296 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



May 12 



GEORGE W. YORK, EDITOR. 



PUBLISHT WEEKLY BY 



118 Micbigan Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



[Entered at the Post-OfBce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail Matter.] 



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-commission men. 



Menibersliip Fee-Sl.OO per ^nnum. 



BXECUTI YE COMMiTTEE-Pres.. George W. York ; Vice-Pres., W. Z. Hutchinson : 

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



^°45'!,°J? DiBECTORS-B. R. Root: E. Whitcomb; E. T. Abbott: C. P. Dadant: 

 W.Z.Hutchinson: Dr. C. C. Miller. 



General Manager and Treasurer— Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 



VOL. 38. 



MAY 12, 1898. 



NO. 19. 



NOTE.-The American Bee Journal adopts the Orthography of the following 



llUle, recommended bV the ioint, acrinn nt' th*i AmarioQr, T>i,ilr,i..n;^ni a.,^.^ 



Foul Brood.— It is just possible that some may ques- 

 tion the wisdom of taliiDg up space to copy the article on foul 

 brood in this number, taken from the Review, and written by 

 Hon. R. L. Taylor. There Is nothing strikingly original in 

 the article, and yet it would be diGBcult to find in the same 

 space anything so instructive and complete that has ever been 

 written upon the subject of foul brood. Some of the readers 

 of these pages may not be interested in foul brood. Their 

 bees are free from the disease, and there is no expectation 

 that they will ever be affected by it. Therefore, there is no 

 need of their reading up foul brood until they have practical 

 need of the knowledge. The bee-keeper who thinks in that 

 way Is making a serious mistake. If he has no need of that 

 knowledge now, there is no certainty he may not need it 

 within a twelvemonth. Every bee-keeper should be familiar 

 'enough with the matter that he can easily spot the disease on 

 its first appearance. After it has made headway it is a very 

 difiScult thing to handle it. Many a case occurs in which the 

 bee-keeper hardly suspects the presence of the disease until 

 one or more colonies are rotten past redemptiou, and the seeds 

 of foul brood have been planted in every colony in the yard. 

 The proper knowledge in advance might have nipt the thing 

 in the bud. 



Let every beginner, especially, not only read but carefully 

 study that part of Mr. Taylor's able article which treats of 

 the detection of the disease. 



We wish here to acknowledge our indebtedness to the Re- 

 view for the use of the splendid illustration on the first page 

 of this number. It has been said by those who have had 

 much experience with the foul brood disease, that they could 

 almost smeH its offensive odor by just looking at that "life- 

 like " picture of an infected comb. 



Crooked Honey-Dealers.— On page 120 we re- 

 plied to " A Few Kicks and Growls," one of which referred to 

 the guarded way in which we as publishers point out fraudu- 

 lent honey-dealers. We replied that on account of certain ex- 

 isting libel laws we had io be careful, and " cannot publish 

 all we would, sometimes." After copying a portion of the 

 editorial in question, Gleanings had this to say in corrobora- 

 tion of our statement : 



Mr. York has hit the nail on the head. Unfortunately 

 we as publishers cannot even tell the truth in regard to ivhat 

 is morally certain Is truth, unless we can prove the truth by 

 affidavits or other undeniable facts. i"'or instance, I may 

 know positively, in my own mind, that a saloon-keeper is sell- 

 ing liquor illegally ; but to prove it would be another thing. 

 I may be pretty well satisfied that a commission-house is 

 tricky and dishonest ; but to come out broadly with the state- 

 ment might render us liable for heavy damages in a libel suit, 

 for the reason that we might not be able to produce the evi- 

 dence necessary to satisfy the jury or the court before whom 

 the ca«e might be tired. So the next best thing we can do is 

 to " hint at or tell on dishonest commission-men " in a general 

 way. Aud very often this is all that is necessary. For in- 

 stance, a snide house may have a very plausible and appar- 

 ently honest appearance ; but a bee-journal can often uncover 

 the swindling schemes they are about to launch forth, i. c, 

 how the wolf has put on sheep's clothing. Whenever the hon- 

 est (?) old ram comes around, bee-keepers will be able to rec- 

 ognize at once the " true inwardness " of the " baste," whether 

 under the name of A, B, C & Co. or X, Y, Z & Co. 



Sometimes we get hold of enough proof that is strong 

 enough to warrant us in giving names and particulars, but 

 more often not. Most of the dishonest rascals are just " slick 

 enough " to cover up their tracks far enough so that a pub- 

 lisher dare not reveal their swindling schemes in connection 

 with their names. 



Facing Comb Honey.— A battle upon this subject 

 was mentioned on page 266. The scene of conflict has been 

 transferred to the pages of Gleanings for May, occupying five 

 of them. Mr. W. M. Whitney says : 



" If a lot of poor stuff is put behind prime stock used as 

 facing, no better evidence of intention to deceive could be 

 presented, for it would convict the guilty party of an attempt 



to defraud, in any court iu the country Every honest 



man should put his heel upon every such transaction as he 

 would upon the head of a viper, and assist in stamping out 



the v.hole disreputable business Facing honey, with poorer 



honey back of it. . . .is lying, pure and simple." 



Mr. G. M. Doolittle replies to Mr. Whitney's very warm 

 and truthful utterances, as follows: 



"I ship a thing on commission, the commission man does 

 the selling, aud sells the thing for what it proves to be, unless 



I tell him he need not open it, as I gunrnntce it to be so 



Where no guarantee is made, the looks of auy single article 

 which Is iu sight speaks only for itself, not for what is out of 

 sight." 



Mr. F. L. Thompson refuses to be satisfied with the argu- 

 ment that people expect veneering, and says : 



" That most people expect sharp practice is no reason 

 why it is perfectly right to satisfy their expectations. If I 

 expect to be waylaid iu passing through a back street, never- 

 theless no one is justified in actually taking my purse." 



Umpire Root calls time, and decides against Mr. Doolittle, 

 which is exactly as we would decide. Mr. Doolittle of course 

 has had no experience as a commission man, nor in buying 

 honey from a city dealer, else he would not have written this 

 paragraph in Gleanings some time ago, which has caused him 

 to receive such severe whacks as has been given him by 

 Messrs. Hasty, Whitney, Thompson, etc.: 



" And I also claim that there is nothing out of the way, 

 if any once chooses to do so, in shipping cases of honey having 

 XXX facers and XX or X honey inside, on commission. Yea, 

 more, I claim that there would nothing dis}wnest in filling the 

 center of the case with buckwheat honey, the same having 

 XXX white honey facers, providing it was shipt on commis- 

 sio7i, every case alike, and the producer thought it to his In- 

 terest to do so." 



We have had a little experience the past year in buying 



