April 4, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Bees in a Dining-Room Decoration 



Mr. C.G. Chevalier sends the follow- 

 ing item : 



Mrs. Spender Clay is very busy just now 

 with the decorating of her house on Berlieley 

 Square, London. She has secured a mantel- 

 piece for the dining-room which is quaint, if 

 not beautiful. It represents a bear being 

 chased by a swarm of iDees, and the carving is 

 down to details. Each particular bee repre- 

 sents much labor and skill. 



If the artist had been at all faithful 

 in his representation, what an inter- 

 esting study this would be. Good 

 thing that Mrs. Clay's artistic tastes 

 run bee-ward instead of in some other 

 directions; but how much more inter- 

 esting she would find the real little 

 creatures in full life. 



Honey-Sandwiches 



Chop together English walnuts and 

 raisins in equal proportions. To each 

 cup of this mixture add 2 tablespoons 

 of honey and 1 of orange juice. Spread 

 between lightly buttered slices of 

 cream bread and cut into dainty 

 shapes. — Good HouseKeeping. 



A Sister's Success With Poultry 



It is undoubtedly a breach of trust to 

 put in print, without permission, part 

 of a private letter ; but the temptation 

 is too strong to be resisted to give as a 

 text the following extract from a late 

 letter of Miss Frances E. Wheeler, of 

 New York State, under date of Jan. 28 : 



Dear Miss Wilson : — We have had a very 

 uncommonly cold winter; but bees and birds 

 are fine. Our 27 White Holland turkeys are 

 sleeping in a woodshed and thriving with the 

 mercury below zero for days, and at one time 

 40 below. Not a toe is even frosted ! We are 

 running 200-odd ducks, and in 2 of our houses 

 have not lost a bird; in the other, jnst 3 

 young ones. That is a remarkable record; 

 but I don't expect you to appreciate it as 

 much as if I'd got off a big thing on bees. 

 Frances E. Wheelek. 



That's the text : now the sermon — at 

 least the application : 



Since a sister who shows herself so 

 successful and capable in the poultry 

 business has told us on page SO that in 

 the struggle for continued existence 

 bet ween the bees and one branch of 

 the chicken business, the bees won, it 

 seems very evident that there must be 

 something either quite profitable or 

 quite fascinating, or both, in the busi- 

 ness of bee-kteping for women. 



Bee-Keeping Woman's Work 



The new book, " The Bee-Master of 

 Warrilow," has a chapter entitled, 

 "Chloe Among the Bees." A woman 

 of philanthropic turn has established a 

 bee-farm which seems to furnish occu- 

 pation for quite a number of the gen- 

 tler sex, and she thus explains the ob- 

 ject of her enterprise : 



" This is an attempt, and, we believe, a real 

 solution to a very real difficulty. There are 

 thousands of educated women in the towns 

 who have to earn their own bread; and they 

 do it usually by trying to compete with men 

 in walks of life for which they are wholly un- 

 suited. Now, why do they not come out into 

 the pure air and quiet of the countryside, and 

 take up any one of several pursuits open there 

 to a refined, well-bred woman i Everywhere 

 the laborers are forsaking the land and 

 crowding into the cities. This is a farmers' 

 problem with which, of course, women have 

 nothing to do. The rough, heavy work in 

 the cornfields must always be done either by 

 men or machinery. But there are certain 

 employments, even in the country, that 

 women can invariabl.y undertake better than 

 men, and beekeeping is one of them. The 

 work is light. It needs just that delicacy 

 and deftness of touch that only a woman can 



bring to it. It is profitable. Above all, there 

 is nothing about it, from first to last, of an 

 objectionable character, demanding mascu- 

 line interference. In poultry-farming, good 

 as it is for women, there must always be a 

 stony-hearted man about the place to do un- 

 namable necessary things in a fluffy back- 

 shed. But bee-keeping is clean, clever, 

 humanizing, open-air work — essentially 

 woman's work all through.'' 



Speaking of one girl who seemed to 

 awaken especial admiration in the mind 

 of the visitors, the bee mistress said : 



" That girl came to me out of a London 

 office a year ago, an;i'mic, pale as the paper 

 she typed on all day for a living. Now she is 

 well and strong, and almost as brown as the 

 bees she works among so willingly. All my 

 girls here have come to me from time to time 

 in the same way out of the towns, forsaking 

 indoor employment that was surely stunting 

 all growth of mind and body. And there are 

 thousands who would do the same to-morrow, 

 if only the chance could be given them.'' 



Here is a picture of what was seen in 

 the apiary : 



" Here and there in the shade-dappled 

 pleasance figures were moving about, busily 

 at work among the hives, figures of women 

 clad in irim Holland blouses, and wearing 

 bee-veils, through which only a dim guess at 

 the face beneath could be hazarded. Laugh- 

 ter and talk went to and fro in the sun-steeped 

 quiet of the place; and one of the fair bee- 

 gardeners near at hand— young and pretty, I 

 could have sworn, although her blue-gauze 

 veil disclosed provokingly little — was singing 

 to herself, as she stooped over an open hive, 

 and lifted the crowded brood-frames one by 

 one up into the light of day." 



I wonder how many of the sisters 

 sing while working over an open hive. 

 But isn't it a pretty picture? The 

 whole chapter, as well as the rest of 

 the book, is beautifully written, and 

 although it would hardly do for a text- 

 book, it is very pleasant reading. 



rfes 



Rcf IcctioiiiS^ ^, B 



California Bcc-Kceper ^J(f^ 



liT W. A. t^KTAL, Alden Station, Oakland, Calif. 



Honey and the " Yellow " Press 



An editorial iu Gleanings states that 

 "the honey-business is not the only 

 one which suffers from the yellow 

 press." As the Ladies' Home Journal, 

 and several others of that ilk have 

 been called to account at divers times 

 by the aforesaid editor for publishing 

 untruths about the honey-business, I 

 suppose Editor Bok, of the aforemen- 

 tioned ladies' publication, is a yellow 

 journalist, and his paper a deep-dyed 

 saffron sheet, too. Let's take up a 

 subscription and buy a load of chemi- 

 cals and present the purchase to the 

 Ladies' Home Journal, that the Curtis 

 Publishing Co. may remove the offen- 

 sive color from their paper. And while 

 we are about it, we may help the other 



papers to get rid df the nasty color, 

 also. 



From a long, practical experience 

 with daily newspaper work, I can say 

 that no paper, daily or otherwise, re- 

 viles an industry for the very lust of 

 lying. No reputable publisher wishes 

 to tell an untruth about an industry, 

 for it is not good policy in the first 

 place. Some managers, however, make 

 it a rule of their office to let a misstate- 

 ment of fact go uncorrected rather 

 than let the readers know that it was 

 in error. This may be good policy for 

 the paper ; morally, it is not. 



I am not an apologist for sensational 

 journalism, but we must give some of 

 these publications the credit of leading 

 the strongest fight ever made by the 

 daily press of the country against the 



