1921 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



13 



Push Local Sales 



In the Eastern States many bee- 

 keepers report their entire crop of 

 honey sold at good prices. In the 

 west some large producers report 

 most of the crop still on hand and no 

 demand. The future price of honey 

 depends to a great extent upon the 

 present activity of the beekeeper in 

 stimulating the local markets. If 

 every beekeeper who has sold his 

 own crop will use every effort to han- 

 dle some of the crop still in the hands 

 of the less fortunate producer it will 

 help greatly toward preventing a 

 crash in prices. We must expect a 

 decline to keep pace with the drop in 

 prices of other commodities, but it 

 need not be a crash. 



Now is the time when every pro- 

 ducer should do everything possible 

 to extend the sale of honey. If the 

 beekeepers of the east will help to 

 dispose of the surplus in the west our 

 future markets will benefit greatly 

 from the effort. 



Increasing Consumption 



According to F. B. Paddock, State 

 Apiarist of Iowa, the consumption, of 

 honey has increased in that State by 

 one-third in the past three years. 

 This is the period covered by the 

 work of his department, which was 

 established by law on July 1, 1917. 

 While the department has helped to 

 increase production by the spread of 

 information concerning better meth- 

 ods, the publicity attending such ef- 

 forts has interested the general pub- 

 lic and increased the consumption of 

 honey at home. The beekeepers of 

 any State can make no better invest- 

 ment than to secure a department of 

 beekeeping at the agricultural col- 

 lege. It is interesting to note that 

 where the best work is being done at 

 the colleges of agriculture, prices of 

 honey rule highest and the demand 

 is best. In our news columns men- 

 tion is made of total production of 

 Iowa beekeepers. 



Possible Usefulness of 

 Moth Larvae 



They say that there is "nothing 

 new under the sun." But I believe 

 this is news: 



Mr. Etienne Giraud, of Le Lan- 

 dreau, France, writes us of a physi- 

 cian who is seeking a serum for cur- 

 ing tuberculosis. This Di. Charron, 

 of Nantes, holds that the bacillus of 

 tuberculosis is enclosed in a waxy 

 envelope which nothing, so far, has 

 been able to destroy. Knowing that 

 the moth-worm eats up beeswax, he 

 is trying to produce a serum which 

 would have the same power, and 

 holds that he is succeeding in pro- 

 ducing it, and that the gastric juice 

 produced by those wax-moth larvK 

 serves in dosing it and testing it. He 

 has so much faith in it that he has 

 put into the papers .n advertisement 

 asking for moth-worms, for which 

 he offers 500 francs per kilogram (a 

 trifle better than $14 per pound, at 

 exchange rates). A copy of this ad- 

 vertisement is under our eyes. 



The question is to secure safe ar- 



rival of the worms. So we may ex- 

 pect some day to see advertisements 

 of moth-worms, safe arrival guaran- 

 teed. This is earnest. Tuberculosis 

 is such a dread disease that it is 

 worth while for the world to try all 

 sorts of remedies. We are told that 

 the Academy of Medicine, of Paris, 

 is to make an investigation of this 

 discovery and pass upon its efficacy. 

 In case of success. Dr. Charron 

 would be immortalized like Jenner, 

 Pasteur, etc. 



Meetings 



Our editor has, for years, promised 

 to visit beekeepers' meetings in the 

 southeast. He is now planning to be 

 in Wilmington, North Carolina, at 

 the State meeting of beekeepers, 

 January 11. From there he will go to 

 New Jersey, at Trenton, January 13. 

 Mr. Elmer G. Carr, of Egypt, N. J., 

 reports a membership of 490 mem- 

 bers in New Jersey, and has ar- 

 ranged a 2-days' program, in which 

 there will be addresses from the 

 following icople: President Richard 

 D. Barclay; Dr. Geo. H. Rea, of 

 Ithaca; Howard M. Myers, of Ran- 

 somville, N. Y.; Charles H. Root, of 

 Red Bank, N. J.; Dr. Thomas J. 

 Headlee, of New Brunswick, and C. 

 P. Dadant. A banquet will be held at 

 the Carlton Restaurant on the eve- 

 ning of the 13th. 



