THE AMERICAIS BEE JOURNAL. 



663 



disseminating the knowledge acquired 

 by many minds tlirougli years of toil 

 and close observation ; second, by ad- 

 vertising tliose implements whicli are 

 the outgrowth of that study and ob- 

 servation. 



Bee-books are all very well in their 

 ■way, but the bee-keeper wants more 

 than that, he wants new ideas. Per- 

 haps the methods set forth in the 

 book lie has, may not suit liis particu- 

 lar locality, but by-and-by there will 

 come in his bee-paper, an article 

 from some close observer and skillful 

 apiarist that will just "hit the nail 

 on the head." We have almost all 

 been through just such an experience, 

 I think. 



America stands ahead of all the 

 world in bee-keeping. Look at her 

 array of bee-papers ! It is greater 

 than all the rest of the world com- 

 bined — two weeklies, one semi- 

 monthly, and three monthlies, to say 

 nothing of numerous other periodi- 

 cals that combine bee-keeping with 

 something else. To say that we have 

 a greater number of apicultural 

 papers, and to say we are in advance 

 of all the world in our art, means one 

 and the same thing. Now comes the 

 question, " What should a bee-publi- 

 cation be like V" Well, first of all it 

 should not be run by or in the inter- 

 est of a clique or ring, but should be 

 governed entirely by the interests of 

 two parties, first, the subscriber, and 

 second, the publisher. It would be 

 desirable not to have it connected in 

 any manner with the supply business, 

 but experience has proved that there 

 is not sufficient profit in a publication 

 alone. The writer has still a vivid 

 recollection of the scene at the North- 

 eastern Convention at Syracuse, some 

 three years or so ago, when the Avieri- 

 ■can Apicidturist was put up as the 

 official organ of that body, because it 

 was not backed up by a supply busi- 

 ness, and consequently said to be run 

 in the interest of bee-keepers ; how 

 your humble servant claimed that the 

 Bee-Keepers^ Magazine, as well as 

 {ileanings, were in their interests, 

 though connected with the supply 

 business, and that the day would 

 <;orae when all bee-papers would be 

 backed up by a supply-business ; how, 

 when he made this prediction, they 

 poured upon his head ttie vial of their 

 wrath and ridicule. But oh, he had 

 a sweet revenge, for to-day every bee- 

 paper in this country is connected 

 directly with supplies. 



Great care should be used by the 

 editors to see that they do not allow 

 this feature to make them prejudiced. 

 Controversies should be confined to 

 something besides personalities. 



I firmly believe the day will come 

 when we will discard this " brother " 

 business. It is not manly, and half 

 the time it is absolutely hypocritical. 

 Bee-keeping is not a play business, it 

 is a legitimate industry, and it would 

 be as ridiculous for our horticultur- 

 ists, agriculturists, and stock growers, 

 to '■ brother" themselves throughthe 

 press as it is for us to do it. 



I believe that publishing extracts 

 from other bee-papers a capital fea- 

 ture, and I believe a very successful 

 bee-pubUcation could be conducted by 



having only two departments, viz : 

 clippings for one, and questions and 

 answers for the other ; for in the first, 

 by careful selections you get the 

 cream of all the bee-literature in the 

 country, and in the second, informa- 

 tion can be gained on particular 

 cases. Original matter is first-rate 

 very often, but a good deal we read, 

 or rather glance at, is of no interest 

 except to the writer, and he knew all 

 about it before he wrote it. I would 

 beg you to have charity for one who 

 delilserately sets up his opinion before 

 so many older and wiser heads, but 

 I offer an excuse, viz : that apicul- 

 tural journalism is a subject in which 

 I am intensely interested and I think 

 I see the day not far off when our 

 industry will receive the considera- 

 tion which its importance so justly 

 deserves— and why should I not be 

 interested '( 



What has apicultural journalism 

 done in this country besides instruct- 

 ing bee-men '{ It has done what was 

 supposed to be an absolute imposi- 

 bility— it compelled probably one of 

 the largest, if not the largest honey- 

 house in the world from continuing 

 the nefarious practice of honey adul- 

 teration — a house from which the 

 practices of honey adulteration spread 

 throughout the land, and yet one, yes, 

 gentlemen, only one bee-keeping 

 monthly stood up and made that 

 fight, and it fought until to-day in 

 the pages of that magazine you can 

 see how the practice has been 

 stopped — that they will never more 

 spoil our industry, by putting vile 

 glucose upon the market in contact 

 with honey. Who dare say that the 

 bee-keeping press has no power ? 



