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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Sept. 21, 



St. Joseph, Mo., Bee and Honey Show. 



Many of our readers are aware that 

 the aim of the Bee Journal has been 

 to make honey a staple product. To 

 this end we have endeavored to popu- 

 larize the consumption of honey by 

 the masses, as well as to raise the 

 standard of production, by applying 

 correct principles and progressive art 

 to the management of the apiary. 

 We have labored earnestly for this 

 end, and now we begin to realize the 

 results. 



Bees and honey are already the great 

 attraction at such fairs as have given 

 prominence to this industry — and this 

 will become more apparent each suc- 

 cessive year. We were impressed with 

 this idea at the St. Joseph Exposition. 

 The officers of that association in- 

 formed us that they were surprised at 

 the result of their experiment in encour- 

 aging the apiarian department this 

 year, and intended next year to give 

 it far more prominence ; they had real- 

 ized the fact that it formed the great- 

 est attraction presented by the Expo- 

 sition. To the Superintendent of the 

 Apiarian Department, R. S. Musser, 

 Esq., an energetic and prominent law- 

 yer of St. Joseph, and his faithful ally, 

 Mr. D. G. Parker, as well as the 

 Judges, Messrs. John Bays, J. A. 

 Matney and S. P. Hyde, may be attrib- 

 uted the grand success of the Bee and 

 Honey Show. 



By particular request of the mana- 

 gers we gave a lecture on Bees and 

 Honey at the Court House, on Thurs- 

 day evening. The managing editorof 

 the Gazette, a morning paper of that 

 city, was present, as well as its re- 

 porter. The editor of the Gazette gave 

 his views of the subject in the follow- 

 ing article : 



Few things last week, which brought 

 us so many pleasant and profitable 

 things, combined pleasure and profit 

 to such an extent as the display of 

 honey made at the fair and the lec- 

 ture of Mr. Newman, of Chicago, on 

 " Bees and Honey." The culture of 

 bees is in its very infancy in this 

 region. Until this year, there has 

 been no noticeable display of honey 

 at our fairs. The attention that was 

 given to the subject this year marks a 

 new era. The display attracted very 

 great attention. Through the energy 

 of the management of the apiary 

 department, good prizes were offered 

 and awarded. The bee-keepers of the 

 region were encouraged and a more 

 general interest was aroused in the 

 subject. In fact, from this time the 

 culture of the bee in Northwest Mis- 

 souri seems likely to go steadily 

 forward. 



It is a great industry. How great, 

 only the few that are interested in it 

 have any idea. It has never been ex- 

 tensively enough attended to in this 

 immediate region to have brought any 

 great profit. But there is money in it. 

 And, besides the profit, there is avast 

 deal of pleasure. The management 

 and manipulation of bees is such deli- 

 cate work that many ladies have be- 

 come distinguished apiarists. In fact, 

 the business is capable of such exten- 

 sion and yields so much profit and 

 pleasure that it may open a new field 

 for ladies' employment. The accom- 

 plishments of Mrs. R. S. Musser of 

 this city in this direction should stimu- 

 late many other ladies to engage in it. 

 Such delicious food, in fact, should 

 properly be brought to our tables by 

 our ladies' care; it is altogether fitting. 



Those who had the pleasure of hear- 

 ing Mr. Newman's lecture on " Bees 

 and Honey," cannot fail to have new 

 enthusiasm. To the unlearned, it 

 was a revelation of the secrets of a 

 great and mysterious industry. Im- 



provement has followed improvement 

 at such a rate in the structure of hives 

 and in the instruments used in the 

 manipulation of bees and in gather- 

 ing the honey, that the apiary is as 

 complete as a factory wherein man's 

 ingenuity does the work. The secrets 

 of the hive have been laid bare and 

 the little workers are made subject to 

 the apiarist's absolute management. 



So profitable can the business be 

 made that it is profitable to plant 

 bloom for the little honey-workers. 

 To grow honey is as profitable as to 

 grow butter or lard. But the time 

 when we in this region will find it 

 necessary to plant for our bees is yet 

 distant. There is honey-bearing 

 bloom enough that grows by our 

 streams and in our fields to supply 

 every table in Missouri. 



It was a gratifying thing to hear so 

 good authority as Mr. Newman de- 

 clare that, whatever else may be 

 adulterated, the bees cannot be fooled 

 with glucose. If honey be in reach, 

 they will never store any thing else in 

 their mystic cells. 



Let us all catch the enthusiasm. A 

 few colonies of bees are cheap. They 

 yield a delicious income. We trust 

 that our local society of bee-keepers 

 will keep up the enthusiasm ; and, in 

 a few years, we may count honey 

 among our great products. We have 

 as good a chance as any people in the 

 world. 



