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211 



PUBLISHED BY „„„ 



THO S . G . NEWMAN ^ SON^, 



C H I CyVGOi ILL. 



THOMAS e. ]^E1IV9IAIV, 



EDITOR. 



VoLim Marct 29, 1890, No. 13. 



" If the weather is fair," 

 Said the butterfly, jauntily and free, 



" If the weather is fair, 

 I'll go dance in the meadow there !" 

 " And I," said the prudent bee, 

 " Will be early at work, you will see— 



If the weather is fair !" 



Tlie Rev. W. F. Clarke,, President 

 of the Ontario Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 gave us a call last week. He is troubled 

 ■with sciatica, and has to use a cane and a 

 crutch. We had a pleasant visit with him, 

 and hope he will soon recover his usual 

 health. Our readers will soon have the 

 pleasure of seeing articles from his pen 

 again ; other duties which prevented such 

 for several months, have been so arranged 

 as to allow him to resume his pen for the 

 American Bee Jodrnai,. 



VTaltei-Hamier is pretty well-known 

 as the ingenious inventor of penny pack- 

 ages for honey. His latest invention in 

 that line is a small cone 3J.2 inches high, 

 IJ^ inches at the base, and running to a 

 peak. The "wrapper "is thin comb foun- 

 dation, which is filled with candied honey, 

 making an enticing sweet-meat to be sold 

 for 2 cents at fairs or candy stores. It can 

 be taken by the fingers and eaten like a 

 piece of candy. It is cheap, enticing and 

 delicious. 



1j. a. Aspinwall was elected Presi- 

 dent of the corporation of Three Rivers, 

 Mich., by S17 majority. We congratulate 

 Mr. A. upon his popularity at home. Bee- 

 keepers will have nothing to complain of in 

 that town ; for if President Aspinwall does 

 not enlighten the fossils, it will be a hope- 

 less task for any one else. 



Anollicr IljM-.Esoape.— The engrav- 

 ing shows the latest Bee Escape as devised 

 by Mr. C. Russell, of Conesville, N. Y. An 

 inner triangle surrounds the e.xit hole, (A), 

 presenting a passage-way (B) to the bees 



which enter the Escape at (C). The engrav- 

 ing shows the underside of the Escape. 



We have received another sample of a 

 Bee-Escape from Mr. Reese, of Kentucky, 

 of which we will present an engraving with 

 a descriptive article next week. 



Bogfus Extracted Honey. — We 



have received the following from Mr. T. H. 

 Kloer, of Terre Haute, Ind., dated March 

 19, 1890: 



I have sent to the Bee Journal office a 

 small jar labeled, "Pure Clover Honey; 

 Albert Botsford Co., Chicago." The jars 

 are in two sizes, the one which I sent being 

 the smaller size. The article has been sold 

 extensively in this city during the past 

 winter, interfering considerably with the 

 sale of extracted honey. It has been kept 

 by most grocers. Will you be so kind as to 

 give me your valued opinion as to the con- 

 tents of the jar — both the liquid and solid 

 portions of it? Of course, I have my 

 opinion, and have expressed it freely ; but 

 an expression from you, might convey con- 

 viction in many places, where I alone would 

 fail. I act only for the good of the fra- 

 ternity. Please reply in the American Bee 

 Journal. T. H. Kloer. 



Upon receipt of the jar referred to in the 

 above letter, we immediately investigated 

 the matter. We found that the office of 

 the " Albert Botsford Co." was located in a 

 dark and dingy basement of a building on 

 one of the worst streets of this city. At 

 the time we called, there were several 

 young girls at work bottling, or canning, 

 cucumber pickles, in a room just opposite 

 the main office. We saw Mr. Botsford, and 

 enquired in regard to the "honey" in jars 

 that we understood he had for sale. Going 

 to the canning room, he told one of the girls 

 to get a " sample of that honey," which she 

 succeeded in finding after some delay. 



We took the sample (which was a half- 

 pint glass jar full of a dark liquid with a 

 piece of honey -comb in it), held it up to the 

 light, and then said, "Is this pure honey?" 

 "Oh, no," replied Mr. Botsford; "it is a 



mixture of ijlucosc and honey — about one- 

 third glucose and two-thirds honey." 



We should say that the " stuff" is mainly 

 a poor article of glucose, with a little buck- 

 wheat honey to flavor it; the small crust 

 which was candied showing the amount of 

 honey— the li.juid being poor glucose. 



"Do you sell much of it?" we ventured. 

 " Oh, yes," ho replied. He then said that 

 a man in Indiana (at Terre Haute), who 

 had been fighting this article of "honey" 

 all winter, had just written him a letter 

 asking for prices, and stating that he 

 wanted to keep it for sale ; that a great 

 deal of it was used there ; and that pure 

 honey was too dear. "I'll read you the 

 letter," he finally said. He did so, and we 

 were surjjrised to learn that it was from 

 Mr. Kloer, himself. Of course we are well 

 aware that it was a decoy letter. 



Mr. Botsford informed us that he could 

 sell the half-pint jars of the " honey " to us 

 for Jil.OO per dozen, and that it should 

 retail for 15 cents per jar; that the demand 

 was increasing, etc. "How any sane per- 

 son would use such miserable stuff, when 

 the pure article can be had at a less price, 

 is beyond our comprehension," we thought ! 



Bee-keepers should learn a valuable les- 

 son from this. What they should do is, to 

 teach their neighbors the difference be- 

 tween such villainous compounds and the 

 genuine sweet as gathered and stored by 

 the bees. It should be the aim of each bee- 

 keeper to educate every family in his 

 neighborhood, or township, so that they 

 will accept nothing in the line of honey, 

 but the pure and unadulterated article. 



This can be accomplished in no other 

 way so well as by distributing the Honey 

 Almanacs in every locality. Let your 

 motto be, " An Almanac in every house- 

 hold, and honey on every table." When 

 this is done, there will be no more com- 

 plaints about low prices and no demand for 

 the best and healthiest article of food and 

 medicine in existence to-day. (See prices 

 of the Almanacs on page 224). 



Mr. C. F. Muth has sent us one of 

 his shipping-crates to hold 12 one-pound 

 sections. It is simple, neat and substantial. 

 Crates to hold only one tier of section are 

 the most desirable ; those holding two tiers 

 of sections are often the cause of much 

 trouble when carelessly handled. A good 

 piece of manilla paper between the tiers 

 is essential in a shipping-crate which holds 

 more than one tier of sections, to protect 

 the lower sections from leakage above. 



IIt^° A correspondent of the new State 

 of Washington writes thus on March 10, 

 1890: 



We have snow, showers and sunshine 

 much after the Michigan April to-day, with 

 the exception that we do not have much 

 wind. As usual, the snow melts as it falls, 

 and we have mud. Robins are about, but 

 the song of the frog is hushed in the cool 

 ail" and the " beautiful snow." 



