1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



143 



uise of a wheel, where one rides as much as I do, would 

 pay for one in a single season. 



One of the worst drawbacks to the use of the wheel 

 is the impossibility of carrying bread and milk for 

 dinner. In the case of several of the yards there is 

 no place to get a meal, so we have to carry what we 

 have. At some of them we have a regular boarding- 

 pi ice, where we can get a dinner or stay over night. 



Even on the farm the wheel comes in handy. One 

 day recently, one of the horses was suddenly taken 

 sick. Brown got on his wheel/and hustled for a vet- 

 eiinarian. When the doctor got there he said he was 

 only just in time to save the horse's life. If we had 

 taken the time to hitch up another horse, that, togeth- 

 er with the time Brown made by "scorching," would 

 have made it too late. 



Sometimes people ask me how I manage to run my 

 out apiaries without a horse, but it is easy. My team- 

 ing costs me about the same as my bicycle-tires, and 

 can be paid for in honey at that. 



Speaking about bicycles, my advice is to 

 get a good one. Do not pay much less than 

 $40.00 — better pay §50.00. There are some 

 good wheels at $35.00 ; but before you purchase 

 one, let me know the name, for perhaps I can 

 tell you whether it is a good one or not. 



Now, perhaps you would like to know what 

 wheel I would recommend. Nearly all* the 

 Rootville folks and many of our employees are 

 riding Clevelands. We have found them to be 

 so immeasurably superior to the common run 

 of bicycles that we would hardly take any oth- 

 er as a gift. They run smoothly and easily, 

 and do not require repairs. 



This is not a "paid puff, " for I am only 

 telling you what is my actual experience and 

 sincere belief in regard to bicycles. There 

 are others, probably, just as good; but I know 

 these are excellent. If you want a Cleveland, 

 just write to the H. A. LozierCo., Cleveland, O. 



I omitted to state that the Cleveland bicycles 

 have gear cases. I would no more think of 

 riding a bicycle in the future, without having 

 the chain covered, than I would think of going 

 without a hat. My Cleveland, with its gear- 

 case, has not had a cent's worth of repairs, 

 and the chain has not even been touched in 

 over a year's riding. It runs so still that one 

 would hardly suspect there is a chain inside of 

 the case. I have run that wheel through mud 

 and water, dust and sand, over snow and ice, 

 I was going to say, nearly every day in the 

 year; and, with the exception of the tires, it is 

 j ractically as good as when it came out of the 

 shop. 



THE PURE-FOOD CONGRESS. 

 On page 269, April 1, 1898, I spoke of the 

 last meeting of the Pure-food Congress that 

 assembled in Washington on March 2d; and I 

 further referred to the fact that our represent- 

 atives E. T. Abbott and Manager Secor, sent 

 by the U. S. B. K. U., had received prominent 

 recognition on the floor; that one of the mem- 

 bers was made chairman of the Committee on 

 Organization, and another, vice-president for 

 Iowa. Another meeting of the same organi- 

 zation has been held, also in Washington, on 

 the 19th and 20th of January. I take plea- 

 sure in copying from Mr. Abbott's paper, 

 The Modern Farmer and Busy Bee, the fol- 

 lowing paragraph : 



* A. I. R. at present is riding a chainless Columbia, 

 also a good wheel. 



President Blackburn showed himself to be an excel- 

 lent presiding officer, and, owing to his promptness 

 and decision, a great deal of routine business was 

 transacted, notwithstanding there were a great many 

 addresses on the program. It was voted to make the 

 organization permanent ; a constitution and by-laws 

 were adopted, and officers elected, to serve until their 

 successors are chosen. The old officers were all re- 

 elected, it being the opinion of the committee on or- 

 ganization, of which the writer was chairman, that 

 those who had begun the good work would better be 

 left in full charge for the present. 



It will no doubt be of special interest to the bee-keep- 

 ing friends to know that our industry received its full 

 recognition on the floor of the congress the same as 

 last year. The editor of The Modern Farmer and Busy 

 Bee, who went as a representative of the United States 

 Bee-keepers' Association, and the Missouri State Board 

 of Agriculture, was made chairman of two important 

 committees, and was again named as vice-president 

 for the State of Missouri. Mr. Secor was continued 

 vice-president for the State of Iowa; E. S. Uovesy, for 

 Utah; and, at the suggestion of the writer, Thomas G. 

 Newman was named for vice-president for California. 

 It will be seen from this that the bee-keepers will 

 have themselves to blame if they do not have a hand 

 in this important legislation. I desire to say in this 

 connection that the bee-keepers of the United States 

 are under special obligations to the Burlington, Big 

 Four, and the Chesapeake & Ohio Railways, for it was 

 through the courtesy of these roads that the delegate 

 of the United States Bee-keepers' Association was 

 able to attend the Congress, there being only the 

 small appropriation of flo.00 set apart for this pur- 

 pose by the directors of the Association, and this 

 amount would not pay hotel bills and sleeping-car 

 fare, to say nothing about the other necessary inci- 

 dental expenses. 



Mr. Abbott says the attendance was good, 

 and the delegates in general believed that the 

 pure-food bill, as revised by Congress last year, 

 should be urged without any material changes. 

 Some favored the changing of the wording in 

 a few minor respects, while some delegates 

 tried to so amend it as to kill it, but the latter 

 were promptly " sat down on." The propos- 

 ed law does not favor classes. It simply aims 

 to make producers sell all articles of food for 

 just what they are, but does not propose to 

 prohibit entirely any of them, but to let each 

 stand on its own merits; but those merits 

 must be plainly set forth on all objects offered 

 for sale. Mark Twain says he found this state 

 of things prevailing in Paris, and he says it 

 seemed strange to him to see such a " super- 

 fluity of honesty " as was displayed in that 

 city on all the jewelry offered for sale. No 

 one could get cheated. 



The following is an abstract of the address 

 of President Blackburn: 



The question of what we shall eat has been a neg- 

 lected subject ever since Eve ate the apple in the Gar- 

 den of Eden. What a myriad of evils would have 

 been avoided had not the first of all pure-food laws 

 been violated ! 



The measure we are here to consider is not offered 

 as a cure-all in any sense. No one, not even its most 

 ardent friends, considers it a panacea for all the ills 

 that afflict our food supply. Neither do we think that 

 the twin sister of fraud — the harlot adulteration — will 

 be an impossible creature when this bill becomes a 

 law. Since the great lawgiver of Mount Sinai issued 

 that immortal edict, "Thou shalt not steal," men 

 have stolen, and will steal, until the end of time. 



While this bill does not do all we could wish, does 

 not meet all the objections that have been or will be 

 raised against it, it will and does do much that needs 

 to be done, and will be certain to render adulteration 

 hazardous, less profitable, and exposure quick and 

 certain. I think the least observing and the most 

 skeptical will agree that it is high time that the many 

 State measures to protect the public health and secure 

 purity in our food should have their principal features 

 crystallized into a national statute, that all States may 

 engraft their legislative twigs on the national vine, 

 and thus develop the fruits of legislation on harmo- 

 nious, progressive, and uniform lines. 



