THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



oriole is a great enemy to grapes, as it 

 just picks a hole in the berry and then 

 leaves it, thus destroying all the berries 

 on a vine in a few minutes. The bees 

 quickly follow and take up the juices, 

 but in this case are the bees not a bene- 

 fit instead of an injury ? Mr. Taylor 

 is certainly misinfoi-med as regards last 

 winter being destructive on bees. On 

 the contrary, it is rai-e to have bees 

 come through a winter so strong and 

 healthy. For proof see Bee Journals. 

 Some time ago two bills were intro- 

 duced in the California Legislature to 

 do away with all bees, on account of 

 j)uncturing and destroying grapes, but 

 a careful examination and an extended 

 debate proved that tliere was not a 

 single case of bees puncturing grapes. 



I may just state that I never had 

 more bees and honey or a finer crop of 

 grapes than this season. A desire to 

 prevent others from falling into the 

 same error, and also to prevent the 

 innocent but industrious and useful bee 

 from being blamed for some other guilty 

 pest, must be my only excuse for asking 

 you to insert the above in your valua- 

 ble journal. 



D. V. Beacock. 



Brockville. 



GLUCOSE HONEY. 



Under the above heading, in the 

 October number of the Horticulturist, 

 page 239, will be found a short extract 

 from an editorial in the Boston Journal 

 of Chemistry ior July, 1881: it con- 

 cludes as follows : — Human ingenuity, 

 it is stated, has i^ached the point of 

 making honey and storing it in the 

 comb without the intervention of the 

 bee. By appropriate machinery a nice 

 looking comb is made out of parafiine, 

 and after the cells are filled with glucose 

 syrup, this fictitious honey is warranted 

 true white clover honey from Yermont. 



It seems strange to us slow, easy 

 going Canadians, that respectable Am- 



erican journals should give circulation 

 to such absurd and untruthful state- 

 ments as the above. Dr. J. B. Nichols, 

 the editor of the Journal of Chemistry y 

 ought to have known the making of 

 of artificial comb-honey to bean impos- 

 sibility ; and if so, what excuse can be 

 offered by him for giving circulation to 

 a story which must of necessity very 

 materially injure one of the most pleas- 

 ant and profitable industries in the 

 country, and in which many thousands 

 of honest, respectable jieople are en- 

 gaged ? 



Did he, like many others, assume 

 the story to be true because it appeared 

 in the resi)ectable pages of the Popular 

 Science Monthly ? If so, he has prob- 

 ably seen his error before this, as the 

 author of that article, in a letter to the 

 Bee Journal in June last, after quoting 

 from his own article the following 

 sentence : — "In commercial honey 

 which is entirely free from bee media- 

 tion, the. comb is made from ]>araftine, 

 and filled with pure glucose by appro- 

 priate machinery " — states that this 

 sentence was meant for a " scientific 

 pleasantry." The author of this " scien- 

 tific pleasantry " admits that he knew 

 his fabrication was being published 

 and accepted as a truth in nearly all 

 the papers in the country, yet lacked 

 the manhood to affirm it a joke until 

 the Bee Journal exposed the falsity and 

 absurdity of the article. I have pur- 

 posely omitted giving the name of the 

 author of this " scientific pleasantry," 

 as I do not wish to give him that which 

 that class of " professors " so earnestly 

 desire — a fine advertisement. T. B. 



Lindsay, Nov., 1882. 



The Colorado Bketle. — A laboiirer 

 working on the American steamer Wis- 

 consin, at Liverpool, on Thursday, found 

 a live Colorado beetle. Liformation was 

 sent to the Lords of the Privy Council, 

 who ordered the insect to be killed and 

 sent to Whitehall, which was done. 



