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THE MMERICS:!* BE® ja^RfiSt. 



kA^tmtm^mi 



I>riven Him to Explain.— Prof. 



■Wiley has at last been driven to exjilain his 

 ■"scientific pleasantry" in several of the 

 .agricultural papers. We have tried to get 

 him to do this for years, but he studiously 

 jnaintained strict silence. 



We well remember some of the stories in 

 the school books of half-a-century ago, and 

 among them of a boy who was up in an 

 apple-tree knocking down the apples. The 

 owner found him at it, and at first tried per- 

 suasion; that not availing anything, he 

 pelted him with wads of grass. Upon find- 

 ing the boy apparently enjoying the fun 

 and laughing in his sleeve, he concluded to 

 try some more effectual method. He went 

 to a stone-pile and began to pelt the boy 

 with rocks. This soon brought the young 

 thief down, and saved the apples from 

 being destroyed or stolen. 



Just so have we acted with Prof. Wiley. 

 We politely pointed out the blunder he had 

 made in his " scientific pleasantry," and ad- 

 vised him to publish a correction. Finding 

 this unavailing, we pointed out the great 

 diimage that its circulation throughout the 

 world had done, and was still doing— that 

 while no word from him had been pub- 

 lished which in the slightest degree had 

 modified the story, or cast any doubt upon 

 Its reliability, it was traveling "at light- 

 ning speed," and creating a sentiment 

 against the purity of comb honey every- 

 where in its course, and demanded a public 

 retraction from him. 



This receiving no attention, we used the 

 hardest arguments we could find, couched 

 in the strongest language that the Diction- 

 ary afforded, to show up the infamy of such 

 a course of procedure on his part ! 



Then came his friend, W. M. Evans, to 

 the rescue, and with two to one to fight, we 

 " rolled up our sleeves " and " gave it to 

 them right and left," with all the vigor and 

 enthusiasm at our command, until the 

 Professor was induced to explain some, and 

 try to dodge the responsibility of the dam- 

 age done, by saying that he "was sincere" 

 in repeating what Dr. Halloek had told 

 him about the " full outfit of machinery for 

 the manufacture of artificial comb" in 

 Boston. 



His Virginian friend re-asserted that such 

 comb was being made, filled with glucose, 

 and sealed by machinery- and blurted out 

 this self-contradiction : " The Wiley lie 

 is tme !" 



Then we demanded the production of at 

 least a single pound of the vile trash, or the 

 confession from Mr. Wiley that the story 

 was only fictitious ! Driven into a corner 

 he finally makes this astonishing confes- 

 sion : 



At the time, I repeated this statement 

 more in the light of a pleasantry than as a 

 commercial reality, tor 1 did not believe 

 that it was PO.SSiBLE commercially to 

 imitate the comb ! 



This infamous and bare-faced " confes- 

 sion " of Prof. Wiley came, not because he 

 wanted to make it, but because we had 

 goaded him until he could stand it no 

 longer ! It had the same effect as the 

 throwing of the rocks and pelting the boy 

 in the apple-tree, in the old-fashioned, 

 school-day story. 



Then the ice being broken, the Professor 

 rushes to the principal agricultural papers 

 with an explanation about that wonderful 

 " scientific pleasantry," but complains most 

 bitterly of the manner in which we fol- 

 lowed him up, and of the strong language 

 we used to bring him to terms. 



As that was the only thing which aroused 

 him to a sense of the position in which he 

 had placed himself, we think he should feel 

 thankful to us for it. He may now clear 

 up the matter, and do some small part 

 in counteracting the evil which was done to 

 an honest pursuit by his former ill-timed 

 "joke !" 



This is how the matter is viewed by Bro. 

 Root, in the last number of Olcanings : 



While our good friend Newnan, of the 

 Amekican Bee Jouknai-, may not have 

 used just the language that some of us 

 would have used in obliging Prof. Wiley to 

 take some notice of the consequences of his 

 foolish statement, we of the bee-keeping 

 fraternity certainly owe him a vote of 

 thanks for having at length driven the Pro- 

 fessor into a corner, as it were, and for hav- 

 ing literally made him. recall his foolish 

 statement. 



With all tlie explanations that can possi- 

 bly be made, I think the world at lariie are 

 pretty well satisfied that no professor or 

 scientist has any riaht to make such state- 

 ments, jokingly or otherwise ; and I be- 

 lieve that the consequences of this piece of 

 folly will damage Prof. Wiley's reputation 

 in spite of all the explanations and apolo- 

 gies he can possibly make. 



Yes ; Brother Root, the vigorous " rock- 

 pelting" did it. As nothing else would an- 

 swer the purpose, we had to use the 

 " rocks," even though we disliked to do so- 

 much preferring the pleasant words of life ! 



