62 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



MISCELLANEOUS 

 * NEWS ITEMS f 



lating agriculture and the distribu- 

 tion of products. 



The National Meeting. As stated 

 in our January issue, the National 

 meeting is to be hold at Burlington, 

 February 20, 21 and 22. 

 Owing to the mails being snow- 

 bound, I have not been able I 



plete the program for the National 

 meeting. The following expect to be 

 present or will send papers: 



E. R. Root, "Present and Future oi 

 Beekeeping." . 



F Eric Millen, "The State Agricul- 

 tural College and Beekeeping, 1918. 

 Dr. E. F. Phillips, "Extension 

 Work." _ , 



E. D. Townsend, "Some Proposed 

 National Work for 1918." 



C. P. Dadant, "Making Honey a 

 Staple." . . 



J. W. Stine, "Legislation; What 

 Can Our Government Do to Help the 

 Industry?" 



Geo W. Williams, "A Merger ot 

 All Beekeepers' Societies." 



E S. Miller, "The Future of the 

 National." . 



John C. Bull, "Government Aid for 

 Beek eeping." 



There will be an evening session 

 the 19th, three sessions the 20th and 

 two sessions the 21st. ( It was an- 

 nounced in the January journals that 

 the convention would be held in 

 Remy hall. Since that announce- 

 ment it has been arranged to make 

 the Burlington Hotel our headquar 

 ters and hold the convention in the 

 banquet room of the hotel. All who 

 expect to attend will please make 

 nation for rooms at the hotel 

 ahead so that the hotel management 

 will be able to take care of us. Any- 

 ishihg programs may have 

 them for I In- asking. 



JOHN C. BULL, 

 Secretary-Treasurei 



Obtaining Sugar 



Today I had a conference with the 

 Fedei al Food Administrator for 

 an, Mr. Prescott. After out- 

 lining the critical situation in which 

 tin- be< I'M"— ol 1 1 1 1 ^ State find 

 themselves as a resull of the short- 



o sugar, the t 1 administrator 



.is, hit. 1 in,- thai be V. I mid 111 ll I 



i i , ,it possible, consistent « ith 



the duties of bis posit ton ti i supply 



M ichigan with the 



sugar which they so badly need In 



ill bi i 

 ..in d to wholesale! pply bee- 



with sugar, upon my I 

 nun. 1 am, therefore, asking 

 you to give this bit of information 

 as wide publicity as possible, so thai 

 we may be able to serve the bee- 



keepers of the State. Beekeepers 

 should write me direct, and I will fur- 

 nish them a regular form, which they 

 must use in mailing application for 

 sugar. 



B. F. KINDIG, 

 State Inspector of Apiaries, 



East Lansing, Mich. 



Extending Beekeeping Activities 



111 connection with the effort to 

 increase food production, the Bureau 

 of Entomology is enlarging its ex- 

 tension work in beekeeping by the 

 appointment of several new men. 

 Some of these men have been in the 

 field for several weeks and others are 

 just leaving Washington. During 

 tbe winter months an effort will be 

 made to reach beekeepers with the 

 mesage that an immediate increase 

 in honey production is needed, and 

 during tbe active season field meet- 

 ings will be held to assist beekeepers 

 with practical production problems. 



The following men have been ap- 

 pointed : 



E. F. Atwater, of Meridian, Idaho, 

 assigned to California. Arizona and 

 New Mexico. 



J. H. Wagner, of Wetmore, Colo., 

 assigned to Washington, Oregon, 

 Northern Idaho and Montana. 



C. E. Bartholomew, transferred 

 from Tennessee and assigned to Col- 

 orado, Utah, Southern Idaho and 

 Wyi uiiing. 



E. W. Atkins, of Ames, [owa, as- 

 signed to Iowa. Missouri, Kansas and 

 Nebraska. 



i , i Matthews, of Hanson, Idaho, 

 assigned in Illinois, Wisconsin and 

 Mima 



P. W. Erbaugh, of Easl Lansing, 

 Mich., assigned to Michigan and In- 

 diana. 



David Running, of Fulton, Mich., 

 unassigned 



Mr. k, -ninth Hawkins will continue 

 work in the Southern States and Mr. 

 (' I.. Sams will remain in North Car- 

 olina. The work in Tennessee has 

 been discontinued. 



The iin i eased activity in (-.tension 

 work in beekeeping is made possible 

 by the assignment of funds from the 

 emergency appropriation to the De 

 partment of Agriculture for stimu- 



The "Little Bees" in Belgium. — One 

 of our si, Mi having recently made a 

 direct contribution for the relief of 

 suffering Belgium, received, Jan. 4, 

 the following letter from the assist- 

 ant director of the Commission for 

 Relief in Belgium: 



Formal acknowledgment has al- 

 ready been mailed you for your gen- 

 erous contribution sent us under 

 date of December 27, but we are 

 sure you will be interested in know- 

 ing that same has been remitted to 

 Brussels to the organization known 

 as "The Little Bees" (Les Petites 

 Abeilles). This society, which is 

 taking care of practically all of the 

 children — babies and older ones — in 

 that city, who are in one way or an- 

 other victims of the war, was organ- 

 ized some five years before the out- 

 break of the conflict. A group of 

 young women banded together to 

 help the children, and organized cen- 

 ters in Brussels for the distribution 

 of needed clothing to children whose 

 parents were unable to properly pro- 

 vide for them. Their efforts at once 

 won the enthusiasm of the people. 

 The Queen and the adored Princess 

 Marie-Jose were their patronesses, 

 and they became the most popular 

 organization of their kind in Bel- 

 gium. 



When the war came the mothers 

 quickly took charge. They estab- 

 lished a vast home for refugees, 

 where they housed over 5.000. Later 

 tiny appealed to the relief committee 

 to be allowed to develop their work 

 to meet the terrible emergency, and 

 their offer only too gladly accepted, 

 one after another cantine for feed- 

 ing, as well as clothing, was opened 

 in the various sections of the city. 

 At the present time there are more 

 than 125 Brussels sections of the or- 

 ganization, caring for more than 50,- 

 000 children, and about 3,000 women 

 are giving a great part of their time 

 to the work. 



The cantines served by these de- 

 voted women, with bees embroidered 

 in the Belgian colors, on their white 

 caps, are in every section of the city; 

 in a vacant shop, a garage, a private 

 home, a cellar, a convent — in any 

 available, usable place — but everyone 

 immaculately clean. 



The children of Belgium were, of 

 course, the first to feel the effects of 

 the stern repression of the food sup- 

 ply Such diseases as tuberculosis 

 and rickets spread rapidly among 

 them, and the work of "The Little 



Bees" in supplementing tbe ordinary 



ration allowed by tbe Commission 

 became of vital importance to the 

 future of the race They have la- 

 bored unceasingly for three and a 

 half long years, and are today beset 

 with more obstacles than at any time 

 since the war -began. For over a year 

 now, tbe lack of ocean tonnage has 

 prevented the Commission from ship- 

 ping hardly more than 60 per cent of 

 tin foodstuffs required to keep the 

 population of Belgium in ordinary 

 health, and the prices of what small 



