792 



AMERICAN BEE JOUFNAL, 



Dec. 14, 1899. 



PUBLISHT WEEKLY BY 



George W. York & Company, 



116 Michigan St., Chicago, III. 



ONE DOLLAR A YEAR. ^^^ 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 ApicuUure ; 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. 



Alemtjersliip Fee—91.00 per Jlanuin, 



ExECCTiVE 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. DECEMBER 14, 1899. NO. 50. 



No-te- The American Bee Jouiuai adopts the Orthoprraphv of the follow- 

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

 t'S?>. fi°'^i?"°° ^'"^ "''^ Pliilological Society of England: —Change 

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

 fects a preceding sound. 



What this Journal Stands For We think vre are not 



often g-iven to self-flattery, nor to praising- unduly the 

 qualities of the American Bee Journal. We always prefer 

 to allow others to extol our virtues and those of this journal, 

 if there are any such that deserve mention. 



In the first place, we want this journal to stand for the 

 right and against the wrong-, all the time. It is here, also, 

 to represent the interests of the great industry of bee-keep- 

 ing. It does not push any particular bee-supply business, 

 but gives to each and every dealer and manufacturer who 

 patronizes its advertising columns a free and fair field. Its 

 publishers do not, thru its columns, enter into competition 

 with those bee-supply dealers who pay their money for ad- 

 vertising space. Hence, the American Bee Journal is not a 

 " house-organ "—used to boom the sale of bee-keepers" sup- 

 plies in the interest of its publishers, as do some papers— 

 but it endeavors to give, every week, lots of the best infor- 

 mation obtainable for the advancement of practical and 

 profitable bee-culture. 



We say the foregoing because we know better than any 

 one else the motives back of the printed pages of the 

 American Bee Journal, and we believe that we need oniy 

 to remind bee-keepers thruout the land that this journal 

 stands for //ri?/;- interests, when they will continue to give 

 it their loyal support. Not only will they do that, but we be- 

 lieve they will do what they can to extend its circulation, 

 and thus aid in greatly widening its usefulness and help- 

 fulness among the bee-keeping fraternity. 



The time for renewing subscriptions for another ^-ear is 



now here. We want to invite every one of our present sub- 

 scribers to go on with us in 1900, and also suggests they get 

 their bee-keeping friends and neighbors to " enlist " with 

 them. 



Remember, you will receive 52 copies of the old Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal for only one dollar. While nearly every- 

 thing else is going up in price these days, this journal for 

 1900 will be mailed for the usual low amount — a dollar bill. 



We are hoping that by another spring it will have the 

 largest circulation of any bee-paper on earth. It now 

 stands second, we believe. We think its readers feel it 

 should stand at the head in circulation, as well as in age. It 

 can easily be done, if only each of our present subscribers 

 would send just one new subscriber. Why not do it before 

 Jan. 1st? 



Honey=Dew for Winter Stores. — For the second time 

 in more than 25 years, F. Greiner sa_Ys they have had a big 

 flow of honey-dew in his part of New York, and he seems, 

 anxious as to its effects upon wintering. He says in- 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture : 



" Honey-dew is rather unreliable winter food for bees, 

 to judge from experience. Colonies provisioned with such 

 are not in good condition to be taken into cellars, unless 

 they are taken out several times during the winter and 

 given flights, and then the result might be questionable. 



" Should the winter turn out to be a mild one, or should 

 there be a number of warm days or spells at intervals of 

 three or four weeks, everything will probably work well 

 with out-door wintered stock, for I do believe that, aside 

 from the food question, our bees will be in excellent con- 

 dition. They will start into winter with manj' young bees, 

 breeding having been kept up to a later date than usual." 



The other time they had honey-dew some seven or 

 eight years ago, the following winter was open, giving- 

 frequent flights. Bees wintered out-doors came thru in the 

 very best condition. Those in cellar that were put out in 

 February were all right, those brought out later were the 

 worse for the longer confinement. This time he didn't in- 

 tend to take any chances, and was going to take away what 

 he could of the honey-dew and feed sugar syrup. 



Selling Honey — W. O. Victor, a Texas beekeeper who 

 has had as many as 600 colonies at one time, and who has 

 sold 56,000 pounds of honey in a single season, says in the 

 Bee-Keepers' Review that he thinks the commission man a 

 necessity for the beginner. When his crop first exceeded 

 the local demand, he found the commission man verj- con- 

 venient. In the past 15 years he has sold hundreds of tons- 

 of honey, and thinks S150 would cover his total loss. 



In one instance he shipt to a commission firm, and re- 

 ceived returns at SI. 00 per case of 12 sections. Seeking the 

 customer who bought the hone}% he found it had been sold 

 for SI. SO per case. Instead of quitting the commission firm 

 he went to them and told them that thereafter he would 

 name the price and they should sell at that or hold the 

 honey subject to his order, and they had since sold hun- 

 dreds of dollars worth of honey for him. 



In another case he shipt 60 buckets of chunk honej' to a 

 firm. Calling at the place incognito, he found the buckets 

 markt lyi to 4 pounds more than the actual weight, and an 

 enterprising salesman told him the honey was from Cali- 

 fornia, and only 50 buckets were left out of 500 received the 

 week before ! Then Mr. Victor drew from his pocket the 

 letter acknowledging the receipt of the honey. Tableau ! 



Bees and the Pollenization of Fruits. In a new peri- 

 odical, called the Poultryman and Pomologist, we find the 

 following item on the pollenization of fruits, giving par- 

 ticular credit to the bees in this important work : 



"The pollenization of fruits is a subject to which fruit- 

 growers should give more attention. Last year, on a large 



