July 31, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



485 



tdKa.v 1 chiiMipioiK'd Mr. Abljylt lit the Ijec'm- 

 ^lin^; of this trmil>U\ tiiicl h(tpe(i that tiie mat- 

 tor iiii^rht ln' ilr'<t|)|K'(i, anil that he (Atilmit) 

 iiiij;lit l>n |it'ri"illi'il tci IHl (iiil I In- iiiii'>(|iirc'il 

 leriii of Mr. .■^I'rur. Wlicri I was coiivim-cd, 

 after a cunferetu'o with Huine of our best men, 

 that tlie i)ro('tH?(lint;R respecting; his supposed 

 election was wliolly illegal, and out of order, 

 ami liow Mr'. Aliliotl. was atteinpliii;; t,o "force 

 tliiii^^s " irrespective of tlie conse<i»ieiices to 

 tlie AsstK'iatiiin at tlie very zenitli of its suc- 

 cess- just when it was [^ettiiit; to lie a power 

 for^ood — I felt Iluit I could no lotij^er sup- 

 port him. 



Six uieiuliers of tlie Hoard voteii for hini for 

 (leiieral .Manacer in the tirst place; but when 

 they came ill possession of the same faidsas 

 myself, twelve of theni unanimously voted 

 not U\ aceejit Mr. Secor's resi;;nation ; and a 

 (;ood majority of them voted also to declare 

 Mr. Abbott's election illegal and voiii. A 

 further reply to Mr. Abbott's points will 

 doubtless be made to tl)e membership direct. 



But I can not forbear noticing his reference 

 to Mr. Seeor. 1 have [irobably criticised him 

 privately as much as any member of the 

 Board, and Mr. Aliliott knows this; l)ut unless 

 it be to prejudice his readers I do not see 

 why this ))ublic attack should be made on 

 him (Secon when the iiuestion is not whether 

 Mr. Secor has been /iiyllfft'tit or i»n>nihrtfttt^ 

 but whether Mr. AIiIidU has the rii/lit to lay 

 f/(iim to the olHoe of General Manager. Mr. 

 Abbott says that " at the last election Mr. 

 Secor received only \'2 votes out of over 

 !HI0," and then goes on to say, "The member- 

 ship is not overly enthusiastic, to say the 

 least, about having him astieneral Manager." 



Is he grasplngi at straws i The implied as- 

 sumption from the aiiove ({uotatlon is that 

 there were IHio v(jtes raBl. and -Mr. Secor re- 

 ceived 172, or less than a llfth of them. The 

 fact is, there were oiiI,\ ;i;is votes cast, au^l Mr. 

 Seeor recived 17J, I heoi her ballots having been 

 "cast for 1(111 ilitTcrent members." The consti- 

 tution plainly says ; 



" Thetiencral Alanagur shall beelccted 



by ballot during the month of December, 

 during each year, by a majority vote of the 

 ntt'inhi'fs nuliu;/.'^ (Italics mine.) 



Mr. Abbott probably didn't intend to misrep- 

 resent the facts ; but the general public would 

 be misled. The fai't was, Mr. Secor received 

 a majority of all the votes cast, and therefore 

 was duly elected. But it is a wonder he re- 

 ceived any votes when there were lOlt other 

 men voteil for. and when he plainly stated, 

 when calling for votes for a new Manager, 

 that he did not wish to .serve any longer. Mr. 

 Abbott's statement, that "the memljership 

 is not overly enthusiastic, to say the least, 

 about having Mr. Secor as General Manager," 

 is as ungenerous as it is unfair. 



Regarding the Benton matter, while I once 

 thought it might have had an inlluence, I am 

 now in possession of facts that show conclu- 

 sively that it had nothing to do with the case. 

 If any of the members were prejudiced at all, 

 it was because of the treatment Mr. Abbott, 

 as Chairman of the Board, exhibited toward 

 Mr. Secor. 



Mr. Gilstrap — and a most e.xoellent man he 

 is — apparently saw only one side or a part of 

 the other side. If lie will withhold judgment 

 until he receives a full statement, I think he 

 will see the matter in a different light. 



E. R. Root. 



And thus endeth this controversy io thene 

 columns. U'c bullcve we have given txjth 

 sides a fair and ^ulllclent hearing. For us to 

 use more spac<- would be a waste; and the 

 majority of our readers, not Ijelng mendwrs 

 of the Association, care little about the 

 trouble, anyway. Personally, we have re- 

 frained from taking sides In the public discus- 

 sion, preferring not to meddle with either the 

 Board of Managers or Mr. Abbott in the set- 

 tlement of their dilliculties. We still hope 

 that everything may be amicably adjusted, 

 and that all may continue to be friends and 

 brothers as heretofore. 



Mr. R. A. BtrRNETT, of R. A. Burnett & 

 Co., is expecting to attend the Denver con- 

 vention. Things will likely get warm when 

 the question of selling comb honey by the 

 case or pound comes up for discussion. "R. 

