816 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



to the children, and perhaps the habit of 

 eating honey will become as fixed in the 

 children. — Riira I Californian. 



National Bee-Keepers' Union, 



DR. C. C. MILLER. 



Friend Newman: — in your Annual 

 Report, as Manager of the Bee-Keepers' 

 Union, you urge the election of new men 

 as officers. 1 am in entire accord with 

 you in this matter, but you may count 

 with considerable certainty that the 

 same men will be re-elected year after 

 year, so long as the matter stands as it 

 now does, and so long as the men in 

 office give at least moderate satisfaction. 



I will tell you why : When a member 

 sits down to fill out his ballot, it is a good 

 deal easier for him to look at the list of 

 names already in office, and say, " 1 

 think matters have gone well enough 

 under the past management, and I think 

 I will vote for the same old list." 



Or suppose he is not entirely satisfied 

 with one or more names on the list, or 

 even if satisfied he thinks that he would 

 like some new man, and sends in that 

 new name, and suppose each member 

 does the same thing, there is no agree- 

 ment among them, and each one sends in 

 a different name, so these votes (enough 

 to have elected their man, if there had 

 been any agreement,) are merely re- 

 corded as scattering, and are just so 

 many lost votes. You see, practically 

 the old officers have the advantage of 

 being already nominated, and that advan- 

 tage will hold them in their places. 



I think there are good reasons why it 

 may be best for the same manager to 

 continue in offi'ce. He has the run of the 

 thing as a new man could not easily 

 have, and his connection with the Amer- 

 ican Bee Journal gives him special 

 advantages to fill the office. 



As to the other offices, I do not see 

 why they could not be filled just as sat- 

 isfactorily by new men. I think I 

 could fill the office of Vice-President 

 during the coming year just as well with- 

 out the eight years' experience I have 

 had. There are men among the mem- 

 bers not now in office, who would, I 

 think, make better officers than some of 

 the present incumbents. 



But the difficulty, as I have already 

 suggested, is that there is no opportun- 

 ity for nominations. Why would it not 

 be a good plan for such nominations to 

 be sent in and published in the American 

 Bee Journal ? , Let me try my hand : 



Mr. President — I nominate C. P. Dadant, 

 C. H. Dibbern, ^ A. N. Draper, J. A. 

 Green, J. M. Hambaugh, Mrs. L. Har- 

 rison, C. A. Hatch, Geo. E. Hilton, E. R. 

 Root, Eugene Secor, B. Taylor, Byron 

 Walker — hold on! hold on! I have 

 nominated more than six already, and 

 there are some good names I have not 

 mentioned. Now, let others nominate.- 



Now, I will do what I can to get at 

 least one new officer in, so you will 

 please announce that my name is not to 

 be considered, and that if elected 1 will 

 not serve. 



It is very gratifying to see how much 

 good has been accomplished by the 

 Union, and to see that the number of 

 members is so much larger than ever 

 before. Success to the organization. 

 Long may it live. 



C. C. Miller, ex-Vice-President. 



Marengo, 111., Dec. 15, 1891. 



Tie Iowa Qneen-Bee Case. 



w. c. frazier. 



On page 748 is an item from an Elgin 

 paper, concerning some queens which I 

 had the honor to import, and were it not 

 for the allusion to an attempt to "evade 

 custom duties," I would pass it by in 

 silence. Simply because I happened to 

 be the one that had to pay the fiddler I 

 do not want it thought that I did not 

 enjoy "the dance" as much as any 

 one. 



I will here give as briefly as possible 

 what I happen to -know concerning it : 

 About Sept. 9, 1890, I sent an order 

 to Italy for queens, accompanied by the 

 cash, and ordered them to be sent by 

 mail about May 5, 1891. As it hap- 

 pened that the Spring of 1891 was late 

 in Italy, as well as in this country, the 

 queens were not all mailed at once. 

 Meanwhile the tariff law underwent a 

 change, and when I found that there 

 was a duty on imported queen bees it was 

 too late to countermand my order be- 

 fore they would be shipped. 



I therefore wrote to the Treasury De- 

 partment explaining the case, and it was 

 decided that they would admit them 

 under the circumstances by paying a 

 fine equal to the duty thereon. 



I received, by mail, from Italy, seven 

 queens ; six of them were dead, with all 

 their attendants. One queen was alive, 

 as was also one attendant. This queen 

 represented an outlay of $18.45. I will 

 further state that I used her to fill an 

 order for an imported queen, at regular 