From New Jersey, the editor will 

 go back to South Carolina, stopping 

 at Washington, D. C, the ISth and 

 16 , and attending a meeting of Vir- 

 ginia beekeepers at Lynchburg on the 

 17th. Meetings are to be held at 

 Clemson College, Anderson, Green- 

 ville, S. C, January 18 to 21; from 

 there he will go to Nashville for the 

 27th. 



Beekeeping and Aviation 



It is written in the fables of my- 

 thology that Daedalus, being a pris- 

 oner in the Labyrinth of Crete, with 

 his son, manufactured some wings 

 out of birds' feathers fastened to- 

 gether with beeswax and that he and 

 his son escaped out of the Labyrinth 

 by this means. But the son, heedless, 

 as many young people are, flew too 

 high. The sun melted the wax of his 

 wings and he fell into the Egean Sea. 

 Our modern aviators have not yet 

 resorted to beeswax to fasten to- 

 gether the wings of their planes. Yet 

 they are not much afraid of the sun's 

 heat when they fly too high. Many 

 pretty stories like this are shattered 

 by the discoveries of modern science 

 and daring. Too bad I 



Does the Queen Know the Sex 

 of Her Eggs? 



It is well known that the queen 

 rarely makes a mistake, when she 

 lays her eggs, never laying worker- 

 eggs in drone-cells, and rarely lay- 

 ing drone-eggs in worker-cells. Does 

 she then know the sex of the egg 

 which she is about to lay? Reau- 

 mur thought so, and said so, which 

 excited against him the feelings of 



his neighbor's wives in the country, 

 as they refused to believe that a sim- 

 ple "fly" was endowed with a faculty 

 of which they were deprived — that 

 of knowing beforehand the sex of 

 their progeny. — (Ruber's Unedited 

 Letters.) 



Poisonous Sprays 



The Purdue University Apicultural 

 Experiment Station publishes in Bul- 

 letin No. 247, an account of experi- 

 ments by Dr. W. A. Price upon the 

 poisoning of bees by solutions of ar- 

 senic, such as lime sulphur, arsenate 

 of lead, etc. The tests and tables are 

 too extensive to take place in our 

 columns. It is sufficient to quote the 

 conclusions, which show that a very 

 small amount of arsenic is sufficient 

 to kill bees; that the bees work 

 freely on sprayed trees and that, for 

 the sake of the bees, fruit trees 

 should never be sprayed with arsen- 

 ical solutions while they are in 

 bloom. 



The Mid- West Show 



The Mid-west Horticultural show, 

 held at Council Bluffs, Iowa, from 

 November 15 to 20, was probably the 

 biggest thing of its kind ever staged 

 in America. The exhibits were very 

 extensive and of fine quality. 

 Through its fortunate affiliation with 

 the Iowa Horticultural Society, the 

 Iowa Beekeepers' Association was 

 able to have hive products reco; 

 nized as allied to horticulture. 

 Honey was accorded a place in the 

 premium list and a few men made 

 very creditable exhibits. The bee- 

 keepers, however, were far behind 

 the other lines in the extent of their 

 showing. 



There were exhibits from county 

 associations of potato growers in 

 Wisconsin, as well as dozens of in- 

 dividual exhibits from various sec- 

 tions. There were wonderful ex- 

 hibits of cut flowers from many 

 States. Apples from Minnesota and 

 Wisconsin were arrayed against ap- 

 ples from Missouri and Arkansas, 

 but only the Iowa and Nebraska bee- 

 keepers living in the close vicinity of 

 Council Bluffs made exhibits. 



Beekeepers complain of a falling 

 market, yet when a great show, put 

 on at a cost of many thousands of 

 dollars, offered them space and 

 premiums, they overlooked the op- 

 portunity of bringing their product 

 to the thousands of visitors who at- 

 tended. The few beekeepers who did 

 come put up very fine exhibits and 

 were well paid for doing so, both in 

 premiums and in the advertising 

 which their products received. 



We are advised by the manage- 

 ment that bee products will be made 

 a permanent feature of the show 

 and that if possible larger premiums 

 will be offered next year. We sin- 

 cerely hope that beekeepers of the 

 middle west will wake up to the 

 importance of a really big display, 

 such as is put on by apple growers, 

 potato growers and florists. 



