724 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Mov. 12, 



our power, instead of standing around and whining, "You 

 can\ enforce it !" 



Until bee-lieepers have in their hands this lega) weapon 

 with which to pulverize the monster of honey-adulteration, I 

 can see in the future no encouragement for our beloved pur- 

 suit. But equipped with an adequate antl-adulteraUon laiv, 

 bee-keeping would go marching onward with the full assur- 

 ance that its devotees have an even chance to become thrifty 

 and prosperous in a pursuit that endeavors to place upon the 

 table in every home, one of Heaven's purest and best sweets — 

 honey, as gathered by the blessed bee. 



Chicago, 111., Oct. 1, 1896. Gbokqe W. Yohk. 



At the close of Mr. York's paper, Pres. Root said : " Now 

 friends, go on." 



Dr. Miller — I endorse the whole thing, heartily. 

 Mr. Abbott — I think it one of the most important papers 

 that have been read here. It ought to be a basis for some 

 definite action. Mr. York has struck the key-note. His. sug- 

 gestion is a movement in the interest of pure honey. We 

 have been going through this battle in Missouri as to "oleo." 

 The dairymen have this down very fine. The men who manu- 

 facture " oleo" are not allowed to use any kind of oil in the 

 manufacture of it that will give it the color of butter. That 

 seems to be all right from the standpoint of pure food. But 

 that is simply interfering with the rights of the men who 

 manufacture a thing and are willing to call it by its right 

 name. If a thing is harmless in itself we have no right to 

 interfere with its manufacture. But we have a right to in- 

 sist that the man who manufactures a thing shall call it by 

 its proper name. And I have insisted that our dairymen have 

 made a mistake when they attempted to say whether "oleo" 

 should be white or black or yellow. But make them call it 

 what it is, no matter what the color. It is like the sale of 

 rum. We cannot make a law thatpeople shall notdrink rum; 

 but we can make a law that when a man sells rum, he shall 

 call it rum ; when he sells "oleo" he shall call it oleo; and 

 when he sells glucose he shall call it (/lucose ! [Applause.] 

 Every man is scrambling for dollars. Every society is 

 besieging the legislature. It would take a room as large as 

 this to hold the laws enacted by the legislature. The lawyers 

 like that; it gives them employment. They don't know any 

 !nore about the laws than you do. When they get a case, they 

 read up a little, then go into court and look wise, and charge 

 you SlOO for their services. Now, if we can get rid of these 

 laws, and have them reduced to three or four good laws, and 

 have one pure food law, and one man whose business it is to 

 enforce that law, as to butter, honey — everything that is adul- 

 terated — then we can unite our forces in backing him up. But 

 if we have one man to chase down the butter adulterator, and 

 one to chase down the honey-adulterator, we would never ac- 

 complish anything. Now if we can make some move in the 

 direction of co-operation to secure a law like they have in 

 Ohio, that would be a step in the right direction. 



Dr. Mason — Mr. President, it is not the law that we have 

 that does the work ; it is the men we put in power. We have 

 a man in Ohio called the Pure Food Commissioner. Through 

 a large number of deputies he watches for adulterated food all 

 over the State. We have had a large number of convictions 

 under the pure food law in Toledo alone. The dealers don't 

 dare to offer anything that they mistrust is adulterated. 

 Every court that has fined a man the first time has simply 

 said, "Don't do this again," and it works nicely. 



Dr. Miller — Suppose we get that man from Ohio over into 

 Illinois. With the laws we have in Illinois, will he do as well ? 

 Dr. Mason — You can't get him. We want him ourselves. 

 Mr. Aikin — There is a firm in our State (Colorado) to 

 whom I have sold considerable extracted honey. I have been 

 in their establishment often. They openly charge all bee- 

 keepers in and about Denver with adulterating. I cannot say 

 positively th»t they adulterate, but I do question some of 

 their methods of advertising. I once talked with them about 

 the honey they were selling. Alfalfa honey has a very mild 

 flavor, white clover honey has a very decided twang. They 

 told me they could take a can of alfalfa honey, and put into it 

 a very little white clover honey, and sell it to their cus- 

 tomers as "white clover honey." Mr. York spoke in his 

 paper of glucose as not having a very decided flavor. I am 

 under the impression that this firm uses glucose very largely — 

 put In a little of the stronger-flavored honey, and sell it for 

 the pure article at good, round prices. It Is said that this 

 firm has done a good deal towards holding up prices ; but I 

 fear they have done a great deal toward adulterating the 

 product. Thus, to show you what may be done by the use of 

 glucose, any syrup may be made to seem like the pure article. 

