THE AMERICAIS BEE JOURNAL. 



hold of the matter in such a way as to 

 bring it to a successful issue." ]5ut 

 thev didn't ; and that, too, when all 

 that was required of them was an ex- 

 pense of one cent each for a postal 

 card. Besides, look at the apathy 

 with regard to the Bee-Keepers' 

 Union. Mind you, I- am not saying 

 anything against the project, but only 

 of the apathy that prevails, and if 

 there is a meeting in Chicago to talk 

 it over I expect to be there. 



Mr. Newman says : " To make the 

 North American Bee-Keepers' Society 

 such a central body would be very 

 easy." True, " the united wisdom of 

 apiarists ought to be able to devise 

 the ways and means and make a suc- 

 cess of such an institution." Very 

 true; and perhaps they will, in spite 

 of all my croaking. 



Perhaps it is premature to discuss 

 what they should or would do, in case 

 such an organization were completed, 

 but as suggestions are already made 

 in tbat direction, at least by implica- 

 tion, it may be well enough to give a 

 slight glance at them. Mr. Baldridge 

 says : " Every important trade or 

 business, almost, has an organization 

 to control, to limit production, or to 

 fix prices, but the honey-producers 

 have none !" Limiting production 

 and fixing prices might be all right, 

 and it might be all wrong. Indeed, 1 

 am not sure that limiting production 

 could in any case be right. I am not 

 very familiar with the matter, but I 

 have very serious doubts whether the 

 action of the coal monopolists is a 

 righteous proceeding. 



Mr. Baldridge is a man of bright 

 thoughts, and one who was an apicul- 

 tural writer more than 25 years ago, 

 when I was going to my neighbor to 

 find out what disaster was threatened 

 to my bees when I found the gnaw- 

 ings of cappings on the bottom-board. 

 But is he not looking altogether on 

 one side of the commission busings. 

 If I understand him rightly he thinks 

 "the wholesale commission dealers 

 are a curse to honey-producers," and 

 that we should sell " on commission 

 only " to the consumers. The objec- 

 tion seems to be to the commission 

 men in the large cities. Well, com- 

 mission men have enough sins to an- 

 swer for, and some of them may be a 

 bad lot, but really I would not like to 

 see them all wiped out. There are 

 good men among them, and I hardly 

 feel like laying our sins at their door. 

 I had once a conversation with one 

 of them, who, in one sense, was " a 

 curse to honey-producers," and yet I 

 do not believe he was to blame for it. 

 I knew him well from a boy, and I be- 

 lieve him to be an honest man, and 

 he told me that people shipped him 

 honey when he did not want it, and 

 he just had to sell it tor anything he 

 could get for it, to get the dauby, 

 sticky stuflE out of the way. He did 

 not want to handle it. Now you see 

 this helped to demoralize the markets, 

 just in the same way as the man 

 bringing in his pailful of broken honey 

 into the home market and selling it 

 for almost nothing ; and yet the com- 

 mission man was not to blame. 



In many cases, perhaps in all, Mr. 

 Baldridge 's plan of selling on commis- 



sion in the home markets is good, 

 especially extracted honey — I am not 

 so sure about comb honey. But it 

 will not do in that case, as he says, to 

 let the commission man fix the price. 

 Neither are you any more obliged to 

 let the commission man in the city 

 fix the price. You can, and some 

 producers do, Qx the price below 

 which be dare not sell, and I liave 

 never yet found any difficulty in get- 

 ting him to obey instructions. So the 

 difference between the commission 

 man that Mr. Baldridge wants us to 

 establish, and the one he wants us to 

 abolish, is simply a difference in our 

 own way of dealing. Of this and 

 published reports I may have more to 

 say again. 



QUEEN-TRAPS AND SWAKMING. 



I can hardly tell what I was think- 

 ing about when I answered Query, 

 Number 347. Very likely I had in 

 mind using the traps to prevent 

 swarms going off the first time issu- 

 ing, thus saving the expense of a 

 watcher, as I had been studying and 

 corresponding about this. But to 

 prevent swarms altogether the trap 

 would be much worse than useless. I 

 have tried something like it a number 

 of times by caging the queen in the 

 hive, and it was a dead failure every 

 time. Indeed, with a queen free in 

 the hive, but with its wing clipped, 

 they will kill the old queen and 

 swarm with a young one. I should 

 much like to be considered a veteran, 

 but I do not quite want to be consid- 

 ered in my dotage yet, and I am 

 afraid I shall if I answer many 

 queries as carelessly as the one re- 

 ferred to. 



