20 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 9, 



" cheap and easy cure," and with a solemn air lecture all the 

 people on what science teaches? 



Every bee-keeper should get Dr. Howard's booklet on foul 

 brood, and read it, as it is the only book on the subject that 

 will be of any value to any bee-keeper. Wm. McEvoy, 



Woodburn, Ont., Canada. Foul Brood Inspector. 



[Dr. Howard's booklet can be had at this ofSce for 23 

 cents ; or both it and the Bee Journal for one year for only 

 $1.10.— Editors.] 



" One Bee-Keeper Selliag Another's Honey." 



BY B. TAYLOR. 



In the November Bee-Keepers' Review I notice that our 

 quaint friend, Mr. Hasty, has been badly hurt by several of 

 the replies to Query 992, in the Bee Journal of Oct. 17, 

 1895. I remember Mr. Hasty as the inventor of the cele- 

 brated sugar-honey, and I would not hurt his tender sensi- 

 bilities for anything. Our sugar-honey friend says : 



A little close inspection will convince a body that not nearly 

 all of these seven persons know what they are saying. For in- 

 stance, J. M. Hambaugh says, "Yes! If your neighbor does not 

 object." As all men object to false pretences, when the other 

 fellow makes them, he gives himself away— happily gives himself 

 away — to the effect that he is not a rascal, but only a little heed- 

 less. Unfortunately we cannot get all of the seven off in that 

 way. It gives me sincere pain to quote ; and I am going to leave 

 the names off as I do so. 



I congratulate Mr. Hambaugh on his accidental escape 

 from the company of the " rascals." Mr. Hasty says he will 

 generously leave the names of the rascals off. Dear Friend 

 H., I fear you are unjustly kind, and I will help you to amend. 

 The seven rascals who say that there is nothing wrong in 

 buying honey that is in every way as good as our own pro- 

 duct, and selling it to our customers, are: Chas. Dadant & 

 Son, W. G. Larrabee, J. A. Green, H. D. Cutting, J. M. Jen- 

 kins, Rev. E. T. Abbott, and B. Taylor. The Dadants' reply, 

 and my own, read as follows : 



Chas. Dadant & Son — It is all right if you know the honey is 

 good. There is no deception about it, at least none that need 

 worry your conscience. 



B. Taylor— Nothing is wrong that harms no person. If the 

 honey is as good as your own, no one would be harmed, and it 

 would not be wrong. 



Now these two answers are held up by Mr. Hasty as the 

 especial evidence of the genus "rascal," but I stand by my 

 answer ; it contains the substance of law and gospel honesty 

 — not an ounce of sugar-honey in it. 



Another reply reads thus : 



Emerson T. Abbott — You do not need to lie to your customers. 

 If they know you to be an honest man, they will not ask any 

 further questions, if you tell them you are ready to stand behind 

 all the goods you sell. 



Now let me illustrate Mr. Abbott's answer: In the fall 

 of 1894 I canvassed my former customers for orders, and 

 booked enough to consume my small crop of basswood honey, 

 but when I came to fill the orders I was some 50 pounds 

 short. I went to a friend and bought 60 pounds of as nice 

 basswood honey as any man can produce. I put it into ray 

 cans and delivered it without ever thinking of making any 

 explanation of any kind. The labels on the cans read : 

 " Basswood Honey. Forestville Apiary. B. Taylor, 

 Proprietor, Forestville, Minn." Now, will any sensible man 

 say that there was any need of tearing the labels off, or mak- 

 ing any kind of explanation in order to be dubbed "honest " 

 by our sugar-honey friend ? 



I sell all my honey to be returned if not satisfactory, and 

 I never had a pound returned in my -16 years of selling. I 

 have lived and sold honey for 36 years where I now live, and 

 none of my customers would think of asking where I got my 

 honey, any more than they would think of each customer who 

 paid them gold needing to prove the particular mine it came 

 from. 



Let me say here that the 60 pounds noted above is all the 

 honey I ever bought to fill my orders with, but in the future I 

 will buy if I need to, and will sell without changing my labels, 

 or asking the buyers' consent. I will cure and prepare the 

 bought honey just as I do my own ; will then say to each pur- 

 chaser, "This honey is first-class, and you may return it after 

 trial if it does not give entire satisfaction." 



