Dec. 2; 14(14. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Proccebinas of (Eonrcntions 



THE ST. LOUIS CONVENTION. 



Report of the 35tli Annual Convention, of the 



National Bee-Keepers' Association Held at 



St. Louis, Mo., Sept. 27-30, 1904. 



[Contianed from pageSIO.J 



Mr. Brown (Cal.) — I would like to mention a point Mr. 

 York brought out regarding the protection of our extracted 

 honey, and our brand. The adulteration of extracted honey 

 is something that is carried on largely. I have seen great 

 quantities of it. I have seen honey that has been fixed up for 

 the market and put in five-gallon cans, put back into the 

 original package and marked "Pure California Honey," where 

 there was from 40 to 60 percent of glucose in it. I know 

 those things are done in our large cities in the West, and 

 Middle West ; I know it is done in Kansas City, and I am 

 pretty sure it is done in this city. Our honey that goes on 

 the market in car-load lots to-day ends up with the con- 

 sumer largely adulterated. The man who consumes our article 

 does not know what he is using. It doubles the output and 

 destroys the flavor ; it ruins its demand. I think it is time 

 we should take steps to protect our honey. 



With reference to the matter of a brand, the Central 

 California Bee-Keepers' Association, of which I am manager 

 at present, has adopted the brand, and in the manufacture of 

 our boxes we have the brand printed on the box. It says, 

 "Central California Honey-Producers' Association. Pure Ex- 

 tracted Honey." The question is, How we can guarantee 

 that the goods put up in our packages are pure when they 

 reach the consumer? A man might receive a quantity of our 

 packages and adulterate his honey just the same as they do 

 now, and sell under our guarantee. In order to overcome 

 that difficulty we have agreed upon this : We are going to 

 have our honey sealed. First, however, it will be graded by 

 an official grader appointed by our Association for that pur- 

 pose, and every can of honey that is in a case will be sampled, 

 a sample drawn from every can and placed in a small bottle. 

 In the manufacture of the cases we have ordered that a hole 

 be bored in the partition of the box about three inches deep 

 to insert the sample. We take out the sample and place it 

 in the little bottle and slide it down in the hole. Then when 

 the honey is thus graded by our official grader each can has 

 to be sealed with the Association's seal. Our goods will be 

 protected by a guarantee, and the guarantee will be printed 

 and wrapped around the bottle in the hole. Now, any man 

 buying a can or package of honey coming from Central Cali- 

 fornia with the seal broken will naturally have to take his 

 own chances of that product being pure, just the same as 

 he would any other goods protected by seal ; and any man 

 who wants to be sure his goods have not been tampered with 

 will find the seal intact, and buy nothing else. We will have 

 to protect our honey unitedly through our Associations, and 

 I believe through the National something will develop before 

 this convention closes that will bring about this line of work. 



Mr. Calhoun — I think there is something practical in Mr. 

 Brown's talk in regard to giving a guarantee of the purity 

 of our honey. Now. with regard to another feature, the bring- 

 ing before the people the advantages that are to be found in 

 using honey from a medicinal and food standpoint. How shall 

 we educate the people up to a knowledge of the advantages 

 of honey in this regard ? I believe we should have a concise 

 article covering these points. I believe we can afford to have that 

 article printed for our use. and, as Mr. Brown has suggested, 

 with a sample going with each case of honey. I, for one, 

 could afford to go to my local printer and have slips printed 

 bringing forth these advantages and put one in each package 

 of honey I sold. 



Mr. De Long — I would like to make a suggestion in re- 

 gard to getting up a iabel or advertisement of our honey as 

 a pure article. I havi- produced a great deal of extracted 

 honey in Nebraska, and I have sent a great deal to Lincoln 

 to personal friends, .nd I can sell thousands of pounds in 



Lincoln, of my production. I tell my customers if they ever 

 have any trouble in selling it on account of being accused 

 of its being adulterated, to let me know and I would go to 

 the experiment station at Lincoln and have them furnish an 

 announcement on the purity of this honey. All I would have 

 to do would be to pay the officials for the certificate. I thmk 

 that would be an authority which a counterfeiter would not 

 get. That is the w^ay I am going to work it in Nebraska if 

 I have any trouble. 



Dr. Miller— I am sure that we have struck one of the 

 most important questions that can come before this body, and 

 that is the advertising of honey. I dislike to attempt to say 

 very much about it because I feel that all my thoughts are in 

 a somewhat crude condition, but it is worth while for us to 

 talk it over at least a little, and perhaps we can have our 

 thoughts crystallized before we are through with it. Take the 

 case of the Kairo Korn Syrup. We can reasonably suppose 

 thousands of dollars are spent in advertising that syrup— I am 

 not paid anything for advertising it here — that is done prob- 

 ably by men of good business sense, and they are not doing 

 it for fun, they are spending their money because it pays ; if 

 it pays to have that advertised it will pay us to have such an 

 article as honey advertised. I believe it comes fairly within 

 the province of this Association to do something towards ad- 

 vertising honey. There are only a very few points that look 

 somewhat clear to me : one is the exoense of the matter. We 

 need a larger membership to do what we ought to do in that 

 regard. There comes that matter of the brand, and I suspect 

 we will strike a snag when we come to that. But there is one 

 thing that may be said in favor of anything of that kind; if 

 we want a brand and if that brand is good for anything— and 

 it ought to be good for something — every bee-keeper will be 

 likely to want to have the advantage of that brand, and that 

 should be in such shape that only the members of the Asso- 

 ciation would have the benefit of it : the advertising would be 

 for the benefit of all. If we could do it just as well, I should 

 say let everybody have the benefit of it. So far as any brand 

 is concerned, that would have to be limited, and that would 

 help us to bring in a larger number of members, and it would 

 also help to do a larger amount of advertising. I believe 

 the time has come for this Association to spend perhaps the 

 greater amount of money that it has to spend in trying to in- 

 form the public as to the matter of honey, its quality, and all 

 that sort of thing — the things you want people to know. 



Mr. Reinecke — We find so many medicines and other 

 things that bear their own signature, where they want to 

 build up a reputation, and the signature counts. I would 

 suggest with us that that would go a great way. 



Prof. Benton— The suggestion of Dr. IMiller, that the 

 time has come when the Association should spend most of 

 its money in advertising honey, making its qualities known 

 and what it is good for, brings to my mind some work I 

 have had in mind to do in connection with the position I 

 now occupy in connection with the Department of Agriculture. 

 I was asked by the secretary to prepare a paper, which I 

 have done, and I might have had some allusion in that paper 

 to this work in a general .way, but I will forestall that by 

 making the statement. It has been suggested to me to pre- 

 pare a farmers' bulletin on honey and its uses. That is 

 simply one of the smaller publications of the Department; 

 it may be but a leaflet, or may extend to 16 or 32 or 48 pages, 

 and it comes within the limits of a certain law enacted by 

 Congress which forbids the issuance of more than 1,000 bul- 

 letins if they exceed 100 pages. This comes within the limit 

 in number, and can be printed up to 50,000; a bee-keeper can 

 ask for a thousand copies for aught I know-, and he would 

 get them absolutely free of cost. If this Association will 

 suggest some person to prepare such a bulletin and submit it 

 to me, or would desire I should prepare it, I am perfectly 

 A'illing to do so, and have it printed at the Department and 

 under the Department's expense, and sent out to any list that 

 might be forwarded there, or in quantities to theindividuals 

 themselves. 



Mr. Hagood — I don't think our advertising would strike 

 the vital points in this thing, from the fact that the other man 

 has just as good a right to advertise as we have. We need 

 legislati n more than we need advertising. In my neighbor- 



