1896. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



723 



inches apart. Then use a tablespoonful of sulphur and 

 saltpeter, and set fire to it. I have kept them for three or 

 four years in this way, and no moth got inco them. 



Mr. DeLong— I leave my frames on the hives until I get 

 them ready for winter. Then I rick them up until they 

 freeze, and then keep them in the cellar. 1 have kept them 

 for three years and not a moth in them. 



Pres. Root — A remedy for this is bisulphide of carbon. It 

 kills rats, mice and everything. 



Mr. Abbott — It is very dangerous. Some fool might put 

 a match to it. 



Mr. Kretchmer — Sometimes tarred building-paper is used. 

 It will keep away rats, mice and moths. 



A Member — Will the President give us particulars, how 

 to use carbon bisulphide ? 



Pres. Root — Make a room as tight as possible. A half- 

 pound is enough for a whole room. It is produced very 

 cheaply — about 10 cents a pound. If fire gets to it, it ex- 

 plodes. In grain mills, they just take the cork out and let it 

 get out into the room. The fumes prevent any one from com- 

 ing too near with fire. 



A Member — Would it be safe to put it into a room with a 

 ton or two or comb honey ? 



Pres. Root — Yes, sir ; it Is very penetrating. Leave the 

 doors and windows open for several hours, and it will all dis- 

 appear. It will kill bean and pea weevils inside the beans. 



Pres. Root — Our next subject, by George W. York, of Chi- 

 cago, 111., is 



Honey Commission-Meii and Adulteration. 



The subject assigned to me is not only a very important 

 one, but is really a double one — though in some instances as 

 closely united as were the once famous Siamese twins, for are 

 not honey commission-men sometimes also large adulterators 

 of the sweet product of the bee ? 



It may be, however, that I can make myself better under- 

 stood, and also do better justice to my double subject, if I 

 speak of the honey commission-men, and then follow with a 

 few words on that modern abomination — the adulteration of 

 honey. 



First, I want to say that I do not for a moment question 

 the honey commission-men's right to live. They are a neces- 

 sity — I mean the honest honey commission-men. The other 

 kind may be anecessary evil, though I am inclined to doubt it. 

 I some times think that honey commission-men are just 

 what bee-keepers make them, or allow them to become. Kut 

 some of them, I must confess, are as " wise as serpents " and 

 fully as harmful. It is surprising how easily otherwise wide- 

 awake bee-keepers permit themselves to be "roped in" by 

 flaming honey-circulars, sent out by new and untried honey 

 commission-men, quoting high prices for honey. If those who 

 receive such consignment-soliciting circulars would stop to 

 consider for only a moment, it seems to me they would be wise 

 enough to know that any quoted prices higher than those 

 given in the market columns of the bee-papers, must be en- 

 tirely fictitious, and wholly unreliable^simply thrown out 

 as tempting " bait" to catch the unwary and easily duped. 



I know that we all like to get high prices for our honey 

 or other products, and yet we should not be such blanked 

 fools as to suppose that a new honey-commission firm can 

 secure better prices than an old firm that perhaps has worked 

 up a large and regular demand for honey in its years of up- 

 right dealing. 



Then the proper thing for honey-producers to do, is to let 

 new honey-commission firms entirely and severely alone, unless 

 satisfied beyond all doubt of their ability and willingness to do 

 just as they propose. 



Residing in what is thought by many to be the greatest 

 honey market in the world — Chicago — I am often placed in a 

 position to discover some things about the doings of honey 

 commission-men that few have the opportunity to learn. For 

 instance, you come to Chicago with one or more carloads of 

 honey. You call upon a large honey-commission firm ; they of 

 course are fully informed as to the needs of the market, or, if 

 necessary, they can easily communicate by telephone with all 

 the other large honey-dealers. In fact, no one will make you 

 an oflfer, but keep you running from one firm to another, yet 

 always wanting to know your figures on the honey — just what 

 you are asking for it. After one of the firms finally pur- 

 chases your honey — likely at their own figure — they will offer 

 to divide it with the other honey commission-men at an 

 advance of perhaps K cent per pound, or even at the same 

 price they paid for it. Thus you see they really can work 

 together, and there is practically no competition whatever. 



