^64 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



its^fiolation." The full text is as fol- 

 lows : 



Be it Enacted by the General Assembly of 

 the State of Missouri, as follows : 



Section 1.— No person shall own, 

 keep or have in his possession or under 

 his control, any honey-bees in boxes, 

 bee-gums or other thing of confinement 

 in any city, town or village in this State, 

 whether organized under general or 

 special charters, nearer than fifty (50) 

 feet from the line of any adjacent real 

 estate owner, or person in possession of 

 such adjacent property. 



Sec. 2. — Any person violating the 

 provisions of the preceding section shall 

 upon conviction be fined for each offense 

 not less than ton nor more than twenty 

 dollars, and each offense shall be deemed 

 a period of one week after one notice in 

 writing shall have been given to the 

 owner or person in possession of the 

 bees to remove the same to a distance 

 provided by the first section of this act ; 

 and if after notice the owner or owners 

 or party in possession of said bees, it 

 shall be the duty of the sheriff of the 

 county, or the constable of the township, 

 in which the offense is committed to re- 

 move the said bees to the said distance 

 of fifty feet, and for reasonable compen- 

 sation for his services he shall have an 

 act of debt against the owner or person 

 in possession of said bees, and the said 

 bees, nor the boxes or bee-gums, or 

 thing in which they shall be kept, shall 

 be exempt from execution to pay the 

 judgment founded upon such claim for 

 said services for removing the same as 

 aforesaid. 



Sec. 3. — If the said honey-bees cannot 

 be removed and kept in boxes, bee-gums 

 or other thing at a greater distance than 

 fifty feet from the line of the adjacent 

 owner or proprietor, as provided by Sec- 

 tion 1 of this Act, then in such event 

 the keeping of them in such city, town 

 or village is absolutely prohibited, and 

 after ten days, notice in writing to re- 

 move the same, the owner or person in 

 possession or control of them shall be 

 punished upon conviction, as provided 

 by Section 2 of this Act. 



Here is a clear case of prohibition of 

 the pursuit in all "Cities, Towns and 

 Villages" in Missouri, if it should be- 

 come law, for a bee-keeper must have 

 OVER 100-foot lot to be able to keep 

 his bees " fifty feet from the line of any 

 adjacent real-estate owner, or person 

 in possession of such adjacent property." 

 But few bee-keepers would have more 

 than 50 feet in all. 

 Mr. W. S. Dcrn Blaser, ex-Secretary 



of the Missouri Bee-Keepers' Associal 

 tion, sent the "Bill" to the Manager ol 

 the Union, and instantly the Decision ol 

 the Supreme Court of Arkansas was 

 brought into play like a Gatling-gun, 

 and copies of it were sant to the mem- 

 bers of the Legislature and to the Gov- 

 ernor. Letters were written to them 

 advising them not to allow it to pass, 

 showing that it would be a dead letter, 

 as it was unconstitutional, and would be 

 so construed by the Courts, as they had 

 the precedent of the Arkansas Supreme 

 Court to guide them. 



The Hon. R. L. Taylor, President of 

 the Union, was appealed to, and he 

 backed up the General Manager by 

 giving his "opinion" on the Bill— that 

 It was unconstitutional, and should be 

 " fought to the end " vigorously. 



Mr. Joseph G. Banning, President of 

 the Missouri State Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, also appealed to the Manager of 

 the Union, and was instructed to fight 

 the Bill at every step — that the Union 

 would see him through, etc. If it had 

 passed both houses, then the Governor 

 had been appealed to, and would in all 

 probability have vetoed It. President 

 Banning writes me thus : " I thank you 

 for your prompt assistance." 



When it came up in the lower House, 

 the Legislators were "posted," and 

 promptly killed it. And thus ends 

 another chapter in the "Comedy of 

 Errors," of the enemies of apiculture I 

 The Union is again triumphant, and 

 adds " another feather In its cap." 



A similar "farce" is now being en- 

 acted in Nebraska, but it will doubtless 

 end in a like fizzle. Bee-keepers have a 

 right to be proud of the achievements of 

 their Union for Defense. 



Thomas G. Newman, 

 General Matuxger. 



Separators.— The following ques- 

 tions have been sent us about the usual 

 width and thickness of separators : 



"Will you kindly let me know what is 

 the visual width of separators — wood 

 and tin — for use with one-pound sec- 

 tions ? Also, the usual thickness of 

 wooden separators ? It seems to me 

 that the inset is scarcely deep enough to 

 permit separators to be used full depth 

 of section, say 4J^ inches." 



The usual width of separators for 4J^- 

 inch sections, whether the separators be 

 wood or tin, is 3)4 inches. Wood sep- 

 arators are one-twentieth to one-six- 

 teenth of an inch thick — perhaps nearly 

 all being one-sixteenth. 



