1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



389 



and wide, that lionest men iiiav not be imposed 

 upon by them. March .5, 1888. John W. ]Man- 

 ning, Salinevilie, Cohimbiana Co.. ().. corres- 

 ponded with us in I'egard to some maple sugar 

 and honey. After getting prices, and very like- 

 ly samples, he sent us his order. It ri'ads as 

 follows: 



Inclosed find $8.6.5. Send the following- goods by 

 express. J. W. Manning. 



Well, it transpired that the ?=8.r)5 was })ot in- 

 closed: but on the back of the order our friend 

 writes: 



Send C. (). D. I had not time to get order in tliis 

 mail. 



Now, as C. O. D. would make additional trou- 

 ble and expense, we thought to do him a kind- 

 ness by sending him the honey and sugar right 

 along. We know hf)w it is ourselves a good 

 many times, when we hardly have time to get 

 an important order off before the mail closes. 

 Well, we did not get our money; and the book- 

 keepers, after a long lot of writing and waiting, 

 along in the fall of ISSH got the following: 



A. I. R<H)t:—Dcir Sir:— 



Yours of Oct. l«tli is received, and in lejily I will 

 say tliat. if I owe you tlie amt)unt, S6.T4, as you 

 claim, and due since March, 1888. I will settle "the 

 -same as soon as I possibly can. The way I suppose 

 the matter c;ime in this shape, it wa^ tio fault of 

 mine. I was a way from home about that time, for 

 some length of time, and the matter was not 

 brought id my attenlion. and I did not g-et a state- 

 ment to the effect you speak about. J. W. M. 



Well, the above was bad enough, but we con- 

 cluded to let it go. By the way. I want to say 

 that a real good business man will not fail in 

 his fair and square promises, even if he is called 

 away from home: therefore his statement, 

 which we have put in italics, we do think is 

 true— that it is no fault of his. Well, we kept 

 •on urging him luitil Aug. 26, ISSK), when he 

 winds up with the following: 



If you think it advisable to throw off' a part you 

 charge for youi- imitation honey, let me know. j". M. 



Since then we have been unable to get any 

 thing from him at all. It affords a good illus- 

 tration of the way one is led to step from the 

 straight and narrow path, and to yield to tempt- 

 ation. First, he said he did not have time to 

 get his money order made out before the mail 

 closed, and asked us to send along the goods 

 without the money. This may have been true, 

 and he may have been honest in what he said. 

 But after he got the goods, his anxiety to pay 

 the just debt seems to have a good deal abated. 

 He next excuses himself for breaking his prom- 

 ise, by saying that he was ''away from home." 

 Then he makes different kinds oif pretexts, and 

 pretends to be offended because of our nuiuei'- 

 ous duns, as if it were our duty to give up and 

 let it go and sit down with folded hands, and 

 be happy. Finally he decides, f(ro ycais mid 

 fine inoitths after we sent him the honey with- 

 out the money, that (come to think of it) the 

 honey was •■ (/((ifrffjon.'" Now. if we have any 

 more such men in the State of Ohio, or any 

 other State, let us have their names printed so 

 that we may all get acquainted with them. I 

 tell you. there is nothing like '•(jetting ac- 

 quaihted.'' 



A 30 PER CENT AD VAI.ORE.M DUTY ON IMPORT- 

 ED QVEENS. 



Mr. W. C. Frazier, of Atlantic. la., recently 

 w rote us, asking whether there was a duty on 

 impoi'ted queens. We replied, to the effect that 

 there was nom', because queen-bees were used 

 for breeding-purposes, and therefore exempt. 

 It se(uns that Mr. Frazier was not entirely sat- 

 isfied, and so he wrote to the deputy collector 

 of customs, in New York, in regard to the mat- 

 ter. His reply is as follows: 



Custom-house, New Y'ork, / 



Collector's Office. i Apr. 2, 1891. 



