January 



American l^ee Journal 



quantity in a bowl or upon a dish. Place 

 tliis on tlie Hoor of the closet, whicli you 

 must close hermetically. That is all. The 

 vapors liberated by this drug soon destroy 

 mercilessly all the insects of any descrip- 

 tion whicli may be found within the recep- 

 tacle. No inconvenience is to be feared, as 

 the carbon tetrachloride is uninflammable, 

 and it evidently does not have any no.xious 

 influence upon colors or the consistency of 

 the most delicate textures. The important 

 requirement is not to allow it to escape 

 through any fissures or to remain breathing 

 over it, as it acts in the manner of chloro- 

 form. The carbon tetrachloride is supe- 

 rior to the carbon bisulphide because it 

 avoids danger of fire." Denis. 



I had given but little thought to this 

 article until 1 found a new mention of 

 it from the pen of my excellent and 

 esteemed friend, Dr. Crepieux-Jamin, 

 of Rouen, whom 1 have already had oc- 

 casion to mention as the well-known 

 editor of Mr. Bertrand's Swiss Interna- 

 tional" Revue D'Apiculture." He writes 

 in the October number of " L'Apicul- 

 ture Nouvelle :" 



■' Mr. Denis gave notice lately, in the val- 

 iant "Abellle de I'Aisne." of the experi- 

 ments of a r<ouen savant, Mr. Buguet, upon 

 carbon tetrachloride. Mr. Buguet Hves in 

 the same apartment house as I do; I have 

 known him for 20 years. I went to him for 

 information. Here is a resume of what I 

 learned from him : 



When he was professor of Natural His- 

 tory at Moulins, in 1882, he used carbon 

 bisulphide to preserve his collections. But 

 later he sought for a less dangerous agent. 

 We all know that carbon bisulphide is very 

 inflammable, that it has a very disagreeable 

 odor, that its vapor, which so readily de- 

 stroys moths, is very toxic to human beings, 

 and that it would be difliicult to breathe it 

 without causing unconsciousness. Never- 

 theless, carbon bisulphide is precious in the 

 preservation of our wax-combs. When used 

 with precaution, which is easy, since the 

 amount needed is small, there is nothmg to 

 fear. But seeking for something still better 

 is notprohibited. Carbontetrachloride, hav- 

 ing been placed upon the market, drew the 

 attention of Mr. Buguet. It was offered as a 

 solvent in the place of benzin. Mr. Buguet 

 does not know why it has not been adopted 

 more commonly, for it is a first-class cleans- 

 ing ingredient Mr. Buguet uses it. in lieu 

 of carbon bisulphide, for the preservation 

 of his personal silks and furs, and obtains 

 just as satisfactory results. In a zinc box, 

 hermetically closed he keeps at the bottom 

 an uncorked vial filled with the tetrachlo- 

 ride, and the liquid evaporates slowly. The 

 vapors remain enclosed within the box and 

 indefniteiy preserve the tissues. We bee- 

 keepers are usually at fault in the closing of 

 our boxes and closets. We should paste 

 paper around over the joints. In this way 

 we would economize our drug, since a single 

 evaporation would be sufiScient. and we 

 would be at peace for the entire idle season. 



""Carbontetrachloride has a much less 

 disagreeable odor than the bisulphide; it 

 evaporates more slowly, boiling at 77 Centi- 

 grade (170 F.), while the sulphide boils at 42 

 (q8 K.). However, if we use a wide-mouth 

 bottle, the evaporation is speedy enough. 

 What matters it whether it takes place 

 within 2 minutesor 2 hours ? That is exactly 

 the difference between the two products. 

 For us. the result is the same. The odor is 

 similar to that of chloroform. In small doses 

 it slightly resembles that of camphor. 

 Although it is not unpleasant, one must be- 

 ware of it -its vapors are almost as toxic; 

 but the tetrachloride is not inflammable, 

 which is an inestimable advantage. Mr. 

 Hiieuet demonstrated this to me. by dipping 

 a piece of pa[ier in the liquid and exposing 

 it to aflame. The paper did not burn until 

 lheli(]uid was dried out of it by the heat. 

 'I'his consideration is valuable enough to in- 

 duce apiarists to change from the bisulphide 

 to the tetrachloride.' ' 



Mr. Crepieux-Jamin closes his argu- 

 ment with a mention of the compara- 

 tive cost of the two compotnids. De- 

 siring to inform myself as thoroughly 

 as possible upon the cost of this drug 

 in this country, I wrote to a wholesale 

 drug firm for information, and also in- 

 vestigated the status of the compound 

 in the United '■"tales Dispensatory. The. 



latter work informs us that carbon 

 tetrachloride solidifies at 30 degrees C. 

 (8(i degrees Fahr.). It has found an 

 extensive use in organic laboratories 

 as a solvent for fats, replacing petro- 

 leum benzin to advantage because of 

 its non-intlammability. Mixtures of 60 

 percent with 4 percent petroleum ben- 

 zin are also inflammable. Small doses 

 of carbon tetrachloride inhaled cause 

 in animals entire loss of power and 

 consciousness, from which they soon 

 recover entirely, but large doses occa- 

 sion death. 



The drug company replied to me as 

 follows : 



You have the two chemicals in question 

 lined up about right. The bisulphide is 

 used principally for destroying weevil in 

 wheat, and the tetrachloride for cleaning 

 purposes The bisulphide seems to have 

 more odor, is more volatile, but it is explo- 

 sive, while the tetrachloride is not. We can 

 furnish both as follows; 



r lb. 5 lbs. 10 lbs. 



