584 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



September 15, 



GEORGE W. YORK. EDITOR. 



PUBLISHT WEEKLY BY 



lis Michigan Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



[Entered at the PostOlBce at Chicago a8 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. 



Alemberslilp Fee—Sl-OO per Annum. 



BXECUTIVE COMMITTEE-Pres.. George W. York; Vice-Pres., W. Z. Hutchinson; 



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

 BOARD OF Directors— B. R. Root; B. Whitcomb; K. T. Abbott: C. P. Dadant: 



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

 Qbneral manager and Treascrer— Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 



VOL. 38. SEPTEMBER 15, 1898. NO. 



:»/. 



NOTE.-lhe American Bee Journal adopts the OrthOBraphy of the following 

 Bule, recommenned by the joint action of the American Philological Assu- 

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

 to 't when so pronounced, except when the "e" affects a preceding sound. 



The Omaha Convention will have reacht its 

 closing sessions wlien the majority of our readers receive this 

 number of the Bee Journal. Week after ne.xt we e.xpect to 

 begin publishing the full report of the convention proceedings. 

 This should make interesting reading for many weeks. All 

 who were not fortunate enough to attend the convention will 

 thus be able to get it "second hand," which is next best thing 

 to being present in person. 



Honex Imported from Puerto Rico.— In a 



pamphlet recently issued by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, on the " Trade of Puerto Rico "—our lately ac- 

 quired possession — we find that in 1897 there was Imported 

 into the United States from there, 225 gallons of honey and 

 80 pounds of beeswax. Not a very sweet Island, if that was 

 all they had to export. But if it is anything like Cuba as a 

 paradise for bee-keepers, In a few years we may expect the 

 production of great honey crops in Puerto Rico. 



A "Warning to Honey-Sbippers. — For the 



benefit of the newer honey-producers we wish to say that 

 about three years ago there were a number of fraudulent com- 

 mission firms who handled honey. Some of them were actually 

 in business for just what they could defraud bee-keepers out 

 of, by sending out circular letters in which they over-quoted 

 the market. Many bee-keepers were caught in the net, and 

 some lost very heavily. 



The scheme was to get in a lot of honey by offering a 

 much higher price than the market warranted, then afterward 



claiming the price had dropt, and the bee-keeper would get 

 just about what the crooked dealer felt like sending liim. 



Now, we hope that no honey-producers will fall into that 

 trap this year. Be sure you know something about the firm 

 you ship to. Don't take much risk, for what use is there ia 

 working to get a crop of honey, and then lose it through some 

 scheming commission firm ? Better a thousand times sell it 

 for less nearer home, or rjive it to your neighbors and friends. 



Right in line with this is the following paragraph taken 

 from the Orange Judd Farmer — one of the best farm papers 

 printed to-day : 



Responsible Commission Merchants. — We again cau- 

 tion our people in the Interior who ship to the city markets 

 against consigning goods to irresponsible firms. A favorite 

 trick of these concerns is to over-quote the market in sending 

 out circular letters, in some instances pledging themselves to 

 make returns at a little above the market, or perhaps claim- 

 ing to have a special outlet for goods, thus enjoying better ad- 

 vantages than the average commission merchant. We have 

 recently had called to our attention soliciting letters of this 

 character, which have some of the outward appearance of 

 frauds, and all such should be promptly Ignored. Many of 

 these shady people go just as far as the law will allow, taking 

 advantage of innocent shippers who have scant recourse. 

 Something more than a fair bank rating is necessary to insure 

 satisfactory returns. Do not ship to strangers unless you 

 have every reason to know they are all right. 



Are there Too many Bee-Keepers ?— Mr. C. 



P. Dadant has a very interesting article on page 577, showing 

 that bee-keeping in this country is far from being overdone. 

 In our recent trip to Ohio we think we saw only two or three 

 small apiaries along the route of over 400 miles, tho we past 

 hundreds of farm-houses all along the way. 



We think we have encouraged very few people to go into 

 bee-keeping. But what we have endeavored to do is, to get 

 all who are already keeping bees, to take the American Bee 

 Journal, and thus learn how to manage them more success- 

 fully. This surely is a legitimate effort, and so would be an 

 attempt to induce more of those who are favorably situated 

 to begin to keep bees and produce at least what honey their 

 families could eat. 



But everybody will never keep bees any more than every- 

 body will grow strawberries or other fruit that requires more 

 than ordinary care and intelligence to make a success of it. 



Bee-keeping can never be overdone, especially iu view of 

 the ever-recurring failure of the honey crop to materialize. 

 Of course, there will always be some part of the country that 

 will produce a crop of honey, no matter if there be a total 

 failure in almost every other place. And even when there is 

 a good crop practically all over the country, honey need not 

 be a drug on the market if properly distributed. There always 

 will be plenty of people who will never learn the value of 

 honey as a food, but who, once they learned It, would use it 

 more and more. 



•* % m^ 



Attending: Bee-Conventions Pays. — Mr. 



Harry S. Howe, one of the expert handlers of bees in the State 

 of New York, in the American Bee-Keeper says this about the 

 value of attending bee-conventions : 



"Take time to go to your bee-convention, even if you 

 have to hire a man to work In your place while you are gone. 

 I got an idea at the last Cortland county convention that has 

 been worth all I ever paid for conventions, so far this season. 

 Even if there are no new ideas, it is worth the price to get the 

 ' bee-fever' up to a higher temperature." 



There are but very few conventions of bee-keepers that 

 are unprofitable to those who attend. And we have never 

 gone to one that was not abundantly helpful to those present. 

 Especially has this been true of the national meetings of bee- 

 keepers. Of course, we hardly think It would pay to go from 

 California to Maine just to attend a convention, but within 

 any reasonable distance wefeel itcannot fail to be exceedingly 



