340 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



tesimal part of the cost that it takes to send 

 some one after them ? 



If thpy can not be domesticated in India they 

 certainly could not be in this country; so we 

 would determine this point tirst before we 

 went to further expense. But even if they 

 could not be domesticated they might be of 

 advantage in the way of the fertilization of 

 certain flora by letting them run wild in Cali- 

 fornia and the South. 



Now, I suggest that bee-keepers, instead of 

 trying to encourage a scheme that would cost 

 the general government thousands of dollars, 

 wait to see what the A. I. Root Co. can do 

 through Mr. Rambo. This would cost the 

 general bee-keeping world practically nothing. 



We expect to have another interview with 

 Mr. Rambo before he leaves for his mission 

 field, and all details will be further discussed. 



QUEENS EXCLUDED FROM THE MAILS. 



A GENTLEMAN conversant with mail matters 

 informed E. T. Abbott, ex-president of the N. 

 A. B. K. A., that the government was " talking 

 of excluding queens from the mails." This 

 would indeed be a calamity to the bee-keepers 

 of the United States. The sending of queens 

 by mail has grown to be a large and important 

 industry. Anywhere from five to ten thousand 

 dollars' worth of queens are sold in a single 

 season in this county alone. Great good results 

 in the interchange of stock, and without this 

 Interchange there would very soon be in- 

 breeding. 



Our older readers will remember that there 

 was a time when queens were debarred from 

 the mails, simply because one ignoramus of a 

 bee-keeper attempted to send a queen and some 

 bees in a flimsy paper box. Of course, the box 

 broke and let the angry bees out into one of the 

 important offices of the service. The result 

 was that Uncle Sam shut down on sending any 

 more queens through the mails, and we all had 

 to send queens by express at a charge of from 

 15 cts. to $1.00. These charges, for the time 

 being, killed the industry. I wonder if another 

 ignoramus has tried sending bees or queens in 

 another paper box, or doing something else 

 equally foolish. It would be interesting to 

 know why the government should be talking 

 at this time about "excluding queens from the 

 mails." Bee-keepers have enjoyed the privi- 

 lege for the last 15 years, and we were not 

 aware that there had been any trouble since 

 the paper-box incident. 



It was Prof. A. J. Cook who made a special 

 trip to Washington to get the queens readmit- 

 ted to the mails, and he was successful: but 

 the condition was made that there should be 

 two sheets of wire cloth over the opening 

 to the cage. But in later years bee-keepers 

 have. Instead of two sheets, used one, and a 

 thin strip of board over the wire. This con- 



forms to the spirit of the law— in fact, is better 

 than the two pieces of wire cloth. 



WORK FOR THE NEW UNION. 



The United States Bee-keepers' Union, re- 

 cently organized, has been advised of this mat- 

 ter; and as a member of the Advisory Board I 

 feel sure it will take energetic and prompt 

 action. But in order to accomplish much in 

 this or any other direction there must be more 

 means and more funds at the disposal of the 

 General Manager, Mr. Secor. Under the cir- 

 cumstances, the new organization has made a 

 good start; but it needs something more than a 

 good beginning to do the work that it has laid 

 out for itself. Bee keepers everywhere who 

 are interested in seeing that queens are not 

 shut out from the mails, in fighting dishonest 

 commission men, in coping with the adultera- 

 tion evil— in fact, in any and every thing that 

 needs intelligent and organized effort, should 

 send in their names, accompanied bv 61 00, at 

 once to the General Manager, Eugene Secor, 

 Forest City, la., or to the Secret 'ry, Dr. A. B. 

 Mason, Station I> Toledo, O. If more conven- 

 ient, the moroy may be sent to Mr. G. W. York, 

 lis Michigan Sr,., Chicago, or to this office, and 

 we will see that ihe money is duly forwarded, 

 and the persons enrolled as members. Remem- 

 ber, the amount is $1.00. This entitles you to 

 all the privileges of the organization, and al- 

 lows you to have a voice in certain matters at 

 the annual mi eting, whether present or not. 



HOW HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF. 



The little opposition that has been stirred up 

 against the new drawn foundation is not so un- 

 like the opposition that was urged against rail- 

 roads in China, where, after using one a while, 

 they tore the rails up, as the cars "disturbed"' 

 the repose of their ancestors. (The new drawn 

 foundation seems to have disturbed the " re- 

 pose "of a few bee-keepers). When railroads 

 were first suggested in this country, so great a 

 man as Daniel Webster " proved" in Congress 

 that a railroad train could never go up grade, 

 could not be stopped within twenty miles on a 

 level, and never on a down grade; that it was 

 not safe, and yet he lived to see them stopped 

 in their own length at any point. The English 

 bridgebuilder, who built the great Victoria 

 bridge over the St. Lawrence River, declared 

 that the proposed suspension bridge at Niag- 

 ara would never hold its own weight up, that 

 it was not safe, and "proved" it— by riding 

 over it in a car while on his way to dedicate 

 his own bridge further on. In these latter days 

 a few have tried to make out that the new 

 product is going to ruin the bee-keeping indus- 

 try, and, according to their opinion, they have 

 "proved" it too. As prophets they can look 

 backward better than forward. But railroads 

 and suspension bridges have come to stay, and 

 so has the new drawn foundation. 



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