1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



409 



camel's-hair brush and carry pollen from staminate plant to 

 the pistilate, and plant the fruit from these plants, and you 

 will find they will grow, and if fertilized from the stamen of 

 the same variety as the pistil, they will bring forth plants 

 that will grow fruit true to seed. But if from stamen different 

 from the pistil, the seed will bring forth a plant that bears 

 fruit that is a blending of the two varieties, or seedling, dif- 

 ferent from either. A hen will lay eggs without being mated, 

 but they will be sterile, and incapable of reproduction. A 

 strawberry plaut will bear fruit without being fertilized, but 

 it also is sterile, and cannot reproduce itself. 



Franklin, Pa. Ed. Jolley. 



Carjadiat;) Beedotrj^ 



Nom-de-plumes. 



Rev. Emerson T. Abbott is very much exercised that some 

 writers for the American Bee Journal, Bee-Master among the 

 rest, do not write over their own proper names. He says he 

 pays very little attention to criticism when he does not know 

 who is the author of it ; also that contributions would be of 

 much more value if backed up by a personality with a real 

 name ; and farther, that he feels no interest, or very little, in 

 articles " fathered by a — nobody." 



There is no valid objection to anonymous writing unless 

 the object is to hide the author of an attack on character, who 

 is too cowardly to come out man-fashion with what he has to 

 say of another. This is supposed to be a free country, but it 

 isn't that exactly. Instead of being permitted to do as you 

 like, and go as you please, people assume to instruct you and 

 dictate to you. Some like to sit on their door-steps in the 

 open street to be seen by all passers-by, while others prefer 

 the seclusion of a shady bower or a summer-house. If one 

 writer thinks the sledge-hammer of his name is needed to 

 drive home what he has to say, and another prefers to have 

 his articles appreciated according to their intrinsic merit, is 

 there any good reason why both should not be accomodated ? 



It may be prudent in some cases for names to be withheld. 

 It was so in the case of Junius. If his identity had been 

 known, he would have had his head taken off. 



Mr. Abbott may think less of an article when he does not 

 know the author's name. Others may think all the more of 

 it. Truth does not need the backing of a name or names. 

 One of the evils of this age is that people ask not " What is 

 said?" but " Who says it?" Further, as it takes all sorts of 

 people to make a world, so it takes all kinds of contributions 

 to make a journal, especially a bee-journal. We have disciples 

 of Mr. Doolittle, admirers of Mr. Heddou, worshippers of Mr. 

 A. I. Root, and devotees to the views of Dr. Miller. We have 

 others who know a good thing when they see it attached to 

 other names, or without any name. 



Finally, a nom-de-plume appeals to the curiosity of many. 

 This is a mighty principle in human nature. It is considered 

 a special feature of woman's character, but some men have it 

 just as strongly developed as the fair sex. I think Mr. Abbott 

 has a liberal share of it, or he would not be so anxious to have 

 names disclosed. I commend to him the grace of repression. 

 It is good self-discipline. While he is cultivating it, he might 

 chew the cud of the query. Why is it that the best journals in 

 the world are impersonally edited ? That's a fact, and there 

 must be a way of accounting for it. 



Popularizing Bce-Kuowlcclg^e. 



Attention has already been called in most of the bee- 

 papers to Mr. Hutchinson's articles in the Cosmopolitan for 

 May and June, but it has been in a very brief way. They are 

 certainly deserving of much fuller mention, and, for one, I 

 would like to see them copied into the American Bee Journal. 

 Presenting, as they do, some phases of bee-keeping not to be 

 found in the hand-books or apicultural periodicals, they are 

 admirably fitted to dispel some of that popular ignorance on 

 the subject which is so dense and wide-spread, that even the 

 literary man who put the subheadings to Mr. Hutchinson's first 

 article, knew no better than to say, " Being a complete ac- 

 count of the honey-bee, his home, his migrations, his habits of 

 life, his business methods, his storehouses, his food and com- 

 munal life." Probably not one person in a thousand is aware 

 that worker-bees, which constitute the chief population of a 



hive, are undeveloped females, or that the masculine insect is 

 only a transient performer on the scene, appearing when the 

 busy season is inaugurated, and vanishing when increase of 

 population is not farther desirable until the advent of another 

 year. 



