70 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apu. 



lloman told me that he saw them make comb honey 

 in Chicago that did not have a particle ol: genuine 

 honey in it, as they made it comb and all." Now, I 

 do not believe a word of it; but, why did this man 

 say so? and why are the people of the West given 

 to understand that the honey of the East is made 

 and adulterated? I can see no reason for it, unless 

 that it is done by men of California (not bee men, 

 but houey-dealersi to exclude eastern honey, and 

 make a market for California honey. When I re- 

 ceived this letter I thought 1 would write and tell 

 you of it, but I put it ott', and probably would not, If 

 1 had not seen in last Glean inos where Joseph H. 

 Snyder asks the ciuestion, "Can honey-eomb be 

 counterfeited?" and you say it is a falseliood of the 

 papers. By what I have written, you can see that 

 it is not told by the papers alone, but by men whose 

 interest it is to make people believe that our honey 

 is not as pure as California honey. 

 Warwick, N. Y. H. P. Demauest. 



Friend D., limit up the gentleman, make 

 hint tell him where he saw them mannfac- 

 tming comb honey in Chicaso, ami s»> there 

 and hunt them tip. If it transpires, liovv- 

 ever. that the gentleman whom you mention 

 is found to be a man whose word can not be 

 relied on, it were a pity you hadn't found it 

 out before you sent us this letter. I do not 

 know what does possess people to pass 

 around falsehoods in this way, unless it is 

 their desire to make believe they are better 

 posted than other people. 



I clip the following from a Kansas paper. I think 

 that tliat caps any thing I have seen lately. I think 

 we ought to chip in and help him out with a large 

 "ad." Fhank D. French. 



Millers Corners, N. Y., March 11, 188:,. 



Below is the clipping inclosed with the 

 letter : 



Cnn make honey that cxn not be disiln^ished from pure 

 honey, for eight cents per pound. Send fifty fen ts in postage 

 stamps for recipe. Address box i, Wakefield, Neb. 



Thank you, friend F. Send us all such 

 notices you can possibly get hold of. As 

 good liquid honey can "be bought now al- 

 most anywhere for 10 cts. per lb., it seems to 

 me there is not very much of a temptation 

 to manufacture spurious honey. Set dovvn 

 any man as a humbug and swindler who 

 wants to sell a rcn'pe for doing something. 

 All recipes of any value are sooner or later 

 found in (n\r recii>e-books, or in the indus- 

 trial papers devote d to that i)articular class 

 to which the recipe belongs. Fifty cents, 

 or any other sum, for information that can 

 be printed on a little slip of paper, is a swin- 

 dle. 



UO llEE KEEPEHS ADULTERATE THEIR HONEY? 



This is a question which we should consider very 

 carefully. Bee-keepers should he careful how 

 they follow the advice of Mr. Heddon and Mr. Doo- 

 little and others, in regard to feeding sugar syrup. 

 We should have to go to some old-fogy log-gum 

 beekeeper to get pure honey, if we should follow 

 their advice. They make a terrible fuss when some 

 one says we sell thera sugar. But, what are tiic}/ 

 doing? Are they advancing the sale of pure honey? 

 Not much. Just as long as they feed sugar to their 

 bees Ihey will sell adulterated honey. 



Platteville, Wis, I'. II. Fellows. 



I'nend V.. 1 lliiiil< yon are borrowing 



trouble unnecessarily. If anybody says that 

 we feed sugar to the l)ees in order tliat we 

 may make honey of it, because sugar is fed 

 in the fall for winter stores, 1 should say 

 such a person would have to talk. The 

 superiority of pure sugar for winter stores 

 over even' the l)est of honey is now so well 

 agreed upon, that it is without question go- 

 ing to be the staple winter stores of the fu- 

 ture. If bees are properly fed up in the fall, 

 there will be little if any need of feeding 

 bees in the spring ; and when you hear any 

 man talk about bee-keepers adulterating 

 honey with sugar, ask that man to visit 

 some apiary at a time when honey is coming 

 in, and his eyes will soon satisfy him that it 

 is genuine honey, gathered from the flowers, 

 that bee-keepers put up, and nothing else. 

 Hemc'.mber. also, that it is not what bees eat, 

 but what they gather, that determines the 

 quality of the honey. 



Here is still another, and this time it hits 

 the maple-sugar makers instead of bee-men 

 and grocers. Now, friends, if it is true that 

 men who own sugar-bushes adulterate their 

 j maple sugar with cane sugars, let us get 

 I good proof, and then show them up without 

 j mercy. But I am afraid niai)le-sugar mak- 

 ers are slandei-ed just as the bee-keepers 

 have been. No doubt owners of sugar- 

 bushes buy cheap sugar; but does it neces- 

 sarily follow they are using it to adulterate 

 the syrup they sell V 



It is an open secret that great quantities of mus- 

 covado sugar at six to eight cents have been sold to 

 owners of sugar-bushes, and that the yield of "pure" 

 maple sugar will be larger than ever before. A sin- 

 gle owner of a "sap-Dush" bought ten barrels of the 

 cheap brown sugar. Imitation butter must go.— 

 (JMcago Ttihune. 



WINTERING PROBLEM SETTLED. 



OK AT LE.A^ST friend HEDDON THINKS IT IS. 



HOPE no one will be startled when I say that I 

 have solved the wintering problem, to mji uivn 

 -||i satisfaction. When I say that, notwithstand- 

 ing I have in past years been quite a heavy 

 loser of bees during winter— bees treated by 

 nature and myself, the same as others in other lo- 

 cations, which wintered well— that for the future I 

 would not give ten cents per colony to have my 

 bees insured against winter losses, I have, to back it 

 up, satisfactory evidence of the correctness of the 

 pollen theory. 



One year ago last winter I made extensive experi- 

 ments regarding the cause of bee-diarrhcea. The 

 winter was such that but little diarrhoea occurred. 

 Although every thing pointed favorably to the 

 theory, yet I was not perfectly satisfied. Knowing 

 that there is some truth in the theory, that all our 

 improvements and discoveries are a slow growth, 

 cultured by many, yet I felt that this slow growth 

 might go on growing until after I had ceased to be, 

 and yet be growinjo;, with little signs of blossoming 

 or bearing fruit. Perhaps I am a little impetuous 

 for something in the near future— something I can 

 profit by, here and now. If I am, this propensity 

 led me to again go into e.xperimenting more than 

 before; and while last winter's experiments cost 

 me more than *1000, I feel more than paid in the 

 satisfaction 1 ppw enjoy over this problem— morf' 



