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AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL.. 



venture the assertion that not one family 

 in 50 in the city of Chicago uses 5 pounds 

 of honey a year. And why should such be 

 the case, when bee-keepers are selling their 

 fine extracted honey for 5 to S cents per 

 pound, and their delicious comb honey for 

 10 to 15 cents per pound ? Even at those 

 prices, where comes in the pay to which the 

 producer is entitled for his labor ? 



Friends, there is something radically 

 wrong in the disposition of the honey crop 

 of this country, else there would be a more 

 general consumption of this health-giving 

 sweet, and a better profit would be realized 

 by the producer. 



Next week we shall try to describe what 

 one bee-keeper has succeeded in doing, in 

 order to make bee-keeping pay as it should. 

 He had 14 colonies of bees this year, his 

 crop of honey was 1,700 pounds, and he Re- 

 alized $400 from its sale. Bee-keeping pays 

 when rightly managed, but there is just 

 as much opportunity for the exercise of 

 wisdom and common-sense in the selling of 

 a crop of honey as there is in its production. 



Jflr. Walter Hariner, of Manistee, 

 Mich., a bee-keeper who is well-known to 

 the Bee Journal readers, was married 

 about two weeks ago to Miss Mary Matti- 

 son, a young lady residing in the same 

 county. They visited the World's Fair on 

 their wedding trip, and while here Bro. 

 Harmer gave us a pleasant call. It is sur- 

 prising how many bee-folks have been mar- 

 ried recently, and thus making happy 

 homes by tbe "introduction" of "new 

 queens." We offer to Bro. Harmer and his 

 beloved, as well as to all the rest of the 

 newly-wedded friends, our heartiest con- 

 gratulations, and wish them long life, and 

 just lots of the "honey "of true love and 

 faithful devotion to each other. Heaven's 

 best blessings be upon them and theirs for- 

 ever ! 



I^exl California CJoiiveiitioii. — 



On page 393 we had something regarding 

 th« next convention of California bee-keep- 

 ers, as it had been suggested to hold the 

 meeting in San Francisco during the com- 

 ing Mid-Winter Fair, which begins in that 

 city on Jan. 1st. Mr. J. H. Martin, the ex- 

 cellent Secretary of the Association, has 

 this to say about the matter: 



I notice on page 393 attention is called to 

 the plan of holding the next meeting of tho 



California State Bee-Keepers' Association 

 in San Francisco during the holding of the 

 Mid-Winter Fair. According to our ad- 

 journment at the last annual meeting, our 

 next meeting will be held in Los Angeles, 

 but inasmuch as the Fair lasts through the 

 winter, there is nothing to prevent the 

 holding of an extra session, which will en- 

 able all interested in bee-culture to then 

 meet in San Francisco. It would enhance 

 the value of the meeting to have it backed 

 up with a honey display, but after taking 

 a retrospective view of the way the h6ney- 

 produeing interests of California were 

 shelved at the World's Fair, we have but 

 little encouragement for much of an exhibit 

 at the Mid- Winter Fair. 



As far as the general exhibit at the 

 World's Fair was concerned, there was not 

 a dollar given to the bee-keepers for that 

 purpose, and when a well-known and en- 

 terprising bee-keeper was named to repre- 

 sent the industry, he was also shelved. The 

 bee-keepers of California were expected to 

 donate enough honey for the exhibit, and 

 to depend upoii some person, or persons, 

 unknown to them, to place it upon exhibi- 

 tion, and at the close of the Fair to sell and 

 transmit the proceeds to the exhibitors. I 

 have not heard from the California exhibit 

 lately, but if much honey was contributed, 

 I have not seen the man who made the 

 contribution. Still, I have no doubt that if 

 our representative had been appointed, and 

 the exhibit had been possessed with a head, 

 to work up voluntary contributions, they 

 would have been forthcoming. 



I understand some of our World's Fair 

 representatives were in no pleasant mood 

 because California, the great honey-pro- 

 ducing State, was not represented in the 

 exhibits, like New York, Ohio, etc. It is 

 safe to say that without a liberal appro- 

 priation for the purpose, and the appoint- 

 ment of a person interested in the industry, 

 the exhibits of the above States would have 

 been slim affairs. 



It is to be regretted that this State could 

 not have had the encouragement that other 

 States and foreign countries secured, for 

 the exhibit could have been made not only 

 large, but instructive and interesting. I am 

 not looking for much better results at the 

 Mid-Winter Fair, for between the fruit-men 

 (who are crowding the bee-keepers to the 

 tops of the mountains), and the low prices 

 for our product, the California bee-keeper 

 is, as it were, between tlie Devil and the 

 deep sea, and knows not which way to turn 

 for relief. J. H. Maktin. 



Of course, the members of the Associa- 

 tion are the ones to decide whether they 

 will hold an' extra session in San Francisco. 

 Whether they do so or not, there ought to 

 be a fine exhibit of honey at the Mid-Win- 

 ter P"'air. California owes it to herself, and 

 to the world, to get up, if possible, even a 

 grander exhibit of apiarian products than 

 was shown by all the exhibitors of the 

 United States, at the recent World's Fair. 



