136 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



March 3 



(^ '. OLDEST BEE PAPER 

 -"^ " -IHAWEfilCA 



GEORGE W. YORK. EDITOR. 



PDBI.ISHT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 



lis Micbigan Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION 



Organized to advance the pursuit of Apiculture; to promote the interests of bee- 

 keepers : to protect its members ; to prevent the adulteration of honey; and 

 to prosecute the dishonest honey-commiaaion men. 



ATembersii'p l^e-e—Sl OO j>er Anaum. 



EXECOTiVE Committee— Pres.. George w. Yorli; Vice-Pres., TV. Z. Hutchinson ; 



Secretary, Dr. A. B. Mason, Station B, Toledo, Ohio. 

 Board of DikeCTORS— B. R. Hoot; B. TVhltcomb; B. T. Abbott; C. P. Dadant; 



W.Z. Hutchinson; Dr. C. C. Miller. 

 General Manager and TRBASURER-Bugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 



VOL. 38. 



MARCH 3, 1898. 



NO. 9. 



[Note.— The American Bcc Journal adopts the Orlhonrapliv ,if the following 

 Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philological Asso- 

 ciation and the Philological Society of England;— Change "d" or "ed" flnal 

 to *'t • when so pronounced, except when the "e" afTecta a preceding sound. 



IVIucIi Excellent Reading:-9Iatter now in our 



hands must wait its turn for iusertion. It seems to us we 

 never had such an abundance of good contributions and of 

 such varied character. Especially is this true of matter for 

 the departments of "Questions and Answers," "General 

 Items," and "Convention Proceedings." Of the latter we have 

 reports of these meetings : Colorado, Michigan, Vermont, 

 Wisconsin, Central Texas, and the Northeastern Ohio, Western 

 New York, and Northwestern Pennsylvania, besides the bal- 

 ance of the Northwestern's report, which is now appearing in 

 weekly installments. 



We trust no one will get impatient with us, for we are 

 doing the very best we can to crowd in reading-matter as fast 

 as possible. We would like to add extra pages for awhile, in 

 order to get caught up, but to do so would cost more than we 

 can afford at the price the Bee Journal is publisht weekly. 

 But we really believe that we could fill, with good reading 

 matter, a 32-page paper the size of these pages, and not half 

 try. Perhaps some day we can reach that. In the meantime, 

 please don't be too hard on us if we fail to print your contri- 

 butions as promptly as you think we should. 



Bees Taxable in low^a. — Hon. Eugene Secor, of 

 Forest City, Iowa, the General Manager of the United States 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, has kindly sent us the following regard- 

 ing the taxing of bees in the State where he resides : 



For the benefit of Iowa bee-keepers who may not happen 

 to be informed on the subject, allow me to say that under the 

 present law bees are taxable in excess of 10 colonies. 



Heretofore bees have not been taxable in this State. The 

 change in the law may be a bit of news to some. I have 

 already received personal enquiries from friends in regard to 

 it, hence this statement. 



It can no longer be said that bee-keepers in Iowa are en- 

 joying special privileges. Eugene Secor. 



Xlie Jfe'w Union Deleg'ates to the Pure Food 



and Drug Congress, now in session in Washington, D. C, are 

 General Manager Eugene Secor, Rev. Emerson T. Abbott, a 

 member of the Union's Board of Directors, and Secretary Dr. 

 A. B. Mason. Mr. F. Danzenbaker was selected as an alter- 

 nate, so that if, at the last moment, any one of the regular 

 delegates were unable to atteud, he would be right there on 

 the ground to step into the work. 



We feel that the United States Bee-Keepers' Union will 

 be ably represented, and that the whole bee-keeping industry 

 will thus have their wants made known in an effective manner. 



We shall look for some Interesting reports form the New 

 Union delegates upon their return from Washington. We 

 trust that the work done by this congress may result in great 

 good to producers of pure honey, as well as to all other indus- 

 tries that are so vitally interested in the enactment and en- 

 forcement of a rigid national pure food law. 



We do not know who are the delegates froin the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Union, but we presume they were duly ap- 

 pointed, and are in attendance upon the sessions of the pure 



food congress. 



* • » 



The National Bee-Keepers' Union election 

 of officers held in January, resulted in the practically unani- 

 mous re-election of the following who have for years managed 

 its affairs : 



President — Hon. R. L. Taylor; Vice-Presidents — G. M. 

 Doolittle, Dr. C. C. Miller, Prof. A. J. Cook, Hon. Eugene 

 Secor, and A. I. Root. 



General Manager, Secretary and Treasurer — Thomas G. 

 Newman. 



There were 129 votes cast, out of a membership of about 

 300. 



General Manager Newman, when announcing the results 

 of the election, said that some who were elected "state that 

 their time is too much occupied with other duties to fill the 

 office for 1S98 ; this, however, is the business of the Advisory 

 Board to attend to, as well as to fill vacancies, should any 

 occur." We do not know who have declined to serve, but 

 doubtless they will be known when their successors are named. 



Bee-Keepers' Rights in Germany.— At Weln- 

 heim, Germany, there is a patent-leather factory, whose skins 

 when spread out were covered with spots supposed to be dropt 

 by the passing over of bees from a neighboring apiary. Suit 

 was brought to have the bees removed. It was not proven 

 that the bees were the culprits, and, besides, bee-culture was 

 necessary for the sake of fertilizing fruit. If this case should 

 go against the bees, numerous other factories would follow 

 suit, and bee-culture as well as fruit-culture suffer great dam- 

 age. Fruit-culture was in Weinheim before the leather fac- 

 tory, and in this case the weak must be protected against the 

 strong. The case was dismist. 



Subscribers Criticising: llie Bee-Papers.— 



Editor Hutchinson made a call for the views of his readers as 

 to the Bee-Keepers' Review, asking them freely to mention 

 faults as well as merits. As was natural, few of them men- 

 tioned faults (unless it were the faults of rival bee-papers), 

 but a collection of extracts from the letters makes very inter- 

 esting reading. Oue man is brave enough to say he doesn't 

 like to see advertisements of a free bottle of medicine, awak- 

 ening a desire for more at a high price, because of the tem- 

 porary effect of the alcohol in it. Another thinks it would be 

 an improvment if the writers would limber up as if talking to 

 their fellows, instead of being so very staid with the burden 

 of their dignity and responsibility. It might be a good thing 

 for the writers of the American Bee Journal to take to heart 

 this last criticism. The man that has a good idea, and can 



