220 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



June 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



=3 Established by Samuel Wigner In 1861 C= 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. 

 PublUhed Monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



SusscupiioN Rates — In the United States and 

 Mexico, $1.50 per year; five years, $6. 

 Canadian postage 16 cents, and other foreign 

 countries 25 cents extra, per year. 



All subscriptions are stopped at expiration. Date 

 of expiration is printed on wrapper label. 



THE STAFF 

 C. P. Dadant Editor 



FSANK C. Pellett Associate Editor 



Maueice G. Dada:it Business Manager 



(Copyright 1921 by C. P Dadant.) 



THE EDITORS' VIEWPOINTS 



Government Recognition of 

 Beekeeping in France 



An unknown friend sends us a 

 copy of the April 8th number of the 

 "Journal Officiel" of the French Re- 

 public, in which we find a speech by 

 Senator D'Estournelles de Constant, 

 comparing recovering France to "a 

 hive which barbarians have devas- 

 tated, but whose bees are reconstruct- 

 ing their home." From this simile, he 

 turns to a consideration of beekeep- 

 ing and calls attention to the fact 

 that bees "not only furnish the honey 

 which would have proved so service- 

 able in war time, but are a blessing 

 for several of our crops. Bees are 

 the hyphen between the flowers in our 

 meadows as well as in our orchards. 

 They fertilize our gardens, our plains 

 and even our mountain slopes." 



This leads to an eulogy of beekeep- 

 ing and of the products of the bees, 

 while mentioning the writers on bees 

 from Virgil to Maeterlink and Bon- 

 nier. The upshot of this speech is a 

 demand for a greater official recogni- 

 tion of beekeeping and laws to abso- 

 lutely prohibit the sale of artificial 

 honeys. A promise is made for 

 greater recognition of beekeeping in 

 the Agricultural Ministry, in future. 



A Similie on Bees in 

 Homer's Iliad 



We have just mentioned a similie 

 on bees in the speech of the French 

 Senator D'Estournelles de Constant. 

 We find in the New Standard Diction- 

 ary a quotation from Anthon's Ho- 

 mer: 



"As the bees came forth continu- 

 ally in fresh numbers, so fresh bands 

 of Greeks keep continually pouring 

 forth from the ships and tents." 



Bees often prove a good example to 

 human beings. 



Misunderstanding 



It seems that some have not un- 

 derstood the reference to the failure 

 of the Aluminum Honeycomb Com- 

 pany which appeared in our December 

 1920 issue. This w.,s the original 

 Aluminum Honeycomb Company, of 

 California, and not the Texas Com- 

 pany, which manufactures a similar 

 comb. The company first organized 

 was placed in the hands of a receiver 

 some months ago. Later the equip- 

 ment was sold to Duflfy-Diehl, of 

 Pasadena We believe i-hat both 



firms now advertising aluminum 

 combs in this journal are responsi- 

 ble, and that they will fill orders 

 promptly. We especially regret that 

 one foreign bee paper confused the 

 bankrupt concern with the Aluminum 

 Honeycomb Company of Texas, of 

 which E. G. LeStourgeon is manager. 



C. C. Miller's Memorial 



The subscription for a scholarship 

 to the memory of Dr. Miller is going 

 very slowly. Of course, many will 

 expect to send their donation this 

 month, at the anniversary of Dr. Mil- 

 ler's birth, when he would have been 

 90 years old. Besides, we can hardly 

 blame the American people, for being 

 slow on a subscription of this kind, in 

 view of the fact that so many millions 

 are going to the starving people of 

 Europe, China and Armenia. That is 

 laudable. But now, friends, if you 

 intend to do your part in this Miller 

 memorial, do it now. If we don't get 

 enough for a scholarship we may 

 build a monument. But if Dr. Miller 

 has ever done you any good through 

 his advice, and he has done good to 

 many, remember him, if it is ever so 

 little. 



John Burroughs 



The death of John Burroughs, on 

 his way home from California, on 

 March 29, removes one of the great- 

 est nature lovers, with keen powers 

 of observation and a most pleasur- 

 able ability in descriptions. He was 

 a bee-lover. His essays, in "Birds and 

 Bees." giving "An Idyl of the Honey- 

 Bee" and "Pastoral Bees," are de- 

 lightful reading, though at times 

 there are slight errors in his appre- 

 ciations. But there are jewels, also. 

 We read: 



"T have a theory that when bees 

 leave the hive, unless there is some 

 special attraction in some other di- 

 rection, they generally go against the 

 wind. They would thus have thj 

 wind with them when they returned 

 home heavily laden, and with these 

 little navigators the difi'erence is an 

 important one. With a full cargo, a 

 stiff head-wind is a great hindrance, 

 but fresh and empty-handed they can 

 face it with more ease. Virgil says 

 bees bear gravel stones as ballast, but 

 their only ballast is their honey bag. 

 Hence, when I go bee-hunting, I pre- 



fer to get to windward of the woods 

 in which the swarm is supposed to 

 have taken refuge." 



And, of course, the bees cannot 

 smell the flowers, unless these are in 

 the windward. So Burroughs was 

 surely right. 



A Good Move 



The American Honey Producers' 

 League is undertaking a number of 

 things for the benefit of the craft. 

 One of the latest is the appointment 

 of a committee which will endeavor 

 to arrange the conventions of the 

 various associations in consecutive or- 

 der. This is an arrangement very 

 much to be desired by the speakers 

 who make a practice of attending 

 conventions, since they can attend 

 more meetings with less travel and 

 with great saving in expense. It will 

 often make it possible for conven- 

 tions to secure speakers who would 

 otherwise be unable to attend. There 

 are many beekeepers, also, who will 

 find it easy to attend two or three 

 conventions where they have only 

 been attending one. Such a plan 

 should serve to increase the attend- 

 ance at the meetings as well as mak- 

 ing it much easier to prepare the 

 programs. 



It Looks Easy 



Beekeeping looks like a "snap" to 

 those who know nothing about it. A 

 newspaper clipping recently came to 

 this office which paints a pleasing pic- 

 ture of the profits gathered for the 

 farmer by the bees. According to 

 this particular newspaper story, the 

 only time which the farme." leods 

 gi\e them is the time necessary to 

 hive the swarm. He can then move 

 the bees after dark, to the place 

 where they are to remain, and need 

 not bother to remove the hon;y until 

 late in the fall, when his other work 

 is all done. It is stated that only a 

 few minutes are necessary to do this, 

 and almost any odd time will serve 

 the purpose. This is about the idea 

 of beekeeping entertained by the av- 

 erage man. It reminds us of one of 

 Secor's poems which runs as follows : 

 "I am one of them happy beemans 



Who don't have to work any more; 

 I sit all day in the apple tree shade 



And smoke mine pipe by the door." 



One very good turn thai the col- 

 leges are doing for the industry is to 

 educate the public to the fact that 

 beekeeping is a man's size job, which 

 requires a full day's work to make 

 any profit. 



Our Exchanges 



Although the American Bee Jour- 

 nal is probably the most costly pub- 

 lication on bees, published each 

 month, we are exchanging free, with 

 every bee publication in the world, 

 in any language, that desires the ex- 

 change. A number of publications 

 that came to us either stopped tem- 

 porarily or disappeared, since the be- 

 ginning of the world war. These pub- 

 lications which resume will bo wel- 

 come and the Journal will be sent 

 them when we receive their magazine 

 marked "Exchange." 



