May 17, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



313 



guilty of selling- adulterated honey, and stoppinjj the |iiai - 

 tice, then to pmiish a party who seemed so iniioceiil of 

 fraud as Mr. Hakes seemed to be ; and, being under Uiat 

 impression, I askt the court to impose the lightest penalty 

 the law would allow, which the court did, fining him $25, 

 which I believe was paid by some of Mr. Hakes' friends. 



As an officer of an organization that has for one of its 

 objects the prevention of the adulteration of honey, I was 

 .very much interested in this case ; and as the evidence 

 seemed to indicate that Mr. Heddon was guilty of selling 

 adulterated honey, and that he did the adulterating himself, 

 I have taken some pains to learn if he really was engaged 

 in such business ; and the first thing to hand is Bulletin 

 No. SO, of the Michigan Dairy and Food Department, and 

 under the head " Honey," I find this : 



" No A 298. Sample of honey (brand ' Pure Extracted 

 Honey') taken from original package at Jackson. Sold 

 (1899) by M. G. Hakes, Agent, Jackson. Producer, James 

 Heddon, Dowagiac." Then follows a statement of the 

 analysis of the sample, and following this are the words, 

 "Glucose flavored with honey." 



On the same page of the Bulletin on which the above 

 appears are three other similar reports in which each sam- 

 ple examined was markt " Pure Extracted Honey. Pro- 

 ducer, James Heddon, Dowagiac," and on each exhibit is 

 markt, " Glucose flavored with honey." 



On the next page of the Bulletin are two more reports, 

 similar to the above, in which James Heddon appears as 

 the "producer," and Mr, Hakes as "agent," and I believe 

 it is claimed there was about the same amount of adulera- 

 tion in each sample as in the one for the sale of which Mr. 

 Hakes was convicted — about 57 percent. 



In an article which appeared in the Farm Journal, of 

 Philadelphia, for January, 1900, in an editorial under the 

 heading, "Food Adulterations," the editor says: "Some 

 important facts on this subject are found in the recently 

 issued Bulletin No. 50 of the Dairy and Food Department of 

 the State of Michigan Eight samples of honey vari- 

 ously markt as ' Pure Extracted,' ' York State,' etc. , were 

 found to be only glucose flavored with honey. Six of these 

 samples claimed to be produced by a person having a name 

 well known and honored among bee-keepers." The other 

 two samples are markt, " Producer, Steele-Wedeles Co., 

 Chicago, 111." 



On Feb. 8, 1900, Mr. Wm. A. Selser, chemist, of Phila- 

 delphia, makes this report : " This is to certify that I have 

 analyzed the sample of honey sent, markt No. 1, bought of 

 James Heddon by E. H. Warren, Jennings, Mo., and found 

 the same to be 52 percent to 54 percent adulterations of 

 glucose ;" and on the same date Mr. Selser certifies that 

 another sample sent him, " bought of James Heddon by L- 

 H. Warren, Jennings, Mo.," was found to contain "58 per- 

 cent to 60 percent of glucose." 



Wishing to know what Mr. Warren had to say, I wrote 

 him March 12, and in his reply dated March 17, 1900, he 

 says : " I bought 70 60-pound cans of extracted honey from 

 James Heddon, which I received as follows," and then gives 

 the number of cans received at different times, 5 cans in 

 September, 1899 ; 15 cans at each of two shipments in No- 

 vember, and 35 cans by two shipments in December. 



Mr. Warren says : " It may seem strange to you that I 

 bought so much, and will explain. The first lot of five cans 

 which' I got as a sort of sample was adulterated very little ; 

 but every lot got worse ; a small sample of this lot which I 

 have on hand now has granulated solid, but streakt ; 



another lot only looks cloudy The last lot does not 



granulate any more than any other glucose Analysis 



of this shows 58 percent to 60 percent glucose Onh' 



about 200 pounds of the last lot was turned back on me 



I had no suspicion of this honey being adulterated until I 



had disposed of nearly all of it. After I found out that 



the honey was not pure I wrote to Heddon, asking for a 



written guarantee of its purity He wrote back, "I take 



pleasure in certifying that I shipt you pure extracted 

 honey.' " 



Mr. Warren is a member of the firm of Warren & 

 Mange, dealers in staple and fancy groceries, flour, feed, 

 and general merchandise. 



