THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



339 



PKOCEDURK WHKN ADULTEKATION OR 



MISBRANDING HAS BICEN DETECTED 



BY A UNITED STATES 



OKEICEK. 



Section 4 of the law is liberal to- 

 waril the suspected ofi'ender in that it 

 jrives him a chance for hearin^"^ be- 

 fore the actual penalty is applied. 

 When examination or analysis shows 

 Ihat he is possibly or probably i,'-iiilty, 

 notice is served to him or to the parties 

 from ulii.mhe obtained the floods, or 

 executed the {guarantee as provided in 

 the law. A date is fixed by the Secre- 

 tary of Afi^ricultnre, or such other ofh- 

 rial connected with tlie food and drug 

 i'lspection service as may be commis- 

 sioned by him for that purpose, when 

 a hearing shall he held. Said hearing 

 shall he in private, and shall be con- 

 fined to questions of fact. If it be 

 shoA-n .hat a mistake has been made, 

 the parlies shall be discharged, but if 

 it lie shown that he is guilty, the fact 

 will he published, and in addition the 

 offender will be subject to the penalties 

 alrea<ly mentioned. 



The adulterators of food products 

 fear publicity more than anything else. 

 They do not care so much about a 

 small hue; but Uncle Sam has fixed it 

 so that the law-breaker shall get a big 

 fine, some free advertising, and, in 

 addition, a free ride, perhaps to 

 prist. n. No wonder there was a tre- 

 mendous glucose lobby present to 

 kill or weaken the measure when it 

 was before Congress. No wonder the 

 liquor and patent medicine people 

 feared it. 



MISBRANDING OR LABELING HONEY AS 



COMING FROM ONE APIARY THAT 



WAS PRODUCED IN ANOTHER. 



Not only ia it made a crime against 

 the United States to misbrand an arti- 

 cle of food by putting out a cheap 

 substitute untler the name of something 

 better, as. for example, a glucose 

 mixture for hone5', but it will also be 

 unlawful to sell a. fitire honey under a 

 label showing that it came from some 

 particular apiary when, as a matter of 

 fact, it was produced in another. Let 

 us take a concrete case: Mr. John 

 Jones has purchased a lot of labels 

 that read "Pure Honey from the 

 Apiary of John Jones " We will say 

 he has produced 10,000 lbs. of extracted 

 honey. He has a right to use this label 

 on all the honey he produces in his 

 apiarj' or apiaries,^ but on no other. 



hoivevcr pure. He builds up a big 

 trade, and there is more demand for 

 his goods. His 10,000 pounds of h's 

 own production is all gone. He goes 

 out into the open market and buys more 

 honey of the same source, no better 

 no worse than he produces in his own 

 yard; but if he uses the same label to 

 put out his honey he will be rendering 

 himself liable if I understand the law. 

 It is true no chemist could ever show 

 whether the honey bearing such labels 

 was proiluced in his apiary or not; but 

 other evidence might show a misbrand- 

 ing, and our Mr. Jones would be up 

 against Uncle Sam in a way that would 

 kill him before his own trade. 



The law does not prevent him. how- 

 ever, from adopting a trade lab^l of 

 wider scope rending something like 

 this: "Pure Clover Honey put up by 

 John Jones." Under this label he may 

 sell his own honey and that which he 

 purchases. But just the moment he 

 buys a mountain sage or a pure bass- 

 wood and sells it under that label, he 

 will be rendering himself liable again. 

 If he desires to have a stock label that 

 will apply to both white, red. and 

 alfalfa clover honey he can use the 

 words "Pure Clover Honey put up by 

 John Jones," for alfalfa is a 

 clover the same as sweet or red 

 clover. He might in my opinion, with- 

 out being liable, but if he desired to 

 put up a blend of clover and basswood 

 or sage honey he had better adopt the 

 wording, "Pure Extracted Honey, put 

 up by John Jones." In every case, 

 when John Jones buys honey he will 

 do well to require the seller to give 

 him a guarantee of purity. 



The law is very clear in making it 

 unlawful to represent that a certain 

 food product was produced in any par- 

 ticular State when, as a matter of fact, 

 it came from another State. To illus- 

 trate, no more can Ohio cheese be sold 

 as New York cheese. In the same wav 

 Wisconsin honey could not be sold 

 under the name of York State honey 

 without rendering somebody liable. 



FORM OF GUARANTEE. 



As I have already stated, it is quite 

 important that every bee-keeper when 

 he buys honey from some other bee- 

 keeper, jobber or dealer, make him 

 give a guarantee of purity. The guar- 

 antee suggested is as follows : 



I [vvel the uidersiKTifd do hereby flruarantee 

 that honey or beeswa.v shippedf distributed, or 

 sold by me lusl specifyiiiB' the same as fully as pos- 

 sible! is not adulterated or misbranded within the 

 meaning of the frod and druirs a t, June 30, 1906, 



(SiGNKI) IN INK.) 



