1895. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



445 



the Union and the North American, that might be done by 

 such an organization with an efficient executive officer at its 

 head, and money in its treasury. The feature mentioned by 

 Mr. Case is a case in point, viz.: that of looliing after and re- 

 porting swindlers. I don't l^now as the constitution of the, 

 present Union would need any change to allow such work be- 

 ing done. Two or three times the Review has exposed some 

 swindler, but this was not done until numerous complaints 

 had been received, and considerable time had elapsed. To 

 call a man a swindler because one man said so would often 

 lead to unjust accusations. When an apparently just com- 

 plaint is made, the Union could make a thorough investiga- 

 tion, more thorough than one man could afford to make. As 

 Mr. Case says, a man would " brace up," and do the fair thing 

 by his customers when he found that his unsatisfactory 

 methods were likely to be published to the members of the 

 North American. I frequently receive complaints of fraud, 

 unfairness, and unsatisfactory methods of conducting busi- 

 ness, but before publishing anything of this character, a pub- 

 lisher must have absolute proof of the correctness of such 

 statements. To secure such proof is often too much trouble 

 and expense for one man to bear. 



Perhaps something might be done in the way of helping 

 bee-keepers to secure better prices for their honey, or to mar- 

 ket it in a more satisfactory manner. Fruit exchanges have 

 helped the peach growers of New Jersey, and the orange 

 growers of California, and it is possible that something in this 

 line might be done by honey-producers if they were suffi- 

 ciently organized. All such questions as these would, of 

 course, come up in convention. 



There is much more that might be said on this subject, 

 but the foregoing is sufficient to start the discussion. 



W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Right along this line, the following article written for 

 Gleanings by Dr. C. C. Miller, in April, is very appropriate ; 



BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCUATIONS IN GERMA.NT — WHY THEIR MEM- 

 BERSHIPS ARE 80 LARGE. 



I have a letter which I esteem very highly, not only be- 

 cause it clears up a matter concerning which I have for a long 

 time been curious — the reason why the Germans have such 

 large bee-conventions — but also because it comes from one 

 whom I am proud to number among my friends, the able edi- 

 tor of the Deutsche Illustrierte Bienenzeitung (German Illus- 

 trated Bee Journal), who is already well known to the Ameri- 

 can bee-readers. I wish I could show to all of you his writing. 

 Although past his threescore and ten, the address on the en- 

 velope would easily be taken for copper-plate. Although his 

 letters are in the German language, in pity for my lack of 

 familiarity therewith he never uses German script, but plain 

 English letters, so his writing is read as easily as the printed 

 page. But here's his letter, which loses by translation : 



My experience agrees with yours in the matters you mention, 

 except in the case in which you saw a queen kill a worker. To 

 balance that. I once had a young queen sting me, which I had 

 taken out of an after-swarm, and held in my closed hand. The 

 sting did not remain in the flesh, and it was less painful than that 

 of a worker. Since then I have had in my hand thousands of 

 queens young and old, but have never again been stung by one. 



I have read in Gleanings of Jan. 1 your statement concerning 

 the number of members of the German Central Association, as 

 also the remark of Ernest Root. Now I will impart to you the 

 secret why it happens that the Centralverein (Central Association) 

 has such a large membership, and if you wish you can betray the 

 secret to Ernest. 



In thickly populated Germany there are ministers and teachers 

 who form about them little Vereine (societies or associations) 

 whose members generally meet monthly or quarterly. Every one 

 who has bees, even it only a couple of colonies, allows himself to 

 be enrolled, without attending each meeting that is appointed. 

 These small Vereine obtain at a very low price one of the reason- 

 able bee-journals, as the Centralblatt or Leipziger Bienenzeitung 

 for 1 mark ('.i.5 cents), or 05 pfennig (about 13 cents) a year. Many 

 of these small Vereine have their own bee-journals, which then 

 cost more, but never more than 50 cents. These small Vereine 

 (Special-Vereine) are united to the Central vereine of the different 

 provinces or small States. For example, the Mark, my province 

 of the kingdom of Prussia, the Markische Centralvereine consists 

 of 77 Specialvereine, with 1„539 members, who, in the fall of 1S94, 

 put into winter quarters 15,000 colonies. 



Now comes, however, the principal thing, which explains all. 



