it costs to carry them. The great law 

 of the " survival of the fittest," must 

 not be violated. When we attempt to 

 assist nature, we must have sufficient 

 knowledge to in no way controvert her 

 actions for good. There are several ways 

 to produce queens, and while one will 

 give us a share of valuable ones, the 

 others, I may say, none. As is usually 

 the case, the best are only got by the 

 greatest amount of pains. Who has 

 not seen the astonishing results from 

 hybrids that survived in spite of the 

 master. A business man usually is 

 forced to cater to the demands of his 

 customers, but I feel sure that queen- 

 breeders will greatly lower the tone of 

 our stock if they do it, unless we can 

 change that demand. 



I stand more in the light of a purcha- 

 ser than a vender of queens, as in the 

 past I have bought as many or more 

 than I have sold. Now I will tell you 

 the course I shall pursue, and the one I 

 wish all would adopt. I shall control 

 the blood of my apiary as much as I can 

 consistently with the duties of the great 

 ultimatum, surplus production of honey. 

 I shall look, first, to amount of surplus ; 

 second, indisposition to swarm ; third, 

 good nature, etc., then breed from such 

 colonies as possess these qualities in the 

 greatest degree, always giving my pref- 

 erence to a certain strain of Italians I 

 have, other things being equal. Just as 

 sure as I find one or more of these 

 qualities strongly shown in any other 

 blood, 1 shall not destroy nor discour- 

 age it. When I become convinced that 

 any other bee-keeper is ahead of me, I 

 shall purchase of his stock. It would 

 be necessary that I must know that his 

 stock is superior, by actual observation, 

 or his integrity must be known to be 

 such that his word is ample proof. 



Another very important feature in 

 this interchange of blood, is to make 

 sure that you are not getting a diseased 

 blood. It seems as if no man could be 

 vile or avaricious enough to send out 

 broad-cast death and disaster, but we 

 know that such is humanity, and bee- 

 keepers are only human. I believe that 

 there are some such queen-breeders, but 

 as they are no doubt in the minority, 

 some painstaking will enable us to avoid 

 them. I know that what I say is not 

 particularly interesting to many queen 

 dealers, but I say it because careful ex- 

 periment and observation forces me to 

 believe it, and, Mr. Editor, I believe 

 you want our honest, unbiased thoughts, 

 or none at all. G. M. Doolittle is a 

 honey producer, like myself, and what 

 he says on page 376, of last November 

 number of the American Bee Jour- 

 nal,, is not only the experience of one 



of the large honey producers of this 

 country, but the experience of hundreds 

 more who have said nothing. 



To conclude, I will say that I believe 

 that the future welfare of the bee race 

 depends upon breeding for quality, in- 

 stead of quantity, looks, rings, &c. 

 Let us see how good queens we can pro- 

 duce, instead of how cheap. A breeder 

 should have a reputation for business 

 bees, instead of those wearing the 

 greatest number of " gold rings." 



Dowagiac, Mich., Dec. 12, 1878. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Adulteration of Sweets 



BY CHAS. DADANT. 



Our petition has now the greatest 

 prospect of success ; the ways and 

 means committee having brought to 

 light the frauds practiced by some un- 

 scrupulous refiners of sugar, who have 

 yearly deprived the public treasury of 

 four or five millions of dollars for four 

 years. 



Many of the New York papers have 

 published articles on the question of 

 adulteration. 



The reports of the custom-house show 

 that the importation of glucose was, in 

 1875, 2,352 lbs. ; in 1876, 65,789 lbs., and 

 in 1877, 233,366. Many manufactories 

 of this article have been constructed of 

 late years, and are now in full operation. 

 It is estimated that the production of 

 glucose in the United States surpasses 

 that of starch. 



What becomes of the enormous 

 amount of glucose produced here, as 

 well as that imported V Is it retailed 

 in groceries under its own name ? No ; 

 but we swallow it under the names of 

 sugar, syrup, molasses, jellies, candy, 

 honey, etc., or transformed into wine, 

 beer, etc. 



Now, what is the result of the use of 

 this article on the public health ? In 

 the Academy of Sciences of New York, 

 and in medical reports, you can see that 

 the mortality by Bright's disease and 

 diabetes has increased for several years 

 in this country, and that this mortality 

 is attributed, by competent physicians, 

 to the use of glucose, and to its delete- 

 rious effects on the kidneys. The sugar 

 of the urine of persons affected with 

 diabetes having been traced, by means 

 of thepolariscope, to adulterated sugars 

 and syrups used by the patients. 



As if all this* was not sufficient, 

 Messrs. Thurber & Co., of New York, 

 have assisted by sending a whole cargo 

 of honey to England. This cargo has 

 just been confiscated at Liverpool by 

 the British government. The "genuine 



