(Entered at the PostOCBce at Chicago as Second-Class Mall-Matter.) 

 Published Weekly at $1.00 a Year, by George W. York & Co., 3.t4 Dearborn Street. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL,. FEBRUARY 6, 1907 



VoL XLVII-No. 7 



editorial ^ofes 

 and Commenfs 





Value of Honey as Hood 



Mr. Harry Lathrop, one of Wisconsin's 

 leading bee-keepers, sends in tiie following 

 on tlie use of honey as food : 



Happy the man who can eat all the honey 

 he desires — and has the honey to eat 1 



I have met not a few, who say they can not 

 eat honey, having had an overdose when they 

 were young. I usually tind, on further in- 

 quiry, that it was on the occasion of the cut- 

 ting of a bee-tree that they gorged them- 

 selves on the sweet, were made sick, and ever 

 after nature rebelled against that which had 

 caused pain and trouble. 



It is easy to see how one could overdo in 

 this way, at a time when one has tramped 

 through the forest until tired and hungry, 

 then endured the excitement of felling the 

 tree and having suddenly a lot of honey ex- 

 posed in the most tempting manner, with 

 combs broken and dripping, and having the 

 delicious flavor of wild honey. The men and 

 boys at such times are apt to forget that 

 honey is a concentrated food, of high nutritive 

 value, and should be eaten with lighter and 

 more bulky foods, unless only a little is taken. 

 If they would take the precaution to carry 

 along a jug of sweet milk, and some nice 

 light bread, they could enjoy a feast there be- 

 side the fallen bee-tree that would be fit for a 

 king, and there would be no bad after effects, 

 no disgusted stomach to protest in after years. 



But if those who have been indiscreet will 

 teach their stomachs that there is really no 

 harm in a little honey eaten properly, I be- 

 lieve they would soon be able to use honey 

 again with safety and satisfaction. 



I find that honey is a good winter food here 

 in Wisconsin. I use it daily, and am almost 

 entirely free from colds and sore throat, of 

 which there seems to be a plenty among the 

 people around me. 



If only all the people would leave off the 

 use of tobacco, and other like things, and use 

 the money, so wasted, in the purchase of 

 honey, and nice butter and milk, how much 

 better health they would have ; and the bee- 

 keepers would have a much better market for 

 their honej. Harkt Lathrop. 



The foregoing is a good sample of the kind 

 of reading matter that should appear in the 



newspapers throughout the country, to help 

 create a more general demand for honey. Mj. 

 Lathrop speaks from experience concerning 

 the value of honey. Such testimony is val- 

 uable. No doubt many other bee-keepers 

 could duplicate what he says. Why not all 

 who can, just write something like the above 

 for the local newspaper? Almost any of the 

 editors of such papers would be glad to pub- 

 lish it. It is a work that is helpful in two 

 ways— it benefits the public to know the true 

 value of honey as food, and it should help the 

 producers of honey to secure an increased de- 

 mand, which doubtless would result in better 

 prices being realized for table honey, at least. 



Black Bees vs. Italians 



On page 9U9 (10(16), some comments were 

 made upon a controversy between two British 

 subjects — one in .\ustralia and one in Scot- 

 land. Referring to this, the " party of the 

 second part " writes as follows: 



" In .\ll Things Chabitt." 



Yes, Mr. York, your motto, text, a precept 

 — whichever way we regard it — is an admir- 

 able one. But the pity of it is that we rarely 

 call it up to memory except when counselling 

 the ''Other fellow." It is perhaps a vice of 

 the age that too many of us — 



" Compound for sins are inclined to 

 By damning those we have no mind to. " 



Now, I have no objection to anything you 

 wrote on pages 90Si and 910 (1906), and I will 

 not even cavil at the word " savagely," but 

 charitably presume it is merely a misprint for 

 "severely." Hurriedly written, they are 

 similar ! Our Antipodean brother is evidently 

 prepared to write me down an ignoramus, at 

 which I am not greatly concerned; but you 

 kindly stop short of this, for which thanks. 

 Believing with the poet that " there is no 

 darkness like ignorance," I will most readily 

 eat humble pie if I aiu wrong, and even grate- 

 fully thank the benefactor who enlightens 



me. Your article all over is very fair-minded, 

 and you in particular grasp two essential 

 facts, viz. : that there are blacks and blacks, 

 just as there are Italians and Italians, and 

 that even the blackest blacks are not so black 

 as they.are painted. To confirm you in the 

 first belief, I can assure you that, not only in 

 the British Isles, but over a large area of Con- 

 tinental Europe, they are the predominant 

 race, and the bm to pay. To convince you on 

 the second head, let me take you on a trip in 

 spirit, to far away Australia. ' 



In the corresponding issue of the Austra- 

 lian Bee-Keeper there appeared a glowing ac- 

 count of the excellent returns obtained from 

 about 40 colonies of blacks, and the writer 

 had no word of his hives being wiped out 

 wholesale or otherwise. 



Again, in the current number of the same 

 bee-paper, you can have further proof, at first 

 hand, in favor of my side of the question. \t 

 the conference of the Victorian .Apiarists, the 

 president stated that " he did not agree with 

 the statement that black bees have a weaker 

 constitution than Italians." Mr. D. Morgan, 

 a gentleman who should know, considered 

 that " it was proved, that when an Italian 

 colony gets these diseases it is wocsc with 

 them than with blacks." .Mr. .Anderson who 

 read an informative paper, stated decidedly 

 that, as the fruits of a good deal of experi- 

 ence, he could affirm that "he introduced 

 foul brood when he introduced Italians and 

 goldens." Mr. Beuhne, a leading apiarist 

 insisted on the fact that "too much was 

 claimed for Italians that is not characteristic 

 of the race." Finally, one gentleman even 

 suggested that it might be advisable " to in- 

 troduce blacks to improve the strain." 



It is facts we want, strike as they may. If 

 I am an ignoramus, I err in good company 

 Quoting from the same book as you did I 

 would say, " In the multitude of counsellors 

 there is wisdom " — and truth. 



That blacks are not an effete race even 

 in Australia, is proved in the last Bulle- 

 tin, and that, too, by a breeder of Italians 

 who has 40 years' experience behind him. Oa 

 page 143, Mr N. Abram writes: " When the 

 bees of an apiary prosper so as to be rather 

 above the average under the prevailino- con- 

 ditions, then, no matter what kind of bees 

 they are, blacks or Italians, there is no need 

 to interfere." 



Again, even Mr. Tipper himself goes far to 

 confirm my contention, for on another page 

 of the very same paper, where he falls foul of 

 my condemnation of the unfair treatment 

 accorded to blacks, he tells so woeful a tale 

 of the deplorable condition in which he found 

 his own apiaries, and the heavy losses (50 to 

 75 percent, I think), that one would conclude 

 that his colonies were all headed by the des- 

 pised and reviled black queens, unless that 

 we are expressly informed that they were 

 Italians, carefully bred from the best blood ia 

 the world, and the result of 25 years' carefnl 

 selection. No wonder Mr. Morgan, at the 