Mr. Hutchinson thinks " it is better 

 to control or prevent the desire " for 

 swarming. Mr. H., you cannot do it. 

 There is the " chip " on my shoulder; 

 knock it off, if you dare. 



Marengo, 5 Ills. 



For tbe American Beo Journal. 



Tk Illinois State Fair. 



J. V. CALDWELL, (125-208). 



If any bee-keeper of .the State has 

 attended our State Fair, as I have 

 done the past four seasons, he could 

 not fail to notice the meager display 

 in the bee and honey department. 

 The writer sent a few nice crates of 

 honey last season, which with one or 

 two other small displays constituted 

 the entire show from the great State 

 of Illinois, which annually produces 

 tons upon tons of the finest honey in 

 the world. Of course the premiums 

 offered by the State Board have been 

 too small to offer us much Induce- 

 ment, but on the other hand the bee- 

 keepers of the State have, given the 

 Board but little encouragement to get 

 out a more liberal premium list for 

 bees, honey, etc. Now, fellow api- 

 arists, let us bestir ourselves at once 

 and see if we cannot show our breth- 

 ren in Iowa and Michigan that we 

 have the interests of our calling at 

 heart. 



The Board will soon meet to revise 

 the premium list for 1887, and if we 



do anything it must be done soon. I 

 would suggest this plan : Let any 

 bee-keeper who can make an exhibit 

 next fall, or who may be acquainted 

 with the member of the Board in his 

 own district, write them at once, 

 calling their attention to the matter, 

 and urge them to favor a larger and 

 more liberal list for bees, honey, etc. 

 I have already written to Hon. .Samuel 

 Dysart, President of the Board, and 

 with whom I am acquainted, calling 

 his attention to the business, and also 

 sent him a sample premium-list some- 

 thing like the Michigan State Fair 

 list; the Board will, therefore, have 

 an idea of what we want them to do. 

 I think the State Board meets early 

 in the year, so we must attendlo the 

 matter at once, and if they meet at 

 any point where the Editor of the 

 Bee Jouknal can conveniently 

 reach them, I suggest that he attend 

 the meeting and urge the society to 

 help us. 

 Cambridge,^ Ills. 



[If the Board meets in Chicago, and 

 we are informed of the time and place, 

 we will attend the meeting.— Ed.] 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Honey for all-No lonoplies. 



JULIUS tomlinson. 



On page 723 of the Bee Journal 

 for 1886, is an editorial deprecating 

 the sale of honey by country people, 

 at what is called ruinous prices, thus 

 breaking down the local honey mar- 

 ket, and compelling the "apiarist" 

 to send his crop away for sale. 



Let us see. " The bee-keeper from 

 a distance" has, say from 50 to 200 

 pounds of honey. Of course he wants 

 to sell it. He needs the proceeds to 

 help out his scanty income. So he 

 brings it to town. He finds the mar- 

 ket supplied by the " apiarist." No 

 dealer wants it. What shall he do i" 

 He cannot go to town every day— he 

 does not want to take his honey 

 home. He had calculated on the pro- 

 ceeds, and he feels that he must rea- 

 lize something. So he does the next 

 best thing—" retails" it all over town. 

 Now I fail to see anything wrong or 

 dishonorable in this. This is a free 

 country, and we must all of us take 

 the chances of competition. The 

 " apiarist" in this place has the same 

 thing to contend with, only this dif- 

 ference, that the " apiarists " near by, 

 men who have honey by the ton, break 

 down our market. But we have this 

 compensation, that the consumer gets 

 cheaper honey, and people, who sel- 

 dom taste of honey, are induced to 

 buy, and finding it good, will buy 

 again and again. 



But to remedy this state of things, 

 a closer bond of union is advised, to 

 protect each other's interests, and to 

 " organize for protection." It is 

 thought that " the united wisdom of 

 apiarists ought to be able to make a 

 success of such an institution," and 

 the recent Michigan State convention 

 was called upon to ''discuss" the 

 scheme and " take the matter in 

 hand." Now I have no objection to 



