In 1877, Charles Dadant wrote: "During ten years of business in selling queens and bees we have received many praises, but we have also been greeted with accusations enough to make the business very irksome, without a compensating benefit. The bee breeder who has never been accused of misdealing is one who has never sold a bee. "

L. L. Langstroth and Son were the first to advertise queens for sale and, for a time, appear to have had the field entirely to themselves. With the July, 1866, issue the American Bee Journal resumed publication after a suspension because of the Civil War. The Langstroths began using a full page of advertising, offering Italian queens bred from imported mothers. In the January, 1867, issue they began advertising Egyptian queens and, in March of that year, Ellen S. Tupper, of Brighton, Iowa, first advertised Italians.

In the April, 1867, issue C. B. Biglow, of Vermont, and Adam Grimm, of Wisconsin, entered the field to offer Italians, and A. Gray, of Ohio, offered both Italians and Egyptians. The same year, Wm. W. Cary, of Massachusetts, and K. P. Kidder, of Vermont, began advertising Italians, so the pioneers were not left without competition for long. Moses Quinby also appeared as an advertiser in the August issue and soon after, J. L. Hubbard, of New Hampshire, followed. In July, 1868, Charles Dadant, of Illinois, and J. H. Townley, of Michigan, added their names to the list. For a time, Dadant offered imported queens for sale, but he soon began to offer queens of his own rearing from imported mothers.

It was in April, 1869, that Henry Alley first published a modest little advertisement offering Italian queens sent by mail at $2. 50 each, with purity and safe arrival guaranteed. At the same time others were asking $8. 00 for tested queens. Adam

Grimm was the largest user of space and seems to have then been in the lead in the queen breeding field. In the October issue, Grimm reduced his price to $3. 00 per queen, which seems like a high price for so late in the season.

New names appeared from time to time, but the space used was modest, and the volume of orders received probably was likewise limited. The development of the queen advertising was the principal support of the magazine, although the May, 1872, issue contained only seven pages of advertising of all kinds, including hives, extractors, and miscellaneous items. After the first year with not more than a page or two of advertisements at most, this must have seemed a fine showing to the editor.

As soon as advertising support showed signs of prosperity, new bee magazines were launched and a long line of them have followed, as outlined in the chapters devoted to that field. The advertising of queen breeders and, later, of shippers of live bees, has made possible the continuance of publications devoted to bee culture. The volume gradually increased until the peak was reached in the boom years following the World War.

The business of queen breeding developed slowly, but steadily, until the time of the great expansion that came with the World War and the spread of sweet clover over the Plains Region. Since that time the growth has kept pace with the development of the package business, which has expanded so rapidly. Much of the present day prosperity of the queen breeder is due to the popularity of sweet clover as a farm crop.