flowers, I found the blacks lurking about 

 the weaker swarms, and in some instances 

 I had to stand about over tlie hive to keep 

 tliem off and save my colony. While ex- 

 tracting honey last week the bees became 

 so thick and troublesome as to drive me into 

 the house with my work. They had gath- 

 ered around the place in which 1 kept the 

 cappings; so I took particular pains to 

 notice whether there were any Italians 

 among tliem. To my great surprise not a 

 solitary Italian was to be seen, every one of 

 them were blacks. 



Disgusted ! I went to every hive that con- 

 tained black bees and decapitated every 

 queen, then inserted Italian queen cells, and 

 now live in hopes of better times in the 

 future. I have often heard of "being sick 

 of a bargain," now I know exactly what it 

 means, for I am sick of this one of black 

 bees. FiSK Bangs. 



North Lansing, Mich., Jivly U, 1878. 



Adulteration of Sweets. 



Fkiend Newman:— Inclosed please find 

 a copy of the petition to Congress which we 

 would like to have you publish. You can- 

 not insist too much on the necessity for 

 every bee-keeper to procure a copy of the 

 petition by sending a 1 or 2 cent stamp to 

 cover postage, and to have it signed and re- 

 turned. Such small expenses and work will 

 be repaid over a thousand times if we can 

 draw the adulterated sweets out of the mar- 

 ket. Chas. Dad ant & Son. 



PETITION TO CONGKESS. 



To the Honorable Senate and House of 

 RevTCsentatives of the United States: 



\ our petitioners respectfully represent to 

 your honorable body: — 



1. That the sweets now in use in the 

 United States, including cane-sugar, maple- 

 sugar, syrups, candies, jellies, honey, etc., 

 are often adulterated with glucose, and 

 sometimes are manufactured entirely of it. 



2. That this glucose is manufactured 

 from corn starch, by boiling the starch with 

 sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol), then mixing 

 with lime. The glucose always retains 

 more or less of sulphuric acid and lime, 

 and sometimes it has copperas, sucrate of 

 lime, etc. 



3. That 17 specimens of common table 

 syrups were recently examined by R. C. 

 Kedzie, A. M., Professor of Chemistry in 

 the Michigan State Agricultural College at 

 Lansing. Fifteen of these proved to be 

 made of glucose; one of the 15 contained 

 141 grains of sulphuric acid, (oil of vitriol), 

 and 724 grains of lime to the gallon; and 

 and another, ivhich had caused serious 

 sickness in a whole family, contained 73 

 grains of sulphuric acid, 28 grains of sul- 

 phate of iron, (copperas), and 363 grains of 

 lime to the gallon. 



4. That the American people are pre- 

 eminently a sugar-eating people. The con- 

 sumption of sugar, by each individual in 

 our country, is shown by statistics to be 



about 40 tt>s. a year. It is seen at once that 

 the adulterators of sugars and other sweets, 

 not only cheat our people in the quality of 

 what they consume, since glucose contains 

 only from 30 to 40 per cent, of sugar, but 

 injure also the public health, by selling 

 under false names, an article injurious to 

 health. 



5. It is as much the right and duty of 

 Congress to enact laws against such frauds 

 in food as it is to enact laws against frauds 

 in money, for if the counterfeiters of money 

 injure the public wealth, the counterfeiters 

 of food injure the public health. 



In view of the above facts, your petition- 

 ers earnestly request your honorable body 

 to decree that the adulteration of sweets, 

 and the sale of such adulterated products, 

 are crimes against the people, ancf to enact 

 laws for the suppression of this illegal 

 business. 



And your petitioners will ever pray. 



It^" The Protective Association Against 

 the Adulteration of Sweets, will mail copies 

 of this Petition free to all applicants, upon 

 the receipt of stamp. The Petition should 

 be posted up in a conspicuous place in the 

 Post-Office, and when filled, should be 

 returned either to the President, Charles 

 Dadant, Hamilton, Hancock County, 111., 

 or to the Secretary, O. Clute, Keokuk, 

 Iowa. 



For me American Bee Journal. 



Dadant Against Himself. 



" He that is first in his own cause seemetU just, but 

 his neighbor cometh and searcheth him." 



When I wrote before, I had no idea I 

 should convince Mr. Dadant that there were 

 hybrid bees in Italy; neither did I expect 

 he would consent to arbitrate the matter. 

 In the May issue of the Journal he en- 

 deavors to reconcile his past with his pres- 

 ent belief. Now let us see what influence 

 was brought to bear to induce him to change 

 his mind upon the subject. 



When he went to Italy he believed there 

 were hybrid bees there. Sartori confirmed 

 him in this by informing him thatLombardy 

 was the home of the Italian bee, and no 

 where in Italy were the bees as pure as at 

 Milan. Mr. Dadant corroborates tliis in one 

 of his letters from Italy by saying, " Lom- 

 bardy is so far the country where I saw the 

 nicest and mildest bees." Here he used his 

 own judgment and eyesight, as he did be- 

 fore he arrived at Milan, or had any conver- 

 sation with Sartori, for he says in a previous 

 letter: 



"I could have bought some queens at Bel- 

 linzona, but neither the bees nor the queens 

 pleased me. One of the queens that was 

 shown to me was so dark that she seemed 

 to be exactly similar to a black queen." 



This course he pursued all the time he 

 was in Italy, picking and purchasing only 

 those he thought were pure, for in another 

 letter he says: " I saw the bees of Varese; 

 they are no better than those of Mona or 

 Bellinzona. The keeper of the royal palace 



