1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



793 



45"'. The scales if present will be readily discovered lying as 

 already discrlbed, reaching almost to the margin of the lower 

 slJe of the cell. I consider this a very sure method of diagno- 

 sis, tho in one or two cases I have seen similar scales where 

 the death of the brood resulted from other causes." 



A Pure Food and Seed Conference for Illi- 

 nois was called to be held at Champaign, Dec. 13. Among the 

 dozen persons signing the call we notice the name of Mr. J. Q. 

 Smith, President of the Illinois State Bee-Iveepers' Associa- 

 tion. The call reads as follows : 



The extent of adulteration of foods and seeds with cheaper, 

 inferior, or worthless, and often with harmful ingredients 

 challenges the attention of all classes of citizens. 



The practice of substituting inferior articles in place of 

 standard goods, or of introducing the same in packages and 

 under names closely simulating those of well known excel- 

 lence, not only works confusion of trade names and values, 

 but results in gross injustice and loss, if not injury to the con- 

 sumer; it embarrasses the retail dealer; it tends to drive 

 honest goods out of the markets and to demoralize trade. 



In general, the purchaser is unable to detect either the 

 nature or the extent of the fraud, which, enjoying the advan- 

 tage of name and brand of better goods, is able to sell at a 

 price that will yield enormous gains and yet that will cancel 

 the profits of the honest manufacturer of, and dealer in, stan- 

 dard goods. 



The sale and use of wholesome food whether cheap or 

 costly should not be discouraged or hampered, but the time 

 seems ripe for such legislation as shall insure that things shall 

 be sold for what they actually are, that the purchaser may 

 know the exact nature of what he buys, and bo protected 

 against positively worthless or harmful ingredients. 



The matter is one that touches the health and pocket of 

 every citizen, and legislation looking toward control should 

 not be in the interest, or at the instigation, of any one busi- 

 ness or class of citizens, but for the benefit of all. 



For the purpose of discussing the situation and of consid- 

 ering the step which should be taken to secure effective and 

 reasonable legislation directed to this end, the undersigned 

 unite In a call for a conference of all citizens and organiza- 

 tions interested, the same to be held at the University of Illi- 

 nois, Dec. 13, 1898, commencing at 9 o'clock a.m. 



Then follow the signatures referred to. Mr. Smith, rep- 

 resenting Illinois bee-keepers, has appointed the following as 

 delegates : Dr. C. C. Miller, C. P. Dadant, Jas. A. Stone, and 

 the editor of the American Bee Journal. We regret very 

 much that we were unable to attend. It is utterly impossible 

 for us to leave our office at this time of the year. We trust 

 that something of definite value was done. There is great 

 need of pure food legislation in this as well as many other 

 States. 



Mrs J. J. Glessner, of Chicago, has handed us §2.00 to 

 be placed in the Laugstroth Monument Fund. Mrs. Glessner 

 is a prominent society lady here, having her bees in New 

 Hampshire, at her summer home. She is greatly interested 

 in the subject of bee-keeping. 



Mr. 6. M. DooLiTTLE, of Ouondaga Co., N. Y., has met 

 with a most painful accident, we regret to learn. When send- 

 ing us his December article for the Bee Journal, on the 7th, 

 he wrote as follows : 



Dear Bro. York: — I had expected to be prompt in send- 

 ing this last article, sending on the first of the month, but 

 through a fall I sustained one or two broken ribs, and I have 

 found them the most painful, if not the most Inconveniencing, 

 of any injury sustained in my life, which has been full of acci- 

 dents and broken bones. I have scarcely drawn a breath, 

 during eight days, but what has been one of misery. I am 

 now bound up so tight I can hardly draw a full breath, and 



find that it gives some relief to the pain, caused by the rising 

 and falling of the chest at every breath, which acts directly 

 on the ribs. I was bookt to address the Ontario bee-keepers 

 at their convention Dec. 7 and 8, but had to cancel the en- 

 gagement, and am staying In-doors the most of the time. 

 Painfully yours, G. M. Doolittle. 



We hope Mr. Doolittle will speedily recover from his 

 SBvero injuries, and be as sound as he was " before the fall " — 

 of Doolittle. 



Mr. R. Reynold Jones, Secretary of the Vere Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association in Jamaica, W. I., wrote as follows Nov. 24 : 



" If we get some fair weather I suppose we shall have a 

 good honey crop. Bees have commenced swarming in some 

 localities." 



Mr. a. Fritchman, of Cedar Co., Iowa, when renewing 

 his subscripiion lately, wrote: 



'I suppose I am one of the oldest subscribers to the 

 American Bee Journal, as I have been taking it without in- 

 terruption ever since Mr. Wagner's time." 



Mr. Samuel Wagner was the founder of this journal, in 

 1S6I. Hedied in 1872. 



Mr. Thomas G. Newman, of San Francisco, Calif., Gen- 

 eral Manager of the National Bee-Keepers' Union, wrote us 

 Dec. 3 that he was in quite ill-health, suffering from la grippe 

 and malaria. He says the heavy fogs there give to nearly 

 everybody colds and rheumatism— a hard climate. We trust 

 Mr. Newman will soon be himself again. It surely is not pleas- 

 ant to suffer so anywhere, and especially in a part of the 

 country (California) that has been boomed so highly for its 

 glorious climate ! 



W. C. Gathright thinks It more important to have sep- 

 arators come i^-inch below top of sections than to have pas- 

 sages in center of separators ; has never seen sections bulged 

 at top, and bees finish up honey and seal top row of cells bet- 

 ter than with separators that come to top of sections. I'm 

 anxious to believe he's right, and I think he is. [Notwith- 

 standing I have been on the other side of the fence, and that 

 very recently, enough testimony has come in to convert me to 

 the belief that it is important to have the separators drop % 

 inch below the top of the sections. Our fences for 1899 will 

 be narrow enough to allow this space above and below.— Ed.] 

 Gleanings. 



Honey the Best Food for Bees.— To every animal be- 

 longs its appropriate food, and, for the bee, honey is the food 

 destined by Nature, says W. Skarytka, in Deutsche 111. Bztg. 

 The bee-keeper deceives himself who thinks sugar is equally 

 good. Honey, and good honey at that, is and always will be 

 the most natural and the best for bees. In emergency, sugar 

 may be used as a substitute, but bees wintered entirely on sugar 

 will not accomplish as much the next season as those wintered 

 on good honey. Honey is directly assimilated, and contains 

 some matters not found in sugar, while the cane-sugar must 

 be inverted by the bees, thus taking their strength at a time 

 when the fullest repose is desirable. 



Poor ftueens Result from Simply Removing the Queen. 



— Dr. Miller having maintained that bees made queenless 

 would not- make the mistake of rearing a queen from larvae 

 too old for the purpose, Mr. Taylor, in the Bee-Keepers' Re- 

 view, thinks his arguments unsound, and is confirmed in that 

 view by his own experience. He says : 



" Many a time have I seen the bees beginning attempts to 

 make queens out of larvsB almost old enough to be capt over ; 

 and many a queen produced from such larvic having one or 

 more of the characteristics of the worker have I examined." 



" Editor Hutchinson, who has had a largo experience in 

 rearing queens for market, says his experience has showed 

 very clearly that poor queens usually result from simply re- 

 moving a queen and allowing the bees to make their own se- 

 lection of larvie for queen-rearing. They are then placed In a 



