189-: 



(JLEANINCIS IN HEE CULTURE. 



(WO 



"PAGts-TxIO 

 YEARj 



Read Mr. Mcliityre's article on the proposed 

 new bee-keepers* union. 



The following, iust received from iht^ serre- 

 tary of the N. A. U. K. A., will explain itself: 



FriV/idj K. : — You may say in llio m.'.\t issue uf 

 Gle.\NINOS, tliat tlio Kxi'ciilivi' Hcarcl of the North 

 Auiericaii has dei'uied (mMo liold tlii' coiivontion 

 duriii>!r the Ci. A. I{. eiicatniniu'nt. As soon as it is 

 known detlniU'ly at what time toward tlie end of 

 tlie year some soi-iety will meet in Wasliing-ton, Mr. 

 Benton will let us know, and the titne of liolding 

 I he meeting- will be deci<led. W. /,. Hutchinson. 



Flint, Mich.. Aug. 6. 



We have jtist received information from W. 

 .^. Pender, of West Maitland. Ans.. to the effect 

 that the postoflice department of New South 

 Wales is about to reconsider the matter of ad- 

 mitting queens to the mails to that province; 

 for. as you will remember, it was about to debar 

 them. In the meantime, any live bees arriving 

 in the province will be delivered. We hope, 

 therefore, that the matter will be considered In 

 the interests of bee-keepers. 



OiTR energetic friend Ed. Bertrand, of Nyon. 

 Switzerland, has just sent us a copy of the 7th 

 edition of his work. '"Management of the Api- 

 ary." entirely revised, and enlarged. The 

 mechanical work of the book is of the very best 

 grade. As Mr. Bertrand is so well known in 

 Europe, no recommendation of his work is 

 necessary on our part to those who can read 

 French. His ability as an apiculturist and as 

 a writer is well attested by the fact that he 

 assisted Mr. Charles Dadant in his French 

 compilation of Langstroth. The book is hand- 

 somely illustrated with 91 cuts and 3 plates. 

 copiously inde.xed. and contains 380 pages. 



Ox page 594, last issue, we announced that J. 

 H. Larrabee had been discontinued from his 



Eosilion as experimenter in apiculture to the 

 'nited States government. It will be remem- 

 bered that Prof. Cook requested bee-keepers to 

 write to the Department, asking that Mr. Lar- 

 rabee be retained. Besides sending a marked 

 copy, we sent a personal letter, and hav(! just 

 received word from the Department this morn- 

 ing, informing us that the employment of Mr. 

 Larrabee is (juite out of the (question, as the 

 appropriation by Congress has been reduced 

 from .$2T..5(XJ to -^IT.iStX), and that the latter sum 

 is insufficient to carry on the more legitimate 

 work of the Division. Mr. Frank Benton, how- 

 ever, is retained on the force at present, so api- 

 culture will not be entirely neglected. 



We have just learned that a prominent com- 

 mission liou>e— well, this side of the Mississippi 

 — has lieeii adulterating its consignuienis of ex- 

 tracted honey with glucose. This information 

 comes from one of their traveling salesmen, 

 who stated to a retailer that the crop of honey 

 was so short that it was necessary to piece it 

 out with corn syrup. As the information comes 

 in a sort of roundabout way we hope there is 

 some mistake. We shall investigate further: 

 and if the report is true, and they show no dis- 

 position to discontinue the practice, we may 

 test the law. By the way, so far we have in 

 two or three instances, as we have reason to 

 believe, stopped the adulteration in certain 



phices by simply warning the parlies that we 

 would proseeuie if we go! evidenee that they 

 wei'e continuing that disiepuiahle business. 

 Weil, now. a bi'c-keepers" protective union could 

 do that kind of work Ix'tter than we could. We 

 need a watch -dog to see iliat this miseral)le 

 "piecing out" work when the honey crops are 

 small isstfrpped and kept stopped. 



