Dec. 26, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



823 



the case overcomes hair-splitting dirterences in tare. If a lot 

 of separatort'd honpy, for example, docs not net 21 pounds, 

 we throw in a few eases extra : if they net heavier than tliat 

 weight, we do not charge tin' buyer for the overplus. If the 

 same conditions existed in Eastern markets, it would be more 

 satisfactory to the general trade. 



Mr. Aikin — I have a suspicion that the writer of that 

 article has been bitten by some one with grading rules not so 

 good as ours. 



W. Z. Hutchinson — If Burnett <fc Co. knew that you had 

 such rules, that article is not fair. 



Mr. Aikin — If we sell by weight, then they will insist that 

 we sell them light-weight honey, and they will sell by the 

 case. 



J. B. Dodds — And if you go to Chicago with the light- 

 weight honey then they will want heavy-weight honey. We 

 often put in heavy-weight honey. We often put in heavier 

 weight in packing than we would if it were not for those 

 rules. 



Mr. Rauchfuss — When honey is sold by weight only, no 

 distinction is made between separatored and unseparated 

 honey. But by our rules we admit that halt-separatored and un- 

 separatored honey are less desirable than separatored, which 

 is easier to lift out without damage, by the grocer. By our 

 system, there is more uniformity of weights. We guarantee 

 weights, and give a man every pound he 'luys. 



The attentive reader will have noticed that the foregoing 

 discussion is a defense of the Colorado system rather than a 

 criticism of the article by Burnett & Co. This is natural. 

 Our people are familiar with the merits of tlieir own methods : 

 they could not be perfectly sure of the merits of the argu- 

 ments favoring another system by a single hearing of such an 

 article as that read to them. 



Burnett & Co. could not well be ignorant of the Colo- 

 rado grading rules. These rules have been published in the 

 American Bee Journal. A copy has been furnished to Burnett 

 & Co.; and it was unjust to suppose that they are too stupid 

 to understand them. In spite of the knowledge which they 

 must have had to the contrary, they beg the whole question by 

 referring to the, '"pig in the bag." Let me quote the Colorado 

 rule for No. 1 honey : ^ 



No. 1 — Sections to be well filled and capped, honey white, slightly 

 amber, comb white and not projecting beyond the wood, wood to be 

 well cleaned ; cases of separatored honey to average 21 pounds net 

 per case of 24 sections, with a mimimum weight of not less than 20 

 pounds for any single case; cases of half-separatored honey to average 

 not less than 21^4 pounds uet per case of 24 sections, with a minimum 

 weight of 20''^ pounds for any single case; cases of unseparatored 

 honey to average not less than 22^^ pounds net per case of 24 sec- 

 tions, \yith a miaimum weight of 21'.j pounds for any single case. 



Will any intelligent reader of the American Bee Journal 

 believe that the man who buys honey guaranteed to be packed 

 according to that rule is buying a pig in a nag? Indeed, will 

 not the reader know that the buyer, whether of one case or a 

 car-load of cases, is sure to get at least a certain, definite 

 amount of honey ? 



The argument in which the " bag of tea, coffee or sugar" 

 figures, does not lack ingenuity. But why did not this wise 

 logician include also the bag of flour ? Does it weigh 

 exactly a hundred potinds? "Sot at all. And yet flour is 

 quoted by the hundred-weight. We buy a great variety of 

 articles by the package. And the grocer who sells a section of 

 honey as a pound is probably giving as much weight for the 

 money as he does when he sells certain other " pound "' pack- 

 ages. People who buy honey by the section can easily be 

 made to understand that sections are very likely to vary in 

 weight. Can it be that any one is so lacking in discernment 

 as to suppose that every section (pound section, if you please) 

 would be equal in weight to every other section ? 



Perhaps I am inexcusably ignorant; but I must confess 

 that I do not know of a single association of bee-keepers that 

 is "advocating the abandoning of weighing their honey." I 

 am sure our rules make it necessary to have the scales pretty 

 close by when packing comb honey — as the readers can not 

 but know, having read the rule quoted above. 



A word as to the editorial in the American Hee Journal. 

 Is it quite fair to use the example of a car of honey which 

 cleared the buyers yiOU "beyond a fair profit" as an excuse 

 for intimating that the producer was not dealing squarely ? 

 That dealer might l)e accused of "smart dealing." The pro- 

 ducer d(iul)tless knew what he was selling, and was satisMi'd 

 with the price. If I am not blind to its meaning, the e(lil<irial 

 illustration was simply lugged in to furnish excuse for giving 

 honey-producers a lot of goody-goody advice, while, if it 

 really showed anything, it illustrated the readiness of the 

 wholesale dealer to take the advantage of tho producer. 