The synopsis of our lecture as given 

 in the Daily Herald may be found on 

 page 301. The reporter of the Gazette 

 remarks as follows : 



"An appreciative audience of sev- 

 eral hundred bee-keepers, ladies and 

 gentlemen, assembled in the court 

 house last evening to hear Mr. T. G. 

 Newman, of Chicago, the editor of 

 the American Bee Journal, de- 

 liver a lecture on " Bees and Honey." 

 The meeting was called to order, and 

 Mayor Piner, as chairman, who intro- 

 duced Mr. Newman. The lecturer 

 lias made both a scientific and a prac- 

 tical study of the apiary, and has 

 earned a well-deserved reputation on 

 both continents. It was a peculiar 

 pleasure and a great privilege for the 

 bee-keepers of this community to hear 

 him. He is a pleasant gentleman, 

 easy in his address and has an interest- 

 ing manner in speaking. He was en- 

 thusiastically received; and all that 

 had the pleasure of hearing him will 

 not soon forget the occasion. He 

 briefly stated the rise and progress of 

 bee-culture and exhibited the most 

 important inventions that have been 

 made for the bee-keepers' assistance. 

 The lecture was very practical and 

 contained many hints that are invalu- 

 able. But practical as it was, the 

 pleasure of the apiary as well as the 

 profit was told ; for Mr. Newman is an 

 enthusiast, ' as,' to use his own words, 

 • all bee-keepers are.' His visit to St. 

 Joseph is highly appreciated and will 

 long be remembered. The vast bene- 

 fit and endless pleasure that will ulti- 

 mately be derived from the study of 

 this subject and the profit of the in- 

 dustry by our people, will always most 

 pleasantly recall Mr. Newman's ser- 

 vices in adding to their enthusiasm in 

 telling of improved management of 

 bees, etc." 



O" We have received a queen from 

 Mr. D. A. Jones for trial and compar- 

 ison in the Bee Journal apiary, but 

 the season is so far advanced it will be 

 impossible to express any opinion this 

 fall, except upon the appearance of the 

 bees, when she has ample time to rear 

 them. The queen is smaller than the 

 average Italian, but was very lively, 

 and cheerfully received in the nucleus 

 to which we introduced her. 



Badges.— Bee-keepers going to fairs 

 should wear a badge with a gold bee 

 on it. It will serve to introduce him 

 to other bee men. We will send them 

 for 10 cents, post paid. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Lignrian Honey Bees.— In the Rural 

 Neio Yorker Mr. G. M. Doolittle says : 



In the Sural, we read, under the 

 above heading, that " a year or two 

 since many of our apiarians were quite 

 enthusiastic in regard to the merits of 

 Ligurian honey bees, as it was claimed 

 that they were more industrious than 

 either the common bee or the Italians," 

 etc. This, I believe, was taken from 

 the New York Sun. As it conveys a 

 wrong impression I wisli to say that 

 Liguria is simply a province in Italy, 

 and therefore Ligurian bees and Ital- 

 ians are one and the same thing. The 

 correspondent of the Sim farther states, 

 giving Mr. Taylor's book as his au- 

 thority, that these bees gather more 

 honey by robbing the hives of common 

 bees. This is contrary to the testi- 

 mony of all practical apiarists (not 

 apiarians as the correspondent of the 

 New York Sun would have it). Prac- 

 tical experience in the apiary shows 

 that the Italians are not as likely to 

 rob as the blacks or hybrids, while 

 they will defend their stores as long 

 as there is a handful of them left. 

 That they will gather more honey is a 

 fact, and their chief value is their per- 

 severance, in a poor honey season, in 

 toiling on day after day for the little 

 honey they can obtain, while the com- 

 mon bees seem to think that little is 

 not worthy of notice. To illustrate : — 

 In 1872, at the close of the season for 

 basswood blossoms, from which our 

 main honey crop is obtained, we did 

 not have a single box of honey finished. 

 At this time we had both Italian and 

 common, or black bees. Soon the seed 

 crop of red clover commenced to bloom, 

 on which the Italians went to work at 

 once, but not a black bee was to be 

 seen. As a conseq uence we took from 

 some of our Italian colonies 60 pounds 

 of box honey, while the black bees 

 had eaten up half their stores from 

 the basswood and had to be fed for 

 winter. After this we were not slow 

 in introducing Italian queens to all 

 our stock. 



Effects of Adulterations. —The Farm- 

 ers' 1 Review, speaking of oleomarga- 

 rine, says : 



Oleomargarine has a new load to 

 bear. Last week a whole family were 

 poisoned by its use, though not fa- 

 tally, and 4 laboring men suffered 

 from the same cause. The malady 

 takes a similar form to the lard-butter 

 cholera, prevalent in Chicago last win- 

 ter. 



