AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



719 



Honey is in no sense an animal sub- 

 stance. It is principally vegetable glu- 

 cose. The water and some minor salts 

 are mineral. — C. H. Dibbern. 



Honey from flowers is purely vegeta- 

 ble. Honey that exudes through the 

 leaves of plants, caused by lice, or other 

 insects, may be called "insect honey." — 

 Mrs. Jennie Atchley. 



Neither. Honey no doubt is of a veg- 

 etable nature. It is secreted by vegeta- 

 bles, and gathered by animals, passing 

 through some changes in the process. 

 Exactly what these changes are is not 

 fully known. Some of us think we 

 know what they are not. — Emerson T. 

 Abbott. 



Vegetable. It the natural secretion 

 of flowers, gathered by the bees. 

 Whether any chemical change takes 

 place or not in the stomach of the bees 

 while conveying it from the field to the 

 hive, is a mooted question. In no case, 

 however, can it be an animal substance. 

 —J. E. Pond. 



It is vegetable, pure and simple. 

 Honey is nectar secreted by nectar-bear- 

 ing plants and trees, collected by bees 

 and evaporated and cured by them. It 

 takes on by absorption more or less of 

 formic acid by reason of being in con- 

 tact with the heat generated by the 

 bees. This can be proven by evaporat- 

 ing sugar syrup over a strong colony of 

 bees with wire-cloth between the bees 

 and the syrup. — G. W. Demaree. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



Time and place of meeting. 



1893. 



June 16, 17.— S. E. Kansas, at Bronson, Kans. 

 J. C. Balch, Sec, Bronson, Kans. 



Oct. 11, 12, 13.— North American (Interna- 

 tional), at Chicago, Ills. 

 Frank Benton. Sec. Washington, D. C. 



In order to have this table complete, 

 Secretaries are requested to forward full 

 particulars of the time and the place of 

 each future meeting. — The Editor. 



North American Bee-Keepers' Association 



President— Dr. C. C. Miller Marengo, Ills. 



Vice-Pres.— J. E. Crane Middlehury, Vt. 



Secretary- Frank Benton, Washington, D. C. 

 Treasurer— George W. York.. .Chicago, Ills. 



National Bee-Keepers' Union. 



Progression in Bec-Culturc- 

 Hivc-Invcntion. 



Written ior the American Bee Journal 

 BY JOS. E. pond. 



President— Hon. R. L. Taylor.. Lapeer, Mich. 

 Gen'l Manager— T. G. Newman, Chicago, 111. 



Prior to the introduction of the mov- 

 able-frame principle, the science of bee- 

 culture, although at the hands of the late 

 Quinby, of Langstroth, and a few others 

 in the United States, and of Dzierzon 

 and Huber on the other side of the 

 water, had been decidedly advanced 

 from its prior position, yet so far as the 

 general public is concerned, it was but 

 little understood or appreciated. 



The difficulties attending scientific in- 

 vestigation and research were so great, 

 that the large majority had neither the 

 time nor the means of accomplishing 

 anything of lasting value. It is true 

 that some of the principles that lie at 

 the bottom of, and form the foundation 

 to, the business, were partially under- 

 stood,, and to some extent were promul- 

 gated, but superstition, prejudice and 

 ignorance on the part of the masses, 

 fostered by a few humbug bee-quacks, 

 had taken so strong a hold upon the 

 minds of the majority, that even a slight 

 step forward was looked upon with dis- 

 trust ; and this is so true, that even 

 when movable-frames were first intro- 

 duced by our own prince of apiarists, 

 Langstroth, they were looked upon with 

 the same suspicion that they are viewed 

 by the few, who, it would seem, prefer 

 remaining in ignorance, rather than to 

 become educated as they might. 



This ignorance and prejudice was fos- 

 tered, to a great extent, by the fact 

 that every " new thing " in the way of a 

 hive, or of a fancied improvement, was 

 at once covered by a patent, and " farm 

 rights" were hawked around the coun- 

 try, to be found, on investigation after 

 sale, of no value whatever, thus causing 

 the purchasers to lose faith in invention, 

 and their fellow men. 



Now, while I myself, as I have many 

 times stated, am in favor of patents, 