 I am not speaking for the rules of any other association : 



but I am snri' the rules of the Colorado State Association can 

 not be fairly interpreted to the hurt of the buyer. lie is sure 

 to receive no less than a very definite minimum weight. If he 

 gets more, no one will lomplain. Of course, there are indivi- 

 dual bee-keepers who can not or will not grade honestly. I 

 am not defending them. Arapahoe Co.. Colo. 



Apiary Inspection in the State of Mictiigan. 



To the Honorable Dairy and Food Commissioner : 



Sir: — I herewith submit my report for the work done dur- 

 ing the months of July, August, September and October as 

 State Inspector of Apiaries. I have visited in all 206 apia- 

 ries, having in them a total of 3,286 colonies. I have found 

 402 diseased colonies, making a total of 1 2. 1 percent of those 

 inspected. I have found the disease present in 119 apiaries, 

 which is riT.7 percent of the whole number inspected. It will 

 be noticed that the majority of the yards that contained the 

 disease have iu them only a few. and many times only one 

 colony. It is imposible to tell exactly how many of the dis- 

 eased colonies have been destroyed by the owner. Perhaps .50 

 percent of those condemned. I have been compelled to burn 

 onlv one colony against the will of the owner. These apiaries 

 were scattered through the counties of St. Joseph, Hillsdale. 

 Lenawee, Washtenaw, Jackson, Calhoun, Barry, Eaton, Ing- 

 ham, Livingston, Oakland, Macomb, St. Clair, Lapeer, Gene- 

 see, Shiawassee, Clinton, Ionia, Muskegon, Montcalm, Wex- 

 ford, Benzie, Kalkaskia and Antrim. 



I have found the disease more prevalent in the older sec- 

 tions of country, that is, there is more disease in southern and 

 central Michigan than in the northern part of the State. In 

 the north it is confined to localties and is not of very long 

 standing. In almost every case it can be traced back to the 

 bringing in of diseased bees or fixtures from the south. In 

 the southern part, however, the disease is scattered promiscu- 

 ously and breaks out in yards, infecting many colonies, with- 

 out any source of contamination. 



I have found many bee-keepers who are perfectly ignorant 

 of the disease, and even when it is present in their yards and 

 a large proportion of theirbees are diseased, they fail to see 

 that anything serious is wrong. These bee-keepers, of course, 

 belong to the class who keep a few bees as a side-issue and are 

 not posted in modern apiculture. Then, again, I have found 

 the disease present in the apiaries of suecialists in bee-culture, 

 who are unfortunate enough to be located in the same vicinity 

 with one of these bee-keepers who are not posted. The unin- 

 formed man will not listen to the advice and pleadings of the 

 specialists, but will leave diseased colonies to die, and be rob- 

 bed out by the bees from the larger yard, in this way working 

 ruin on the helpless specialist, who "cannot control the action 

 of his ignorant neighbor. Then, oftentimes, when this special- 

 ist resorts to the protection of the law to compel his neigh- 

 bor to clean up the diseased yard, he is looked upon by the 

 people of his vicinity with utmost contempt. 



The most active agents in spreading the disease are, first, 

 that of robbing out colonies which have become weak and run 

 down : and, second, that of using old hives in which the bees 

 have died from the disease. 



A grave difficulty arises when treating the bees to over- 

 come foul brood, in that it is a very hard matter to impress 

 upon the uneducated man the necessity of careful work, and 

 the nature of bacteria. He will neglect some small but impor- 

 tant matter, or fail to take some necessary precaution in 

 order to insure success. As a consequence, the treatment is 

 frequently a failure. This is not always the case, however ; 

 many apiarists are eager to learn all that is to be known about 

 the disease, and by careful, persistent work have stamped it 

 out of their yards. The treatment used by many apiarists has 

 been to kill the infected colony with sulphur, remove the hive 

 to the cellar, and cut out and save for home usi' all good honey, 

 scrape clean and disinfect the hive, finally burning all refuse, 

 scrapings and inside furniture. This method of treatment en- 

 tails much less work than attempting to cure the colony, and 

 the honey and also the hive is saved. 



The needs are groat, and many localities where the disease 

 is known to exist have not been visited at all. Many of the 

 localities visited this summer must be covered again at the be- 

 ginning of next season to insure the effectual stamping out of 

 the disease. I have met with the most hearty co-operation o n 

 the part of the intelligent apiarists of the s"tate. They hav(^ 

 not only manifested an interest in the work, but in many 

 cases have materially assisted in the eradication of the disease 

 in their localitv. Uespectfully submitted. 



.lolIN M. R.\NKIN. 



