26 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



From "The Stinger.' 



It pleased me to see that Mr. J. H. Martin 

 (Rambler) recently undertook to read the 

 Managers of the late World's Fair a lesson 

 for the manner in which they treated the 

 bee-keepers of California when the latter 

 asked for a small sum of money to defray 

 the expenses of a suitable honey exhibit. 

 The Rambler hopes that the bee-keepers of 

 the Golden State will be enabled to make a 

 good showing at the Midwinter Fair, which 

 opened in the Pacific metropolis on the first 

 of January. 



The Stinger believes that California can 

 make'as good a honey exhibit as can any 

 other part of America, but he does not be- 

 lieve that the bee-keepers of that State can 

 doit unless they get some aid from the 

 Fair Managers. It is to the interest of the 

 Fair that California should make a fine ex- 

 hibit of its products of the bee-hive; the 

 honey of that State has a world wide fame, 

 and visitors from abroad will want to see 

 such an exhibit. From the way the State 

 mentioned was represented at the World's 

 Fair, I will venture to say that California 

 will be '■ in the soup " again, as far as its 

 honey interests are concerned. 



Ye California bee-keepers, get after those 

 Midwinter folk, and see if you cannot wake 

 them up. Do not let them try to debar 

 your sweet product by compelling you to 

 pay $2.00 a square foot for placing your 

 honey on the floor of the Fair buildings; 

 on the contrary, the Fair should offer you 

 a bonus to make a display that will be a 

 credit to the Sunset State. 



Mrs. Atchley has been complaining of 

 skunks bothering her bees, and that she 

 would like some one to give her "the best 

 or shortest way to get rid " of them. I 

 should think that the best way to get rid of 

 them is to kill them. That is what I have 

 done when they came in my way. 



But it is not always an easy thing to get 

 a chance to have the fun of killing the nasty 

 little things. Were they to pester a bee- 

 yard, as they have the apiary of Mrs. 

 Atchley, I think I would try to catch them 

 in a trap. As skunks are fond of honey, I 

 would place a comb of honey in a box, 

 which should have an ojjening sufficiently 

 large to let the marauding animals pa.ss iii. 

 Have a steel-jaw trap set near the small 

 comb of honey, in such a way that his 

 skunkship cannot get to it without stepping 

 into the trap. After the skunk has pressed 



the button, you can do the rest, Mrs. 

 Atchley, without any directions from me. 



The lievirw has the poetry craze the worst 

 of all the bee-papiTs. I am glad that I did 

 not get the malady bad, or perhaps I could 

 not succeed in getting the Bee Journal 

 out of the rut that it has gotten into, too. , 



"The honey show at the World's Fair " 

 is the subject of some interesting editorial 

 correspondence in the November Jievlew. In 

 this article Editor Hutchinson tells how he 

 captured the views of the honey exhibits he 

 gives to illustrate the aforesaid article. I 

 should like to have been there when Hutchy 

 was getting these pictures, for he must 

 have made a bigger show of himself than 

 even the Fair was. For shame, my boy ! 



There seems to be a disposition among 

 many bee-keepers to " tickle " one another 

 whenever they liave anything to say of 

 brother bee-keepers, especially when writ- 

 ing to the bee-papers. I like the spirit of 

 brotherly love that appears to be mani- 

 fested by such a disposition ; yet it strikes 

 me that this desire to tickle brother bee- 

 keepers does not come altogether from a 

 spirit of friendliness — is it not more to 

 " keep on the good side " of apiarists who 

 have some influence, etc.? 



" You tickle me and I'll tickle you "' may 

 be "good policy " for those who have an 

 ax to grind; as The Stinger has no ax to 

 grind, and does not believe in such a man- 

 ner of keeping in the good graces of any 

 one, he will treat all alike. Therefore, 

 when he thinks a jierson worthy of com- 

 mendation, he will gladly bestow what 

 praise he can upon such a person ; but when 

 he finds that anybody in the bee-keeping 

 world merits just rebuke, he will go for 

 him with his stinger. Ye evil doers and 

 hypocrites, take warning, for you might 

 wake up and find yourselves in a hornets' 

 nest. 



Here is something I find in the November 

 issue of the Bw-Ka liens' Itevieiv, and I would 

 ask that some bee-keeper in California call 

 the attention of the Midwinter Fair Mana- 

 gers to it. It was written by the editor of 

 the magazine mentioned: "The next ca«e 

 had a very meager showing of honey from 

 California. It seems strange that such a 

 great honey-producing State as this should 



not have had a better display There 



was some comb honey, but it was not first- 

 class in appearance."' 



The Jieview records the fact that Califor- 

 nia had some curiosities in one corner of 

 its case at the World's Fair ■• in the way of 

 enormous clam shells and the shells of 

 ostrich eggs in which the bees had been in- 

 duced to store honey." Well, that is doing 

 pretty well; but cannot those California 

 bee-keepers do even better ? They might 

 take an elephant out in one of the bee- 

 ranges, and kill it, and after it has dried up 

 or mummified, scoop out the inside and 

 then induce a swarm of bees to fill it with 



