500 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



remain a family article, and " on the 

 shelf," unless it looks inviting, and its 

 price is acceptable. 



I was amused when Prof. Cook and 

 his students could not tell the difference 

 between syrup fed to bees and genuine 

 honey, and I wondered whether they 

 would have taken it for clover or for 

 buckwheat honey. They certainly have 

 poor tongues. The tongues of the pub- 

 lic would not be so easily deceived. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



California Apiarian Exhibit and 

 tiie World's Fair. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY W. A. PBYAL. 



Visitors to the World's Fair need not 

 spend much time in looking for Califor- 

 nia's display of honey and beeswax. The 

 reason of this will be a good deal like 

 that of the small boy who was eating an 

 apple, and was asked by another lad to 

 give him the core. The latter was 

 promptly told, " There won't be no core." 

 Well, the truth now seems to be that 

 this State will not have any "core "or 

 anything else to its honey exhibit, for 

 the simple reason, as I have intimated, 

 that there will be no exhibit. 



It may seem strange that the leading 

 honey-producing State of America will 

 not make a showing of its products of 

 the bee-hive at the greatest show ever 

 held on this continent. But it is appar- 

 ently a fact, nevertheless. 



The matter of an exhibit was discussed 

 at the convention of the California State 

 Bee-Keepers' Association, held at Los 

 Angeles, early last February. It was 

 then expected that the California State 

 World's Fair Commissioners would do 

 something toward arranging for a cred- 

 itable display of our honey. Under this 

 supposition a number of bee-keepers 

 who were present at said meeting, ex- 

 pressed a desire to send some very fine 

 samples of honey to Chicago. Some of 

 these apiarists were to contribute pack- 

 ages of our famous white sage honey, 

 others some of our mountain alfalfa, 

 others alfalfa from the San Joaquin 

 plains, while others were to send sumac 

 and other varieties. 



I did not express myself on the matter 

 of what I might possibly send to the 

 Fair, but I had been considering a plan 

 of sending about a dozen flat display 

 glasses containing as many grades of 

 honey gathered here in the vicinity of 

 San Francisco bay. This collection 



would have embraced eucalyptus, alfila- 

 ree, wild rape, and other sorts. Then, 

 . there were to be some neat displays of 

 beeswax made by some of our southern 

 Californian apiarists. Taken all to- 

 gether, the showing our honey-producers 

 were to have made would be a credit to 

 the State. But now, alas, the whole 

 thing is " knocked into a cocked hat." 



Wha,t little honey that will be sent on 

 from here will be in the county exhibits; 

 if these are no better than some of those 

 I have already seen, they will not be 

 anything to be proud of. Those who 

 have had charge of these exhibits have, 

 in the great majority of cases, been 

 thoroughly incompetent to attend to the 

 getting up of an agricultural or a horti- 

 cultural exhibit. 



In one instance, I have known a 

 County Board to take a man who was a 

 good judge of leather and wax-ends, to 

 collect a fruit exhibit of one of the finest 

 horticultural counties in California. Of 

 course, in the first place, the fruit men 

 were not going to do much for such a 

 man ; they lost confidence in a concern 

 that would pick out a man to attend to 

 such a matter who was unfitted by past 

 experience for such work. It is needless 

 to say that the county I refer to has a 

 miserable show of preserved fruits in 

 great big jars. Some of the insignificant 

 cow counties have a far better showing. 

 Too much politics have been the cause 

 of all these failures in getting the right 

 man for the right place. , 



But I am drifting away from the main 

 part of the subject I started to write 

 about. It was the reason why our Cali- 

 fornia bee-keepers are not likely to make 

 any display of honey in the California, 

 or, for that matter, in the other build- 

 ings at the big Fair. 



Two years ago the legislature of this 

 State appropriated $300,000 to pay 

 for a building and the means of having 

 a fine display of our products exhibited 

 in this building. A Board of commis- 

 sioners was appointed to make all the 

 necessary arrangements. These ar- 

 rangements were very well carried out 

 as far as making places for a swarm of 

 useless officers was concerned. They 

 have used up about the best part of the 

 money appropriated, in paying them- 

 selves, so it is said. The way things 

 were carried on here occasioned a good 

 deal of ill-comment. Of the way things 

 were run, I won't say anything more. 



When the bee-keepers came to find 

 out what was to be done for them, they 

 learned that if they wanted to make an 

 exhibit, and have it properly cared for, 

 they would have to do it at their own 



