264 



maple sugar at 40c a pound to fortify 

 an argument for good prices of 

 honey ? 



White clover flow short. Too much 

 rain, and the clover is not, even now, 

 when the weather is dry, yielding as 

 it should. There will he, I think, a 

 short crop in Iow : a. 

 Truly, 



A. F. BONNEY. 



The doctor appears to use sound 

 reasoning. Let us not undersell each 

 other. Everything is high, whether 

 in the line of food or in the other 

 lines — clothing, building material, etc. 



Some of our friends accuse the 

 "profiteers" of causing the high prices. 

 We believe that the cheapness of 

 money is at the bottom of it. Is the 

 farmer a profiteer because hogs are 20 

 cents per pound, cattle 16 cents and 

 corn $1.80? Everything is on the 

 same scale. Labor has advanced and 

 is not likely to go back to the old 

 schedules for a long time, if ever. The 

 only man who loses on these advance', 

 is the one who has a specified income 

 based upon money at interest. That 

 item has not yet raised, neither is it 

 likely to raise. So there is no reason 

 why the honey producer should not 

 get at least twice as much for his 

 honey as he used to get. 



Dr. Arthur H. McCray 



Dr. Arthur H. McCray, whose death 

 was mentioned in the July number, 

 was one of the scientists who helped 

 diagnose bee diseases. In our account 

 of the work undertaken at Washing- 

 ton, by the Bureau of Entomology of 

 the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 

 we gave, in February, 1916, a descrip- 

 tion of the work of Dr. McCray, as 

 bacteriologist in the examination of 

 samples of diseased brood received 

 from beekeepers in all parts of the 

 country. 



This, however, is not the only work 

 due to this eminent worker, on sub- 

 jects that interest beekeepers. Dr. 

 Mel ray, in connection with Dr. G. F. 

 White, wrote Bulletin No. 671 of the 

 Bureau of Entomology on "The Diag- 

 nosis of Bee Diseases by Laboratory 

 M ethods." 



More recently Dr. Met. ray had been 

 State Bacteriologist of Montana, and 

 while thus engaged carried on inves- 

 tigations on Rocky Mountain spotted 

 fever. He contracted this disease 

 during his studies and it was the 

 cause of his death. He was therefore 

 a "martyr to tile cause of science," 

 and we should regret his death the 

 more on that account. True courage 

 is not only in fighting an enemy face 

 to face. Many a scientist has lost his 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNA- 



life in seeking to remove disease or 

 prevent its spread. 



The Evening Star, of Washington, 

 D. C, had this to say about Dr. Mc- 

 Cray's death : 



"Dr. McCray. who was conducting 

 experiments to isolate the germ of 

 spotted fever, became infected while 

 dissecting the carcass of a guinea pig, 

 developed the disease, and after a 

 prolonged fight for life, succumbed. 

 High tribute to the memory of the 

 physician was paid by Governor 



The late Dr. A. H. McCray 



Stewart and state officials, among 

 them the state doctors with win mi 

 Dr. McCray had worked. ■ 



"Dr. McCray was born at Reynolds- 

 ville, Ohio, 38 years ago, and was 

 married in Washington in 1915, to 

 Adele Wilson, superintendent of the 

 nurses' school at George Washington 

 University in that year. He served as 

 a lieutenant in the Medical Reserve 

 Corps during the war." 



Queen Breeders Versus 

 Queen Buyers 



Xo season yet, to our knowledge, 

 has caused so much dissatisfaction 

 between queen breeders and purchas- 

 ers of bees, as the one just ending. 

 We bred queens for sale ourselves, 

 years ago, but soon decided that the 

 breeding and selling of queens was in- 

 jurious to a man's peace of mind. So 

 all the queens that we have handled 

 in the past 30 years have been pro- 

 duced bj others. We are thei i Fori 

 well situated to give a curtain lecture 

 I" both buyers and sellers. 



Queen breeding i> very much like 

 the raising of cabbages or melons; 

 that is to say, we have to depend a 

 great deal upon the season, the moist- 

 ure, the sunshine, the absence of 

 parasites, etc. We might promise 

 "" Ions tor a certain date and find 

 ourselvev unable to supplj them, even 

 after great exertions. 



August 



The queen breeder has many obsta- 

 cles to surmount. He is not always 

 able to sell his entire output, and it 

 is unusual for him to secure orders 

 early in the season, for as large a 

 number as he can fill. We therefore 

 do not hold it much of a sin if he ac- 

 cepted more orders this year than he 

 is sure of being able to fill. On the 

 other hand, he should consider the 

 customer's money as not earned, and 

 therefore not his own, until he has 

 filled the order sent to him. He must 

 put himself in the customer's place 

 and decide that the only way to re- 

 tain his credit and do the fair thing 

 is to refund the amount of the order, 

 whenever it is demanded if unable lo 

 till a promise. 



The customer, on the other hand, 

 must recognize the fact that queens 

 are not kept in a bushel box, ready 

 to be sent on 5 minutes' notice. If he- 

 has sent his order early, with the 

 conditions and date of delivery well 

 stipulated and agreed upon, he has a 

 right to expect the goods or the 

 money back, even though it may be a 

 hardship on the breeder. But how 

 many customers send money for a 

 queen, to be delivered by return mail? 

 Of course the man who pays his 

 money aiid to whom the offer has 

 been made to fill an order by return 

 mail has a right to expect it. But in 

 many cases beekeepers do not even 

 enquire whether the breeder is ready 

 to fill an order. They send the money, 

 and their ire is aroused if the queen 

 does not promptly arrive. Some 

 even make the mistake of removing 

 and killing the queen which they wish 

 to replace, on the day upon which 

 they send their order. And let us 

 state here that this is the very poor- 

 est way to succeed in queen introduc- 

 tion, even if the queen should come 

 without any postal delays 



One more word. When queens are 

 lost in transit, it is usually the ship- 

 per's loss. The consignee has there- 

 fore bad grace in being angry at the 

 loss which he often charges to the 

 shipper's ignorance, when it may be 

 due only to circumstances beyond his 

 reach. Shortage of weight of bees by 

 the pound is often due to wear and 

 fatigue in transit, and a nice lot of 

 bees at the start may look very poor 

 on delivery. 



The American Bee Journal will not 

 knowingly accept advertising of un- 

 reliable breeders, but it hopes that 

 ill' customers will entertain charity 

 for the unsuccessful efforts of hard- 

 working queen breeders, when the 

 season is against them. 



