54 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 



savory; that is pure and sweet, and fit to go to the 

 blood which receives it. It is the indigestible part 

 of the contents of the stomach and intestines, to- 

 gether with the excreta, that are unclean. These 

 are found only in disagreeable form in the lower 

 part of the intestines. 



I will say, that this view is not original with me. 

 It is found iu all works on physiological chemistry, 

 and in all works that treat fully on the scientific 

 part of beekeeping. 



Does some one say: " Well, what of it?"? Only 

 this: Any truth is important. We may never know 

 when facts may bear practical fruit. Some may 

 have thought that Franklin was at small business 

 when he was tripping lightning with his kite. 

 Would they have thought so could they have look- 

 ed ahead and seen the telegraph, telephone, and 

 electric motor? Though we may safely doubt any 

 scientific statement in silence, we should never 

 deny such until we have carefully tested the mat- 

 ter. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Mich., Jan. fi. 



There, friend C.,you have given me a new 

 idea. Milk, butter, cream, eggs, and all 

 such products are the results of digestion, 

 inasmuch as they are an animal secretion ; 

 therefore we need not necessarily feel dis- 

 gusted, even if the bees do add something to 

 the honey they swallow, and thjow it up 

 again. In the same line, we need not object 

 to honey-dew for food, even if it is plain 

 that it is the secretion of insects to be found 

 on the foliage of the trees. The honey-dew 

 from the pine-trees, mentioned by friend 

 Osborn, on page 51, is the most beautifully 

 flavored, aromatic honey, I think I ever 

 tasted, judging from the small samples sent 

 in. — I sui)pose. fiiend Cook, the only reason 

 why some of the friends feel stirred up in 

 regard to this matter, is. that certain un- 

 scrupulous parties— Mrs. Cotton among the 

 number— claim, or seem to claim, that sugar 

 syrup fed to bees comes out honey when 

 capped over in the combs. Now, your posi- 

 tion would seem, at least in a measure, to 

 strengthen this idea. Those who know you, 

 of course know you do not mean to do any 

 thing of the sort ; and 1 feel pretty well sat- 

 isfied (from what experiments I have made) 

 that all the real change the bees make in the 

 nectar gathered from flowers amounts to so 

 little as to be hardly worth mentioning, un- 

 less from a scientific point of view. 



PERTAINING TO BEE CULTURE. 



ABTIFICIAI. HONEY. 



F/(cnd Boot:— Inclosed please find a circular con- 

 taining something about honey. Those parties are 

 distributing their circulars through our town, and 

 say their agents will call in a week or two, and sell 

 family rights for fl. CO. I think it deserves a place 

 in your Humbug and Swindle column. I should 

 like to have your opinion of the circular. 



Payne, O., Dec. 1.5, 1889. E. H. Underwood. 



The following is a copy of their circular : 



HONEY. 



After years of experimenting with blossoms and 

 their extracts, we have secured from the Patent 

 Office National Legal Authority, with protection 



from the same, to offer our honey to the people. 

 And in doing so, it shall go squarely on its merits. 



It is difficult for all persons to obtain natural 

 honey, as so many live in the cities and could not 

 raise bees. Their dislike to certain persons also 

 prohibits many. Their sting is a fatal poison to a 

 few. They are tender, hard to winter, worms are 

 destructive to them also. 



Our advantage is, we can reach all the people 

 with perfect safety and atone-half the expense, and 

 furnish you a honey that no man can tell from bee 

 honey, perfectly healthy, and that you can make 

 for your visitors in ten minutes. 



Ours never produces colic. We gather the same 

 sweets by extraction from the blossoms that bees 

 get. We make it just the color that bees do, or we 

 can make it as white as the whitest sugar. 



Now, we will satisfy any person of all the above 

 statements, or we will not ask you to buy. To any 

 out of employment and who want to work, call on 

 us, and if we don't give you the best seller now on 

 the market, we will give a donation to you. We 

 will sell at a uniform price, that none may have 

 any just cause of complaint against us. 



Please preserve this circular until agent calls. 



Family rights, f l.(X). Gorrell & Parkison. 



Friend U., we are very much obliged for 

 the circular. In fact, we shall be glad to 

 get every thing of a similar purport. There 

 are several things about the circular that in- 

 dicate at a glance that the parties are hum- 

 bugs. No address is given. Never pay any 

 attention to any circular or advertisement 

 that contains no address. Second, the ex- 

 pression, " Patent National Legal Authori- 

 ty," is humbug, the whole of it. There Is 

 no such thing in existence. To wind up 

 with, the expression, " Family rights $1.00," 

 stamps it as a fraud. Never give even a 

 nickel to anybody who comes to you with 

 any thing that winds up with something 

 about "family rights." I know that some 

 of you are inclined to argue the matter ; but 

 look back and see if all the money you ever 

 invested in a family right for any thing was 

 not money thrown away. Give these fel- 

 lows a wide berth. Treat them in such a 

 way that they will get discouraged, and go 

 home and go to work, making up their 

 minds that honesty is really the best policy. 



AN OLD FRAUD REVIVED— J. M. BAIN. 



Mr. Root:— Bo you know any thing about a paper 

 called Mutual Helper, Vanville, Ohio, James M. Bain 

 Editor? I signed for it two years ago. He says, " I 

 will give a town lot, 103 feet in length by 40 feet in 

 width, in Marqiiand, Madison Co., Mo., to any per- 

 son that pays $1..50 for one years subEcription to 

 the Mutual Helper." I have got a deed for the lot, 

 and it has been recorded, but I haven't heard from 

 it since, nor have I paid any taxes on it. The paper 

 says they would notify me when the taxes were 

 due, and how much they would be. I begin to 

 think it is all a humbug. Please let me know 

 whether you know any thing about it. I thought 

 may be you did, for the paper is printed in Ohio. 

 Stephen M. Rymph. 



Port Ewen, N. Y., Jan. 7, 1890. 



Friend E., James M. Bain, with his Mutu- 

 al Helper and city lots, has been so exten- 

 sively advertised as a humbug and swindler 

 that we did not suppose many would be 

 caught by it. He has for years been a dis- 

 grace to the State of Ohio ; and, dear friend, 

 when anybody offers to give you more than 

 a dollar's worth for a dollar, and throw in a 

 city lot besides, set him down as a humbug 

 at once, and donH send him any money— not 

 even a postage-stamp. 



