368 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



June 15 



should have been ready for supers. The 

 fields to-day, J une ;5, are beginning to whiten 

 with the white-clover blossoms. Happy is 

 that bee-keeper whose colonies are strong 

 enough to be in good condition by the time 

 the warm weather finally comes! 



I'NCIiE SAM GETTING AFTER PATENT-MED- 

 ICINE FAKIRS. 



The United States Department of Agri- 

 culture is busy prosecuting those who are 

 violating the provisions of the national 

 pure-food law. It is pleasant to see that the 

 Department is getting after some of the 

 purveyors of deadly patent medicines, es- 

 })eciariy headache cures. The manufactur- 

 ers of these nostrums are not allowed to 

 make any false statement concerning their 

 alleged cures. For example, many drugs 

 practically worthless have claimed to cure 

 every thing under the sun; and unless these 

 drugs contain some remedy well recognized 

 by the general medical fraternity to cure 

 some specific disease or malady it will come 

 under the ban of Uncle Sam. 



MISBRANDING OF HONEY. 



The Department has been jiarticularly ac- 

 tive in getting after those who are misbrand- 

 ing their food products. Syrups and jellies 

 have been misbranded galore. The first in- 

 stance we have seen where honey has been 

 misbranded was in the case of Henry Boeck- 

 mann, of Brooklyn, X. Y. We copy direct 

 from leaflet No.'2G9, issued by the Depart- 

 ment: 



On or about October 7, UK)7. Henry Boec-kmaun, 

 of Brooklyn. N. Y., shipped Ironi the State of New 

 York into the State of New Jersey a quantity of a 

 f<jod product labeled: "Compound pure comb and 

 strained honey aiid corn syrup, A. Boeckmann, 

 Brooklyn. N. Y." Samples from this shipment 

 were procured and analyzed by the Bureau of Chem- 

 istry. I'nited States Department of Agriculture; 

 and as the findings of the analyst and report there- 

 on indicated that the product was misbranded with- 

 in the meaning of the Food and Drugs Act of June 

 30, 1906. the .Secretary of Agriculture afforded Hen- 

 ry Boeckmann and the dealer from whom the sam- 

 ples were imrchased opjiortunities for hearings. 

 As it appeared after hearings held that the said 

 shipment was made in violation of the act, the Sec- 

 retary of Agriculture reported the facts to the At- 

 torney-Oeneral, with a statement of the evidence 

 on which to base a prosecution. 



In due course the evidence was iiresented bythe 

 United States Attorney for the Eastern District of 

 New York to the grand jury, who presented an In- 

 dictment against the said Henry Boeckmann, 

 charging the above shipment and that the product 

 was misbranded, in that it was labeled "Compound 

 I)ure comb and strained honey and corn syrup," 

 which statement was false and misleading, in that 

 it represented the princijial ingredient of said i>rod- 

 uct to be pure comb lioney, whereas, in fact, the 

 princiijal ingredient was glucose and starch sugar. 



INJUDICIOFS FEEDING. 



Perhaps there is no one part of bee-keep- 

 ing that is so much overdone by the begin- 

 ner as the feeding for stimulative purposes. 

 Our Mr. Bain remarked to-day, "I believe 

 there are barrels and barrels of sugar fed to 

 colonies and nuclei when the bees would 

 have been better ofT without it." Here is 

 the point. In many parts of the country 

 the weather, especially in the spring and 



early summer, can not be relied upon. The 

 beginner believes that his bees should be 

 stimulated, and gives each colony or nucle- 

 us a rather too liberal supply of syrup. The 

 bees at once are excited, the (jueen is fed, 

 and a nice lot of brood is started. The weath- 

 er meanwhile turns cold; the bees, not being 

 in sufficient numbers to cover and care for 

 this brood properly, carry out great numbers 

 of the larva; around the edges of the circles 

 of brood comprising the brood-nest. 



Or, sujipose the weather does not become 

 cold. Another lot of feed is given in a short 

 time, and the bees, excited almost to a frenzy, 

 go to w'ork and carry out the brood, wheth- 

 er it is dead or not, and store the syrup in 

 its place. Soon after this the main hoiiey- 

 flow may begin, and the bees, having \ieQn 

 used to storing the syru]) in the brood-combs, 

 prefer to keep on storing there, and it is very 

 difficult to get them to work in the supers. 



If there are several nuclei that need feed- 

 ing, be careful not to feed the weaker ones, 

 or robbing will be started. Futhermore, if 

 the weak ones are fed and stimulated, brood 

 is likely to be carried out as above stated. 

 Mr. Bain's plan is to feed only the stronger 

 nuclei, and draw from them either brood or 

 honey to help out the weak ones. 



NO CAUSE FOR ALARM. 



In the November 1st issue we published 

 two articles on a disease of adult bees, one 

 written by Dr. C. C Miller, and the other a 

 translation of an article by Herr Alois Al- 

 fonsus, the editor of Bienen Vcder. Both 

 of these articles were reports of a paper by 

 the distinguished head of the K. Anstalt 

 fiir Bienenzucht at Erlangen, Dr. Enoch 

 Zander, read before the Weissenfels conven- 

 tion of bee-keepers last August. Dr. Zan- 

 der reported that a protozoon (animal para- 

 site of microscopic size) named by him No- 

 senia apis is the cause of a disease of adult 

 bees, that the disease is highly infectious 

 and very widespread, and that it constitutes 

 a serious menace to the bee-keeping indus- 

 try. The publication of these results has 

 tended to alarm many bee-keepers on this 

 continent who fear that some new disease 

 will be introduced into America, and add 

 to the troubles which we already have in 

 the two brood diseases. There is no cause 

 for such alarm. 



Dr. Zander was working with the well- 

 known dysentery, and finds this organism 

 in it. He does not claim that he has dis- 

 covered a new disease, but he was merely 

 searching for the cause of the trouble. The 

 supposition mentioned in the articles that 

 the organism Xosenia fipis is responsible 

 for other adult diseases, is not yet proven; 

 and, even if that be the case, they will be 

 no worse scourges when their cause is 

 known. 



The trouble which we call dysentery is 

 recognized to be induced by improper food 

 for winter, such as honey-dew combined 

 with long confinement. The undigested 

 portions of honey-dew fill the intestine un- 