We have received two oi- three letters from 

 prominent bee-keepers, criticising the course 

 of Prof. Cook and ourselves in making peace 

 with Prof. Wiley so soon. Mention is made of 

 the fact that the chief chemist wrote an article 

 for \\\c America n An(tl]iKt,\n which he inti- 

 mated that th<' bee-jouniais have noi only de- 

 nied that honey is adulterated, but that they 

 might actually be in league, with the adultera- 

 tors. Of conrs(>, both of these are untrue. It 

 should be borne In mind that this article of 

 Prof. Wiley's was written before (although 

 published after) a reconciliation was effected, 

 and when he, like ourselves, was feeling some- 

 what at swords" points. We have every reason 

 to believe that he feels differently now": at any 

 i"ate, we are very sure that it is a better policy 

 to err on the side of charity. Prof. Wiley, in 

 his letters to us. and also to prominent bee- 

 keepers, regrets some of his public utterances, 

 and seems perfectly willing to work hand in 

 hand with bee-keepers. We feel fully satisfied 

 that he and the bee-keepers at large have for a 

 long time misunderstood each other: and the 

 thing for bee-journals to do now is to give him 

 a fair chance to prove his expression of good 

 will, and we believe he is sincere. 



HOXF.Y STATISTICS— REPORTS FROM ALL PARTS 

 OF THE UNITED STATES. 



Within the last two or three weeks we have 

 receiv<'d a large number of additional responses 

 in answer to our request on page o.^V, asking for 

 reports regarding the condition of the honey 

 crop of l.S9"2. This lequest. the ^4(»er(c«H Bee 

 Juuriud kindly copied, urging their readers to 

 send on their answers to us. Through the 

 courtesy of that journal we are enabled to make 

 this report very much fuller and more accurate 

 than we should otherwise have been able to do. 

 By condensing the repli<is, and collating them 

 together by States, we submit the result to you 

 in the revised table below. 



-Uabaina— fair. 

 Arkaiisa. — indifferent. 

 C ilifurnia— very poor. 

 Canada -fair. 

 Colorado— below average, 

 Connecticut — poor. 

 Delaware — very poor. 

 Florida— fair to good. 

 (Jcorgia — fair. 

 Illinois — poor to good. 

 Indiana— poor to fair. 

 Iowa— fair to very good. 

 Kansas— fair to good. 

 Kentucky -poor to fair. 

 Louisiana— fair. 

 Maine— fair. 

 Maryland— poor. 

 Massachusetts— fair. 



Mi 



Ml 



Ne 



i!j.'nii 



fair to good. 



( -cita fair to e.Ktra good. 



s-ipp- very poor. 



HiiMipsliire— fair. 



.Itrscy— poor. 



York— poor to fair. 

 North Carolina— poor. 

 Ohio— fair to extra good, 

 t'cnnsylvania— fair to good. 

 South Carolina— fair. 

 TeiuK-ssee— poor to fair. 

 T.N.is— poor to fair. 

 It. ill -poor. 

 WiiiiDiit— poor to fair. 

 \irtriiiia— fair. 

 VV.i>hintrton— good. 

 West Vii^rinia -poor. 

 Wisconsin -poor. 



The adjective or adjectives deliniiig the con- 

 dition of the honey season opposite each State 

 ri'presents the majority of the reports for that 

 State. In some cases only one or two liave re- 

 sponded for their States, ihe.se being mostly in 

 the South: but from the leading honey States, 

 reports came in very freely, so we think we are 

 enabled to give a pretty fair idea of the season. 

 For the United States as a whole, the honey 

 season has been a slight improvement over last 

 year, although we can not call it an average 

 year. It may be well to call attention to the 

 fact shown in the table, that Ohio. Iowa, Min- 

 nessota. Michigan, took the lead in honey pro- 

 duction this yeai". while California, usually the 

 banner honey State of thr^ Union, shows almost 

 a total failure. 



