1861 



42dYEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, FEBRUARY 27, 1902. No, 9. 



^ Editorial. ^ i 



That liibcl on Comb Honey.— It is 



very disheartening to know tlmt'tlieve are in- 

 dications of a decline in the demand for comlj 

 honey in some of the prominent markets as a 

 result of falsehoods tor which there can be no 

 excuse. There are, however, some encoura(j- 

 ing features as well. There seems to be an 

 activity on the part of bee-keepers in demand- 

 ing attention to the truth that was hardly 

 known in the years gone by when Prof. Wiley 

 made his unfortunate false step. Possibly 

 as a result from this, but from whatever 

 cause, there seems a more general inclination 

 on the part of the public press to do the fair 

 thing by bee-keepers in the way of retracting 

 errors and publishing truth. True, that in- 

 clination is by no means universal; but that 

 could hardly be expected. 



Among the papers that have shown a dis- 

 position to give space ungrudgingly to have 

 wrongs righted may be mentioned two very 

 influential journals in their respective spheres 

 — the National Stockman and Farmer, and the 

 American Grocer. The Stockman is a well- 

 known authority in the agricultural world, 

 and has published a plain and full discussion 

 of the matter which seems to be written in as 

 strong terms as were at the command of Dr. 

 C. C. Miller. The American Grocer, with its 

 prestige of years' circulation in the grocery 

 trade, devotes half of one of its large pages to 

 an article headed, " A Great Damage to the 

 Grocery Trade," written by W. P. Root, the 

 " Stenog " of Gleanings. Mr. Root indig- 

 nantly denies that there was any secrecy 

 about the production of honey, gives a cut of 

 a comb foundation machine and a frame hav- 

 ing foundation fastened into it, and shows 

 that artificial comb honey can have no possi- 

 ble existence. 



Let the good work go on, and let bee-keep- 

 ers everywhere continue their efforts with the 

 local press to have the truth placed before the 

 public. 



Improvement of Stock still holds the 

 floor as a live topic. G. M. Doolittle discusses 

 the matter conversationally in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture, and among other things says: 



A score or more years ago I began to turn 

 my attention to this matter, and soon adopted 

 the following plans; At the close of each 

 honey season I struck an average of the num- 

 ber of pounds of surplus honey produced by 

 the whole apiary ; and then all the colonies 

 which did not come up to this average were 

 marked. These colonies were united, either 



in tlie fall or spring, with others, which had 

 pi'oduced an average amount, or al)Ove, if 

 such uniting was deemed advisable, through 

 coliiiiies light in bees or scarcity of honey. If 

 all were not disposed of in this way (of course 

 I always destroyed the poorest queen and ro- 

 taiiH'd the other). 1 superseded the inferior 

 queens by tho.se reajcd from colonies known 

 to have produced the very largest amount. 



He emphasizes the importance of keeping a 

 careful record of each colony, and says : 



Prolillcness, length of life of the workers, 

 whiteness of cuppings, wintering qualtitics, 

 etc., are all looked after, and all queens at all 

 times are reared, as far as possible, from those 

 giving the highest number of points along all 

 these lines, and in this way any apiary can be 

 kept steadily improving instead of holdiug its 

 own or retrograding. 



Insurance for Bee-Keepers is a topic 

 of some prominence in the British Bee Jour- 

 nal nowadays, and enthusiasm is shown over 

 the prospect of carrying out the scheme. The 

 object of the scheme is for the purpose " of in- 

 suring bee-keepers against loss from damage 

 done by their bees." That raises the question 

 whether there is not more damage done by 

 bees in England than in this country. 



Rambler's Big Scheme. — Rambler is 

 nothing it not a schemer, and now he has a 

 new scheme in Gleanings in Bee-Culture, 

 which is nothing less than the idea of getting 

 a large amount of capital invested in bees, and 

 the business so managed as to be largely freed 

 from the element of uncertainty. This he 

 thinks might be done by having the same 

 company own bees in a number of different 

 locations widely separated, in which case a 

 failure in one locality might be more than bal- 

 anced by a big harvest in another. One might 

 need some study before deciding that the 

 plan could succeed even on paper. 



All Help to Raise the Standard.— 



It may be thought by some that those who are 

 laboring for the improvement of their stock 

 of bees are not at all dependent upon others, 

 and that a few leaders working together may 

 raise the standard for the whole country. 

 While a single person may do much to raise the 

 standard, if the matter is looked at in the right 

 light it will be seen that so long as we can not 

 control the fecundation of queens the most 

 obscure bee-keeper in the land may have a 

 certain degree of influence toward preventing 

 that raising. For drones reared by him may 

 have their evil effect upon the character of 

 colonies two, three, or more miles away, and 

 these again in a diminishing degree upon col- 

 onies still farther out, and so on. Is it not for 

 the general good to have all interested in the 

 work ? 



Changing; IjOoationH. — When one reudg 

 about localities that are paradises for bee- 

 keepers, there is very likely to be some feel- 

 ing of dissatisfaction with one's present loca- 

 tion ; but if an actual change is made it is not 

 always an improvement. Both sides of a 

 story are not always fully told, even if noth- 

 ing but the truth is told on the one side. 

 Here are .some very sensible words spoken by 

 J. K. Hand, in Gleanings in Bee-Culture: 



There are a great numl)er of things to be 

 considered in changing to a new location. I 

 have been in some of these paradises, and 

 there are other things to be desired besides 

 securing a large crop of honey. Many of 

 these places are far from market: and unless 

 bee-keepers have an organization to protect 

 themselves, they are at the mercy of spectula- 

 tors who will buy their product at their own 

 price because they cannot ship it themselves; 

 and then most of these locations are already 

 overstocked, and strangers will meet with any- 

 thing but a hearty welcome. A good, acces- 

 sible market, with a fair to poor honey -yield, 

 is more desirable than a good crop that is 

 practically inaccessible to market. This past 

 season has decided that, for me. the proper 

 solutiou of this jiroblem rests in improved 

 methods, careful management, and in develop- 

 ing the resources already at hand. 



Improvement of Bees. — Arthur C. Mil- 

 ler says in the American Beekeeper : 



Well, until we find some feasible way of 

 controlling the mating of the queens there is 

 but little we can do in the way of improve- 

 ment. We can select for our propagating 

 stock those colonies which seem to possess 

 the greatest number of desirable qualities; we 

 can suppress the drones of all other colonies. 

 We can use the utmost pains and care to rear 

 strong, vigorous drones and queens. 



Some would hardly agree that doing thus 

 much was doing " but little." At any rate, if 

 III! bee-keepers would only do so much as to 

 see that their increase was made from their 

 best stock instead of the usual way of having 

 the most Increase from those most given to 

 swarming, it would make a very appreciable 

 difference in the general character of stock 

 throughout the countrv. 



A Law Against Bo.\-Hives is advo- 

 cated in Gleanings in Bee-Culture by J. M. 

 Hambaugh. At first glance it would appear 

 arbitrary and unreasonable to prevent a man 

 from keeping his bees in any kind of a hive 

 he chose, but after reading what Mr. Ham- 

 baugh says about the dilHcultj' of detecting 

 disease in hives from which the frames can 

 not be lifted, the unreasonableness does not 

 appear so clear. He says in part: 



Foul brood, black brood, and all the dis- 

 eases known in the category can fester and 

 thrive in these old non-movable-comb hives, 

 so far as the efforts of the inspectors are con- 

 cerned, from observations that can be gained 

 in the brood-chamber, and so the non-progres- 