Seasonable «Sossip,— The following 

 written by Mrs. L. Harrison on July 28, 

 1888, for the Pr^liric FwTncr, is very inter- 

 esting and seasonable talk : 



This showery weather makes fox-tail and 

 other grasses grow like Jonah's gourd, and 

 the lawn-mower has to be run in the apiary 

 every few days, or it would be ditiicult 

 carrying around hives, etc. The leaves of 

 fox-tail serve as receptacles for holding 

 water a long time, and large, sparkling 

 drops may sometimes be seen a day after a 

 rain. No grass that I am acquainted with 

 grows in summer like it. It is a continual 

 pest to me, by growing up in front of hives, 

 and obstructing the fiight of bees. This 

 morning 1 noticed a row of hives, where it 

 had grown up in front, and as it rained last 

 niuht, was sparkling with water. Tlie bees 

 wtre darting in and through it very fast, 

 heavily hidt-n with pollen, and many pellets 

 were ()rushcd off. The squash family is 

 blooming, and abounds in pollen. It saves 

 labor to .-ow salt in front of hives, to keep 

 down vegetation, and it is cheap. 



Bees swarm very irregularly this season, 

 and I have no doubt many will be lost, for 

 their owners will tire of watching. A little 

 How of honey, and they rush out in search 

 of a new hive ; and many swarms come out 



quite early in the morning— a little past 

 seven. The first after-swarm of the season 

 came off to-da.\ ; it was unnoticed until 

 clustering ; had I known where it came 

 from, I sljoulil have returned it to its former 

 home ; the hive from which it issued is now 

 no doubt almo^t without a tenant. When I 

 discover it, 1 will extract the honey and 

 exchange the combs with some populous 

 one, for those containing brood. If that 

 hive full of combs and ho'iey were let 

 alone, it would take it all summer to get 

 bees enough to winter, and where would be 

 the profit ? Every hive must pay its rent, 

 or the more the owner has, the poorer he 

 will be. 



No bee-master allows his bees to cluster 

 on the outside of the hive for want of 

 storage room. Better have too much 

 storage-room than not enough, for bees love 

 to work, and should not be enforced into 

 idleness. 



Statistics obtained for Oleanings on 

 July 4, are thus summarized by its editor : 



The average price of comb honey through- 

 out the rural districts of the United States 

 is very nearly IB cents ; the average price of 

 extracted, 11 cents. In looking over these 

 reports we fiud that comb honey is selling 

 in a good many places for 20, 30, and 35 

 cents. We obsf rve, also, that in other dis- 

 tricts it is selling as low as 5 cents ; that ex- 

 tracted bears very nearly the same propor- 

 tionate variations. Both comb and ex- 

 tracted sell for a great deal less in the South 

 than in the North. It is also interesting to 

 note that, in the rural districts, honey brings 

 a much higher i)rice than in the cities. Pro- 

 ducers should not fail to take this into con- 

 sideration when about to dispose of their 

 crop. 



The average number of pounds per colony 

 secured by those who report anywhere from 

 to over 100 pounds, is only 16. The large 

 number of those reporting no honey (.53) re- 

 duce the average very materially. Counting 

 out this immber, the average would be 3fi 

 instead of 16. In looking over the statistics 

 we find there are only two who have re- 

 ported as high as 100 pounds per colony. 

 There are very few who obtained over 50 

 pounds. Quite a number secured only 8 or 

 10 pounds per colony. Twenty report the 

 season good ; 17, average ; 12, fair ; 21, 

 poor ; 20, bad. 



Putting the sum of the numbers corres- 

 ponding to good, average and fair, over 

 against the numbers corresponding to poor 

 and bad, the ratio stands 49 to 41. In a 

 word, not only has a very small crop of 

 honey been secured, but the season with 

 nearly half of those who reported has been 

 poor. Taking it all in all, it is discouraging ; 

 but tvc must not be discouraged. 



The average date at which the reports 

 were given, is July 4. Please bear this in 

 mind, ihen, that the foregoing summary ap- 

 plies to and up to about July 4. Since that 

 time the oatlook for the bee-keepers may 

 have been clnnged quite materially. 



Postage on Seeds, etc.— A new law 



has just passed reducing the postage on 

 seeds, cions, etc. It is not yet operative, but 

 soon will be. This is how it reads : 



Hereafter the postage on seeds, cuttings, 

 roots, cions and buliis shall be charged at 

 the rate of one cent tor each two ounces or 

 fraction thereof, subject in all other re- 

 spects to the existing laws. 



Ciive a f opy of " Honey as Food and 

 Medicine " to every one who buys a package 

 of honey. It will sell lots of it. 



