1«87 



GJ.EANINCiS IN BEE CUJ/rUUE. 



169 



FALSE STATEMENTS IN EEGARD TO THE HON- 

 EY BUSINESS OF OUR COUNTRY. 



As a protection to our bee-ki^eping population, we propose in 

 this department to publish the names 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. 



0NE of our readers sends us the follow- 

 ing, clipped from the Detroit Free 

 Press of Jan. 2S : 

 The artificial honey now made in New 

 Vork is so close to the ^"-enuine that only the 

 e.xperts can detect the ditference. It is in racks, 

 the same as the natural product, and now and then 

 the wiiiKS and leffs of a lew dead bees are to lie 

 found to further the deception. It can be sold at a 

 profit for ten cents per pound, and the houey-liee 

 may go. 



On receipt of the same I inclosed it to the 

 editor with the following letter: 



Editor Detroit Fkee Press:— 



Dear Si/;— Permit me, friends, to call your atten- 

 tion to the fact that you are doing- g-reat harm to a 

 larg-e class of people by the publication of items 

 like the inclosed. We, as bee-keepers, have been 

 following- this matter up foi- more than two years, 

 and I think you have been written to in regard to 

 this matter, but perhaps you have forg:otten about 

 it. The statement i.s absohitely false in regard to 

 comb honey, or honey in racks, as your item terms 

 it. It is true, genuinecomb honey of second quality 

 has been sold as low as 10 cents per pound, but not 

 one pound of manufactured comb honey has ever 

 been brought forward in answer to the offer made 

 in our journal, of ipUkiO, over a year ag-o. You can 

 easily ascertain our responsibility; and to convince 

 you that you are uncjuestionably mistaken, I will 

 now pay $1000 to be told where such spurious honey 

 is manufactured. 1 think I should be safe in offer- 

 ing $101)0 for a single sample, were it not that some- 

 thing- might be gotten up for the occasion, to make 

 some sort of a semblance to artificial comb honey. 

 We have been following the n)atterupfor sonio 

 time, and very many of our periodicals have public- 

 ly recalled, or contradicted, the false statements 

 the.v have innocently made. The statements are 

 greatly damaging the sale of real honey. Believ- 

 ing you are anxious to have truth aiid not er- 

 ror prevail, I have written you this letter. Will you 

 not kindly return inclosed slip with 

 your replyV 



Yours truly, A. I. Root. 



A prompt answer came to 

 the above, as follows : 



A. I. Root; — Such items get into 

 print without any intention of doing 

 anyone an injury. A correction will 

 appear to-morrow, and I will send 

 you a copy of the paper. 



C. B. Lewis. 



Detroit, Mich., Feb. 3, 1887. 



And in due time the following 

 from the pages of the Press: 



It was mentioned in this column the other day 

 that "artificial honey now made in New York was 

 so close to the genuine that only e.xperts can de- 

 tect it." Letters from apiarists in Michigan and 

 Ohio warmly deny the statement, saying- the artifi- 

 cial can easily he detected, and that its manufac- 

 ture and sale is a miserable fraud which should not 

 be tolerated. We did not intend to either advertise 

 or bolster up the fraud. Pure honey is cheap 

 enough so that all can afford it, and the artifical 

 would be dear at any price. 



The above is somewhat of an apology for 

 the erroneous statement, It is true ; but I 

 confess I felt saddened because we do not 

 see a frank, fiee acknowledgment that 

 the former notice was an error. Why can't 

 the Free Press say there is no such thing 

 made, neither in the city of Xew York nor 

 in any other city ? I ain sure that neither 



apiarists from Michigan nor Ohio stated 

 that the artificial comb honey could be 

 easily detected, for there is no such stuff, 

 and never toas. 1 have heard it stated 

 from the pulpit, that the way to ruin is 

 broad antl easy because it is down liill; and 

 our experience in this line seems to indicate 

 that it is exceedingly easy for newspapers 

 to catch on and push aliead in tlie line of 

 telling lies; but it is terribly narrow, close, 

 and up hill to tell the bare naked truth, es- 

 pecially when truth demands that the edit- 

 or of a newspaper should fairly and square- 

 ly acknowledge he has lieen mistaken, or 

 tliat he has iinconscionsly done anybody a 

 wrong. May (lod help us to be bold and 

 fearless in stating the truth wiien it comes 

 our turn to apologize and retract. 



THE TW^O METHODS BY "WHICH BEES 

 PRODUCE SOUND. 



AN INTERBSTINO ITEM FROM ONE OF OUR GER- 

 MAN COTEM FOR ARIES. 



f^HROUGH the kindness of Mr. C J. 

 I*" II. Gravenhorst we are enabled to 

 I present our readers with the beauti- 

 ful engraving of the queen's respira- 

 tory apparatus as below. The re- 

 marks accompanying were taken from the 

 Illustrierte Biemnzeitung , of Dec, 18S(3. of 

 which Mr. Gravenhorst is tlie editor. The 

 Germans are keen observers and close stu- 

 dents ; and we doubt not, that, as tliis ques- 

 tion as to how the queen emits sound has 

 recently been discussed, our readers will 

 take pleasure in reading the following 

 translation : 



The Biefienw/fer contains a very fine article from 

 the pen of the editor, in regard to the voice of 

 queen-bees, which has greatly interested us. As is 

 well known, the different views in regard to this 



RESPlRATOltY ORGANS OF QUEEN. 



point do not agree one with another. Ac<;ording 

 to Mr. Treflfs theory, there is no doubt that bees, 

 especially queens, have not onlv one voice, but 

 also a second method of producing tones— the first 

 by the movement of the wings, and the other by 

 the respiratory organs. In the .first case we speak 

 of the tone given out in fiight; in the latter, of a 

 voice. The piping and teeting of the young queen 

 is familiar to every apiarist. The first one is in- 

 distinct on account of the inclosing cell. The voice 

 of a fertilized (jueen, like that of the drone and 

 worker bees, is less noticeable. Bees do not 

 breathe by means of a mouth and lungs, but 

 through openings, or air-holes, called stigmata, of 

 which there are two pairs on the under side of the 

 thorax, and Ave pairs on the abdomen ^isue a, b, c, 

 d, e, in the cut). Through these stigmata, the air 

 enters through curiously made tubes, called tra- 

 chea-, which, in the abdomon, expand into sacks of 

 ooasiderable size, la the midst of this bi-eatting- 



