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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 13. 



GBORCE: W. YORK, . Editor. 



PUBLI8HT WEEKLV BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 ua Mlclilssaa St.. - CHICAGO. ILL. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Bntered at the Post-Offloe at Chicago as Seoond-ClesB Mall-Matter. 



VoLfflyil. CHICAGO, ILL,, MAY 13, 1897, No, 19, 



'TTTTTTTTT' 



Editorial Con}n)ct)i^^ 



Xhe Apis Dorsata at Home.— The A. I. Root 

 Co. say in Gleanings that they are arranging with a missionary 

 to India to experiment with Apis dorsata in its native clime. 

 Hives and all necessary equipments will be sent with the mis- 

 sionary, Mr. W. E. Rambo, who expects to return to his work 

 at Damoh, India, In September. 



Now, that is a sensible way to find out whether or not 

 " the giant bees " can be domesticated. If it is found upon 

 trial that they will live and be a success in hives in India, 

 then it will be time enough to bring them to America. Bee- 

 keepers can afford to await and see the result of the Root 

 experiment. In the meantime we can all hope that good may 

 come from it. 



Bumble-Bees in New Zealand.— The follow- 

 ing is reported in a foreign paper, referring to the value that 

 bumble-bees have proven to the clover seed crop of New 

 Zealand : 



" The bumble-bees have been a great success in Canter- 

 bury (New Zealand), and clover seed has been exported to 

 England the last three or four years. It is estimated that the 

 clover seed crop is worth 30,000 pounds sterling per annum 

 to this Province, and this is entirely due to the successful im- 

 portation of the bumble-bee." 



And yet there are those who would destroy all the bees if 

 they could, not realizing their importance in the fuller ferti- 

 lization of blossoms iu field, orchard and garden. Let's keep 

 such information before the public, until it ceases to under- 

 value the twofold work of the bees. 



The Drawn or Deep-Cell Foundation.— It 



would be really laughable were it not so very regretful to note 

 the various receptions the idea of drawn foundation has 

 met with, and that by bee-keepers, or would-be-thought 

 bee-keepers, even before they have given it a trial. After 

 awhile, we think these same blusterers and more noisy ones 

 will be seeking some convenient hole to crawl into, and thus 

 try to have " progressive " bee-keepers forget their hasty con- 

 demnation of what promises to all fair-minded people to be 

 one of the advance steps of modern apiculture. 



Referring to this matter. Gleanings for May 1 gives the 

 following, which shows 



now msTORV repeats itself. 



The little opposition that has been stirred up against the 

 new drawn foundation is not so unlike the opposition that was 

 urged against railroads In China, where, after using one 

 awhile, they tore the rails up, as the cars " disturbed " the 



repose of their ancestors. (The new drawn foundation seems 

 to have disturbed the "repose" of a few bee-keepers.) 



When railroads were first suggested in this country, so 

 great a man as Daniel Webster "proved " in Congress that a 

 railroad train could never go up grade, could never be stopt 

 within 20 miles on a level, and never on a down grade ; that 

 it was not safe, and yet he lived to see them stopt in their own 

 length at any point. 



The English bridge builder, who built the great Victoria 

 bridge over the St. Lawrence river, declared that the pro- 

 posed suspension bridge at Niagara would never hold its own 

 weight up, that it was not safe, and " proved " it — by riding 

 over it in a car while on his way to dedicate his own bridge 

 further on. 



In these latter days a few have tried to make out that the 

 new product is going to ruin the bee-keeping industry, and, 

 according to their opinion, they have "proved" It too. As 

 prophets they can look backward better than forward. But 

 railroads and suspension bridges have come to stay, and so 

 has the new drawn foundation. 



The opposition that drawn foundation has so far received 

 reminds us of the dog-and-moon story. The little yellow dog 

 tried to annihilate the moon by barking at it. Of course all 

 know the result. The moon simply continued in its course. 

 So will the drawn foundation. 



How ridiculous it is for those who have sold and used 

 comb foundation for years to come forward now and condemn 

 the new kind, when it is made from the same kind of pure 

 beeswax as the old, and has been proven by those who have 

 tested it, to be no more objectionable than ordinary comb 

 foundation, when it comes to eating comb honey produced 

 with it. Nothing but jealousy or ignorance could possibly 

 be the cause of most of the foolish opposition to it. 



We hope that the new drawn foundation will prove all 

 that Its promoters anticipate for it, and that like many other 

 valuable inventions, it may be among those things that have 

 helpt to make the pursuit a greater success than it ever could 

 have been without them. 



Dr. Besse's Sw^eet Clover Case.— Many are 



interested in the outcome of Dr. Besse's sweet clover case, in 

 Delaware Co., Ohio. Here is bis last report concerning it, 

 dated May 5 : 



Editor York : — As I promist to keep you posted in regard 

 to my trial, and as I am getting letters of inquiry from all 

 over the country in regard to it, I take the present opportunity 

 to say that my case will not come up for trial at this term of 

 court. The pleadings have just been completed, and the case 

 now stands at issue for the first time. I shall be compelled to 

 take testimony iu different parts of the State, and may be 

 from other States, and prepare the case for trial at the next 

 term of court. H. Besse, M. D. 



For the benefit of the many new subscribers that have 

 been added to our list recently, we would say that Dr. Besse's 

 case grew out of the destruction of a field of sweet clover as 

 a noxious weed by the township trustees, for which act the 

 Doctor sued for damages, claiming that his bees were thus 

 deprived of securing a crop of honey last year. We, like 

 others, await with interest the result of the suit. 



End-Spacingf Old Frames. — (Heanings gives 

 the following directious to make end-spacing frames out of 

 the old-style Hoffman frames : 



Next week we shall cut off the top-bars and put on the 

 end-spacing staples to all the frames in use In our apiary. 

 The projections of the top-bar are % inch, and we shall there- 

 fore have to cut off about y of an inch from each end. To do 

 this most expeditiously we have constructed a tray without 

 bottom, 4 inches deep. The length of this tray, hii<idc dimen- 

 sions, is 1/16 Inch longer than the outside dimensions of the 

 Langstroth-Hoffman frame. The width should be the same 

 as that of the hive used, and in our case that of an 8-frame 

 hive. This frame is mounted on legs of K-inch stuff, 2 feet 

 long, the legs being braced. We now have a topless table 2 

 feet high. The length of the projection of the top-bar to end- 



