572 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I do not see why it is that so few bee- 

 keepers are willing to join, when the 

 Union has done so much to defend our 

 rights. Every bee-keeper in America is 

 benefited by the Union. Then why not 

 join and help the good work ? Just put 

 in one dollar a year, and be in a position 

 so that, if you get into trouble, you can 

 call on the Union to help you to defend 

 your rights. 



There is a great deal of prejudice and 

 superstition about bees, and many think 

 that the bee-keeper is stealing his living 

 from other people's property. They 

 claim the bees have no right to come on 

 their land to gather honey. The land is 

 theirs, the crop is theirs, the honey is 

 theirs, and we have no business to let 

 our bees go onto their land to gather 

 honey. If the bees take the honey, the 

 pasture is not as good, or the hay has 

 lost a valuable part of its nutriment if 

 the bees take the honey out. 



Some may kick because the buckwheat 

 failed. They say the bees blasted it by 

 taking the honey ; others say the bees 

 have spoiled the apple crop. Some say 

 the bees injure the corn crop by working 

 on the tassels to gather pollen, and 

 there are a great many other things that 

 I hear advanced every year — just such 

 nonsense about something in connection 

 with the bees. 



Now, let one of those superstitious 

 men get mad at you. He wants to spite 

 you somehow, he does not care how. If 

 he thinks there is a possible show for 

 him to make a case, he will sue you for 

 damage done him by your bees. All 

 there was to the Freeborn case was spite 

 and ignorance. The man claimed that 

 Freeborn's bees worked on his clover, 

 and kept his sheep away so the sheep 

 became poor, and died the next Winter 

 in consequence. 



This was the first case that the Union 

 had to deal with, and was thrown out of 

 court, giving the Union its first victory. 

 The Union has had several cases since 

 then, all victories. If you join the 

 Union, you are entitled to help in case 

 you are sued by any of these ignorant 

 chaps. 



We ought to have 5,000 members ; 

 then we should have a sum in the treas- 

 ury that would command respect. Now 

 is a good time to join. Commence with 

 the year. Send your dollar to Mr. 

 Thomas G. Newman, 246 East Madison 

 Street, Chicago, and become a member of 

 the Union. Do it now, before you forget 

 it. In union there is strength. A man 

 may be a bee-keeper and be a poor man. 

 Now, you see some of his spiteful neigh- 

 bors may take a notion to pitch into him, 



knowing he is poor, just to annoy him, 

 and make him expense. But if they 

 knew he belonged to the Union, and he 

 had an army of bee-men to fight the bat- 

 tle with him, they would let him alone. 



There have already been several 

 threatenings hushed up because the bee- 

 keepers' enemy had to look the Bee- 

 Keepers' Union in the face. 



About the North American Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association, I think it is a good 

 institution. I am sorry that I have not 

 been able to attend the meetings. But 

 it costs money to go, and this year money 

 was scarce with us. About a dozen of 

 us tried to get cheaper rates on the rail- 

 road, but failed, and so did not go. 



Next year it is away down in Albany, 

 and, of course, but few from these parts 

 will be there, and so it goes, skipping 

 about fr«)m one place to another, all 

 over the continent. Well, that is all 

 right. The very name of the association 

 calls for it moving about from place to 

 place. But, no matter where the meet- 

 ings are held, we can all get the proceed- 

 ings in printed form, and I value these 

 very highly. Unless we attend, how- 

 ever, we miss the social part of the 

 meeting, and the social part would be a 

 big treat to me. 



I do not see how we can mix these 

 two institutions together. They are 

 very different. The Bee-Keepers' Union 

 does not have to meet anywhere to carry 

 on its business. We pay our dues, and 

 elect officers by ballot. All is done 

 through the mail. I do not see how the 

 Union could be benefited by consolidating 

 with the North American Bee-Keepers' 

 Association. — Gleanings. 



Platteville, Wis. 



Taxation of Bees in Iowa. 



WM. PEAESON. 



Bees are taxed in this (Jasper) county, 

 this Spring, from $1 to $1.50 per col- 

 ony, which seems contrary to law, as 

 quoted by Eugene Secor, in American 

 Bee Journal for October 19, 1889. He 

 says : 



The question, "Are bees taxable?" 

 must be decided by the laws of the State 

 where they are kept. They may be tax- 

 able in one State, and exempt in another; 

 therefore, what I shall have to say on 

 the subject relates only to Iowa. 



If I remember rightly, this question 

 was ably answered in these columns 

 several years ago, by Dr. Oren, but as 

 there are undoubtedly many new sub- 



