1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



757 



prevent their depredations, the hives are placed 

 on benches, the legs of which stand in zinc pans of 

 water. There is a species of black ant, which, al- 

 though very small, will in time rob a colony of its 

 honey. One colony was put upon the ground; and 

 it was a very noticeable fact, he says, that this colo- 

 ny was not doing- as well as those upon the benches, 

 the little black ants having visited it so much that 

 its stores were reduced to almost the daily gather- 

 ing. There is a species of red ant there which is 

 much worse. They will come in droves; and if their 

 nest happens to be at a distance from the hives, 

 they will move into quarters in the immediate vi- 

 cinity of the bees. From here they will continually 

 sap the colonies until they have, from the ill-gotten 

 stores, become so strong that they will in a single 

 night destroy the colony upon which they have 

 been preying. In most tropical countries these 

 various species of ants are one of the greatest hin- 

 drances to bee culture. Our friend A. A. Bunker 

 spoke of their untiring depredations in Burma on 

 his visit to Medina. 



PERSONAL, LETTERS TO EDITORS WHO PUBLISH 

 FALSE STATEMENTS. 



Since our article on page 620, of our August 1st 

 issue, urging bee-keepers themselves to write per- 

 sonal letters to offending editors, one of our sub- 

 scribers has taken up the gauntlet in the following 

 pointed paragraph. He says, in writing to the 

 Pittsburgh Dispatch: 



In your issue of Sunday, August 25, appeared an 

 article on impurities in sugar by Chevalier Q. Jack- 

 son, M. D., in which he undertakes to describe 

 American ingenuity in the manufacture of comb 

 honey. I was greatly surprised on reading this por- 

 tion of the article, for I had thought that Dr. Jack- 

 son prepared himself on the subjects which he 

 wrote, before submitting them to the reading pub- 

 lic. 



I am convinced that he is mistaken in his state- 

 ments. If he is not, he should prove their truth 

 and claim the $10011 reward ottered by Mr. A. I. 

 Boot, of Medina, O. The latter gentleman stands 

 pledged to pay that amount " to the person who 

 will furnish evidence that comb honey has been 

 manufactured, filled with honey, and capped by 

 machinery: or who will furnish information of any 

 place where comb honey is manufactured by ma- 

 chinery." The Encyclopedia Britannica made the 

 same error in an article on "glucose " in its Ameri- 

 can supplement; but on being notified by Mr. Boot, 

 the publishers wrote that they had started an in- 

 vestigation and found that the author " had not as 

 good grounds for his assertion as he should have 

 had." 



Those who write to instruct the public should not 

 take hearsay statements and tell their readers they 

 are so. J. B. Black, M. D. 



Duncan, Pa., Sept. 7, 1889. 



That's right, doctor. This is just the way to do 

 up these falsehoods. Editors will publish a correc- 

 tion, brief and courteous, when they will not notice 

 a reprint from a bee-journal. Let more of our sub- 

 scribers follow the matter up. 



GREAT IS TRUTH, AND WILL PREVAIL; THE NEW 

 YORK WORLD IN DEFENSE OF BEE-KEEPERS. 



While hundreds of daily and weekly papers have 

 been slandering the comb-honey business by alleg- 

 ing that the article was manufactured and " deftly 

 filled by appropriate machinery," one large daily, 

 without any solicitation from bee-keepers, has 

 come out and stated the honest truth. The daily to 

 which we refer is no less than the New York World, 

 which by all odds is the largest daily in the United 

 States, aud perhaps in the world. This is the clipping, 

 which has been sent us by one of our subscribers: 



HOW HONEY-COMBS ARE MADE. 



Helen of Troy, Sea Cliff, L. I.—" Can you tell me 



whether honey-combs are always made by bees, or 

 are there such things as patent ones?"— Honey in 

 the comb is always made by bees and never by ma- 

 chinery. When you buy honey in that shape you 

 may feel quite certain it is the genuine article, and 

 that there is no patent on it. Comb foundation 

 made of beeswax is in quite common use. On this 

 the bees form the cells, fill with honey, and cap 

 them. 



If this is not coming out " square-toed " in favor 

 of our much-abused industry, then we do not know 

 what better we could have. We desire, in these 

 columns, to thank the editor of the World for tak- 

 ing the pains to find out the truth of the matter, in- 

 stead of copying the slander, which has no founda- 

 tion. Now, why can't the editors of some of these 

 smaller dailies be just as eager to copy this truth as 

 to scatter broadcast the lying statements of some 

 smart reporter, or the statement of some other 

 periodical? If the World is as careful in other 

 things as in this one, no wonder it has the largest 

 circulation, and it deserves it. Give the World a 

 boost, every chance you can get, so long as it sticks 

 by the truth; and give the go-by to papers that per- 

 sist in publishing falsehoods about comb honey. 

 If more bee-keepers would stop those papers that 

 come into their homes, which have maligned our 

 industry, and refuse to make amends, it might help 

 to open the eyes of these editors who have " not 

 time to investigate the truth," but take slander be- 

 cause it is cheap. 



Since the foregoing was written, the following 

 item, clipped from the Family Herald and Weekly 

 Star, of Montreal, Can., has been sent in. It reads 

 as follows : 



ARTIFICIAL COMB HONEY. 



The Family Herald and Weekly Star recently pub- 

 lished, under the heading " Curious Pacts " a state- 

 ment copied from an American paper, to the effect 

 that artificial honey had b«en made of potato starch 

 and oil of vitriol, the comb being manufactured 

 out of parafiiue wax. The item referred to has been 

 going about in the American papers for some time, 

 and the author of it is alleged to be Professor 

 Wiley, of the United States Agricultural Depart- 

 ment. Mr. Stewart, of Nairn, Ont., writes that he 

 is willing to give one hundred dollars, and that A. 

 I. Boot, of Medina, Ohio, will give one thousand 

 dollars to any one who will show them artificial 

 comb honey and tell them where it is manufactur- 

 ed. But Mr. Stewart and Mr. Boot are likely to 

 keep their money, for there is no doubt that they 

 are right. The statement that artificial comb hon- 

 ey has been successfully produced from potato 

 starch, oil of vitriol, and parattine wax, is not worthy 

 of credence. However, even if the statement were 

 true, it would not in any way reflect on the bee- 

 keepers, who are, undoubtedly, a most conscien- 

 tious and upright class of persons. Even those 

 who believed the item was trustworthy would not 

 suppose that the artificial honey was made by bee- 

 keepers anymore than they would suppose that 

 the oleomargarine substitute for butter was made 

 bydairjmen or farmers' wives. If such artificial 

 honey could be made it would come into competi- 

 tion with the bees and bee-keepers just as oleomar- 

 garine comes in competition with honest butter 

 and those who make it. 



Good for the Star! Give it a boost, ye Canadians ! 

 Let's patronize the papers that tell the truth about 

 our industry. Let more papers follow suit. Surely 

 truth will triumph in time, but we must keep fight- 

 ing the falsehoods, and that, too, by personal letters 

 from beekeepers. 



And here comes the Maryland Farmer for Septem- 

 ber, with a good square contradiction in regard to 

 artificial comb honey. Friends of the Maryland 

 Farmer, here is our hand; and we hope every bee- 

 keeper who lives in your vicinity will express his 

 thauks in the shape of a dollar for your magazine, 

 for one year at least. 



