430 



Suppose that a dealer of New York sells 



?ure glucose honey to a grocer of Hamilton, 

 'he law gives me the right of prosecuting 

 the grocer for selling an adulterated article 

 andthe grocer will be fined, but the rascal 

 who wholesaled or manufactured the 

 adulterated article, will be free, on account 

 of the ditiiculty and cost of prosecuting him 

 in another State ! The innocent sustains 

 the loss while.the guilty goes free. 



It would be altogether diiferent with a 

 law made made by Congress, and the watch- 

 ing of food inspectors. Every transgressor 

 would fear to be prosecuted andthe adultera- 

 tion would be stopped. 



But to obtain such a law we need the help 

 of every one ; so get the petition signed. 

 Not one of us should be without a copy ; 

 obtain signatures of all our neighbors, and 

 return it filled with names. Send a postal 

 card at once to get one. 



Again, Mr. Root says : 



"It is a singular fact that although glucose is a 

 liquid and grape sugar a solid, the latter contains a 

 much larger per cent, of water, held by a curious law 

 in chemistry, in a solid state. If we produce the 

 grape sugar by adding more chalk, as friend Badant 

 suggests, I am afraid we should soon come to grief, 

 for chalk is an insoluble compound, and the first lump 

 of sugar our purchaser puts into his mouth would 

 reveal the cheat. I know, by the letters received, 

 that there are those so thoughtless as to suppose that 

 it is possible to add chalk. Will those people please 

 dissolve a lump of grape sugar in a little warm water 

 and see if it does not all dissolve perfectly ?" 



After giving such proof of his knowledge 

 in chemistry and common sense, the editor 

 continues : 



" I might have published the article, it is true, and 

 it mav be my duty to give everybody a hearing, even 

 should they send in a paper claiming that the moon 

 •was made of-chalk ; but would it be profitable to 

 occupy space thus ?" 



I answer, chalk is carbonate of lime. In 

 the tank, where glucose is manufactured the 

 lime of the chalk combines with sugar and 

 forms other compounds. My answer is : 

 Sugar will form with lime several com- 

 pounds very soluble in water. 



Liquid lime is also found naturally in the 

 water of some springs, which, as soon as 

 it comes in contact with air, deposits its 

 Jime on the objects on which it runs ; in 

 the sap of trees and plants, in whose ashes 

 lime is found, etc. 



Mr. Eoot believes too much in his own 

 infallibility in bee-keeping, chemistry and 

 other matters. What is not in accordance 

 with his imagination is wrong ; is nonsense 

 and moonshine ! And we, his readers, 

 know that his imaginative power is very 

 large ! 



I am not alone in thinking that Mr. Root's 

 paper would be greatly enhaisced in value if 

 he desisted from his steady habit of expurga- 

 ting frnm the bulk of the articles received 

 everything he does not endorse and thus to 

 pronounce judgment on every article pub- 

 lished. Such as are now coiitained in 

 02envlvgs, to use the expression of one of 

 his friends, have proved to be a simple 

 medium for the advertising of wares of 

 the editor, with an intermixing of mere 

 bov-talk. Ch. Dadant. 



Ilamilton, 111. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Variableness of Queen Progeny. 



Friend Newman :— Of late I have been 

 reading with more interest than usual, on 

 the variableness of the queen progeny and 

 the color of the Italian bees, the fixing of a 

 standard of purity for the Italians, and light 

 vs. dark Italians. On page 262, A. F. 

 Moon says : " locality makes a difference in 

 color." That is very true, but he saya 

 nothing about the season of the year. On 

 page 2ti8, S. D. McLean says : " the queen'& 

 abdomen should be bright yellow, tipped 

 with black with or without the black points 

 on the back." Jos. M. Brooks on page 27S 

 calls for "Princesses, exact duplicates of 

 their mother." Alva Reyonlds on page 278 

 A. B. J., " it is a well known, &c., black 

 bees were pure blacks from the beginning, 

 and reproduced themselves all alike, regard- 

 less of sex." But they are not parti- 

 colored, and the Italians are, and that is 

 where the trouble mostly lies. Now, I can- 

 not see why a standard of purity for the 

 Italian bees cannot be made, as well as the 

 American standard of excellence for the 

 poultry breeders to be governed by ; but 

 a scale of points would not be quite as easily 

 determined as it is on fowls. Why should 

 not bees be bred to a particular description 

 as much as fowls or cattle ? There is a 

 variableness in all kines of stock I care not 

 how pure or how carefully they are mated 

 and bred. I should like to see a queen that 

 will duplicate herself every time in her 

 queen progeny for two generations. A 

 queen that is of a clear light color, and can 

 do it, would be worth .$100.00 to any breeder. 

 I think it can be done, and yet I doubt that 

 it will be done because no bee-keeper will 

 take the trouble to do it. If a queen dupli- 

 cates herself in one-half her queen progeny 

 I should be well satisfied, and one of the 

 great secrets I feel sure, lies in the mating 

 or drone influence, and to explain I will re- 

 late some experience in fowl breeding and 

 the results of different mating. 



My faverites have been light brahmas and 

 buff and patridge cochins ; the two first 

 I kept for seven years, the latter for five 

 years. My first brahmas and buff bred true 

 to color and markings, but to put in new 

 blood i purchased thorough-bred males of 

 both kinds, but the chickens raised were any- 

 thing but uniform. I had to breed back 

 again, before I obtained any uniformity of 

 feather or color. 



A queen is as liable to vary in either her 

 drone or queen progeny as a hen is in her 

 pullets or cockerels. 



I have kept the Italians for five years, and 

 from the dark queens obtained when I made 

 a cross, I have in the second and third gen- 

 eration raised as even-colored young queens 

 as I did from the light-colored ones, but 

 just as soon as I put in new blood I have 

 had this experience over again ; it can be 

 controlled to a certain extent. 



If you want the light colored, select the 

 strongest and most productive light colored 

 colony ; from that raise drones, this is No. 1: 

 then get a one or two-year-old light colored 

 queen to raise queens from, this is No. 2. 

 Mate the young queens with the best light 

 colored drones from No. 1 ; test them for 



