THE AMERICAI^ JBEfi JOURNAL. 



791 



terior to a majority of my queens. Mr. 

 Doolittle and myself will agree that 

 queens are not equally good,no matter 

 now they are reared. 

 Christiansburg,^ Ky. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



Tlie Western Bee-Keepers' ConTention. 



E. M. HAYHURST. 



For tbe American Bee Journai. 



Canaflian Linilen Honey. 



B. M'KNIGHT. 



The Western Bee-Keepers' Society 

 met to-day in this city at the resi- 

 dence of Mr. Peter Otto. The at- 

 tendance was smaller than usual, but 

 most of us took our "wives and 

 babies," thus making quite a house- 

 ful of jolly company. Mr. and Mrs. 

 Otto made us feel entirely at home, 

 and entertained us right royally at 

 the dining table, as well as in their 

 parlors. Our meeting was an entirely 

 informal and very enjoyable reunion. 



The reports made indicate that 

 there was not only no surplus gath- 

 ered the past season by the bees in 

 western Missouri and eastern Kan- 

 sas, but that most colonies had to be 

 fed for winter, the season being an 

 entire failure. Those present seemed 

 to take their misfortunes very good- 

 naturedly, and " blasted hopes " was 

 not even whispered ; all of us are 

 making the usual preparations for 

 the hoped-for crop of next season. 



A number of topics were energeti- 

 cally discussed ; perhaps the most in- 

 teresting of these being " foul brood." 

 We listened with great interest to 

 Mr. L. W. Baldwin's narrative of his 

 own, his brother's, and Mr, Jones' ex- 

 perience during the past summer with 

 this much-dreaded malady. Early in 

 the season they found all of their 

 apiaries badly diseased, some 800 col- 

 onies in all being affected. Out of 

 all but one apiary they completely 

 eradicated the trouble ; the evident 

 reason for their failure in the one 

 yard being a slight deviation from 

 the rule of treatment applied to all of 

 the others. Their case is a good 

 illustration of what can be done by 

 intelligent, energetic action. A mo- 

 tion was passed requesting Mr. Bald- 

 win to write their experience in de- 

 tail for publication in the American 

 Bee Journal. 



A resolution was also passed ex- 

 pressing the gratitude of the guests 

 to our kind entertainers, for their 

 generous hospitality. 



A few minutes before adjournment 

 the following board of officers was 

 elected for the ensuing year, viz : 

 President, J. V. Coleman ; Vice-Presi- 

 dent, L. W. Baldwin ; Secretary, 

 Peter Otto ; and Treasurer, John 

 Conser. 



The convention then adjourned to 

 meet in the latter part of next April, 

 at the Court House in Independence, 

 Mo., in a basket meeting ; due notice 

 of the date to be given by the Sec- 

 retary. 



In tbe absence of Secretary Nelson, 

 the writer was requested, by the 

 Society, to make the above report. 



Kansas City,*o Mo. 



On page 693, is an article by Dr. 

 Mason, entitled, " Basswood t)s. Lin- 

 den," in which he manifests a good 

 deal of feeling towards his " cousins 

 across the border." None of his re- 

 marks, already published or hereafter 

 to be written, will deter Canadian 

 bee-keepers from selecting their own 

 names for their own products. 



Had the Doctor confined himself to 

 a refutation of Mr. Pettit's statements 

 respecting the quality of " American" 

 basswood or linden honey, none of us, 

 I am sure, would have feltcalled upon 

 to interfere ; but he does not confine 

 himself to this or even to our right to 

 employ the term we have adopted, 

 but charges us as a people with dis- 

 honesty and fraud, when he says : 



"And now, after the 'Yankees' 

 have established a name for their 

 ' fine, richly-flavored' crystal ' bass- 

 wood honey in the ' markets of the 

 world,' especially the English market, 

 it seems that the Canadians, wishing 

 to take advantage of its popularity, 

 have previous to, during, and since 

 their ' Colonial Exhibit,' been push- 

 ing their basswood honey undof a (to 

 them) new name, calling it (in a 

 ' wily ' way) superior to ' American 

 basswood ' honey." 