All the Centralvereine receive a grant or allowance from the gov- 

 ernment yearly, and all the members share alike in this grant. 

 Whoever is not in a Verein has no share in the money which the 

 government grants yearly. Many of the Centralvereine receive 

 so large an allowance that they deliver to their members one or 

 more bee-journals free. 



At the large conventions, where all the Centralvereine come 

 together, extra money comes from the government, and even 

 from private sources, from which premiums are offered, transpor- 

 tation paid on objects for exhibition, and often free railway pass- 

 age, as well as payment for articles damaged or lost in transit. 

 In Vienna it went even so far that the members had their common 

 meals, including wine, free. "There's the rub," says Hamlet! 

 Whoever is not a member of a Verein must wipe his mouth — that 

 is, he gets nothing of all this. 



I once traveled to a convention of this kind with a man who 

 admitted that he no longer kept bees, but had himself enrolled in 

 a Vereine, and paid his dues of 30 cents, for which he received the 

 bee-journal and the opportunity of visiting strange places. In our 

 deliberations at Kiel he too.k no part, but probably in all the 

 favors, visit to the museum, man-of-war, etc. 



Yes, Friend Miller, you must set all sail to procure such a 

 cement in your States, which will not only secure many members, 

 but also hold them together. Freundlich gruessend, 



Wilsnack, Germany. C. J. H. Gravenhorst. 



For one, I feel like giving a vote of thanks for this infor- 

 mation. Just the thing we needed. Now, can anything of 

 the kind be done in this country? The answer has always 

 been that distances are too great, and bee-keepers too scat- 

 tered. Right there is the rock on which we have always split, 

 depending for membership solely on those who could attend 

 the meeting. You will readily see that not all the members 

 attend the German conventions, but the inducements are suf- 

 ficient to make a man keep up his membership, even if he 

 never attended a single meeting. So while our great distances 

 may count against the largest attendance at conventions, it 

 counts for nothing whatever against a large membership. 



The only thing needed, then, to bring us up on a level 

 with Germany, and, for that matter, with Canada, is to get 

 the grant from the public treasury. I think I hear some one 

 say, " Oh ! there's no use. We can't get anything of the 

 kind." How do you know we can't ? I feel quite sanguine 

 that there's just as much enterprise here as abroad ; and if 

 we go at it in the right way we can get all the help we need. 

 Indeed, something has already been done. The bee-keepers 

 of Illinois succeeded in getting, at least for one year, an ap- 

 propriation of .S500. It was given to the State society, with 

 the express stipulation that it should be used to spread infor- 

 mation — in other words, to publish their report. Good was 

 done by it ; but it had very little effect in the direction of in- 

 creasing membership. Probably a large number had the 

 benefit of the reports who were never members of the society, 

 and, under existing circumstances, never will be. With a 

 large membership it would be much easier to get an appro- 

 priation from the State legislature. 



Now, suppose the Illinois society rtceives another grant 

 of .S500 ; how would it do for them to profit by the example 

 of their foreign brethren '? I think it could be so managed as 

 to make the society five or ten times as large, and still keep 

 within the restriction that the money must be used for spread- 

 ing information. Let's figure. Suppose the society make 

 arrangements to furnish free to its members a bee-journal, 

 and on any one of them it could probably get special rates so 

 that, at the highest, it would pay not more than 80 cents per 

 copy, the journal publishing in full the society's report. Now, 

 suppose the membership-fee be placed at 25 or -jO cents. 

 Does any one doubt that a large number would be induced to 

 join who are not now members, and many who now take no 

 bee-paper would do so by paying to the society less than the 

 regular subscription price of the paper, without saying any- 

 thing about the privilege of membership ? 



Let's see how the thing would come out if the annual fee 

 be placed at 25 cents. Allow $50 to be reserved for expen- 

 ses, and we have S'iaO left. Each member pays in 2.5 cents, 

 and the society takes that, and 55 cents more, to make out 

 the SO cents it must pay for his paper. It seems clear that 

 the society can afford to do that just as many times as 55 

 cents is contained in the .$450. If I figure straight, that 

 would make 818 members. Could not get 818 ? Well, then 

 it could reduce the fee, making it only 10 cents per member, 

 and take in 642 members. There's power in numbers, and I 

 believe the thing to work for lies in that direction. The fact 



