624 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



which appeared in No, 6, Vol. 7, of 

 your journal has created very unpleas- 

 ant feelings among the bee-keeping 

 fraternity. 



I had sent off several copies of that 

 issue to applicants (who saw the adver- 

 tisement in the American Bee Journal 

 that I was your agent) before reading 

 the article in question myself, and from 

 some of the parties have received replies, 

 stating that if the German bee-periodi- 

 cals will belittle American bee-keepers 

 in such a manner, they did not care to 

 subscribe for a paper which would speak 

 of American bee-keepers as men of little 

 patience and endurance, and, worse 

 than this, as men who practice decep- 

 tion, and are guilty of untruthfulness. 



I am compelled to say that the author 

 of the article in question must be devoid 

 of all brotherly love and human kind- 

 ness, as the article itself will prove. 



The writer is a reader and corres- 

 pondent of four bee-periodicals in the 

 English language, all first-class, and 

 must say that American bee-periodicals 

 in general breath the spirit of love and 

 kindness for each other, and especially 

 for their German brothers across the 

 water ; and that the statement that 

 American bee-keepers look upon apicnl- 

 ture in Germany as a is an untruth, 

 for they often wonder that Germany, 

 with so dense a population, can produce 

 such an amount of honey, and they give 

 the Germans praise for such perfect 

 organizations as they have — Sections, 

 Vereins, and Central Vereine — and are 

 not envious of them at all. 



The gentleman who wrote that article 

 should not have been so hasty in his 

 statement that it was very wise to take 

 official figures to disprove the statements 

 of his bee-keeping brothers in the United 

 States. 



How does he know that the report 

 from 13 States out of 42, and 7 Terri- 

 tories, is a full report of the honey and 

 wax production for that year? The 

 Southern and Northwestern States, and 

 the States and Territories along the 

 Pacific Coast are not even named.* 



The gentleman takes the liberty to 

 say that on this side of the water there 

 is more honey harvested on paper than 

 in reality, and that the 100-pound hives 

 in the promised fend of North America 

 are a scarcity, and that America is by 

 no means the land where milk and honey 

 floweth. 



After he has produced those figures, 

 any novice could disprove the gentle- 

 man's statement, for in ordinary seasons 

 it is no uncommon thing to harvest 

 from 140 to 200 pounds of honey per 



colony, and experts, who have their 

 colonies ready for the honey-flow, have 

 produced as much as 300 pounds per 

 colony ; but we always rejoice when the 

 countries of age-weakened Europe com- 

 pare favorably with young America — 

 especially our beloved fatherland, Ger- 

 many. 



American bee-keepers are not ashamed 

 of the statement of that noted writer on 

 apiculture, Tony Kellen, that at one 

 time America learned from Germany ; 

 neither do they seem proud of the fact 

 that in inventions and methods in apicul- 

 ture America is in advance of Germany 

 to-day. 



The Stone of the Wise, which seems to 

 be "Mr. Fleischmann's chief authority for 

 his statements, must be possessed of 

 great wisdom, indeed, and it is to be 

 hoped that it will not make his state- 

 ment appear ridiculous, that bees were 

 introduced into North America by the 

 Germans. 



I shall not contradict him, but I doubt 

 that apiculture has been carried on in 

 the United States full 200 years,* for 

 the American Bee Journal is the 

 oldest bee-periodical in the United 

 States, and its existence dates back only 

 30 years. 



If Germany pays good money for mixed 

 messes of California honey, it is not the 

 fault of American bee-keepers if such 

 fraud does exist, for there is no more 

 honorable class of people in any branch 

 of business in America than bee-keep- 

 ers. They have confidence in each 

 other, and any member who practices 

 fraud will soon be exposed. 



Mr. Fleischmann thinks that he has 

 discovered something wrong with the 

 wax-production statement of North 

 Carolina, and mistrusts that monopoly, 

 and misstatements exist there, and 

 wishes some bee-keeper to give him 

 light on the subject, which, undoubt- 

 edly no one will be able to do, for this 

 gentleman seems to be possessed of an 

 eye of jealousy toward his brother bee- 

 keepers across the water. 



Mr. Fleischmann looks upon American 

 apiculture as unworthy of notice, for he 

 credits us with only 3^ pound of honey 

 to each of our 56,000,000 inhabitants. 

 But here let me say that more honey 

 goes to waste in the United States for 

 lack of bees to gather it, than is in 

 /eality gathered, and should the gentle- 

 man go to the trouble and expense of a 

 visit to the World's Columbian Fair, the 

 American bee-keepers will show him 



* See editorial comment on page 614. 



