168 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Olucosing: Dark Honeys.— 



It seems that this latter part of the 

 marvellous nineteenth century is to be 

 made still more marvellous by way of 

 great and consternating surprises in the 

 field of honey-production. 



Not content with the death-threaten- 

 ing invention of the Hasty sugar-honey 

 plan, James Heddon — once the proud 

 leader in the production of honest 

 honey — now steps almost to the low level 

 of honey adulterators, by defending the 

 practice of mixing glucose with dark 

 honeys in order to effect its sale ! This 

 indeed would be hard to believe, were it 

 not for the published report of his un- 

 fortunate utterances at the late meeting 

 of the Michigan State Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation, which are found in the Bee 

 JouKNAL for Jan. 5th. 



If there is one thing this editor re- 

 grets since taking hold of the helm of 

 the old American Bee Jouknal, it is 

 that he was so almost criminally careless 

 as to publish the parts of that Michigan 

 convention report referring to the "Pro- 

 duction of Sugar-Honey" and "Adultera- 

 tion of Honey." We trust that we may 

 be forgiven for having published it, and 

 we certainly shall take better heed in 

 the future, that no more such damaging 

 stuff shall find a place in these columns. 

 We are perfectly willing to let sensa- 

 tional publishers ride their hobbies, but 

 the "old reliable " will hereafter try to 

 avoid the quick-sand route. 



Oleanings in Bee-Cidture for Jan. 

 15th has such a good editorial on this 

 very subject of glucosing dark honeys, 

 that we feel we cannot do better, if as 

 well, than to republish it entire. Here 

 it is : 



By the report of the proceedings of 

 the Michigan State Bee-Keepers' Associ- 

 ation, Mr. Heddon offers quite a lengthy 

 argument in defense of adulterating, 

 saying that it helps the sale of the poor 

 dark honeys, because they will stand a 

 large quantity of glucose. He says 

 truthfully, that "there is no trouble 

 about enforcing the law against murder, 

 because people dislike to be murdered;" 

 but when he says that enforcing laws 

 against adulteration is impracticable be- 



cause the public care very little about 

 the matter, he is surely mistaken. The 

 public does care. 



Again, he says broadly, "I think the 

 adulteration of honey has never injured 

 bee-keeping; that it has, rather, been a 

 benefit." And, again, quoting, "If we 

 are going to fight adulteration, let us 

 decide why we fight it. If it does not 

 injure us, then why fight it?" And, 

 once more, "All this talk about adulter- 

 ation is the height of folly." We regret 

 exceedingly that any one in our ranks 

 should take such grounds as these; and 

 we are sorry that even Prof. Cook should 

 go so far as to say that, if the addition 

 of glucose " to some grades of honey 

 really improves them and aids in their 

 sale, I have said my last word against 

 adulteration." 



Replying to Mr. Heddon, we will say 

 that we know positively that the adul- 

 teration of honey by glucose has injured 

 the bee-keeping interests, else why is it, 

 in this year of great scarcity of honey, 

 the extracted article fails to go up in 

 price? In fact, it rules just about the 

 same as it does in years of plenty. 

 There was a time, and not more than 

 three or four years ago, when very little 

 honey was adulterated; but now things 

 are changed; and if the continual harp- 

 ing on the subject is bad, that silence 

 which lets the evil go on unrestrained 

 and unchecked is tenfold worse. If cir- 

 cumstances were only such that we dared 

 reveal some things that we know — well, 

 we wont make any threats. 



Referring to the quotation fron Prof. 

 Cook, does he not see what a fearful 

 flood of fraud and adulteration the ad- 

 mission of his argument would bring 

 upon the country? Does he suppose for 

 a moment that adulterators are going to 

 stop at dark grades of honey and glucose 

 in order to give the dear people some- 

 thing better than real floral honey? A 

 little stream of water over the edge of 

 Conemaugh dam "improved," perhaps, 

 the water below; but it did more than 

 that; it let loose death and destruction 

 in its wake. 



Now, it is possible that neither of the 

 gentlemen above named have been cor- 

 rectly reported; but as Mr. Hutchinson 

 acted as reporter, and is unusually care- 

 ful and accurate, wo presume the quota- 

 tions are not far from correct. To have 

 such "heresies" advanced by the pres- 

 ident of the Union, now on the very eve 

 of starting a well-organized effort to sup- 

 press adulteration of honey, is too bad. 

 If bee-keepers should not be unanimous 

 in this fight, if some of them should pro- 

 pose sugar comb honey, and others coun- 



