Sept. 22, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



647 



the honey he puts upon the market, and he can well afford 

 to cater to the wants of the public by putting it in various- 

 sized packages, embellished with catchy advertisements, etc.. 

 and in the event that any member of these organizations is 

 proven guilty of adulteration, let him be blacklisted, published 

 to the world, and expelled from these associations. 



I give these ideas for what they are worth, and trust they 

 will be deliberated upon at the coming National Bee-Keepers' 

 meeting. Churchill Co., Nev. 



Pure Food Legislation a Necessity. 



BY DR. G. BOHKER. 



lam now looking forward to the pleasure of attending 

 the convention at St. Louis, where I hope the bee-keepers 

 of the country will unite in taking an advance step in the 

 matter of securing legislation in all our States against 

 the sale of glucose either in its pure state, or adulterated 

 with honey. Millions of people believe that there is but 

 little pure nectar put upon the market. They think nearly 

 all the honey is adulterated, or that there is no nectar at 

 all in much that is put up in neat packages and labeled 

 "Honey." Much of which is too true. 



It occurs to me that if we select a strong committee 

 from each State — those in particular that have no law 

 upon this subject — and urge them to correspond with in- 

 fluential bee-keepers all over each State, requesting them 

 to w-rite to or see their members of both the House and 

 Senate, in as many counties as possible, such a law might 

 be secured in most, if not all, of the States. A law of this 

 kind would restore confidence among our people, and re- 

 sult in the sale of very much honey that now remains 

 without a buyer. Then there is a great shortage of true 

 knowledge among many people, about the construction 

 of honeycomb by the use of machinery, which they think 

 is filled and sealed by the honey-producers of the coun- 

 try. The truthfulness concerning this matter, it seems 

 to me. beekeepers should attack through the local press 

 in each county. I have done so here in Rice County, and 

 also through the agricultural papers of the State, and 

 have made a standing ofifer of $1,000 for one 4J4 x 4J4 sec- 

 tion of comb manufactured by machinery, filled and 

 sealed by human hands. 



If the masses of intelligent bee-keepers continue to 

 remain inactive (or comparatively so) the uninformed 

 will continue to remain so very largely, and the honey- 

 producer will suffer as a result. 



I have been out of the bee-business so long that until 

 I re-entered the apiarian field again I lost sight, to quite 

 an extent, of the way in which the honey-trade was being 

 injured. Thirty-one years ago glucose was not used in 

 combination with honey, as it is now. 



I am glad to be back in line again. I would have 

 been long ago, but for a lack of bee-forage. Now we 

 have quite an amount of alfalfa — more than 150 acres 

 within a radius of seven miles, and not over 35 colonies 

 of bees to gather honey from it. I had nine colonies in 

 the spring, and now have 2?,. 



. It was too cold and wet to gather much honey from 

 fruit-bloom, so that I fed them probably 150 pounds of 

 sugar syrup to stimulate them. Within the last 15 days 

 both old and new colonies have filled their brood-cham- 

 bers, and the old colonies have filled one set of supers, 

 and are now at work in the second set. I, of course, put 

 comb foundation in all empty frames and supers. Some 

 colonies are crowding out their queens, so that I will be 

 compelled to use an extractor. If the season holds out 

 as it now promises to do there is no telling how much 

 they will store. I never saw anything like it before. 



We - put a glass dish containing a little smartweed 

 honey sticking to the sides and bottom, on one of the 

 hives in my apiary. It set there two days, and not one 

 bee went near it, which is something unusual, and to my 

 mind tends to prove that bees like alfalfa (aside from its 

 abundance in the case) better than smartweed or hearts- 

 ease, as it is called by most people. 