 A." maybe able to help "Burn-ett" into 

 some of those conceited alfalfa boys, that 

 " there are others.'' 



Say, reader, if you want to see " A Hot 

 Time " in Old Denver the first week in Sep- 

 tember, you'd better arrange for yourself and 

 wife (or best girl, if so unfortunate as to have 

 no wife) to " get aboard the train," and run 

 up to Denver and help "litiuefy" some of 

 those candied apiarian Coloradoans! 



I Contributed Articles. | 



Does Not Think the Bees Were Poisoned. 



BV C. P. D.\D.\NT. 



The inquiry of a reader, on page 419, about tiie possi- 

 bility of tlie poisoning- of bees from spraying, attracts my 

 attention. 



It seems to me that the suspicions of the writer of this 

 inquiry are based upon an erroneous impression. Fruit- 

 bloom takes place early in May, and the loss of bees from 

 bee-poisoning would be immediate. Even if the poison was 

 fed to the brood, the bees would have shown the effects at 

 once. The brood would have perished in its earliest stages, 

 and the depopulation of the hive would have taken place 

 more than a month earlier than the time reported. 



The ragged-looking bees with frayed wings and shiny 

 bodies are only old bees that have worn themselves out by 

 continuous hard work. It is quite probable that in a wet 

 season like the present, the labor of the field tells more upon 

 the bees than in a dry summer. The worker-bee's life is 

 short — exceedingly short — during the long summer days. 

 The most practical method of testing this is by changing 

 the breed — Italianizing, for instance. If an Italian queen 

 is given to a colony of common bees and the black queen re- 

 moved on May 1, there are ten chances to one that not a 

 single black or common bee will be left in the hive by Aug. 

 1. In many instances it takes even less time. Yet, when 

 the black queen is removed on the first of May, she leaves 

 in the hive brood in all stages, and fresh-laid eggs which 

 will require some 22 days to hatch. So the last black bees 

 will have hatched May 22, and yet those bees will all have 

 died by Aug. 1. When we retlect that those same bees, if 

 they had been born Sept. 1, would have lasted till the fol- 

 lowing May — a part of them, at least — we must look for a 

 cause of this short life. The cause is hard work. 



After S to 10 days of sedentary lite in May and June, 

 the young bee begins its active work, and is constantly 

 on the go from early daylight till long after sunset. 

 At first it is covered with a thick down of hairs. Its wings 

 are perfect. Slowly and steadily, by repeated flights among 

 the grasses, in the calyx of flowers, it loses its downy 

 fleece, and its body begins to shine, bald looking, the wings 

 become worn, frayed and short, and some evening after a 

 hard day's work the poor laborer is unable to reach its 



home. Or, if it happens to get home with the last load, a 

 light breeze on the next trip will force it down in the dust 

 from which it will never rise. Thus, do our bees die out 

 during the summer days. Nature is a harsh and inexorable 

 mother. 



If the queen is healthy, and there is room in plentj- in 

 the breeding combs, the numbers are not too much depleted 

 by the natural wearing out of the old bees ; but if the queen 

 becomes tired, or is getting old, the laying may be reduced, 

 and tlie colony will soon show a decrease of activitj". 



In some cases it may be that the colony has swarmed 

 unknown to its owner, and not until the young queen has 

 been fertilized, and her first-laid eggs begin to hatch, will 

 the numbers increase in the hive. 



I believe it is to these causes, and not to spraying 

 poison, that your correspondent must ascribe the condition 

 of the bees mentioned. "' The sick bees have flown away." 

 Yes, just so. The poor worker, when her wings get so 

 frayed and so short from overwork that they can no longer 

 carry her, does not seem to realize what is wrong, and still 

 insists on going to work, and does fly away and drag her- 

 self till she falls exhausted in a ditch. She dies in the har- 

 ness. She is to be praised, and yet pitied. There ought to 

 be a time for bees, or for men, when the days of hard labor 

 should be crowned with a few days of rest and enjoyment ; 

 but the bees, like some men, enjoy nothing but hard work, 

 to the last minute of their life. Hancock Co., 111. 



Quoting the Honey Marltet. 



iCoutinued from page 470.) 

 SBLL HONEY THROUGH COMMISSION MEN. 



Editor York : — I have sold honey extensively for the 

 past 30 years on commission. From my knowledge of the 

 business, and observation of the marketing of honey, if I 

 were a bee-keeper I would place my product in the hands of 

 a commission merchant to sell in preference to trying to 

 sell to the "bargain hunters." 



First, I would find a responsible commission merchant 

 in a city of not less than 100,000 inhabitants — one wlio un- 

 derstood the grading and handling of honey, and had been 

 engaged in it for a number of years, thereby having worked 

 up a trade of regular customers that relied upon him for 

 their yearly supplies. 



Commission merchants in general lines of produce gen- 

 erally include honey in their price quotations, not so much 

 expecting consignments of honey as to give general mar- 



