318 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



J. A. BUCHANAN, AND THE CHARGES OF ADUL- 

 TERATION AGAINST HIM. 



Since the matter was written with regard to 

 Mr. Buchanan, on page 275. we have received a 

 letter from liim which materially modifies the 

 situation: but as the Evening Siar, published 

 at Steubenville. Ohio, came out with bold head- 

 lines, to the effect that J. A. Buchanan, of Hol- 

 liday's Cove, W. Va. (a suburb of Steubenville, 

 just across the river), had not only adulterated 

 honey, but plead guilty, it seemed to us that it 

 knew whereof it spoke, although at the time, as 

 our readers will remember, we could scarcely 

 credit the report ; and before we could pass 

 judgment we desired more light, not only from 

 Mr. Buchanan, but from others. In response to 

 this, Mr. Buchanan sent us a long letter, a short 

 extract from which we here give: 



Mr. Roof;— I have your letter of the 38th inst., 

 making- inquiry as to my innocence or guilt of adul- 

 terating- honey. No matter how it looks to you or 

 to any others. I am innocent of this charg-e; and 

 when I was called before Justice Trainer he asked 

 me if I plead guilty or not. I told him I would 

 prove to him that we did not adulterate our honey, 

 and could easily piove this; and I asked whetlier if 

 I would do so it would end the matter. He said it 

 would not avail me any thing-, as the law holds the 

 party who sells the goods, and the seller must pay 

 the damage or fine, even if he is not guilty; and at 

 this juncture the inspector's attorney came in and 

 stated the same. Then I remarked that, as I must 

 be fined in any case, what would be the wisdom of 

 standing a trial? They both said it would only add 

 an additional cost, and nothing- to my advantage. 

 Then I said that I might as well pay the fine and 

 end the matter for the time. It might be that the.=e 

 men's opinion was given that the.v might get clielr 

 fees without any labor on the case, and that it had 

 been better tor me to have had the case tried at 

 the time. I never sued any one. nor have I ever 

 been sued in my life. 1 am 53 years old; never 

 quarreled with a man, nor had one quarrelsome 

 word with a living man. I have talked plainly with 

 those wlio have wronged me. But I am not posted 

 in law, from not having any thing to do with if, and 

 possibly I should have stood a trial, but was govern- 

 ed by what these men said. J. A. Buch.^nan. 



Holliday's Cove, W. Va., Mar. 30. 



As nearly as we can make out, there has been 

 "bad blood" somewhere. If the editor of the 

 Eveni7ig Star is not malicious, some of the edit- 

 orials in his paper in regard to this matter, 

 which have appeared lately, begin to look that 

 way; at all events, we shall place a charitable 

 construction on the letter above — at least for 

 the present. 



Although Mr. Buchanan paid the fine, it does 

 not necessarily follow that he plead guilty to 

 the serious charge of adulterating honey, as al- 

 leged by the Star. He did what many another 

 of us ynkjht have done — he paid the tine to end 

 the matter. But here, again, like many anoth- 

 er, he made a serious mistake, because the pay- 

 ment of the fine was, in a sense, a confession 

 that he had adulterated. It would have been 

 far better for him to have stood a trial. If his 

 statements are true, as we have reason to think 

 they are, he has been the victim of a certain 

 commission house. Indeed, we have sold honey 

 ourselves which was afterward pronounced 

 adulterated, by consuiuers. We made the mis- 

 take of selling the honey on the reputation of 

 the seller, and another mistake in not testing it 

 as we now do honey before it goes out. Wheth- 

 er the honey in question was adulterated or 

 not, we can not now say: but we certainly think, 

 in view of the sure and simple ways of detect- 

 ing adulteration, that no prominent honey- 

 buyers should be " taken in " by any such bogus 

 goods. Let every lot be tasted — not necessarily 

 every can in a carload of honey, but here and 

 there a can. so as to get a fair average of the 

 whole lot. If there is any doubt about it, let it 

 be subjected to the alcohol test, as given in our 



last issue, on p. 275. It might be well, also, if 

 further tests then appear to show adulteration, 

 to submit a pound or two to the State Chemist, 

 who, we understand, is authorized to analyze 

 and report, free of charge. 



Later. — Since writing the above we have re- 

 ceived another letter from Mr. Buchanan, fur- 

 nishing us such evidence and testimony as to 

 leave no doubt in our mind that he is entirely 

 innocent of the charge of adulterating; and so 

 far as pleading guilty— that seems to have orig- 

 inated with the Evening Star. As we said in 

 our editorial of April 1, we had hitherto known 

 Mr. B. as a reliable and honest man. and we 

 are very glad indeed to have additional assur- 

 ance to the effect that he has been so all along. 

 We are sorry that we said as much as we did in 

 our issue for April 1; but we did not think it 

 possible that the editor of the Evening Star, or 

 any editor, would dare to say a man had " plead- 

 ed guilty " unless it were true. 



Trade Notes. 



THE NEW CRANE SMOKER. 



As promised in our last issue, we herewith 

 present engravings of the new implement. It 

 Is the invention of Mr. J. E. Crane, of Middle- 

 bury, Vt., with some improvements of our own. 

 He has already secured a caveat, and, we un- 

 derstand, proposes to take out letters-patent. 



FIG. 4. — NEW CRANE SMOKER. 



Fig. 4 is the outward appearance of the new 

 smoker, and shows that it is beautiful in design, 

 and handsomely and well made. Indeed, it is 

 the most e.xpensive in construction of any 

 smoker ever before put out. The bellows, to 

 begin with, is made ample and substantial, 

 having an inside spiral spring, J. Fig. 1. These 

 springs have been carefully tested; and on an 

 extensive test, with Clark smokers, we find 

 them to be, to coin a word, unbreakable, and 

 elastic. The boards are nicely finished on the 

 outer surface, and the valves are adjusted with 

 great care, each one being inspected before 

 going out. 



So far. the smoker, presents no new ideas. 

 The particular feature which Mr. Crane claims 

 as his invention is the check-valve F. in com- 

 bination with C, Fig. 2. by which smoke is 

 prevented from going into the bellows, and by 

 which a strong concentrated blast is secured. 

 Its details of construction are shown in Figs. 1 

 and 2. The particular valve is shown in F, 

 Fig. 2. A stamped canal, C, covers the whole, 

 and is perforated at C. A pressure of the bel- 



