100 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



Avigust, 



To sum up, tlien, auy comb honey 

 found upon the market in small woorl- 

 eu frames can be relied xipon a-s be- 

 ing- absolutely pure bees' boney. Of 

 course, tbe flavor may not always be 

 the same, as each nectar-yielding va- 

 riety of flower produces honey of its 

 own peculiar aroma, just as the purt. 

 maple sugar or syimp tastes of the 

 maple and not of the beech or oak. 



It may be said, further, that the 

 prospects for a generous crop of honey 

 to be harvested throughout the coun- 

 try the next two or three months seem 

 to be excellent at this time. So in 

 all probability there will be plenty of 

 this most healthful sweet for every 

 inhabitant in the land, and each should 

 see to it that he gets his share. 



GEORGE W. YORK, 

 Manager the Honey Prodiicers' Teagrue, 



Chicago. — Chicago Baily News. 



Don't Discourage tlie Fhiladelphian 



A Philadelphian has e.stablished a 

 bee colony on the roof of his place of 

 l)usiness Avith a view to cultivating 

 bee stings for the cure of rheumati-sm. 

 The man may be foolish, but he is not 

 mad. 



The theory of the rheumatism re- 

 lieving power of the 'bee sting, accord- 

 ing to rlie Scientific American, is one 

 of long standing, especially in some 

 country districts. There is a remote 

 possiliility that the poison of the sting 

 may neutralize the acid in the blood 

 which i-s presumed to be the cause of 

 rheumatism, but Professor Benton, the 

 bee expert of the entomological divi- 

 sion of the Agricultural Department, 

 does not think so. He himself suffers 

 from 1'heumati.sm at certain times of 

 the year, although he has been stung 

 by bees many thousand times. 



At his own sugge^stion he took a hon- 

 ey Ijee and. holding it by its wings, 

 allowed the insect to sting his hand. 

 After separating the body from the 

 sting, the latter, V)y convulsive muscu- 

 lar action, forced it* way still deeper 

 into the flesh, thus supi)orting the the- 

 ory held on this point by the Philadel- 

 phia man and many others, that flie 

 <^ting remains active after sejiaration; 

 Init the ]>rofessor's observation is that 

 parting with its sting does not, con- 

 trary to poi)ular belief, kill the bee. 



It appears that the immediate in- 

 centive to the Philadelphia man iiS the 





announcement of an enterprising firm 

 of manufacturing chemists in the 

 Quaker city that it Avill buy up all 

 the bee stings that may be offered at 

 the rate of .t^lO a thousand, with the 

 purpose of monopolizing the rheuma- 

 ti-sm cure. 



How to extract the stings profita- 

 bly was, of course, the most diflRcult' 

 problem confronting the PhiladelphiaiC 

 but he seems to have solved it in p' 

 Avay. Taking advantage of the weti 

 known antipathy of the bee to the, 

 horse, or to anything that i>s touchegL) 

 by the odor of the horse, he riibs a* 

 ruber cloth over one of these animalj^ 

 places it in a position convenient |;o 

 the bees, Avhen the latter, driving ^t 

 it furionsly. bury their darts in the 

 fabric, and in attempting to draAV haJk 

 leave them there. Then the Philadel- 

 ])hia man picks the stings out, counts 

 rhem. packs them, and when he has a 

 thousand of them he Avill test the sin- 

 cerity of the chemical concern. 



It is sU'Spected in scientific as well 

 as in other circles that the manufactur- 

 ing chemists are advertising for bee 

 stings Avith the purpose of later on 

 introducing a rheumatism cure Avhich 

 Avill be 'Must as good." HoAvever this 

 may be, the idea that the bee sting in-, 

 dustry could possibly be monopolized 

 is pronounced to be utterly a1>surd by 

 those Avho are familar Avith bee culture 

 in this country. A hive or colony of 

 bees, -says Professor Benton, ordinari- 

 ly contains from 30,000 to 60,000 in- 

 sects. There are many apiaries in 

 the United States Avhich contain froro 

 1,.^00 to 1,700 colonies, and if these 

 do not average more than .lo.OOO beeiS 

 to the colony the production of bee 

 sting poison for the cure of rheuma 

 tism, assuming that there was any 

 serious intention of commercializing 

 tlie stings, would be suflicient for half a 

 year to supply the demand for half a 

 century. The only Avay. therefore, in 

 Avhich the bee sting monopolist could 

 maintain his bee sting plant on a 

 profitable basis would be to discover 

 some means Avhereby the number of 

 rheumatics in the Avorld might be mul- 

 tiplied many times over. 



Stdl. nothing should be said or done 

 at present to discourage the Philadel- 

 l)hia man. It would be cruel to throw 

 cold Avater upon anything that prom- 

 ised to take the form of an original 

 enterpri-se in Philadelphia.— Chicago 

 Inter-Ocean. 



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