonies pay, you cannot 

 200; and if you fail you can console 

 yourself that you have lost only $40 to 

 $50, instead of $400 or $500. 

 Borodino, N. T., August, 1880. 



For the American Bee Journal 



R. L. Meade and Supply Dealers. 



KEV. A. SALISBURY. 



In the July number of the American 

 Bee Journal, page 342. over the sig- 

 nature of R. L. Meade, I find the fol- 

 lowing, also a reference to the same in 

 the August number, page 389 : 



It is my duty to say, that during 3 years I have only 

 found T. G. Newman & Son, A. I. Root and G. M. 

 Doolittie to be punctual in lining orders for the re- 

 spective articles they advertise. 



Of course Mr. Meade does not expect 

 us to understand that he has dealt with 

 all the supply advertisers and found 

 them to be defaulters, or not up to time, 

 except the 3 named. 



But may our friend not be mistaken 

 about his "duty," in giving notice of an 

 existing evil, but not to tell the public 

 where the evil lies, leaving all liable to 

 censure, 3 excepted V I wonder if our 

 friend has dealt with 3 outside of the 

 excepted ones. 



[It will be remembered that we stated 

 that Mr. Meade gave the names, but 

 that we had omitted them purposely, 

 out of a sense of justice to them and 

 others. We stated in that issue of the 

 Bee Journal that we considered Mr. 

 Meade's plan quite impracticable, and 

 that the " buyers" were sometimes more 

 at fault than the " dealers." We have 

 no doubt but that those whose adver- 

 tisements are admitted to our columns 

 are among the honest and conscientious 

 dealers. If we were not thus persuaded, 

 we should not insert their advertise- 

 ments. But misunderstandings, unpro- 

 pitious weather, and many other things, 

 sometimes prevent the realization of the 

 expectations of those who send orders, 

 and hence the " nervous" are often dis- 

 appointed. — Ed.] 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Where Honey Comes From— No. 6. 



WI. TRELEASE. 



At one time it was customary to con- 

 sider all provisions of nature, which in 

 any wise promote the interests of man- 

 kind, as specially devised for our bene- 

 fit ; and the fact that many flowers by 

 their beautiful colors and fragrant per- 

 fumes delight our senses, while their 

 copious store of nectar needs only to be 

 collected and elaborated by the bees to 

 become our food, may seem to warrant 

 this view of the case. Were no other 

 facts than these at our disposal we 

 might, perhaps, consider the explana- 

 tion sufficient ; but if the testimony of 

 the rocks is to be credited, beautiful 

 flowers and nectar-loving insects lived 

 ages before man existed to profit by the 

 beauty of the one or the industry of the 

 other. Moreover, Xenophon and Pliny's 

 accounts of the poisonous effects of a 

 certain kind of Asiatic honey, and St. 

 Hilaire's experience with that stored by 

 a South American wasp, taken in con- 

 nection with the well-authenticated ca- 

 ses of poisoning by the honey collected 

 from certain of our own native plants, 

 show that in some cases this substance 

 is gathered and used by insects when it 

 can be of no use to human beings ; and 

 the study of biology reveals so many 

 facts which tend to prove that man has 

 not been exclusively considered in the 

 production of even the things that he 

 enjoys most ; that it is now by no means 

 considered a satisfactory explanation of 

 any natural phenomenon to say, merely, 

 that " it is for our good ;" rather, so close 

 is the inter-dependence of beings widely 

 separated in the scale of Nature, that 

 we expect to find any well marked 

 structural or functional peculiarity of a 

 living being not only of vital import- 

 ance to its possessor, but entailing 

 equally marked peculiarities in other 

 creatures that are thrown in contact 

 with it. Let us carry this idea into our 

 study of the origin of a sugary secretion 

 by certain parts of plants. 



Certainly, so many honey-producing 

 flowers bloom far removed from the in- 

 fluence of man, that we cannot regard 

 the secretion as connected primarily 

 with his needs ; but we do know that 

 its production is very essential to the 

 well-being of certain insects, and that 

 these are invariably found where nec- 

 tariferous plants naturally grow in abun- 

 dance. It has been well said that where 

 free lunches are provided some advan- 

 tage is generally expected from the 

 treat, and in the case of nectar-bearing 

 flowers, this appears to be their fertili- 



