the avarice and insatiable greed of their 

 owners. We, as honey producers, can 

 remedy this evil. Let us put nothing into 

 the market but the pure article. There may 

 be money at the bottom of the dish, but we 

 are apt to let our wallets out- weigh our com- 

 mon sense ; to be more anxious for large 

 bank deposits than large hearts. "Honesty 

 is the best policy," and as we once heard it 

 remarked by a man of experience upon the 

 subject of marketing produce, "Produce a 

 good article and you will have no difficulty 

 selling it." "Multumin parvo," is a good 

 motto for every farmer. 



Strained or extracted honey is more easily 

 adulterated, because it is subject to the 

 manipulations of more unscrupulous hands 

 before reaching the table of the consumer 

 or the laboratory of the druggists. It is an 

 effort made by the more unprincipled men 

 to offer as honey that which is not honey. 

 The very ignorance of what good honey is, 

 gives an opportunity for the introduction of 

 a spurious article and being in the hands of 

 shrewd men, they will spare no effort in 

 pushing it forward, because there is great 

 profit involved in it. As it now is, the people 

 will become educated in bad honey much 

 faster than in the delicious products of the 

 bee. This will be fatal, not only because it 

 will supplant the legitimate demand for the 

 real article, but because of its impurity, 

 they will be led to look with aversion upon 

 the very name of honey. In consideration 

 of this matter there are suggested four 

 things necessary to be done. First.— Every 

 honey producer must send out nothing but 

 the genuine article. Secoiri.— Sell to the 

 consumer as directly as possible. Third. — 

 Enlighten the minds of the people as to 

 what good and pure honey is. Fourth.— To 

 do what is in our power for the enactment 

 of laws punishing the adulterator, and 

 confiscating the adulterated. The first of 

 these is apparent from what was said 

 above. The second, the selling directly to 

 the consumer, enables him to buy at lower 

 rates avoiding the profits of middle men. 

 Furthermore, it assists in establishing an 

 individual reputation for producing a good 

 article. The third, enlightenment is the 

 forearm of reform and unless the consumer 

 knows what good honey is he is more easily 

 satisfied with the spurious. Men drink 

 modern whiskey, because it is in the market; 

 although it leaves them with aching heads 

 and unsteady nerves. The fourth, the nro- 

 tection and good of the people is the design 

 of legislation and very properly it puts its 

 strong arm on the adulteration of food. 

 Honey is fast becoming an article of con- 

 sumption among our people, hence it seems 

 proper that some action should be taken, by 

 which it may be given to them free from 

 impurities. 



Glucose and Oleomargarine butter are twin 

 sisters, and while law directs that every 

 package of this stuff called butter should 

 be stamped in such a manner that every one 

 may know what they buy, so should it be 

 with honey. Is not this truly a cause of 

 alarm ? Honey is a poor article, unless it 

 can be sold at such a price as to give fair 

 remuneration for investments and trouble. 

 Most farm products have many ways in 

 which they can be disposed of, but honey 



must be sold. It seems to us that the pros- 

 pects for honey producers are a little cloudy, 

 but let us acquit ourselves honorable in 

 striving to give our productions in their 

 native purity. 

 Middlebury, Vt. 



Central Michigan Convention. 



About 100 persons, 25 of them ladies, 

 assembled in Pioneer Hall in the new Capi- 

 tol building to take part in the proceedings 

 of this Association. 



An Everett honey-extractor, wax-extract- 

 ors, hives, smokers, comb-foundation, copies 

 of all the bee-papers, and many other arti- 

 cles of interests, quite a number of which 

 were kindly sent by Mr. J. II. Nellis, of 

 Canajoharie, N. Y., were on exhibition. 



Prof. A. J. Cook, of the State Agricultural 

 College, read an interesting paper on " Bee 

 Smokers," detailing their history from their 

 mention first by Columella, then in German, 

 French, and English bee-publications, down 

 to their improvement by the late M. Quinby, 

 and later still by our own T. F. Bingham, 

 recommending the Bingham form as strong- 

 est, handiest and most efficient. 



A general discussion of manipulation of 

 bees followed. 



In the afternoon the Secretary read a 

 paper on "Queens and Stimulative Feed- 

 ing" stating that these two things as vital 

 points, should receive the careful attention 

 of every bee-cultivator, and claiming that 

 when this was done it would not matter so 

 much about the size of frames, style of 

 hive, method of swarming, wintering, etc., 

 He advised great care in the selection of 

 prolific queens whose bees were hardy and 

 industrious, to breed from ; pains in queen- 

 rearing ; and would feed whenever, between 

 April 15th and October 1st, bees were not' 

 gathering honey. " Queens," he said, " are 

 the foundation of an apiary, while the cor- 

 ner-stone is stimulative feeding." 



Hon. A. B. Cheney, President of the 

 State Bee-keepers' Association, then ad- 

 dressed the meeting, concurring in the 

 points above stated, speaking in high terms- 

 of the new bee-feeder invented by Prof. 

 Cook, and, in answer to questions on various 

 topics by members, gave much information 

 valuable to those present. 



Mr. S. D. Newbro, of North Lansing, 

 brought forward his "bag-hive" designed 

 for winter use only, and in a paper of much 

 interest presented its claims. "A Factor in 

 Wintering," was Mr. Newbro's subject, and 

 he showed that the removal of the moisture 

 from the hives by means of absorbents is 

 in wintering a very important factor. His 

 hive is a frame-work surrounded with cloth, 

 the whole to be packed in chaff if left out of 

 doors. He thought it a great mistake to 

 put a painted inch board between the combs 

 and the absorbents. 



While Mr. L. B. Baker and Prof. Cook did 

 not seem to favor Mr. Newbro's plan, the 

 Secretary expressed himself greatly in its 

 favor, and called attention to the fact that he 

 brought forward substantially the same plan 

 at the last meeting. 



The question box elicited many replies- 

 valuable to the questiouei's. 