Why not at the National convention at St. Louis, in 

 September, make it a point to select a committee from 

 each State which has no law against the adulteration of 

 honey by combining it w'ith glucose or other liquid 

 sweets, and selling and exposing the same to sale under 

 the label of honey? That this is being done to an extent 



that has been, and now is, preventing the sale of many 

 tons of honey annually, there can be no reasonable doubt 

 among that class of people who are familiar with the 

 production and sale of honey in the United States of 

 America. Many people have been led to believe that ex- 

 tensive honey-producers buy glucose by the carload, and 

 feed it to their bees, that store and seal it in their combs, 

 in which shape it is put upon the market as pure nectar, 

 when as a matter of fact they tell us it is not nectar at all. 

 Others tell us that bee-keepers manufacture comb with 

 machinery made for the purpose, and fill this comb with 

 glucose, sealing it by artificial means, and sell it for 

 honey. Still another class tell us that honey dealers com- 

 bine large quantities of glucose with a small quantity of 

 honey put up in glass jars and other receptacles, then put 

 a nicely gotten up honey-label on it, and put it on the 

 market. This latter method of defrauding the public is a 

 fact. 



The statements that comb is manufactured by the use 

 of machinery, filled with glucose and sealed by bee-keep- 

 ers, and that glucose is fed to bees on a large scale, is 

 false from start to finish. At any rate, I have never 

 known bees to store glucose, and have never talked with 

 a bee-keeper who ever saw or knew of their doing any- 

 thing of the kind. 



The object, then, of such a committee as has been 

 referred to, is to work up an interest in each State, and 

 through a co-operative movement upon the part of bee- 

 keepers and others interested in the sale of pure honey, 

 as well as to teach people the actual truth about this mat- 

 ter, and to punish parties for counterfeiting honey and 

 defrauding the masses. Ask each State legislature to 

 place upon its respective statute books a stringent law 

 against such abuses. This would be but a modest, rea- 

 sonable, and just demand upon the part of the people, and 

 it is a request that each State assembly will grant if it is 

 once really known that the people want such a law, and 

 it is shown just how they are being imposed upon by 

 these counterfeiters and imposters. In the meantime 

 there may be members of the National and State bee- 

 keepers' associations who are engaged in this dishonor- 

 able business. If so, they should be searched out, and 

 the constitution and by-laws so shaped as to require 

 their prompt expulsion from the society, and their con- 

 duct publicly exposed. 



A course of this kind will restore confidence upon the 

 part of people, who, as matters are, will not buy honey 

 for fear of being imposed upon, but who will buy when 

 sure that they can purchase the pure nectar. 



If. Mr. Editor, you know of a case, or ever heard of 

 a case through reliable sources, in which bees stored 

 glucose and sealed it, please give the facts in detail to the 

 public. I feel confident that the truth in the case will 

 shame his Satanic majesty, no matter in what part of the 

 wood-pile he may be hiding. 



Rice Co., Kans. 



Honey Market Quotations in Bee-Papers. 



BV EDWIN BEVINS. 



In the editorial on " Honey Market Quotations," on 

 page 563, the Editor says that he has received a letter 

 which shows the side of those who furnish the honey and 

 beeswax market quotations. I beg leave to say that it 

 shows a side of only a part of those who furnish these 

 quotations — the part which buys for cash, and not the 

 side of the commission men. The Editor seemed to un- 

 derstand, as I did— and I suppose most honey-producers 

 did — that the quotations were the prices at which honey 

 sold, and not the prices which some men dealing in honey 

 and giving quotations, pay for it. The writer of the let- 

 ter referred to says, "The market reports, apparently, are 

 a delusion to the bee-keeping fraternity." These reports 

 were not a delusion until a lot of men began furnishing 

 them without giving the public any information regarding 

 their manner of doing business. 



You say, Mr. Editor, that you supposed that those 

 who read the market quotations in the bee-papers under- 

 stood that the prices given are the ones dealers secure 

 for the honey after they receive the shipments. So I un- 

 derstood; and I supposed most honey-producers under- 

 stood it the same way, and it is only within the last few 