Firms with plenty of available cash capital, can buy honey 

 outright, in carload lots, at a greatly reduced rate, and throw 



it on the market at a very slight advance — say one or two 

 cents per pound on carload lots — thus making from §250 to 

 $300 per carload, and running the market price down. On 

 the other hand, permit me to quote two sentences from a 

 private letter that I received from an honest honey-commis- 

 sion firm last February, referring to another firm who claim 

 to have plenty of cash capital, but some of whose dealings will 

 hardly bear investigation. The two sentences read thus : 



" Tl\ey boldly say that ive are the cause of grocers having 

 to pay over 10 cents per pound for choice comb honey. Our 

 competition makes honey cost them so much — more than it 

 otherwise would !" 



Again, the dishonest honey commission-men have every- 

 thing in their own hands, once they have your honey in their 

 possession. There is scarcely a law by which you can hold 

 them in case you catch them at all. They can sell your con- 

 signed honey for whatever they please, and return to you. as 

 little as they please. You have only to submit, and next time 

 let such alone, if you are wise. 



But there are honest honey commission-men. What pro- 

 ducers should do, is to find such, and encourage them as much 

 as possible, by giving them their patronage, and endeavoring 

 to aid them in every way they can — by preparing and packing 

 their honey as the particular market requires, and allowing 

 them to be the judges as to the best time to sell. By crowding 

 the honest and careful commission-men, you may often cause 

 the loss of quite a good deal on your shipment. Forced sales 

 must always be at the lowest figures. 



But honey commission-men are not the worst evil with 

 which honey-producers must contend, as we shall presently 

 see. 



The world has bad what is known in archasology as 

 "Ages" — the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age. 

 But just now we seem to be iu the midst of another " Age," 

 namely, t)ie Adulteration Age ! It appears that everything 

 susceptible of adulteration is besmirciied with this growing, 

 devastating fraud. Sanded sugar, corncobbed maple syrup, 

 watered milk,paraflBned beeswax, and glucosedor corn-syruped 

 honey. But enough for our consideration, perhaps, is that of 

 honey adulteration. 



Who are the slimy bipeds, guilty of the adulteration of 

 our pure, sweet product ? They are mainly the city wholesale 

 grocers, the syrup mixers, and some of the so-called honey 

 commission-men ! I am credibly informed that out of 40 of 

 the largest city customers of a certain Chicago honey-dealer, 

 27 adulterate the honey they purchase! Think of that, my 

 fellow bee-keepers ! How many times over can those 27 

 frauds multiply the honey product, when the price of glucose 

 to-day in Chicago is but a trifle over one cent per pound ? 



You have often seen one-pound tumblers holding a clear 

 liquid with a piece of honey-comb in it. Well, at least one 

 honey commission-man in Chicago puts up such, and there is 

 just one cent's worth of pure honey in each tumbler, and the 

 rest is glucose. It retails at 10 cents, and costs 3 cents, 

 including the glass tumbler. 



Why is glucose used almost wholly as a honey adulterant? 

 Because it carries no taste or flavor of its own — so that when 

 only a little honey is added it gives the honey flavor to the 

 whole. Another reason is, that glucose does not granulate as 

 does most of the pure extracted honey ; this latter is looked 

 upon with suspicion, hence as glucose does not candy, it is a 

 feature in its favor with the uneducated. 



The agent of one Chicago adulterating firm said they had 

 to have a piece of comb in each tumbler, as that is the only 

 way people would buy honey (?) put up in glasses nowadays. 

 And that shows there is a great lack of education or informa- 

 tion on the part of the consumers these days concerning pure 

 honey. 



So long as the glucose business holds out, it matters not 

 how limited is the genuine honey product on the market, un- 

 der existing circumstances. 



Now, fellow bee-keepers, what can we do to stop this 

 gigantic evil which threatens to destroy the legitimate and 

 honorable industry of honey-production? Why, imifc, and 

 pus/i for the enactment of a, prohibitory laiv that will compel 

 the entire cessation of honey and other adulteration, or the 

 requirement that every package of food products offered for 

 sale shall bear upon it, in conspicuous letters, the true name 

 or names of the contents. Then if the consumer desires to 

 purchase glucosed honey, let him do so, and not be deceived 

 Into buying the adulterated article when he thinks he is get- 

 ting the Simon-pure honey. 



But some will say, " You cn?i't enforce such a law!" I 

 say ive can. How ? Elect men to office, and 7iot politicians ; 

 men who are honest, who areiiot afraid to do their duty. Then 

 when our officers attempt to put down our common enemy — 

 the honey adulterators — let us give them all the help within 



