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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 18 



GBORCE: -ff. YORK, . Editor. 



PUBLI8HT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & GOMPANY, 

 US JMrfcbie-an St., . - CHICAGO. II. I.. 



tl.OO a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 (Bntered at the Posl-OfBce at Chlcaeo as Second-Class MalMdatter. 



United States Bee-Keepers' Union. 



Orcanizfd to advance the pursuit of Apiculture; to promote the interests ' 



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



of honey: and to prosecute the dishonest honey-commission men. 



MEMBERSHrp Fee-si. 00 Per Annum. 



li-veout/ve Commiftec. 



Pkesitjent— George W. York. Vice-Pres.— W. Z. Hutchinson. 

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



Hoard of L>iroct<irs, 



E. R. Root. E. Whitcomb. E. T. Abbott. 



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



General JUaiia^er anc] Treasurer. 



Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 



Vol. fflVII, CHICA&O, ILL, NOV, 18, 1891, No, 46. 



Editorial CQn)n}cr)i^^ 



Kind Virords of Svnipatliy havs corao to us from 

 many of our subscribers, upon the death of our dear baby, 

 Oct. 27. As it is impossible for us to write to each kind 

 friend a personal letter, we talfe this opportunity to sincerely 

 thank all who have been so thoughtful, and have so sympa- 

 thetically exprest themselves in tender words. We wish to 

 assure all that such expressions are greatly appreciated by us. 



Tlie Xortli^ivestern Convention was held last 

 week Wednesday and Thursday, as per announcement, but 

 owing to the railroads declining to sell excursion tickets to Chi- 

 cago from Nov. 2 to the 13th, as previously advertised, of 

 course the attendance was not as large as anticipated, but the 

 Interest was all right. Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, 

 Iowa, Ohio and Nebraska were represented. The following 

 were elected as permanent officers after the adoption of a 

 constitution : 



President, Dr. C. C. Miller; Vice-President, Hon. E. Whit- 

 comb ; and Secretary-Treasurer, George W. York. 



A shorthand report was taken, which we intend to pub- 

 lish Immediately after the Buffalo convention report, which 

 we now expect to begin next week. 



Koul Brood on tlie Increase.— Editor Root, 

 In Gleanings for Nov. l,has this to say regarding the dread 

 disease of foul brood ; 



We are receiving, almostdaily, suspected samples of brood 

 which WB are requested to diagnose. In nine cases out of ten 

 they prove to be foul brood. To-day (Oct. 20) I opened a 

 sample of one of the worst cases I have ever seen. The odor 

 from a colony affected would be sulliclently strong, I think, so 



that it could be detected several yards from the apiary. At 

 all events, it was the " loudest "-smelling sample I ever came 

 across. This almost daily receipt of samples of affected brood 

 from all parts of the country is alarming. 



I have already found where this disease is making head- 

 way in portions of the United States that have more colonies 

 and more bee-keepers to the square mile, I believe, than any 

 other place in this country. In fact, the disease is apparently 

 starting up all over the land, and it will need some vigorous 

 measures and some good legislation to keep the disease in 

 check. I would suggest that, in those States where there Is 

 no foul-brood law, bee-keepers send in a big petition to their 

 next general assembly, asking for the needed legislation. 



A foul brood inspector (N. E. France) has been appointed 

 for Wisconsin. A law was recently enacted ; and with the 

 State back of him the inspector proposes to make a clean 

 sweep of the State. 



The good work done by Foul Brood Inspector McEvoy, of 

 Canada, is too well known to need mention, and now the 

 Canadian bee-keepers are practically masters of the disease. 



We on this side of the line cannot afford to let it got the 

 start of us. Nearly all of the text-books on apiculture give 

 good methods of treating the disease. 



We wish to second the excellent suggestions offered by 

 Mr. Root in the foregoing. It would be a good thing, too, if 

 every bee-keeper would read up on the disease, so as to be 

 able to spot it at once, should it attack his own apiary. 



OverstocUing' in Vork State.— Look out for a 

 Klondike rush toward the region of Jefferson Co., N. Y. The 

 editor of Gleanings, after reporting what big yields of honey 

 he had found upon a trip through the State of New York, 

 warned off all intruders by saying the ground was already 

 overstockt. Now comes J. F. Petrie, who says that the 

 opposite is the case in his locality, where he has wholesaled 

 at 40 cents a quart extracted honey bought at Medina, and a 

 neighbor woman reports a colony increast to nine in one sea- 

 son by natural swarming. He closes by saying: "I believe 

 there are excellent localities here for the location of apiaries, 

 and will answer inquiries from any one interested who will 

 inclose a stamp." Now it will be Just like some people to 

 wonder whether Mr. Petrie may not be distantly related to 

 some real e*tat9 agent. 



*-'-»- 



Knows tbe Ear-Marks.- The editor of Gleanings 

 has been making a study of ears, and thinks he recognizes the 

 one who does the "boiling" of the other bee-papers for our 

 " Beedom Boil-jd Down" department, by certain cicatrices on 

 his auricular appendages. You may be right, Mr. Root, but 

 remember there's more than one specimen with big ears. 

 •»-'-* 



Getting: People into Bee-Keeping:. — Mr. 



John A. Pease, of California, in the Pacific Bee Journal, has 

 something to say about the low price of honey, and a good 

 deal more against inducing people to embark in the pursuit of 

 bee-culture. Here are his ideas as set forth in the article re- 

 ferred to : 



In the September number of the PaciBc Bee Journal, In 

 my article on the present low price of honey, I took the posi- 

 tion that it was caused by the glowing reports of enormous 

 crops of honey being produced all over the country, creating 

 the idea in the mind of the public that the supply was far in 

 excess of the demand, and causing people to hold off from 

 buying, hoping to get lower prices later on ; also causing some 

 weak-kneed producers to offer their product at even less than 

 the cost of production, thus demoralizing the market. I am 

 also glad to see that several others — abler writers than myself 

 — have taken the alarm, and are protesting against such fool- 

 ish action, for althoit is too late to do us any good this year, 

 yet I hope it may prevent people from making the same blun- 

 der In the future. 



But there is another cause that is oven more disastrous in 

 its consequences, because it is far more reaching ; fur while 

 this is only temporary In its results, reaching through one 

 year only, that has been going on for years until it has 

 brought down the pu'sent to less than one quarter the former 

 price. I refer to the practice of nearly, or quite all, of the 



