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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



September 22 



GEORGE W. YORK. EDITOR. 



PUBr.ISHT WEEKLY BY 



118 Michigan Street, CHICAGO, ILL. 



(Entered at the Post-Office at Chicago as Second-Class Mail Matter.] 



UNITED STATES BEE-KEEPERS' UNION 



Organized to advance the pursuit of Apiculture; to promote the inleresta of bee 

 beepers ; to protect its niembers ; to prevent the adulteration of boney ; and 

 to prosecute the dishonest hi.jney-commia8ion men. 



A/embers/iip jPee— ^l.OO per Axititxm, 



BXECUTIVECOMMITTEE-Pres.. George W. York; Vice-Pres., W. Z. Hutchinson; 



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

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



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



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



VOL.38. SEITHMBER 22, 1898. NO. 38. 



Note. -The American Bee Journiil adopts tlie OrtliOKruphy ..I the following 

 Rule, recommenoed by tbe joint action ol the American riiilolngical Asso- 

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

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



Tlie New Officers of the United States Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Union, forming the Executive Committee, elected at 

 Omaha last week are as follows : 



President— Hon. E. Whitcomb, of Friend, Nebr. 

 Vice-President— C. A. Hatch, of Ithaca, Wis. 

 Secretary— Dr. A. B. Mason, of Toledo, Ohio. 



It is more than liltely that the meeting next year will be 

 held in Philadelphia, Pa. 



The Omaha meeting was one of the very best and most 

 harmonious ever held by the national organization of bee- 

 keepers. We expect to begin the publication of the full report 

 of the proceedings in the first number of the Bee Journal for 

 October — week after next. In the meantime prepare for a 

 rich treat. 



Distributing: Honey-Leaflets or booklets is one 

 of the best ways to create an interest in honey and its uses. 

 Referring to this in Gleanings for Sept. 1, Editor Root gave 

 this paragraph : 



" Now is the time to distribute the honey-leaflets. They 

 were written with special reference to the consumer who has 

 been persistently educated to the notion that all comb honey 

 is " manufactured stuff," and the extracted is always adul- 

 terated. Among other things they show that honey is more 

 palatable and wholesome than any other sweet In the world, 

 and how it may be used in cookery. The leaflets are sold on 

 the basis of cost, as it Is to our interest, as well as to that of 

 bee-keepers in general, that they be scattered broadcast over 

 the country." 



Our little 24-page pamphlet on " Heney as Food " is one 

 of the neatest and best things to be used in the line suggested. 

 Prices will be found in the book-list in this number, top of 

 second column. Send stamp for a sample, anyway. 



A Source of "Red Honey" Explained. — 



Mr. Geo. Thompson, of Kane Co., 111., wrote this amusing 

 paragraph for Gleanings, its heading reading "How the Bees 

 Stole Currant Jelly :" 



" A few years ago Mr. James Marvin, of St. Charles, III., 

 who will be remembered by some of our old-time bee-keepers, 

 had a curious incident in this airection. In looking through 

 his hives one day he saw his bees had been gathering some 

 red honey, and it puzzled him to tell where they were getting 

 it. A few days afterward he overheard some of the women 

 telling about one of their neighbors who had been making 

 some currant jelly, and she had put it out on the window-sill 

 to cool, and then went visiting that afternoon. When she 

 came home she found all her jelly gone, and the tumblers lickt 

 clean. 'Oh, the plaguey boys !' said she. This, of course, was 

 a clew for Mr. Marvin, and upon further examination he 

 found It was the old lady's currant jelly the bees had stored 

 away for winter use. Of course, he kept that to himself ; but 

 we had a good laugh over it." 



Bees Don*t Like Black.— Dr. Miller, in Glean- 

 ings, sometime ago, suggested that bees had a strong aversion 

 for black, and since then testimony corroborating that state- 

 ment has been coming in. One man who has very black hair 

 says the bees " fairly go crazy to get Into said hair." 



Several weeks ago we invited a neighbor's 7-year-old boy 

 to come over and watch us work with the bees, take off some 

 honey, etc. He came, and almost immediately upon opening 

 the first hive the bees made a dash for his black stockings and 

 black knee-trousers. Oh, but they did sting the poor little 

 fellow terribly. We were surprised at the sudden charge of 

 the bees, and now believe it was the blackness of the boy's 

 clothing that so angered them. 



So tbe lesson to be learned is, to be drest in light-colored 

 clothing when working with bees, and thus avoid unneces- 

 sarily irritating them, causing them to sting much worse than 

 they otherwise might. 



■*-»-* 



The Season of 1898 has probably been one of the 

 poorest ever known for bee-keepers, and perhaps the best 

 ever known for supply manufacturers and dealers. The gen- 

 eral failure of the honey crop is not confined to this country, 

 for wails come from Great Britain and Europe as well. The 

 manufacturers' crop is estimated by the A. I. Root Co. to be 

 double that of any previous year, that company alone having 

 disposed of 70,000 hives, with a chance at 10,000 to 30,- 

 000 more if they could have supplied them promptly. 



XUe Illinois State Fair, at Springfield, begins 

 Sept. 26 and ends Oct. 1. A grand program of special at- 

 tractions has been arranged for each day of the fair. We 

 hope that the apiarian exhibit will be even larger and better 

 than last year, if that is possible in this year of short honey 

 crop. In order to prevent a further reduction in the list of 

 premiums offered, bee-keepers must put up a show that will 

 encourage an increase of premiums rather than a further 

 decrease. 



Montana as a Bee-Field.— The senior editor of 



Gleanings in his wanderings In Montana found large tracts of 



alfalfa at Miles City and Billings, and at Forsythe large tracts 



of Rocky Mountain bee-plant, the ground covered with it and 



looking at a distance like pink snow-banks, but on neither of 



these plants nor on any of the wild flowers did he find a single 



bee. He found one subscriber to Gleanings, but he had no 



bees as yet, and didn't know of one within a hundred miles in 



any direction. 



•*-•-*■ 



Another Unfortunate Bee-Keeper. — Some 

 time ago we announced the misfortune that befell Thomas 

 McDonald, a bee-keeper at Shawneetown, III., who lost his all 

 in the great flood that swept that town last spring. Many 



