520 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



August 18. 



GEORGE W. YORK. EDITOR. 



PIIBT,I8BT WEEKLY BY 



118 Michigan Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



[Entered at the Post-Offloe at Cbicago as Second-Class Mail Matter.] 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION 



Organissed 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-commiasion men. 



Afembers/iip JFee- ^2. OO ^er Aixikxxin* 



ExECrxivE COMMITTEE-Pres., Gcofge W. York; Vice-Pres., W. Z.Hutchinson: 



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

 BOAKD OF Directors— E. K. Root; E. Whitcomb; E. T. Abbott; C. P. Dadant: 



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

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



I^Jaaa and L>ate of JVe.vf AI&etini£: : 



Omaha, Nebr., Sept. 13, I4and is, at the Delone Hotel. Cor. I4th Street and 

 Capitol Avenue. 



VOL. 38. AUGUST 18, 1898. 



NO. 33. 



Note.— The American Bee Journal adapts tne Orthoarnphy of the following 

 Rule, recommenited by the joint action ot the American Philological Asso- 

 ciation and the Philological Society of England:— Change "d" or "ed" final 

 to "t" when so pronounced, except when the "e" affects a preceding sound. 



Oiuatia Convention Rates may be lower than 

 at first announced. Secretary Mason received a letter from 

 Mr. WhitcoDib, Aup. 0, in which he wrote : 



" We are quite confident that the rates will be lower than 

 those named, and that we will be able to get a one-cent rate 

 before the convention." 



We hope that all who possibly can do so will arrange to 

 go. to the Omaha convention. Remember the date — Sept. 13, 

 14 and 15. 



Facing: Comb Honey.— We had not intended say- 

 ing anything more on this subject, but as Mr. Doollttle, in a 

 private letter, exprest the hope that we would have the 

 "moral courage" to publish an editorial by Mr. Hill, of the 

 American Bee-Keeper, we of course gladly comply, but of 

 course it doesn't take any "moral courage " on our part to do 

 It. Here is the editorial in full : 



Quite a thorough discussion through some of the bee- 

 journals has been occasioned by an article from Aaron Snyder 

 In Gleanings, wherein bee-keepers are accused of dishonesty 

 in crating honey for market, it being averred by Mr. Snyder 

 that inferior grades are, to a damaging extent, fraudulently 

 concealed behind a facing of finer goods next to the glass. 



In the course of discussions pro and con, Mr. Doollttle ex- 

 prest the opinion that so long as honey was shipt to be sold on 

 commission, there could be nothing really dishonest in the act 

 of packing a variety of grades in any particular manner that 

 might suit the fancy of the producer, in one crate. Tho he 

 distinctly says he doubts the wisdom of such packing, we re- 

 gret to note an Inclination upon the part of certain of his 



critics to place an entirely unwarranted construction upon 

 what he has written. Who will say that any producer has 

 not a moral right to ship any crate of his product, whether it 

 be good, bad or indifferent, to a commission house handling 

 such good<, to be sold on its merits, aud for what it will 

 bring ? And who, again, cannot see the fallacy of mixing up 

 several grades in a case, when, by separating them into their 

 respective classes, according to establisht rules, a better price 

 Is obtained ? 



As a final result of the controversy, the American Bee 

 Journal instituted a canvass of the leading commissiouh ouses, 

 soliciting an expression of their views upon the subject of 

 " facing," etc., and the publisht replies in nearly every case 

 accord with Mr. Doolittle's views, that tho not necessarily 

 fraudulent, it is an unwise practice, reacting to the detriment 

 of the shipper. 



We see no reason to reconsider our stand against facing 

 comb honey by anyone or anywhere. Not only would such a 

 shipper justly suffer directly, but often an odium attaches to 

 a whole fraternity on account of the actions of a careless few, 

 causing many Innocent ones to suffer unjustly. We don't be- 

 lieve any one has a " moral right "to do that which will in- 

 jure himself and others. 



Editor Hutchinson, of the Bee Keepers' Review, wisely 

 said this, when referring to the subject of facing comb honey : 



"The best rule that I can give In the matter, is called the 

 golden ru>c. So crate your honey that, if by chance you 

 should unknowingly buy one of your own cases ol honey, you 

 would not be disappointed when you opened it." 



All who wish to do right ought to be able to stand on that 

 non-facing platform. 



While we think that Mr. Doollttle took a rather peculiar 

 stand on the " facing " question, we are sure he did not Intend 

 to advocate deception lu any way in putting up comb honey 

 for market. He Is too righteous a man to knowingly advise 

 doing wrong, or even countenance It. If anything we have 

 puDlisht seemed to reflec; upon Mr. Doolittle's good character, 

 we wish to say that we did not so intend It. 



Abbreviating' This Journal.— After copying 

 our editorial on page 473, Editor Hutchinson, of the Bee- 

 Keepers' Review, had this kind word to say in regard to It: 



There are minor points in the foregoing to which I might 

 take exceptions, but perhaps it Isn't worth while to argue over 

 them, as 1 most certainly agree with Bro. York that credit 

 should be given in such a manner that no doubt of the identity 

 of the journal referred to can exist. I am satisfied, however, 

 that no abbreviations are used that are not fully understood 

 by any beekeeper who is at all conversant with apicultural 

 literature; but new readers might not fully understand; be- 

 sides this, there Is another point that I did not consider before, 

 viz.: it a copied article with an abbreviated credit should be 

 re-copied, say, into a farm journal, full credit would probably 

 be lost, as most of the readers of an agricultural journal might 

 not know the meaning of " A. B. .!.," nor of "Review," nor 

 " Gleanings," nor " Progressive." 



In the same issue, Mr. R. L. Taylor — our contemporary's 

 critic — referring to this same subject, said : 



Editor York also takes me to task for using the letters 

 " A. B. J." for American Bee Journal. I beg his pardon. A 

 man's name should be written and pronounced as he chooses 

 to have it, and the name of a man's publication should also, I 

 suppose, appear as he likes It. But I was Innocent. I thought 

 It was a great distinction to be conscious that one's journal 

 enjoyed the eminence of being known everywhere by the ini- 

 tials of its name simply. But it is so unusual to have to write 

 the full name in a reference, in parenthesis, that I hope he 

 will have the grace to yield to that extent. 



All right, Mr. Taylor, In a parenthetical reference you 

 can Initial this journal provided you treat all others in the 

 same way. We want to be as "graceful " as possible, and so 

 we want nothing that the other papers do not get. We prefer 

 not to have any partiality shown toward our paper. But we 

 are quite willing to trust the Bee-Keepers' Review to do the 

 right thing hereafter in this matter. And we hope that the 

 other bee-papers will also do likewise. 