In a letter written by Mr. Heddon on Feb. 15, 1900, he 

 says that Hakes " never sold honey for me. He bought of 



7ne, paying cash in advance I shipt him pure honey, 



and I rather think that he sold it as I shipt it to him. Of 

 course, I do not knozv ; and, so far as my personal interest 



is concerned, /a'o not care I think I have had ample 



evidence that chemists can not tell adulterated from pure 



honey It appears they guess at it In view of Mr. 



Hakes' testimony, as reported from his customers, if the 



honey I sent him was adulterated, it would probably be 

 beneficial to Ijoth producers and consumers if all honey was 

 adulterated in the same way." 



Several years ago, perhaps 12 or 13, .some well known 

 bee-keepers felt satisfied that Mr. Heddon was engaged in 

 adulterating honey and selling it to his customers, and 

 since that time several have complained that the honey pur- 

 chast of him as pure was adulterated before it reacht them, 

 and have stated that the packages they received showed no 

 signs of having been changed or tampered with in any way 

 from the time they were shipt till received by them. 



A little over six years ago there was an impression that 

 Mr. Heddon was engaged in adulterating honey ; and a 

 chemical analysis of some honey, claimed to have been 

 bought of him, showed that it was adulterated with at least 

 50 percent of glucose, as was shown in Gleanings in Bee- 

 Culture at that time. 



It is possible that this report is too long, and may con- 

 tain matter that may not have any bearing on or connec- 

 tion with it ; but I thought it might be well, in every pos- 

 sible way, to expose the adulterators, whoever they may be, 

 and so put producers, dealers in, and consumers of, honey 

 on their guard against adulterators ; and if but a small por- 

 tion of the statements and affidavits before me are true, one 

 of our own number has gone astray, and, if so, should be 

 exposed. Very truly yours, 



A. B. Mason, 



Secretary uf the Xnt'nynal Bee-Keepers^ Assm-uitio/t. 



The "Fake Write-Up" Crowd. — At a meeting of 

 the Chicago Trade Press Association, held April 26, 1900, 

 the following report was presented, and the members of the 

 Association, and all other class and trade papers (and other 

 publications that can do so) were requested to publish it for 

 the protection of their readers : 



" At a recent meeting of the Chicago Trade Press Asso- 

 ciation, an organization whose membership comprises the 

 most influential trade journals in the West, it was deter- 

 mined to take some action to protect manufacturing and 

 mercantile firms from the depredation of the ' fake write- 

 up men.' 



" A number of alleged trade journals (several of them 

 being printed in the Southern States) send out thousands 

 of circular letters to merchants and manufacturers, enclos- 

 ing proofs of ingeniously prepared write-ups. Each person 

 to whom a letter is directed is led to believe that he has 

 been selected because of the prominence of his firm. The 

 men whom it is sought to victimize are informed that no 

 charge will be made for the printing of this complimentary 

 notice, but that sample copies will be sold at IS cents per 

 copy, or at 8 cents per copy in thousand lots. These jour- 

 nals have no legitimate standing in the community, and 

 represent nothing except the desire of their managers to 

 extort money from business men. The circular letters are 

 so shrewdly worded, and the office of publication is usually 

 so far removed from the persons to whom the letters are 

 sent, that many firms have been victimized. Almost every 

 deparment of industry is represented by one or more repu- 

 table journals, and manufacturers and business men gen- 

 erally are advised to communicate with publishers of whom 

 they have some knowledge before being led into fake 

 schemes. 



" The several papers comprising the membership of the 

 Chicago Trade Press Association have agreed to print this 

 statement with a view of protecting their patrons and busi- 

 ness men generally, from loss thru such deception." 



Belgian Hare Breeding is the title of a pamphlet just 

 publisht, containing 10 chapters on " Breeding the Belgian 

 Hare." Price, 25 cents, postpaid. It covers the subjects of 

 Breeding, Feeding, Houses and Hutches, Diseases, Methods 

 of Serving for the Table, etc. It is- a practical and helpful 

 treatise for the amateur breeder. (See Prof. Cook's article 

 on page 292.) For sale at the office of the American Bee 

 Journal. For $1.10 we will send the Bee Journal for a year 

 and the 32-page pamphlet on " Belgian Hare Breeding." 