 Mr. Mcintosh, a business man of Omaha, Nebr. — I am a 



consumer of honey, not a producer. I never ate any adul- 

 terated honey. We always use comb honey. I don't think 

 that is adulterated. I would not buy extracted honey any 

 more than oleo. We don't expect to get it pure. How do we 

 know that commission dealers are the only ones who adulter- 

 ate it? The producer gets only 8 or 10 cents a pound for his 

 honey, while we pay 20 cents for It. It Is a luxury. We don't 

 want to pay 100 per cent, more than the producer gets for it. 

 Don't produce extracted honey. 



Mr.' Westcott — The other day I was talking to a man 

 about selling comb honey to him. He said : "Comb honey is 

 adulterated. They will even uncap it and pour glucose into 

 it. They feed bees on glucose, and they carry it in. We have ' 

 just as much in comb as in any other form." 



Dr. Mason — It is a very nice thing to have consumers at- 

 tend our conventions, so that we can educate them, for when 

 a man makes the statement that he never expects to get pure 

 extracted honey, he needs to be educated. If everybody was 

 like Mr. Mcintosh, some of us would have to go out of the 

 business; nobody would buy extracted honey, and some of us 

 don't know how to produce comb honey. Mr. Mcintosh, buy 

 your honey right from the producer. Find a man that you 

 know is straight and true, and buy it of him every time. 

 [Applause.] We are always preaching up the home market. 

 It Is the best market In the world. I have never sent a pound 

 of honey away from home yet. I am getting 112 pounds 

 from each of 30 colonies every summer. 



A Member — What do you get for your honey ? 



Dr. Mason — I sell only extracted honey. I get 15 cents 

 per single pound, and 1 IJ^ cents per pound by the gallon; 

 never anything less. They are glad to get it. They know it 

 is pure. I have educated them. Don't you be going around 

 the country preaching that extracted honey isn't pure any 

 more I 



Mr. Aikin — If clover and alfalfa honey are put together — 

 is that adulteration ? We had some at the hotel ; I am sure 

 it was clover with a tinge of alfalfa. It makes it better ; gives 

 a flavor just fine. Consumers very often want something that 

 has a fine, nice flavor. Take that which has a fine flavor and 

 mix it with something stronger, and sell it that way. I said 

 that a certain firm would mix a whole lot of alfalfa and a lit- 

 tle white clover and sell it for pure white clover. If they 

 misrepresent in that, would they not also use glucose ? 



Mr. Abbott — What would anybody mix the two for? 



Mr. Aikin — They have customers who demand white 

 clover honey. 



Mr. York — I was very sorry to hear from Omaha, that 

 they don't get pure honey. With ail the adulteration in Chi- 

 cago, we expect to get pure honey. Mr. Walker, of Michigan, 

 furnished 50,000 pounds of extracted honey to some of the 

 5,000 grocers In and around Chicago, last winter, and that 

 was pure honey. In the last few weeks I have also been bot- 

 tling honey, and it is pure honey. The people want to buy 

 pure honey, but many of the grocers sny the people want the 

 adulterated, in order to get something cheap. They want it 

 for 10 cents per pound. I believe there are two kinds of glu- 

 cose — the refined and the commercial. There is not the least 

 taste to refined glucose. The adulterators mix about 3^ part 

 basswood honey and the rest glucose, and few of the con- 

 sumers can tell whether it is honey or not. Three weeks 

 ago I had a man take a wagon-load of bottled honey in X. %> 

 and 1 pound sizes. He sold the pound bottles to grocers at 

 $2.40 a dozen. The actual cost of the load was about $80. 

 He sold it for $120. So you see there is a great field in the 

 grocery line. I was at Springfield — the capital of Illinois — 

 last week, attending the State fair, and I found there was no 

 one selling honey in that city. See what a market could be 

 worked up in a city like that ! 



Dr. Mason^How long did it take to sell that load of 

 honey ? 



Mr. York — About a week. In Chicago we have at least one 

 firm which sells honey just as they get it from the producers. 

 Something could be done for the cause of honey, if It were not 

 for the commission sharks, whom I have been fighting in the 

 American Bee Journal the past few months. I think we will 

 get the frauds under control before long. The Union should 

 back us up in the fight against them. I hope this matter will 

 be fairly discussed, and that when the committee reports, we 

 may all unite on something. Of course, we must have a law 

 first, but the thing is to elect men instead of politicians. If 

 you have not the men to enforce the law. It is worth nothing. 

 Let us work for the auti-adulteratlon laws, and then have the 

 men to enforce them. A commission man in Chicago told me 

 that one-half more pure honey could be sold In Chicago if it 

 were not for adulteration. Think what a market we would 

 have then, while even to-day it is considered the best market 



