(Entered as second-class mail-matter at the Cbicago, 111., Post-Offlce.) 

 Published Rlonthly at 50 cts. a Year, by George W. Vork & Co., 118 W. Jackson Blvd. 



GEORGE W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL,, APRIL, 1908 



VoL XLVni— No. 4 



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The Xational Wins Highest A«anl 



The report of the Commission on 

 Tests, headed by Dr. H. W. Wiley, chief 

 of the bureau of chemistry of the De- 

 partment of -Agriculture, at the First 

 Annual World's Pure Food Exposition, 

 held in the Chicago Coliseum last No- 

 vember, was made public to-day (March 

 24), by Managing Director Thos. T. 

 Hoyne. Among the winners of high- 

 est awards in 41 classes was the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association which, 

 as most of our readers know, made a 

 good exhibit of honej-. With the names 

 of the winners of awards came the an- 

 nouncement of the date of this year's 

 exposition. So great was the success 

 of the 1907 show that the management 

 has extended the time for 1908, and the 

 big Coliseum will again be open for the 

 pure food exposition from Nov. 11 to 

 21, 1908. _ 



"Comb Honey Proved Pure" 



In a recent number of the Chicago 

 Record-Herald there appeared a num- 

 ber of recipes in which honey is used 

 as an ingredient, and also some sup- 

 posed-to-be authentic information con- 

 cerning honey itself. Among the state- 

 ments was one which asserted that "ar- 

 tificial combs of paraffine are now manu- 

 factured for the insects," and also that 

 the "wax can not be easily assimilated" 

 when eating comb honey. All of this 

 "information" was published in the de- 

 partment edited by Marion Harland. 



Of course there are many bee-keep- 

 ers who read the Chicago Record-Her- 

 ald, and at once some of them wrote to 

 Marion Harland, calling attention to the 

 misstatements. Among those who asked 

 for a correction were Mrs. H. M. .•\rnd, 

 R. W. Boyden, C. P. Dadant, and the 

 Editor. of the .-\merican Bee Journal. « 



\ few days later a very nice cor- 

 rection appeared under the heading giv- 

 en above. Liberal quotations were also 

 taken from Bulletin No. 59 of the Unit- 

 ed States Department of Agriculture, 

 w'hich gave full assurance that comb 

 honey is absolutely pure, and that there 

 is no such thing as honey-comb made of 

 paraffine. 



Marion Harland promised to make 

 further correction a week or so later. 

 All of which shows that when those 

 who make misstatements about honey 

 are written to in the right spirit, they 

 are likely to be willing to make suitable 

 correction. No errors of this kind 

 should appear without some bee-keeper 

 writing to the editor of the paper. The 

 misrepresentation of comb honey that 

 was started over 25 years ago is still 

 "marching on." It seems almost im- 

 possible to counteract its evil effects. 

 However, the best that can be done is 

 to try to correct it whenever it appears 

 in print. 



Write for Your Iiocal Paper 



Mt. Irving Long, of Missouri, says 

 that if bee-keepers would write some- 

 thing interesting about bees for their 

 local newspapers, there would be a bet- 

 ter demand for honey. Surely this 

 would be easy to do. There are so 

 many interesting things that could be 

 written by those who keep bees, and 

 who also have honey for sale, that it 

 would be welcomed by almost any news- 

 paper editor. At the same time it 

 would help to give the editor a little 

 honey and also an advertisement of- 

 fering honey for sale. There are many 

 ways in which lots of bee-keepers could 

 e.xtend their home market for honey 

 if they would think about it, and then 

 act. 



Bottom Starters in Sections 



At first glance one would think there 

 could be no surer way to have sections 

 well filled with honey and entirely built 

 out to the wood, than to have the sec- 

 tion entirely filled with foundation, 

 either by having the sheet wa.xed in 

 or by using split sections. But it seems 

 that at least sometimes there are fail- 

 ures. E. F. .\twater says this in Glean- 

 ings: 



".\s I was the first in this part of the 

 West to use sections containing a full 

 sheet of foundation fastened on all four 

 sides, and as that experience has cov- 

 ered several years, extending in part to 

 the present, I feel qualified to say some- 

 thing about the results. In many cases 

 the results are all that could be desired 

 — beautiful slabs of honey without hole 

 or blemish to mar their beauty. But 

 here the (as yet) inevitable sagging 

 propensities of all surplus foundation on 

 the market, in hot weather, is a factor 

 with which we must reckon. A full 

 sheet of foundation as usually used, at- 

 tached at top only, with 1-16 to '4 inch 

 space below it, will usually sag evenly, 

 resulting in a comb even and smooth of 

 surface. But if the foundation complete- 

 ly fills the section, being attached at all 

 four sides, then when the sheet does 

 sag, a bulge usually occurs somewhere 

 near the bottom ; and the bees, when tnc 

 comb needs capping, are often unable 

 to puzzle out a satisfactory solution of 

 the problem; a depression or small un- 

 capped area results, besides a tendency 

 toward comb attachments to the separa- 

 tor, t 



" But the downward sagging does 

 not constitute the only difficulty. Un- 

 der the manipulation (or "mandiblea- 

 tion") of the wax-workers, the sheet of 

 foundation enlarges transversely, re- 

 sulting all too often in another bulge 

 in the foundation, and giving rise to an- 

 other problem which is too difficult of 

 solution for the untaught instinct of the 

 bees, and this results in another blem- 

 ish on the face of the finished comb." 



It begins to look as if there was no 

 better way for getting combs built solid 

 in sections than to use bottom-starters. 

 With them there will be just as solid 

 fastening top and bottom as with hot- 

 waxing or split sections, and without 

 the danger of buckling. 