Gentlemen, I am proud of being 

 connected with the magazine that 

 fought that good fight, namely, the 

 Bee-Keepers'' Magazine. Do you not 

 know that another bee-paper, the 

 oldest journal of the kind in the land, 

 the good old American Bee .Tour- 

 NAL, has worked to such a good 

 purpose that at present there are 

 joined together in close union a set of 

 determined men who will not see our 

 industry trampled upon, who will 

 fight every just claim to the end, and 

 what is more, will see justice meted 

 out as it should be ¥ Do you now dare 

 say that apicultural journalism has 

 no influence and strength V No, I 

 say ; there is power, there is strength 

 in our magazines and journals, and 

 may God grant it shall never be 

 turned to any evil purpose. 



Mr. Thomas G. Newman then read 

 the following essay, entitled, 



BEE-LITEEATURE. 



This subject was assigned to me, 

 without stating whether it was to be 

 treated historically or otherwise, but 

 I presume it was intended that I 

 should get down to dry facts, and 

 give a condensed history of bee-litera- 

 ture. The subject will very naturally 

 be very monotonous, and if you go to 

 sleep over it, I can console you with 

 the thought that it has taken many 

 hours from my sleep to dig out tlie 

 brief history here presented, and if 

 you catch the sleep which I had to 



forego to prepare this essay, you are 

 welcome to it. 



Ages before the creation of man on 

 this planet, tlie flowering plants de- 

 manded insect fertilization, and 

 doubtless the bee was there to scatter 

 the pollen masses, fertilize the 

 flowers and gather the honey. Then 

 there were no sheep-bee lawsuits, nor 

 controversies concerning bees and 

 grapes. These " luxuries " are a 

 modern invention, and belong to the 

 nineteenth century. 



The writers of the Bible tell us of 

 the early races of bees, and describe 

 the "land flowing with milk and 

 honey." The records of the Egyp- 

 tians and the Chinese, cut in stone, 

 show that bees were known to them 

 as faithful servants that gathered the 

 sweets of the earth for their use. 

 Three hundred years before the 

 Christian era, Aristotle affirmed that 

 the bee was " a magazine of all the 

 virtues," and Virgil, the noted Latin 

 poet, calls it " a ray of divinity." 

 Shakespeare and Milton devoted to it 

 their thoughts and words of praise. 



It was estimated, over three hun- 

 dred years ago, by De Montfort, who 

 then wrote a work on bees in French, 

 that between 500 and 600 authors had 

 preceded him on the subject of bee- 

 keeping. Most of the books were 

 written in Latin, and are lost to the 

 world ; and but few have been handed 

 down to us. 



I will briefly enumerate some of 

 the books on bees and bee-culture 

 published in the English language : 



Charles Butler, at Oxford, in A. D. 

 1609, gave to the world an octavo 

 work entitled, "The Feminine Monar- 

 chie ; or the Historie of Bees, and the 

 Eight Ordering of Them." The sec- 

 ond edition of this work, a quarto, 

 was published in London, in 1623. 



In 1623, at London, was published 

 " The Husbandry of Bees, with their 

 Several Uses and Annoyances," by 

 Wm. Lawson. 



In 1630, Jolin Levett's 8vo was pub- 

 lished in London, and the title was 

 " The Ordering of Bees." 



In 1637, in London, was published 

 Richard Remnant's quarto, entitled 

 " The History of Bees." 



In 1655, the " Reformed Common- 

 wealth of Bees," by Samuel Hartlib, 

 appeared in London, in quarto form. 



In 1657, a quarto appeared in Lon- 

 don by the Rev. Samuel Purchas, with 

 tins imposing title : " A Theater of 

 Political Flying Insects : wherein es- 

 pecially the nature, the worth, the 

 work, the wonder and the manner of 

 right-ordering of the bee is discovered 

 and described. Together with dis- 

 courses historical, and observations 

 physical, concerning them." 



In 1675, John Gedde's 8vo appeared 

 in London, entitled " Method of Bee- 

 Houses and Colonies." and in 1721 his 

 work entitled" The English Apiary; a 

 Complete Bee-Master " was published, 

 also an 8vo, and published at the 

 same place. 



Joseph Worden wrote a book whicli 

 was also published in London, with 

 plates, 8vo, in 1676, and its title read 

 thus : " Apiarium, or a Discourse of 

 Bees : tending to the best way of 

 improving them, and to the fallacies 