TV. C. Frazier, E.^q., Atlantic, Iowa: 



Sir:— In reply to your letter of the 30th ult., I 

 have to say that " bees " would be classified as " live 

 animals" upon importation, dutiable at 30 per cent 

 (id valnrem. under N. T.. Sr.l. Animals imi«)rted 

 specially for breediiig-purpoSL's are exempt .from 

 duty under N. T., 483. ui)oii comidiance with the re- 

 quirements of the law and Treasury regulations— 

 to wit, production of :i duly autheiUicated invoice- 

 certificate of identification sworn to by the inqiort- 

 ei— certificate or score and pedigree, authenticated 

 by the jjroper custodian o' the book of record estab- 

 lished for the breed in question, and rei)ortofthe 

 apiarian after e.xamination. The importation of 

 '■ bees" through the mails from Italy is prohibited 

 by law, and, if so imported, they would be liable to 

 fine and seizure. Kespectfully yours, 



H. D. Stanwood, 



Deputy Collector. 



We thought there must be some mistake, and, 

 if so, Prof. Cook was just the man to see that 

 the matter were set right, as he had. in years 

 gone by. handled successfully the transmission 

 of queens through the mails. He wn)te to his 

 friend and former co-worker of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, Edwin Willits, now Act- 

 ing Secretary of the Department of Agriculture, 

 Washington, I). C: and his reply, which Prof. 

 Cook has very kindly forwarded on to us, is as 

 below: 



Department of Agriculture, 



Office of the Secketary, 



Washington, D. C. 



P/o/. ^. J. CooA:— Yours of the 16th instant is at 

 hand, relative to the bee-question and the importa- 

 tion of queen-bees from Italy, upon which, under 

 the new tariff', they cliarge 20 pei' cent duty. I have 

 written to the Secretary of the Treasury this day, 

 inclosing- a copy of the correspondence, and asking 

 him if it is possible for him to make a ruling that 

 shall let bees come in free of duty. 



There is no question but that b^es sliould be class- 

 ified under the new Tariff Act, as animals; and the 

 general law is. that the duty on imported animals 

 shall be twenty per cent, under Section 351 of the 

 Tariff Act; but in the tree list, under Section 183, 

 anj- animal imported specially for breeding-pur- 

 poses shall be let in free; and then comes the provi- 

 so, which is, in substance, that, in order to relieve 

 the importation from the duty, it shall conform to 

 the requirement stated in the Deputj' Collector's 

 letter. It is \evy manifest, that the person who 

 drafted the proviso had in his eye only domestic 

 animals, and had no thought of any other animals, 

 and, in fact, no thought of bees, or "that bees would 

 be called "animals." 1 am afraid that the proviso 

 is so restricted that the Secretary of tlie Treasury 

 will have no discretion. However, I have asked 

 him to see whether he can give it some construction 

 that will help us out. Edwin Willits, 



Acting Secretani- 



Accompanying this letter froiu the secretary 

 was one from Prof. Cook, which we reproduce 

 herewith: 



Dear Friend 7?oof;— This loolss Ijad. We have a 

 friend "in court " who will do all that is possible 

 for us. It w^ll be bad if we have to wait for special 

 legislation. A. J. Cook. 



Ag'l College, Mich., Apr. 34. 



It looks as though we should have to submit 

 to the inevitable until special legislation can 

 be enacted in our behalf. As the acting secre- 

 tary says. ■' The person who drafted the proviso 

 had in his eye only domestic animals." Per- 

 haps I should add further, that the deputy col- 

 lector has probably made an eri'or in regard to 

 bees througli the mails. They are not prohib- 

 ited by law. The January Postal Guide for 

 1891 gives a list of the European countries to 

 which queen-bees may be sent, and in that list 

 is Italy. It would be a little strange if, recipro- 

 cally, Italy could not send any queens to us. 

 If she can not. it is a very recent enactment of 

 the postal magnates. We will have the law- 

 tested again at an early date. 



