376 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 17, 



•^fr 4^ 



Jfifw"'^"-T"** 



CSORCB W. YORK, . Editor. 



PUBLI8BT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 118 AricUg-an St., - CHICAGO, ILL. 



tl.OO a Year — Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 (Entered at the Post-Offloe at Chicago as Second-Class Mall-Matter. 



United States Bee-Keepers' Ujiioii. 



Organized to advance the pursuit of Apiculture; to promote the interests 



ot bee-keepers ; to protect its members ; to prevent the adulteration 



of honey; and to prosecute the dislionest lioney-commission men. 



Membership fee-SI.OO Per Annum. 



Executive Committee. 



President— George W. York. Vice-Pres.— E. Whitcomb. 



Secretary— Dr. A. B. Mason, Station B, Toledo, Ohio. 



linanl of Directors, 



E. R. Root. E. Whitcome. E. T. Abbott. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. Dr. C. C. Miller. C. P. Dadant. 



General Alana^-er ami Treasurer, 



Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 



Next Annual meeting at BuOalo, N. Y., Aug. 24-26, 1897, 



Vol. imil. CHICAGO, ILL, JUNE 17, 1897. No. 24. 



Editorial Corr)jTjer?t5> 



The Xcw Union and Arizona.— Last month 

 the Secretary of the United States Bee-Keepers' Union re- 

 ceived the following interesting letter from the Secretary of 

 the Salt River Valley Honey-Producers' Association, Arizona, 

 which speaks most emphatically for itself : 



Dr. a. B. Mason, Toledo, Ohio— 



Secretary United States nee-Keepers' Union. 



Dear Sir : — I enclose herewith draft for $24 in payment 

 of membership fees for the persons named. 



At the last meeting of our Association I presented the 

 claims of the New Union, and upon my suggestion it was de- 

 cided to urge all our shippers to join, and in order that none 

 should fail for the reason of being short of cash just now, we 

 offered to advance the fee until returns are received from the 

 first shipment of honey. The result Is 24 names, and I think 

 that I will be able to get a few more. 



Whenever the proper time comes I favor changing the 

 name from Union to Alliance or Association. The organiza- 

 tion is a long move in the right direction, and I trust that bee- 

 keepers all over the country will rally to its support. If at 

 any time more funds are needed, let me know, and I think we 

 can help you some. Very truly, 



J. Webster Johnston, Sec. 



Now that is a leader ! What a fine send-ofl that gives the 

 New Union. And to think that it comes from a lot of bee- 

 keepers who have " gone up S(iU River " to produce lioney .' 

 Where Is the Association that will out-member the above in 

 the New Union? We'd like to mention them. And Dr. Mason 

 would be pleased to hear from them. 



Read Mr. .Johnston's letter again, and then send In your 

 own membership fee. 



See " Beo-Keoper'.s Guide" offer on page 382. 



Queen-Bees in tlie mails.— Mr. C. M. Hicks, la 

 Gleanings for June 1, mentions a very important matter con- 

 cerning the mailing of queens, and suggests that all the bee- 

 papers pass it along. We are glad to do so. He wrote : 



" A few years ago I got a queen, from a queen-breeder, in 

 a second-hand cage. The candy was put Into the wrong end 

 of the cage ; and in place of the cork he used a piece of corn- 

 stalk. It must have dried out, or was Coo small when put in ; 

 anyhow, when I took the cage out of the mail-bag, the queen 

 was nearly out. I just said then that I wouldn't have had 

 those bees get out in the mail for a dozen such queens." 



It doesn't seem pos.sible that any queen-breeder would be 

 so infernally careless and shiftless as indicated by the above 

 paragraph. As Mr. Hicks says, "queen-bees are mentioned 

 in the Postal Guide as admissible when properly packt," and 

 not otherwise. Just such slipshod work as Mr. H. tells about, 

 is what would cause the exclusion of queen-bees from the 

 mails, if anything would. 



We trust that if any of our readers have a similar experi- 

 ence to that of Mr. Hicks, they will report the facts to us, 

 with the name of the sender, so that he may be properly adver- 

 tised, and bee-keepers warned not to patronize him. Any 

 breeder that is guilty of such carelessness ought to be de- 

 prived from the use of the mails in every way — ought to be 

 eternally exiled to some small island in the Pacific Ocean. 



■Why is It so many people are careless about paying 

 their subscriptions for newspapers ? Like Dr. Miller, we 

 " don't know." But we do know that not a few who are 

 financially able and responsible permit their subscriptions for 

 the American Bee Journal to get in arrears one, two and even 

 more years if we are willing to continue to send the paper. 

 Recently we cut off a large number of subscribers who were 

 in arrears, simply because we could not bear the burden 

 longer. Some of these were offended, while others said it was 

 all right, and remitted what they owed us. We have sub- 

 scribers who iusist that the paper shall be sent no longer 

 than it is paid for. Others complain if we do this, and inti- 

 mate that we are heartless. So there you are, and there we 

 are. What is to be done ? The best thing for all concerned, 

 for the subscribers as well as the publishers, is to send in re- 

 newals promptly, and, if the paper is not wanted, to send us a 

 postal card to that effect. We wish to do what is right, and 

 have no desire to force the Bee Journal on any one. But we 

 do ask those who know they are in arrears to send us the 

 amount due at once, and if possible add the dollar for another 



year. 



-*-.-»^ 



Adulterated Honey.— The Sacramento (Calif.) 

 Record-Union lately contained this paragraph : 



"In a recent address delivered at the National Musfeum 

 in Washington by H. W. Wiley, the chemist of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture, he displayed a sample of adulterated 

 honey, which it was claimed, defied detection, and said that 

 out of SOU samples be had purchast throughout the country 

 00 per cent, were adulterated. The adulterated honey that 

 he showed was one of the cleverest of all adulterations, the 

 manufacturers going so far as to put in remnants of bees' 

 wings, legs, etc., to carry out the fraud. Of course, if the 

 making of bogus honey has been brought to such a point of 

 perfection as the Agricultural Department chemist's state- 

 ments indicate, it is not going to be an easy task to stop the 

 counterfeiting. Still, unless steps are taken to put an end to 

 the sale of adulterated honey, one of the most important of 

 California's interests will sufTer severely." 



It seems to us there never was greater need of an organi- 

 zation like the United States Bee-Keepers' Union than right 

 now. What bee-keepers must do Is (o get together and stay 

 together in this fight, if they ever expect to accomplish any- 

 thing against the adulteration of their product. 



There is a great work to be done, and In our opinion 

 there Is nothing outside of a big, strong, united association of 