Bee Forage and Bee-Keeping. — The 



Farm and Garden , a ne w and sprigh tly 

 monthly, issued at Philadelphia, Pa., 

 is on our table, and is welcome as an 

 exchange. In it Dr. J. P. H. Brown, 

 Agusta, Ga,, thus answers the follow- 

 ing questions : 



Is bee-keeping profitable ? It is when 

 properly attended to ; and pays a larger 

 dividend upon the capital than almost 

 any other of the rural industries. 

 Even in those localities where there 

 are poor markets for honey, it pays to 

 keep bees in order to secure a supply 

 for family use. Honey can be profita- 

 bly used in place of manufactured 

 syrups which are now largely adulter- 

 ated with glucose. 



What are the requisites for success ? A 

 thorough knowledge of the natural 

 history of the honey-bee and of its 

 proper mode of management together 

 with a full acquaintance with the 

 method of using improved apiarian 

 implements. Such information can be 

 obtained by reading and studying bee 

 books and periodicals, in connection 

 with practical experience in manag- 

 ing the hive. There is still another 



prime factor requisite for success. It 

 is an abundance of honey producing 

 plants. It is not true that the " busy 

 bee" gathers honey from " every open- 

 ing flower." Some flowers secrete 

 sweet nectar abundantly, while other's 

 bloom gives forth scarcely any. The 

 apiary should be located where there 

 is plenty of bee-forage. There are 

 other conditions such as the kind of 

 season, state of the atmosphere, &c, 

 &c, that must never be lostsightof in 

 successful bee-keeping. 



Who shall keep bees 1 Those only who 

 have a taste for the business, and 

 sufficient industry and energy to make 

 an application of the requisite knowl- 

 edge just at the right time. 



Bees and Honey at Nebraska Fair.— 



Mr. G. M. Hawley gives the following 

 notice in the Nebraska Farmer : 



The State Board of Agriculture has 

 given us very liberal premiumson bees 

 and honey, in fact they gave us all we 

 asked for. Now it should be the duty 

 of every bee-keeper to assist in making 

 a display that shall be a credit to the 

 State, and also to show the State Board 

 that their liberty is appreciated. Bee- 

 keeping is a new industry in this State 

 and one that is designed in a short 

 time to play an important part in its 

 rural economy, and behooves us now 

 to see to it that it is properly repre- 

 sented. Wherever bees have been 

 tried they have been so successful as 

 to create a demand in that locality for 

 them. 



Let each read the premiums offered 

 and then strive to make a display. In 

 the premium list, where it reads " 10 

 weeks," it should read "2 weeks." 

 Also "comb foundation, partly grown." 

 should read " partly drawn. 



English Law Regarding Bees.— The 

 law with regard to bees is rather pecu- 

 liar, says the London Law Times : 



A dispute as to the ownership of a 

 swarm came recently before Mr. W. 

 F. Woodthorpe, the judge of the Bel- 

 per County Court, and it was conten- 

 ded that being (era; natures, there could 

 be no property in them, and that, there- 

 fore, the plaintiff, from whose land 

 they had strayed to that of the defend- 

 ant, could not demand their return or 

 damages for their loss. It was proved, 

 ho wever, that the plaintiff had followed 

 the swarm on their departure from his 

 own land, and had not lost sight of 

 them until he saw them alight in the 

 defendant's garden. On the strength 

 of the following passage from Black- 

 stone (vol. II., p. 392)—" Bees are/'ei-oe 

 naluraz ; but when hived and reclaimed, 

 a man may have a qualified property 

 in them by the law of nature as well 

 as by the civil law. Occupation — that 

 is, hiving or including them — gives 

 the property in bees, for, though a 

 swarm lights upon my tree, I have no 

 more property in them, till I have 

 hived them, than I have in birds which 

 make their nest thereon ; and, there- 

 fore, if another hives them, he shall 

 be theirproprietor ; butaswarm which 

 flies from and out of my hive are mine 

 as long as I can keep them in sight, 

 and have power to pursue them, and 

 in these circumstances no one is enti- 

 tled to take them"— judgment was en- 

 tered in favor of the plaintiff for the 

 amount claimed as the value of his 

 truant bees. 



ig^ The Rural Canadian is the name 

 of a new monthly farm paper, pub- 

 lished at Toronto, Ont. The first 

 number is on our desk, and presents a 

 neat appearance. The great variety 

 of useful and practical articles pre- 

 sented in the initial number bespeak 

 for it a large subscription list. It is 

 edited by the Rev. W. F. Clarke, 

 whom our readers are well aware is a 

 terse and vigorous writer. It con- 

 tains Hi pages of the size of the Bee 

 Journal, and is published at SI. 00 a 

 year. We wish the Rural Canadian 

 much success. 



