1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



543 



island, covered with flowers, is just now a 

 " thing of beauty ;" but are you sure it will 

 continue to be a "joy for ever"? If you 

 keep it up, see if I don't come and see you 

 one of tliese days ; and, by the way, when 

 you had those wee little carp in your barrel, 

 didn't some sort of enemies, by some hook 

 or crook, sooner or later get into the barrel 

 also? 



FALSE STATEMENTS IN REGARD TO THE HON- 

 EY BUSINESS OF OUR COUNTRY. 



As a protection to ourbee-keepins; population, we propose in 

 this department to publish the nanus of newspapers that per- 

 sist in publishing false statements in regard to the purity of 

 honey which we as bee-keepers put on the market. 



A REPLY FROM THE PUBLISHERS OF THE BRIT A N- 

 NICA. 



R. A. I. ROOT:— Your favor of the 7th inst., 

 in relation to the article on " Glucose," in 

 the American Supplement to the Encyclo- 

 pedia Brttannica, is received. We started 

 an investigation immediately, and find that 

 our author, Mr. Morris, has not, in our opinion, as 

 good grounds for his assertions as he should have 

 had. It is a matter of regret to us that Mr. Morris 

 did not probe the matter deeper, and follow the ru- 

 mors until he found either the truth or an error. 

 It is also a matter of regret that you allowed this 

 article to stand so long as it has, without calling at- 

 tention to it sooner. This article was published 

 some three years ago, and our attention was first 

 called to it by Dr. Nysewander, of Des Moines, 

 Iowa, under date of May 13th, closely followed by 

 yours of the 7th of June. To us it is inexplicable 

 how an article of this sort, which you seemed to be 

 hunting in such sincerity, has been allowed to run 

 so long without your discovering it. 



We thank you for calling our attention to the 

 matter now, and we shall have further investiga- 

 tion made, and correct the plates of our book, to 

 correspond with the truth of the matter. 



Hubbard Bros. 

 Philadelphia, Pa , June 14, 1889. 



Very good, friends. 1 do not know that 

 we have ever before had so frank and fair 

 an acknowledgment from the publishers of 

 any book or newspaper in regard to this 

 whole matter ; and even though you have 

 turned around on us a little, we do not feel 

 hurt. In fact, we own up. Brother bee- 

 keepers, it is a burning shame that not one 

 among us had enterprise enough to notice 

 such a statement until it had been three 

 years in print. We shall have to give Dr. 

 Nysewander the credit for having been the 

 first one to see the false statement. Yes, 

 we have been hunting with great " sinceri- 

 ty," but it seems that we did not alight on 

 your publication before. There is one 

 thing, however, that we should like to urge, 

 if you will excuse us. You say you will cor- 

 rect the plates. Now, just have a printed 

 slip of errata, or something of that kind, put 

 into each book already published, and, as 

 far as possible, sent to all who have pur- 

 chased the work, and we shall be quite sat- 

 isfied, and grateful to you besides. You 

 speak about further investigation. We 

 should be very glad indeed to furnish you 

 the results of the investigations we have 



made for the past four or five years. And 

 now, brother bee-keepers, let us each and 

 every one make it a point to consult the cy- 

 clopedias and all other works of that charac- 

 ter, to see that the statements made are 

 truthful, and that they do justice, both to the 

 honey-bees and to the bee-keepers of the 

 world. 



"THOU SHALT NOT HEAR FALSE WITNESS AGAINST 

 THY NEIGHBOR." 



But, oh dear me ! we have not got through 

 the business yet, by any means. See the 

 following : 



Mr. Root:— Give the enterprisingeditora " boost." 

 Santa Monica, Cal., June 10, 1889. C. S. Lewis. 



Below is the newspaper clipping that 

 came with the above. 



There appears to be no limit to the adulteration 

 and fraudulent substitution practiced with articles 

 of food and drink. One might suppose that honey 

 in the comb, at least, would be safe from humbug; 

 but even this has been successfully imitated of late. 

 Artificial comb is made of paraffine wax, and tilled 

 with glucose; and after the cell have been sealed 

 with paraffine, the resemblance to the genuine arti- 

 cle is perfect. This is an " advance " upon the old- 

 er fraud of feeding bees with glucose, which the 

 industrious insects proceeded to laboriously trans- 

 fer to the comb.— Marysville Appeal. 



Thank you, friend L., for sending us the 

 clipping. Now, dear brothers of the Marys- 

 ville Appeal, it is not the adulteration busi- 

 ness that is so unlimited, bad as it is ; but 

 it is this matter of bearing false witness 

 against your neighbor which is unlimited. 

 We have mailed you one of our reward 

 cards, and we hope you will be kind enough 

 and fair enough to publish to your readers a 

 retraction. We ask friend Lewis, and ev- 

 ery other good bee-man, to see that it is 

 done. 



And now we find in the Philadelphia Rec- 

 ord the following heading to a sensational 

 article : 



BEES CAN TAKE A REST. 



THEY ARE NO LONGER NEEDED AS HONEY-MAKERS. 



COMMERCIAL CUNNING MAKES THE COMB OF PARAFFINE IMi 



THE HONEY OF GLUCOSE, AND THE PUBLIC CAN'T 



DETECT IT. 



Below the above is one of the usual sen- 

 sational strings of truth and untruth. Now, 

 dear friends of the Record, we want to tell 

 you that you are bearing false witness 

 against your neighbor— an honest, industri- 

 ous, and hard-working neighbor— a neighbor 

 who has never harmed nor wronged you, 

 but who has, in fact, been too busy earning 

 his bread by the sweat of his face to think of 

 damaging or injuring his fellow-man in the 

 way in which you have injured and damaged 

 him by your thoughtless editorial. The 

 Philadelphia Record has for years been on 

 our exchange list, and is almost daily on our 

 table, and this makes us feel a little sadder 

 than to see such statements in other papers 

 which have not had the plain facts set be- 

 fore them every two weeks, year after year, 

 as we have done for the Record folks. Now, 

 dear friends will you not just take a little 

 space to correct this wrong (although you 

 never can do so fully), and do justice to an 

 honest and industrious class of people? 



And here is another piece of news (?) 

 clipped from the Sun, of New York, printed 