Now, Mr. Hasty, I don't believe that when you invented 

 the famous sugar-honey you intended any fraud or wrong. 

 You just did not consider that it opened wide the door to fraud 



and deception, and came nearer to harmful results than any 

 proposition ever suggested to bee-keepers. Some Minnesota, 

 bee-keepers said "Rascal !" when I attempted to excuse you, 

 but I was moved by that charity that " thiuketh no evil," aud 

 reasoned most — but not all — of them out of it. 



Now, Mr. Dadant never allows any but perfect foundation 

 to go to his customers, and I never allow shoddy work of any 

 kind to leave my shop. I never try to sell cheaper than any 

 competitor, but the work must be first-class of its kind. And 

 I don't believe you could get the Dadants to make fraudulent 

 foundation at any price, for they, as well as myself, believe 

 that honesty is more in what we do than in what we say. Yet 

 we do not believe in talking fraud ; that it is not necessary 

 for honest people to deceive ; and that none but fools tell lies. 



Now, Friend H., come to think of it, does it not seem a 

 little " Hasty" in you to hold up to the public gaze seven of 

 your brother bee-keepers to the charge of " Rascal," without 

 a jury trial? Forestville, Minn. 



..^^^7 



CONDUCTED Br 



Z>«. O. C. MILLER, AIARENGO. ILL. 



[Questions may be mailed to the Bee Journal, or to Dr. Miller direct.7 



Preparing the Bees and Hauling Tliem. 



In what way would you prepare bees to move overland T 

 or 8 miles? Can they be moved in a common farm-wagon, 

 coupled out and prepared to haul 30 colonies at a time ? 



My bees are mostly in Simplicity hives, many of them in a 

 dilapitated condition, so that the bees can escape all around 

 the bottom, and no cover over the top except loose boards. I 

 have 93 colonies in this condition to be moved. 



Astoria, Ills. W. C. H. 



Answer. — Whew ! That's a job for certain^to move 93 

 colonies of bees in leaky hives with only loose boards on top I 

 In the first place, the farm-wagon is all right if your roads are 

 ordinary Illinois roads, and you practice some care in driving. 



For fear I forget it, I want to tell you before I go any 

 farther, not to think of hauling them in cold weather, at a, 

 tine when there will be no likelihood of a cleansing flight for 

 sometime. The shaking up that they'd get in that T-mile 

 ride would do them no great harm if they could have a flight 

 right after it, but if they should be confined several weeks it 

 would be likely to ruin them. Better leave them till spring, 

 and then it would be no harm to take them on a day so cold 

 that no bee would think of flying. Two reasons for taking 

 on a cold day : One is, that if any bees get out they'll not be 

 so likely to stampede the horses; and another is, that there 

 will be less danger of smothering them. 



As to preparing them for hauling, I feel a little shaky 

 about giving advice, as I never hauled just that kind of hives, 

 and if they were my own bees I think I'd try to hunt up some 

 one that knew more about it than I do. However, there are 

 always good friends on the watch, and if my advice isn't the 

 best, perhaps some of them will help us out. 



Perhaps the first thing to look after is the inside — to see 

 that the frames will not shake about in the hive and mash 

 bees and combs. If the frames were of the fixed kind, this 

 would not need looking after, or even common, loose-hanging^ 

 frames with wooden ends of top-bars resting on fiat wooden 

 rabbets, for I constantly haul this latter kind without any 

 preparation whatever, merely depending on the accumulation 

 of propolis to keep the frames in place. But I wouldn't want 

 to handle the frames before hauling, for that would break up 

 the attachments. But your Simplicity hives probably have 

 metal rabbets with metal-cornered frames, and they'll be 

 dancing a jig all the way if you don't fasten them in some way. 



You can fasten the frames in this way : Make some sticks 

 about as long as the end-bars of your frames, or a little 

 shorter. Let them be about % inch wide, and thick enough 

 so that there will be room enough to crowd one down at each 

 end between each two frames. Perhaps M of an Inch or a. 

 little more will be thick enough. At least thick enough so 