Here are two or three statements 

 in the above paragraph which require 

 to be better established before they 

 can be accepted as correct. The 

 " name and popularity the Yankees 

 have established for their honey in 

 the markets of the world, especially 

 the English market," are not so de- 

 sirable as to lead Canadians to envy 

 them for the advantages it brings 

 them ; but, on the contrary, we were 

 especially desirous, when in England, 

 to steer clear of any association with 

 " American " products of a like kind. 

 Not because we consider your honey 

 in any way inferior to ours, but be- 

 cause "Yankee" honey is in bad 

 ordor with the English people. 



It so happened, as the story goes, 

 that once on a time an enterprising 

 Yankee shipped some American 

 honey to Britain, and when there he 

 increased its volume by a liberal ad- 

 mixture of glucose. Bottling the 

 mixture on the spot, he added to each 

 bottle a tempting bit of honey-comb, 

 and in this attractive form put it upon 

 the market ; but the bait did not take. 

 The ruse of the Down-Easter was 

 discovered, and the sins of that 

 sharper are visited upon his country- 

 men to this day, as many of them 

 who shipped honey to England since 

 can testify. The injury and the in- 

 sult has not been forgotten, and it 

 will be some time yet before the con- 

 fidence of Englishrrien in the purity of 

 " American " honey is restored. 

 Englishmen are like a tamed ele- 

 phant, " modest" and confiding until 

 once deceived ; but betray them once, 

 and retribution comes soon and cer- 

 tain. No, no, Doctor, there was no 

 " put up job " on our part to " rob 

 you of the reputation " which your 



" fine, crystallized basswood honey " 

 enjoys in England. We had, when in 

 England, and have now, no other 

 wish than that our honey should be 

 known over there by the distinctive 

 name " Canadian." Its good qualities 

 are a sufficient passport to popularity. 

 Dr. Mason misstates the facts when 

 he says that, " Canadians, in a wily 

 way," or any other way, either here 

 or elsewhere, have sought to destroy 

 confidence in the good qualities of 

 American basswood honey, and claim 

 superiority for their own. I challenge 

 him to name a solitary Canadian 

 (apart from Mr. Pettit) who has made 

 such a statement. " One swallow does 

 not make a summer," nor one man a 

 nation, and it is not generous on the 

 Doctor's part to manifest such an- 

 tipathy against his "cousins across 

 the border, and their relatives across 

 the pond," because one of our people 

 holds and expresses opinions peculiar 

 to himself, and in which his fel- 

 low countrymen do not sympathize. • 

 But we can afford to be disliked, for 

 hate is an evidence of fear on the part 

 of the hater, and power on the part 

 of those hated. 



As to the part I took in the adoption 

 of the word " linden " as against 

 "basswood," I have no apology to 

 make, as I believe it to be the more 

 appropriate of the two. Dr. Mason 

 says: "Can it be possible, as Mr. 

 McKnight says, that the term linden 

 is at once more respectable and cor- 

 rect?" My answer is: "Yes, I be- 

 lieve it is at least more correct." 

 This fact is established by Dr. Mason 

 himself, for he has shown most con- 

 clusively that the term " basswood," 

 as applied to trees, belonging to the 

 genus tilia, are known by that name 

 over a very limited portion of the 

 territory upon which they flourish, 

 and surely it is more correct to call 

 the honey they yield by the name by 

 which the trees are most generally 

 known, than by the name least ap- 

 plied to them. Trees of the genus 

 tilia are common to both Europe and 

 America. Dr. Mason tells us that 

 basswood is an unknown name for 

 them in all parts of the United States, 

 except a small portion lying north of 

 central Ohio. They are not known 

 by this name in England ; neither is 

 it applied to them on the continent of 

 Europe. , . ^^ ^ 



But Dr. Mason complains that 

 "linden" was employed by you to 

 designate a particular kind of honey 

 before it was in use here, and that we 

 appropriated your brand. I accept 

 the Doctor's statement, but when I 

 gave my sanction to its adoption here, 

 I was not aware that such was the 

 case. But supposing we all knew it 

 at the time, the Doctor should be 

 more flattered than "riled" by the 

 imitation, for I am sure our " linden 

 honey " does the brand no discredit. 



There is one other statement made 

 by the Doctor which I cannot allow 

 to pass unchallenged, as there is an 

 insinuation in it that things were not 

 conducted quite as they ought to have 

 been by those who had charge of the 

 Candian honey exhibited at the 

 "Colonial." He says : "The Cana- 

 dian Bee Journal also contained some 



