jfsWoJ 



1801 





42dYEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAFCH 20, 1902, 



No, 12. 



* Editorial. ^ I 



The Homo Honey Market.On paj^e 

 182, Mr. C. P. Dadanl has an artU'le that will 

 hear reading over several times, or until it is 

 thorous;hly learned. We have never been 

 quite able to understand just why it is, that 

 so many honey-producers have not yet been 

 able to see that almost invariably the most 

 profitable marliet for honey is the home mar- 

 ket — right among the people living not further 

 perhaps than five or ten miles from their 

 apiaries. 



As Mr. Dadant well says, honey is different 

 from wheat, corn, potatoes, pork and beef. 

 There is always a settled city market for such 

 products, these having become staples, an<l 

 thus in constant demand. What is needed 

 now is for every bee-keeper to push the sale 

 of honey everywhere until it, too, shall be in 

 demand, eiiual, it possible, to that of soap 

 and bread. 



Small bee-keepers need never fear that the 

 city market will become bare of honey, espe- 

 cially of extracted; for there are the large 

 producers of hone}', or specialists, w'ho pro- 

 duce by the ear-load — they will keep the large 

 centers of population well supplied w-ith 

 honey. But there is often little sense in any 

 bee-keeper who produces a ton or less, ever 

 shipping it to a city market. There is scarcely 

 a town or village but what, if properly 

 solicited, would use several tons of honey on 

 their tables in the course of a year. 



Most people are fond of honey. Only con- 

 vince them that it is the product of the bee, 

 and they will not be long in purchasing, and 

 also in consuming it. 



Bee-keepers need to get close up to the 

 editors of their local newspapers, and induce 

 them to give to their readers information on 

 the use of honey, which information the bee- 

 keeper would need to furnish. It would pay 

 to invite the editor to visit the apiary about 

 the time of taking honey off the hives, and 

 show him how that part of the work is done. 

 Of course, no true bee-keeper would be so 

 forgetful as not to present the vistor with a 

 liberal sample of the sweet product of the 

 hive. 



Mr. Dadant has given much good advice in 

 his article on another page, which, if followed, 

 will make this particular number of the 

 American Bee Journal of immense value. 

 There is often almost as much in selling a 

 crop well as there is in getting the crop in the 

 first place— whether that crop is honey or 

 cattle. 



An "Infallible" Method of Intro- 

 ducing (|ueens was given on page 070 (ini)l ) 

 by A. D. D. Wood, who says there: "This 

 may not be my own invention, yet I have 

 never seen it mentioned." This plan will be 

 found in " A Modern Bee-Farm,'' by S. Sini- 

 mins. On page llio of the IS'JS edition, after 

 emphasizing the point that where food is 

 given to a (lueen confined in a cage, " honey 

 from the same hive should alone be sup- 

 plied," he goes on to say, " and on no account 

 may any of the bees which accompanied her 

 be placed in the cage; but it is advisable to 

 give her an escort of some half-dozen young 

 workers picked from the comb just after 

 hatching, and taken from the hive in which 

 the queen is to be caged." 



This gives occasion to say that this book, 

 written Ijy so practical a man as Mr. Simmins, 

 is well worth possessing. Among the many 

 good things it contains may be found the 

 "Simmins fasting method" of queen-intro- 

 duction ; and the bleaching of sections, which 

 has had prominent mention in this country 

 within the past few years was probably first 

 given in this book nine years ago. 



Discrepancies Among Bee-Writers 



is the underlying text of a discourse from G. 

 M. Doolittle in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. He 

 says a rule in arithmetic and a rule in bee- 

 keeping are different things. Two and two 

 mal<e four always and everywhere ; what is 

 true about bees in one locality or season may 

 not be true in another locality or season. So 

 two men may both be right from their own 

 standpoints while appearing to hold widely 

 different views. 



The feeding of meal in spring is useless if 

 not mischievous, says A. It is a good thing 

 to give the bees in spring some substitute for 

 pollen, says B. Both are right, although ap- 

 parently in direct contradiction. In A's 

 locality there is plenty of pollen in spring, 

 either from early flowers, or else left over 

 from the previous year. In B's locality the 

 bees are short of pollen in spring, with no 

 early fiowers to yield it. One says put on 

 sections early ; another says not till, swarm- 

 ing. Both right : one wants to discourage 

 and the other to encourage swarming. So 

 with other things. But the wise reader will 

 get the views of all, and use what best fits his 

 own case. 



Instead of ceasing to read the bee-papers 

 because in the nature of the case there will be 

 real or apparent discrepancies, Mr. Doolittle 

 says: 



"One hundred dollars per year would not 

 hire me to cease from reading on this subject, 

 for it is to this reading that I owe nearly all 

 the knowledge I possess relative to bee-keep- 

 ing." 



DangerH ol' Inhreeding. — .Since inter- 

 est has been generally awakened to the im- 

 portance of striving for improvements in 

 bees, considerable as been said alxjut inbrewl- 

 ing. Some have cited examples from Nature 

 to show how she abhorred inijreeding in the 

 vegetable kingdom, etc. Others have cited 

 examples of iuiportant results obtained from 

 inbreeding, and from their writings one 

 would judge that not only should no pains lie 

 taken to avoid inbreeding, but that it is the 

 proper thing in the hands of every one. Still 

 others have held that only as necessity com- 

 pelled should inbreeding be resorted to. and 

 that good results were obtained in spite of, 

 rather than on account of, the mating of two 

 beings closely related. 



In the Bee-Keepers' Review, F. B. Simpson 

 discusses the matter at considerable length, 

 and he certainly can not be considered as en- 

 couraging inbreeding in the hands of the 

 every-day bee-keeper. While admitting that 

 " inbreeding has done us remarkable service 

 in improving our domestic animals," he 

 thinks the chances of success are so much 

 against it that only one man in a thousand 

 will be successful, and that man in only one 

 of a thousand cases. He says: 



So far as I have been able to learn, no man 

 of unprejudiced mind has yet claimed that 

 inbreeding will produce anything that can 

 not in time be produced without it, provided 

 we can supply a sufficient quantity of unre- 

 lated individuals. In breeding the domestic 

 animals, the great element of time enters into 

 the matter to such an extent that inbreeding 

 has proved a practical necessity : yet there is 

 no reason to believe it will be likewise with 

 the bee, for the generations are too frequent. 

 Also, as inbreeding can not be individual, but 

 only collateral, in bees, it is doubtful whether 

 it will have anything like the same effect for 

 good and likewise for evil as in the higher 

 animals. Furthermore, we have as yet no 

 proof that insects can be made to vary (heredi- 

 tarily) in as great a degree as the higher ani- 

 mals. It is true that the same laws of devel- 

 opment run through the entire system of 

 animated nature, but in her communal rela- 

 tions as against the individual, besides the 

 fact of parthenogenesis, places the bee on a 

 basis decidedly her own. 



On the whole, he thinks it would be a good 

 thing in actual practice for bee-keepers to let 

 inbreeding alone until something has been 

 ascertained experimentally as to its results 

 aiiiontj heex. 



•»■ 



The Large White CIoTer (Colossal 

 Lading) which has been highly spoken of in 

 foreign journals stands a chance of being tested 

 in this country, as the Gleanings in Bee-Cul- 

 ture people have secured some of the seed. It 

 may be a great improvement, but too much 

 should not be expected from it. It is not 

 likely that it is large enough to be harvested 

 as hay, and without this it may not be more 

 valuable than the common kind. 



