760 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Nov. 30, 1899. 



GEORQE W. YORK, Editor. 



PUBLISHT WEEKLY BY 



Qeorqe W. York & Company, 



116 Michigan St., Cliicago, III. 



ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. ffif^ SAMPLE COPY FREE. 



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



United States Bee- Keepers' Association. 



Organized to advance the pursuit of Apiculture ; to promote the interests 

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

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



Alembersblp Fee—91-OO per Anatitn. 



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



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

 Board of Directors— 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. NOVEMBER 3U, 1899. NO. 48. 



Note— The American Bee Journal adopts the Orthography of the follow- 

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

 ical Association and the Philological Society of England: — Change 

 *'d" or "ed" final to "t" when so pronounced, except when the *^e" af- 

 fects a preceding sound. 



A Light Year for Supply -Dealers is prophesied by 

 Gleaning-s in Bee-Culture. Reasons — heavy losses last win- 

 ter, g-eneral failure of the honey crop, leaving- supplies of 

 the previous season still on hand ; and discourag-ing- effects 

 of disease in some localities. 



Loquacious Paid Writers for the bee-papers are get- 

 ting some whacks nowadays. The expression "loquacious 

 paid writers " raises several questions. Are all " paid " 

 writers "loquacious?" Are all "loquacious" writers 

 "paid?" Do editors select those whom they pay because 

 of their loquacity ? Are they likely to get better service 

 without pay than with it ? Is that the general rule in other 

 departments ? Are literary, agricultural, and other jour- 

 nals the best that pay the least for their contributions? 

 Referring to this matter, "Somnambulist," the "delightful 

 dreamer" of the Progressive Bee-Keeper, says : 



" Allow me, pray you, to ask, if the journals did not 

 employ "loquacious paid writers," where, oh, where, would 

 they secure copy ? And does being a paid writer, loquacious 

 or otherwise, exclude one from possessing a few grains of 

 common-sense ?" 



Selling Honey Outright for Cash is the way for bee- 

 keepers to dispose of their -produci zv/it'n //ny can. Says F. 

 L,. Thotnpson in the Progressive Bee-Keeper : 



"The last two years a buyer has come to this county 

 and cleaned up the product, shipping the honey himself, 

 and paying cash for the honey when delivered at the car. 

 The advantages of such a plan are considerable to all con- 

 cerned. No leakage, no drayage, no commission, no wait- 



ing, no misunderstanding ; the buyer knows what he is 

 doing, and the producers know what they are doing. The 

 firms who buy in that manner ought to be given every en- 

 couragement, so that this method of purchase may eventually 

 become the rule and not the exception. It tends to place 

 honey on the footing of a staple, like cotton or potatoes, 

 which are largelj- bought in the same way." 



Mr. Thompson is sound in his views, and the bee-keeper 

 who compares the present year with the few years imme- 

 diately preceding will see cause for encouragement that he 

 will hereafter have no need of the services of the commis- 

 sion man. But we may as well open our eyes to the fact that 

 the supply of honey this year is probably smaller than it 

 has been within the present generation. In proportion as 

 the crop is scanty, commission men are forced to buj' for 

 cash or not handle the goods. So the unusual scarcity has 

 brought into the field an unusual number of buyers, and 

 unless the future is different from the past, the next season 

 of big crops will see many of the cash buyers of this year 

 drop back into the commission ranks. 



After all, much lies in the power of bee-keepers, and if 

 all hold back for cash sales they can get them. 



The Bee as a Fertilizer Appreciated. — It is pleasant 

 to note that in many quarters, even in the religious week- 

 lies, the bee is beginning to be appreciated as something 

 more than a mere honey-gatherer and stinger. Barring the 

 error as to the sex of the bees that do the gathering, here is 

 something good from the pen of the Rev. Geo. A, Little, in 

 the Herald and Presbyter : 



This spring, having a little ground, I determined to re- 

 new m3' youth by having a garden. A neighbor said to me : 

 "No use to plant cucumbers." "Why?" I askt. " Are not 

 the soil and the season favorable ?" " Soil and season are 

 all right, but there are no bees. You will have vines and 

 blossoms, but no cucumbers." I caught the idea. These 

 little insects, going from flower to flower and wallowing in 

 them, get on their legs and bodies more or less of the pol- 

 len, and thus fructify the blossom. That was the idea. I 

 kne%v this to be true of the bumble-bee and the red clover. 

 The farmer needs, in order to raise clover seed, clover blos- 

 soms and bumble-bees. 



I planted the seed and watcht for the honey-bees. There 

 was white clover on the lawn, but up to the middle of June 

 I had seen but one honey-bee, tho I had an eye wide open 

 for them. The 3'ellow blossoms were on the vines, and yet 

 not a bee. But on Sunday one came and found his job. 

 Monday he was on hand again. Then finding himself over- 

 matcht, he brought a mate, and now a half dozen can be 

 seen at almost any hour of the day, " busy as bees." 



And with that for a text, Mr. Little preaches a sermon 

 — and a very good sermon, too. 



Bee-Supplies for 1900. — Only a few changes are an- 

 nounced in Gleanings in Bee-Culture. One is the combina- 

 tion of stand and bottom-board in one — a thing that may 

 be liked by some whose bees stand year in and year out 

 without moving. 



Another of very much more importance is in hive- 

 covers. In the Higginsville cover and others of that kind, 

 a central piece something after the nature of a ridgepole 

 covered the joint of the two principal pieces of the cover, 

 and in very dry climates there is a chance that the wood 

 might shrink so much as to let the water in. The new 

 cover " consists of three pieces as before, and two end 

 cleats ; but the center or gable piece is channeled out on the 

 under side to correspond with the projections on the edges 

 of the two side-pieces that come together. The principle of 

 this is a good deal like old Higginsville, with this addition 

 — that the two side or gable pieces have perpendicular 

 shoulders, and the ridge-piece is channeled so as to straddle 

 over these two shoulders, leaving perpendicular edges of 

 contact, rendering it impossible for the water to work its 



