24 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Jan. 12. 1899. 



rrnLisiiT \\'ekk;lv by 



George W. York & Company, 



118 Michigan St., Giilcago, III. 



ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. S6f% SAMPLE COPY FREE. 



[Entered at the Post-Office at Chicag-o as Second-Class Mail Matter.] 



United States Bee -Keepers' Union. 



Org-anized to advance the pursuit of Apiculture : to iiromote the interests 

 of bee-keepers : to protect its members ; to prevent the adulteration of 

 honey ; and to prosecute the dishonest himey-commission men. 



XlGinf>erslxip i^ee — S1,00 per JLnavLzn, 



E-XECUTIVI3 Committee— Pres., E. Whitcomb: Vice-Pres., C. A. Hatch; 



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

 Bo.\RD OK DiKECToKS— E. R. Root; E. Whitcomb; E. T. Abbott; C. P. 



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

 Gen'l Manager and Treasurer— Eugene Secor, Forest City, Iowa. 



VOL. 39. 



lA.XUARY 12, 1899. 



NO. 2 



NoTE-The American Bee Journal adopts the Orthographv of the folluu- 

 ing- Rule, recommended by the joint action of the American Philoloij- 

 ical .Vssociation and the Philological Society of England: — Chanjre 

 '■d" or "ed" final to "t" v.hen so p'ronouiiced, "except when the "e" af- 



fects a preceding sound. 



The Dot Diagram Contest that we run duriiig^ Decem- 

 ber, 189.S, closed Jan. 1, a.> announced. Next week we ex- 

 pect to be able to give the re.sult. 



General Items department of the Bee Journal is suffer- 

 ing from an overplus of contributions, and tho.se who have 

 so kindly sent in reports will please be patient, as we expect 

 to accommodate all a;; rapidly as possible. 



Only i6,ooo Copies of last week's American Bee Jour- 

 nal were printed. We presume that was the largest single 

 edition of any bee-paper ever issued in this country. (Jf 

 course, we will use a good many of them for sample copies 

 during this month. With the present improved appearance 

 of the old American Bee Journal, and the rich contents that 

 it will have this year— well, we believe it deserves just 

 about double its present circulation, and ought to have it in 

 a very few months. 



Not a Candid.-ite. -A letter received froiu Hon. R. L. 

 Taylor, of Lapeer Co., Mich., dated Jan. 5, reads thus : 



Fkiknd York : — If convenient will vou saj' in the 

 American Bee Journal for next week, that I am not a candi- 

 date for President of the National Bee-Keepers' Union for 

 the coming year, and cannot act as such. 



Fraternally yours, R. L. Tavi.ok. 



The readers of the B^»e Journal \vh(,. are voting members 

 of the Union mentioned, will please note Mr. Taylor's an- 

 nouncement. He usually means what he says. 



Inventive (?) Beginners in bee-keeping are often im- 

 prest with the idea that they ought to get up a better hive 

 than was ever invented by all the learned bee-keepers that 

 existed before them. Strange that the bump of invention 

 of some people develops so rapidly when once they become 

 bee-keepers. But it is even so, for the United States Patent 

 Office records show that tiearly 1,000 applicatiotis for pat- 

 ents on hives have been filed in this country. And yet per- 

 haps less thati a half-dozen of those hives were of any 

 permanent value. 



Mr. U. Gubler, a noted European bee-keeper — and evi- 

 dently a sensible one — offers this advice to beginners, in a 

 late issue of the Revue Internationale : 



'• The bee-keeper who knows how to handle tools likes 

 to try to make his own hives, atid therein we have only 

 words of encouragement. But let him confine himself to 

 .systems approved by the experience of our masters. Re- 

 frain from a tendency to make new things, to introduce 

 pretended improvements, before knowing thoroughly the 

 nattire of the bee and its needs. The hives that we pos.sess 

 are the result of the studies, the experiments, and the dis- 

 coveries of a great number of bee-keepers and experts of all 

 lands ; and to desire to make new is simply to render one's 

 self liable to pay dearly for the experiments that others 

 have made before us." 



The Roll of Honor mentiotied last week as being origi- 

 nated by Gleatiings, began in the number of that paper for 

 Ja:i. 1. There were 17 names as a starter. Quite a number 

 of them refer to the American Bee Journal as being where 

 they first saw the writings of Mr. Root. And that reminds 

 us that nearly all the bee-papers that have been started in 

 this country, and tliat amounted to anything, were practi- 

 cally built up on the American Bee Journal as a foundation. 

 We could name several bee-papers of to-day whose editors 

 gained a reputation by first writing for these columns, and 

 thus "getting in " with bee-keepers who read. 



Whether it is an honor or not, it seems to be true, that 

 the old American Bee Journal has been used quite often as 

 a stepping-stone by those who aspired to fill an editorial 

 chair in bee-journalism. 



And yet, after having lighted other apiarian torches, 

 the " Old Reliable " appears to shine undimmed, if not with 

 more resplendent lustre than ever before. 



The Langstroth Monument Fund. — Hon. Eugene 

 Secor, General Manager of the United States Bee-Keepers' 

 Union, has undertaken to help push through to a finish the 

 laudable work of raising the fund for the erection of a suit- 

 able montiment for the lamented Langstroth — the Father of 

 American bee-keeping. We have received this communica- 

 tion from Mr. Secor, which we trust will be carefully read 

 by all otir stibscribers : 



Forest Citv, Iowa. Jan. 2. 1899. 



Having been placed on the Langstroth Monument Com- 

 mittee, I wish to make this final appeal to the bee-keepers 

 of America, before erecting the slab that is to mark the 

 resting'-place of the most noted character and best-loved 

 bee-keeper in our country. 



It seems to me that if we neglect this opportunity to do 

 honor to his name we shall always regret it. 



Bee-keepers ought to esteem it not only a matter of 

 loyal duty, but a loving privilege to contribute to a suitable 

 monument to one whose services to American apiculture 

 have been .so universally acknowledged. 



It is one of the strange things in this world, that very 

 often the inventor of useful appliances fails to receive the 

 rewards due to his genius. Thus it was in Langstroth's 

 case. He builded, we occupy. 



The world now recognizes his services, btit robbed him 

 of the material fruits thereof when needed. 



Will this g-eneration be satisfied to let him lie in an 

 obscure or forgotten grave when it is understood that the 

 ingratitude, selfishness, and cupidity of jealous rivals 



