1903 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



141 



DO BEES MOVE EGGS .' 



Mr- Gallet (Apiculteur) says yes. In 

 July 1889 he introduced a queen in a 

 wire clot^i cage without attendants and 

 without food (the usual process in 

 Europe) to a colony having no un- 

 sealed brood. Some accident prevented 

 him from releasing the queen until four 

 days later. To his surprise, he found 

 eggs in several of the cells around the 

 cage- He supposes that the queen 

 dropped her eggs which fell 'through 

 the meshes of the wire cloth, and were 

 carried by the bees into the cells. 



PARAFFIXE AND "WAX 



The adulteration of wax with paraf- 

 fine is not often practiced here, but it 

 may be well to know how to ascertain 

 the fact- 

 Heat the suspected wax in a porce- 

 lain vessel with a large quantity of 

 concentrated sulphuric acid- There 

 will be a considerable foaming. Keep 

 the heat a few moments yet and let 

 cool. The wax will be transformed 

 into a- semi-liquid black residue; while 

 the paraffine will remain intact, come 

 on the top and solidify. The acid must 

 be as concentrated as possible, other- 

 wise it would act only very slowly and 

 imperfectljr on the wax. It must be 

 in excess, otherwise the residue would 

 be too thick and retain the parafifine. A 

 portion of the paraffine remains in the 

 residue even then. A mixture of 50 per 

 cent- of paraffine gave only 45 at the 

 end, and a mixture of 75 per cent, only 

 68. (From Le Rucher Beige-) 

 Knoxville, Tenn., May i, 1903. 



PUTTING THE NAME OF THE PRODUCER 

 ON HONEY P.\CKAGES. 



(W. W- McXeal.) 



THERE still remains a wide dis- 

 crepancy, it appears, in the 

 views of many of the leading 

 producers and the dealers in honey as 

 to the rights of the former in putting 

 his name on honey packages. I have 

 acted in the capacity of both — a pro- 

 ducer and a dealer in honey to some 

 extent and, though I am inclined to- 

 wards the dealers' side of the question, 

 I am open to conviction. 

 I am in full sympathy with any move- 



ment that will foster the best efforts 

 in the field of production; but I be- 

 lieve that skill and labor honestly per- 

 formed is best rewarded by the natural 

 results of its own merits- That which 

 is right cannot be made more so by 

 showing petty favors. These only 

 serve to break down in human nature 

 those sterling qualities that impel one 

 to do right for rights' sake- The "pro- 

 ducer who contends that he is robbed 

 of his rights when he is denied the 

 privilege of ornamenting small honey 

 packages with his name, and address, 

 when such are not to be delivered to 

 the consumer by himself, is certainly 

 laboring under a mistaken idea of what 

 constitutes justice in the art of trade. 

 He may feel a pardonable pride in the 

 excellence of his goods, but he should 

 not allow his pride to lead him to 

 trespass on the other man's rights. He 

 should not insist on having all the glory 

 and profits, too, when he reaps the 

 benefits of a wholesale disposal of his 

 crop to the dealer. 



The dealer who caters to the retail 

 trade has much to contend with and 

 he should be given a clear title to his 

 purchase, unincumbered by the name 

 and address of the producer. When he 

 has succeeded in creating a demand for 

 honey in this more expensive way, his 

 name is the one for the lovers of honey 

 to become familiar with. When he has 

 paid for any given number of pounds 

 of honey he should be accorded the 

 right of his own name on his (then) 

 own goods if he chooses to exercise 

 that right just as truly as though he 

 w^ere to purchase any other of the farm 

 products. This is only playing fair — 

 only giving him a chance, and in no 

 \v\se can it be said to be a slap at in- 

 dustry and a defeat of those principles 

 of justice and right which inspire to a 

 betterment of present conditions. 



The legitimate stamp of quality is 

 the one for the producer to use indis- 

 criminately when he commands the 

 buyers in the markets for a wholesale 

 purchase of his crop- But if he works 

 the retail trade he has a right to an 

 unlimited indulgence of his fancy and 

 wield the influence of his name on the 

 goods in the full measure of its 

 weight. 



Why should a man be given any 

 more rights in this respect when sell- 

 ing honey of his own production than 



