Ii38 



(;jj':ANli\(;s IN iJioK cuJ/ruliK. 



Apu. 



ing. and getting 400 lbs. of honey. Your 

 locality is certainly a good one. and I guess 

 you are a good hand to take advantage of it. 

 —In regard to thieving, which you think 

 can not be lielped by kindness or any thing 

 else, did you never hear of a promise that, if 

 we do not weary in well doing, we shall in 

 the end come out victorious V 1 am not sure 

 that I have very much faith in giving honey 

 or any thing else to bad people in order to 

 make them good. Sometimes you can in- 

 vest honey and money in that way to good 

 advantage, and 1 would by no means over- 

 look such ways of working; to restrain sin. 

 Please do not' accuse me of harping on the 

 same old story when 1 say. that tlie descrip- 

 tion you have given of "your locality indi- 

 cates most clearly that you have a class of 

 people that need educating and Christianiz- 

 ing. Have you plenty of schools, and are all 

 the children obliged to attend at least part 

 of the time, whether they will or not V llave 

 you churches and Sunday-schools in your 

 vicinity V and have you Christian workers 

 who are working steadily and faithfully, 

 going over the whole ground completely, lo 

 see that all children wlio do not go to Sun- 

 day-school are visited, and not only that, 

 but that their parents as well are labored 

 with V It seems to me there must be a gang 

 in your vicinity who are preparing them- 

 selves for the penitentiary, and who, per- 

 liaps, have for some time held themselves so 

 much aloof from Christian peojjje and Chris- 

 tian influences tliat they hardly know that 

 such things exist. The responsibility lies 

 upon us all; we arc our brotlier's keepers ; 

 and if we evade and shirk these responsibili- 

 ties, sooner or later God will punish us in 

 just the way you have pictured out. It was 

 this same kind of evasion of responsibilities 

 that brought the children of Israel into cap- 

 tivity in olden times, and the same thing 

 kept them there. Shall we consent to be 

 captives, and let this spirit of evil congratu- 

 late itself that it has driven us from the 

 field of bee-keeping, and other like indus- 

 tries? — Your idea of a bush in front of the 

 hive is tiptop, friend 13., and I think the 

 suggestion is a new one. \Vill some of the 

 friends try it and report V 



MANUFACTURED HONEY. 



IS THE WHOLE WORLD A FRAUD AND A CHEAT? 



INCLOSE you an article, headed " Manufactur- 

 ed Honey," copied from the Philadelphia Times, 

 which I should lilie to have you notice, and 

 make some comments upon. Is there any such 

 process for manufacturing- comb honey? I 

 should thinl{ that a little more than human skill 

 could accomplish. S. Ambrose. 



Ash Ridge, Wis., March 2, 188.5. 



Friend A., there is no process for manu- 

 facturing comb honey, and the Phihtdilpliia 

 Times people ought to be ashamed of them- 

 selves for publishing such disgraceful fool- 

 ishness, ^ly opinion is, that the whole 

 thing is gotten up by some reporter, to make 

 a sensation. I do not believe any hona-fide 

 dealer ever told any such stuff. We give the 

 article in question below; 



The adulteration of food has been practiced to 

 such an extent that purchasers no longer expect to 

 get a pure article, even when paying the highest 

 ))rices. Jt is generally supposed that two-thirds of 

 the milk sold in all our large cities is deprived of 

 half its cream; it is known that butter is made from 

 beef fat and cotton-seed oil; maple syrups have 

 lately been made from almost any thing of a sweet 

 nature, and now it is stated that most of the honey 

 we eat is manufactured, and that much of it has 

 not even a drop of genuine honey about it. This al- 

 leged honey was first sold In this city some five or 

 six years ago. Its sale at first was^scant. but for the 

 past two years it has become very popular, and it is 

 claimed that there is now little else to be found in 

 the market. Some of it is sold as manufactured 

 honey, though a great deal of it is dealt out to the 

 unsuspecting purchasers as the natural product of 

 the honey-bee. 



The spurious kind is usually put upin little square 

 boxes, which sell for from twenty to thirty cents a 

 pound. It looks like honey, and it is said that it 

 takes an excellent judge to tell that it is a fraud on 

 the bee. The comb is manufactured with such 

 skill that but few can tell it from the genuine arti- 

 cle. It is made from parattine or beeswax, and the 

 honey is blown into it by machinery. Another kind 

 is put up in glass vessels like ordinary jelly-pack- 

 ages, the center of which contains;a^piece of honey- 

 comb, and the honey is made by pouring about six 

 parts of glucose around one part of honey in the 

 comb. Some of it is adulterated with glucose, some 

 with cane sugar, others by heating ordinary sugar 

 with an acid; but it all resembles'honey, and to a 

 certain extentMias its^ flavor and odor. 



"Of course. It is not so good as genuine hones'," 

 said a dealer, when questioned about it, "but It is 

 cheaper, and the |):uents prefer it and the children 

 cry for it. ] sell a vrcat deal of it, but my custom- 

 ers all know what thr-.\'are buiing. Yes, it is a fact 

 that many prefer butterine, made from pure fat, to 

 much of the country butter brought to market. 

 They seem to think they know what the butterine is 

 manufactured from, while they have their doubts 

 about the manner of, adulterating country butter. 

 J suppose they think the same way about honey." 

 Further inquiries revealed the fact that manufac- 

 tured honey is sold extensively in the city, and es- 

 pecially in neighborhoods where the poorer classes 

 reside. In some i>laces it is temptingly displayed, 

 and the dealers jiush it on account of the large 

 profit in it. In most instances, however, it is sold 

 as manufactured honey. 



Some dealers decline to sell the spurious kind, al- 

 though they admit that there is a large profit in it, 

 and that it is becoming very popular. An up-town 

 groceryman who refuses to handle it, says it is poi- 

 sonous, and piedicts some startling results from its 

 use. On the other hand, it is claimed that it is not 

 as daiiyeroiis as getuiine honey. A dealer in the 

 aiiultcratcil kiml. who displayed a knowledge of 

 both chcinistrs and history, says that it is a well- 

 known tact that sometimes poisonous qualities are 

 taken from the flowers by bees, and find their way 

 into honey, which has been known to produce dizzi- 

 ness and sickness. He referred to the fact that 

 soldiers of Cyrus once met with a honey of this 

 kind, and that it came near destroying the entire 

 army. 



The color and odor of genuine honey are due to 

 the character of the flowers from which it is taken. 

 It is said that the Vermain honej' is as clear as pure 

 water. This honey, which is celebrated all over the 

 country, is taken from white clover. A delicious 

 honey is also taken from the orange-groves of Cali- 

 forniii. but this has been so successfully counter- 

 feited that it is MOW (iilJicult to tell the bogus from 

 the genuine. Wheiever l)ees feed upon buckwheat 

 they produce excellent honey, it matters not what 

 climate it may be in. Some of the best honey sold 

 in the Philadelphia market comes from Chester 

 County, while that from Lancaster is also excellent. 

 But the spurious kind sells more readily, presuma- 

 bly on the ground of economy. 



The originator of the above string of out- 

 rageous falsehoods ought to be hunted out, 

 and held up before the world. In regard to 

 the report of the California honey being 

 adulterated, we copy the following from the 

 Amcriain Bee- Journal of March 18: 



Some outcry has been raised in England about 

 "glucose California honej'," which is not only base- 