I think bee-keepers as a class are inclined to be selfish 

 monopolists. They are not anxious to let the general public 

 into their secrets, lest they should become charmed with what 

 Mr. Hutchinson calls "the pleasant occupation of tending 

 bees." This idea is indeed openly advocated by some who 

 would have the pursuit confined to specialists. There is a 

 class of bee-keepers who look at the business only from a dol- 

 lar-and-cent stand-point. They have no sympathy whatever 

 with the poetry of bee-keeping, and cannot appreciate in the 

 slightest degree such writing on the subject as the charming 

 paragraph with which Mr. Hutchinson opens his first article 

 in the Cosmopolitan. I am pretty well read in bee-literature, 

 I think, but I do not know another passage in the works of 

 any apicultural writer to match the one just referred to. Nor 

 do I know any literary man capable of writing such a poetic 

 eulogy on the bee and bee-keeping except Maarice Thompson, 

 who, unfortunately, is as ignorant of the pursuit as the liie,r- 

 ateur who wrote the introductory heading to Mr. Hutchinson's 

 first article in the Cosmopolitan. 



In England there are many who pursue bee-keeping as a 

 fascinating recreation or scientific pastime. They make no 

 account of the value of the honey, or the question of profit 

 and loss in connection with the business. They find endless 

 pleasure in observing the ways of bees. There is soothing 

 music in their hum, and constant interest in the study of what 

 is going on inside the hive. What there is iu this to be dep- 

 recated or frowned upon, I have never been able to see, nor 

 can I understand why studying the habits of bees is not, at 

 least, quite as rational a diversion as observing a game of 

 base-ball, and shouting one's self hoarse over the changing 

 tide of victory and defeat as it ebbs and flows during such a 

 game. I am one of those who hope yet to see a class of ama- 

 teur bee-keepers on the American continent, who will keep 

 bees for the love of the thing, and not merely for the money 

 they make out of it. When we get a pretty strong infusion of 

 this class into the ranks of bee-keepers, the pursuit will be 

 uplifted to a higher plane, a better apicultural literature will 

 be demanded, there will be less of "Tom, Dick and Harry," 

 "A. 1." and "Hutch," in the style of writing adopted, and per- 

 haps even the Century will condescend to have some articles 

 like those in the Cosmopolitan, illustrated in the highest style 

 of art, and free from the amusing error as to the he-bees. 



We owe it to bee-keeping to follow in the track blazed out 

 by Mr. Hutchinson so far, at any rate, as to popularize bee- 

 knowledge to such an extent as to scatter some of the most 

 flagrant errors that prevail in regard to bees and honey. The 

 idea largely prevails among the general public that bees re- 

 semble the devil in their prowling nature, and that as he goes 

 about seeking whom he may devour, the bee goes about seek- 

 ing whom she may sting ; whereas, there is no creature in na- 

 ture more disposed to mind her own business and give others 

 a good letting alone than the bee. There is also an almost 

 universal tendency to strike at a bee when it is seen near by, 

 and this ignorant, foolish act is the cause of most of the 

 stings people get. Whether they take to " the pleasant occu- 

 pation of tending bees" or not, the general public ought to be 

 taught how to behave in the vicinage of bees, and such gen- 

 eral lessons in regard to the nature and uses of honey as will 

 enable them duly and discriminatingly to appreciate one of 

 the most valuable products with which Nature has enriched us. 



Ten Weefes for Ten Cents.— This Is a "trial 

 trip " offer to those who are not now subscribers to the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal. Undoubtedly there are thousands who 

 would take this journal regularly if they only had a " good 

 taste" of it, so as to know what a help it would be to them in 

 their work with bees. In order that such bee-keepers may be 

 able to get that "taste," the very low offer of " 10 weeks for 

 10 cents" is made. 



Now, dear reader, you cannot do a better service than to 

 show this offer to your neighbor bee-keeping friends, and urge 

 them to send on their 10 cents and get the next 10 numbers 

 of the old American Bee Journal. In fact, you could afford 

 to send the 10 cents for them, and then after the 10 weeks 

 expire, get them as new subscribers for a year. They will be 

 easy to secure then, for the 10 numbers will be a fair trial, 

 and they will want the Bee Journal regularly if they are at 

 all interested in bee-keeping. 



Remember, \Vs only 10 cents for 10 weeks, to all not now 

 subscribers to the Bee Journal. This offer expires July 15 