Bisulphide 22c i8c 15c 



Tetrachloride 28 25 21 



These prices are not forbidding, 

 although higher than ordinary brim- 

 stone. The amount needed is small, if 

 the combs are kept in a well-closed re- 

 ceptacle. The absolute safety of tetra- 

 chloride makes its use desirable for 

 the purposes mentioned. 



Hamilton, 111. 



(Karo) Glucose vs. Honey— 

 Fraud in Advertising 



BY DR. A. F. BONNEY. 



No, there was no "gasping with as- 

 tonishment" on the appearance of 

 Marion Harland's article advertising 

 Karo Corn Syrup, except on the part 

 of the few bee-men observing enough 

 to see it. They (the bee-men) might 

 have thought a little helpless profanity, 

 but they are so used to seeing patent 

 medicine advertisements, gold-brick 

 schemes, bluffs, rot-gut whiskey, and 

 other alluring literature, that they 

 would scarcely see the article com- 

 plained of in the editorial in the No- 

 vember American Bee Journal. 



Personally, I believe Marion Harland 

 pulled down a nice little wad of "long 

 green" for this piece of literature, 

 otherwise she is as ignorant as an In- 

 dian. That is all I have to say ; there 

 is no other explanation for the rankest 

 piece of writing that ever appeared. 

 More, she probably merely sold her 

 signature, the glucose people having 

 done the "writing." 



I, think we should felicitate ourselves 

 that the Karo people take the trouble 

 thus to advertise honey, for that is 

 what they are doing every time they 

 use the word, for no one will believe 

 what they claim, that the glucose com- 

 pound is good as honey. 



I took the trouble this evening to go 

 over to the store and look up the mon- 

 ster (Karo), and this is what I found: 

 Short-quart, full half-gallon and gallon 

 cans of a compound of 8,') percent glu- 

 cose and l.'j percent "Refiners' Syrup," 

 supposetlly cane syrup. This is actually 

 needed to give the mess the "cane 

 flavor" they brag about. The local 

 merchant tells me they sell more gallon 

 cans than smaller, but suppose the aver- 

 age is half-gallon packages weighing 

 about .5 pounds, this would mean that 



the Karo people sell 3.50,000,000 poundt 

 of the compound annually, 8.5 percen 

 of which is straight glucose. Iiy/y do 

 they sell this amount .' Advertising ? 

 Not on your life ! That is, of course, 

 a factor, but it is the /rice. Forty-fii'e 

 cents a gallon^ can and all ! 



Forty-five cents for J2 founds of pure 

 honey! This is the key to the mystery — 

 J<rice. Let every bee-man in the United 

 States put up his honey in gallon pails 

 and sell it, pail and all, for 45 cents, and 

 Karo willceaseto bea bugaboo. What ? 



Take it from me, Mr. Editor, that we 

 bee-men never can and never will be 

 able to do Xational advertising while 

 the output of honey is so uncertain. 

 Look at what we ran against in 1011 — 

 almost a total failure. How about 

 Karo ? The manufacturers merely put 

 up a little more room, bought a few 

 more carboys of Hi SO4 and proceeded 

 to supply the demand for a sweet that 

 we could not. You ask the question: 



" If it pays to spend huge sums to advertise 

 glucose, would it not equally pay to spend 

 the same amount for something so superior 

 that it needs no misrepresentation?" 



Let us analyze. While I was in the 

 store this evening pawing over the 

 syrup cans, I found that every whole- 

 sale grocery house adjacent to this 

 town is putting out close imitations of 

 Karo. One calls it " KaMo," and has 

 but JO percent of cane syrup, so the 

 probabilities are that the 300,000,000 

 pounds of- glucose sold in the Karo 

 syrup is only a fraction of the glucose 

 sold combined with syrup, in the United 

 States, Probably t;00,0O0,000 pounds of 

 the stufif would be a closer figure. 



We bee-men produce something like 

 $25,000,000 worth of honey that we 

 know of, and I don't think I will be far 

 off when I say that more than half of 

 that — possibly 75 percent of it — is sold 

 locally, zchere one-tenth of one percent 

 of the selling price will pay the adver- 

 tising bills. This season with a limited 

 stock, I have not spent a cent save for 

 a few post-cards which I make myself 

 (at a cost of about one cent each, as I 

 buy at wholesale), yet I have not 50 

 pounds of honey left. 



The more the Karo people advertise, 

 the more they will sell, and they can 

 snpflv the demand. Would we bee-men 

 dare contract for $10,0(10,000 worth of 

 advertising space in November, to run 

 the succeeding year ? I do not believe 

 we would. Do the glucose people 

 spend as much as that t Will it sur- 

 prise the bee-keepers in the country to 

 know that the glucose interests prob- 

 ably spend more than OHc million dollars 

 annually adi'ertisiiiff Karo alone ? I 

 have been looking up some of their 

 advertisements in magazines which I 

 know get big prices per page, and I 

 think my guess will not be far out of 

 the way, because it costs but about one 

 cent a pound to make glucose. What 

 does it cost a pound to produce honey ? 

 Who can tell ? I have in mind a man 

 who has been producing honey for 

 more than 15 years. One year lately 

 he produced $1(U) worth a bad year. 

 He does nothing else. What did the 

 honey cost him ? Out of the $400 what 

 could he afford to pay for National 

 advertising ? 



"Why not have all the bee-keepers of 

 the country get together as one com- 

 pany f Simply, Mr. lulitor, because 



