( Entered at the PoBt-OfBce at Chicago as Second-Class Mail-Matter) 

 PubUcilied YVeekly al »1.00 a fear by tieorge W. York Sc Co., 334 Mearborn tit. 



OeOROB W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, JULY 13, 1905 



VoLXLV— No.28 



Bottom-Starters in Sections 



Od another page in this number, Dr. Miller 

 makes a strong plea for the value of starters 

 of comb foundation at the bottom as well as 

 the top of feotions. But it must not be for- 

 gotten that bottom-starters are one of the 

 Doctor's own inventions, and every one is 

 partial to his own baby. Do others who have 

 tried them find the same advantages? It cer- 

 tainly is more work to put double the number 

 of starters in a section, and there should be 

 no small gain to warrant so much trouble. 



Another thing : By his own confession Dr. 

 Miller is troubled with poor seasons; in a 

 good season is there any advantage — or, 

 rather, a sufficiently paying advantage — in 

 having bottom-starters? 



To those not familiar with the matter, it 

 may be well to explain that a bottom-starter 

 % of an inch deep is fastened in the bottom 

 of the section, and the top starter comes do«n 

 to within about' a fourth of an inch of the I 

 bottom one. (See illustration on page 4.'56. ) 



Some beginner is likely to say, " Why not 

 make the top-starter deep enough to come 

 clear down to the bottom-bar of the section?" 

 Because if that is done the foundation will 

 stretch enough to allow it to buckle and bend 

 over to one side, making the section a bulger. 

 If a very small space is left to allow for 

 stretching, the bees are likely, especially in a 

 6low yield, to keep a space between the 

 starter and the bottom-bar. The space be- 

 tween the two starters allows for the stretch- 

 ing, and the bottom-starter prevents any 

 space being left next to the bottom-bar of 

 the section. 



Comb Honey and The League 



In the Chicago Daily News for .June 21 

 appeared the following, which, we believe, 

 would be a good thing to have published in 

 every newspaper in the land : 



Comb Honey 



In March, 19<.I5, there was formed in Chi- 

 cago, and incorporated the following month 

 in Illinois, an organization called The Honey- 

 Producers' League. One of its objects is " to 



publish facts about honey and counteract 

 Diisrepresentations of the same." It is hoped 

 through the efforts of this League, with the 

 co-operation of the leading newepapers and 

 magazines of our country, to turn the tide in 

 favor of the use of honey as a daily food, and 

 also, as before stated, to endeavor to correct 

 the popular delusion that comb honey is a 

 man-made article. 



Some 3.5 years ago a noted " professor," in 

 order to work off a superabundance of " fun," 

 as he termed it, published the statement that 

 honey-comb was manufactured, then filled 

 with glucose and sealed over, all with appro- 

 priate machinery. It seems that the prefs of 

 those days was waiting to welcome such a 

 yarn and forthwith scattered the news 

 throughout the length and breadth of the 

 land, ft was so well done, and seemed to be 

 so eagerly swallowed by the public, that its 

 unfortunate repetition has been going on dur- 

 ing all the years. The very best of metro- 

 politan dailies of largest circulations, have 

 been deceived by the comb-honey misrepresen- 

 tations, and have unwittingly aided in its 

 further dissemination. 



Almost for the last 20 years there has been 

 a standing offer of $1000 made by a reputable 

 firm for just one pound of the so-called manu- 

 factured comb honey. But if there is any 

 such article in existence, strange to say no 

 one has as yet proved his claim to the reward 

 offered. The fact is, comb honey has never 

 been made except by bees, as otherwise it is a 

 mechanical impossibility. 



It is true that the liquid honey — honey 

 taken from the original honey-comb by cen- 

 trifugal force — is sometimes adulterated with 

 glucose and offered as a pure article, but the 

 various State food laws are fast getting after 

 such adulteration, and either compelling its 

 true labeling or driving it from the open mar- 

 ket. At least since the passage and enforce- 

 ment of such laws in various States adulter- 

 ated liquid honey is disappearing from the 

 field of food products. 



To sum up, then, any comb honey found 

 upon the market in small wooden frames can 

 be relied upon as being absolutely pure bees' 

 honey. Of course, the flavor may not always 

 be the same, as each nectar-yielding variety 

 of flower produces honey of its own peculiar 

 aroma, just as the pure maple sugar or syrup 

 tastes of the maple and not of the beech or 

 oak. 



It may be said, further, that the prospects 

 for a generous crop of honey to be harvested 

 throughout the country the next two or three 

 months seem to be excellent at this time. So, 

 in all probability, there will be plenty of this 

 most healthful sweet for every inhabitant in 



in the land, and each should see to it that he 

 gets his share. George W. York, 



Manager The Honey-Producers'' League. 



If any of our readers will try to have this 

 published in their local newspapers, we will 

 be pleased to furnish copies of it printed from 

 type-writer type, on one side of the paper, 

 which can simply be handed to the local edi- 

 tor with the request to publish. 



If the above liriet item could be gotten into 

 several thousand newspapers within the next 

 two or three months, we believe it would help 

 the sale of honey tremendously, and would also 

 go far toward overcoming the evil effect of 

 the manufactured-comb-honey story that has 

 been going the rounds of the newspaper press 

 for so many years. 



If any of our readers can use the article 

 that appeared in the Daily News, as published 

 herewith, let us know, and we will be pleased 

 to furnish a type-written copy of it, on re- 

 ceipt of a 2-cent stamp. 



Since the foregoing was written, we have 

 received several marked copies of the Phila- 

 delphia Press, of which Hon. Chas. Emory 

 Smith is the editor-in-chief. Mr. "SVm. A. 

 Selser, a member of The Honey-Producers' 

 League, had an interview with him, and, as a 

 result. Editor Smith published the following 

 as an editorial in the Press for June 34: 



Honey and Pure Food 



Pure food has its myths as well as every 

 other crusade for reform. 



The ingenious story printed as a Sunday 

 special in the supplement of a number of 

 papers by a Newark correspondent, who made 

 a business of furnishing ingenious hoaxes, 

 that honey was made of glucose and forced 

 into combs made of paraffin, has remained for 

 20 years the bane of the honey industry and 

 the sport of the exchange editor. 



The old story is still in circulation, passes 

 through that devious orbit which begins with 

 the syndicate, passes to the Sunday special, 

 finds its way to the patent insert, is repeated 

 by more reputable weeklies, taken up again 

 by some ingenious writer and started again 

 on its syndicate course. 



The Honey Producers' League, formed in 

 Chicago last March, has enlisted itself in the 

 effort to end this myth. For years it appears 

 there has been a standing offer of *1000 for 

 any honey of this character. In the nature 

 of things, neither paraffin combs nor glucose 

 filling can W prepared and sold at the price 

 at which actual honey can be furnished. 

 Liquid honey, separated from the comb, is 

 sometimes adulterated, but any bee-keeper is 

 aware that it is impossible by artificial means 



