AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



501 



expense. Otherwise, they would have to 

 take " pot luck " with the other truck 

 that would be dumped in the California 

 building. A case would be provided In 

 the State building ; the honey and wax 

 could be placed there by sonae of the 

 incompetent employes of the building — 

 possibly a cobbler or a grave-stone carver. 



This has been very unpleasant news 

 to the apiarists of this State. I have 

 heard that they are going to keep their 

 honey at home ; and, in fact, some have 

 gone so far already as to say that they 

 won't go to the Fair; that a concern 

 that is run in that manner deserves to 

 be boycotted. 



It is too bad for this State that the 

 management fell into the hands of a lot 

 of men who cared for the patronage that 

 the positions afforded them, more than 

 for the general welfare of the State. 

 From my own observation, I know this 

 to be the fact with some of the county 

 committees. It is a matter of common 

 comment here that the State Board has 

 been doing things in a rather queer 

 manner. It is bad enough for other in- 

 dustries to suffer at the hands of such 

 men ; but as the bee-keeping industry 

 has received less encouragement in the 

 past from the State than any of the 

 other industries, it was hoped that the 

 managements of the State and of the 

 World's Fair would have gladly given a 

 helping hand to our infant industry. 



But the hopes of California bee-keep- 

 ers are shattered. They get no more 

 from the commissioners indicated than 

 they get from the State for other pur- 

 poses of their calling. The only thing 

 they have a hope of obtaining this year, 

 which will be of any practical benefit to 

 them, is an apicultural department in 

 connection with the State University. 



North Temescal, Calif. 



[For editorial remarks on Mr. Pryal's 

 article, see page 488. — Ed.1 



The Paddock Pure Food Bill 

 and a State La^v. 



Written for the American Bee JoumaZ 

 BY WM. LEERS, PHIL. D. 



From many sides it has been urged to 

 make all possible efforts to secure the 

 passage of the Paddock Bill to prevent 

 the adulteration of food, etc. — a Bill in 

 which bee-keepers are highly interested. 

 It is indeed a vital question for bee- 

 keeping. Said Bill will be a strong " ad- 

 jurans " (as physicians say) to State 



laws against adulterations, but (I am 

 sorry to say it) stop the same, it will not. 

 Its best result will be to cut off the de- 

 fense to be made in State courts, that 

 the adulteration was committed in 

 another State or foreign country. 

 Enough holes to evade condemnation 

 will be left. One I will point out. The 

 word "knowingly" is so often and so 

 emphatically used in the Bill, that it 

 will hardly be overlooked by a tolerably 

 attentive lawyer as an easy escape. 



The law of New Jersey, passed in 

 1879, would be more effective. Its third 

 section is worth more than the whole 

 Paddock Bill. The adulteration by 

 "feeding "was not then known, whih 

 the New Jersey law passed, but since 

 that time it has become of the greatest 

 importance, and should not be over- 

 looked. 



Section 10 of the Paddock Bill pro- 

 vides for the sale of the adulterated 

 foods, but here a different treatment was 

 wanted. Foods which contain ingre- 

 dients noxious to health, should be de- 

 stroyed, while others, which are only a 

 fraud on the pocket of the public may 

 be sold. (In Europe, e. g., bread, which 

 has not its full legal weight, is sequest- 

 ered and given to the poor, while it is 

 destroyed if it contains noxious ingre- 

 dients.) 



Of greater importance, because of 

 greater benefit, than the Paddock Bill, 

 would be for Illinois a State law resemb- 

 ling the above cited law of New Jersey, 

 with a provision against " feeding " of 

 cane-sugar or other substances not gath- 

 ered by the bees. 



Oleanings, in 1879, page 229, ad- 

 vocated petitions against adulteration 

 to the legislature of Ohio, and offered 

 blanks for it gratis. I did not hear of 

 any result. As Illinois had the same 

 interest, I wrote to Mr. Dadant, who, 

 some time prior, had shown so great a 

 zeal for the matter, but he found it not 

 advisable to take steps in that direction, 

 as adulteration of honey had nearly all 

 died out, on account of the low prices of 

 honey, making it unprofitable. That it 

 would revive as soon as the fraud would 

 pay again, he overlooked. 



In all other branches of production, 

 poor harvests and high prices alternate • 

 with good harvests and low prices, and 

 the loss of the producer of one is com- 

 pensated by the other. In bee-keeping 

 it is otherwise. When the season is 

 good, the price is low ; when it is poor, 

 at once the adulteration is on the place, 

 and skims off the fat of the soup. 



The provision against "feeding" of 

 inferior sweets is indispensable. The 



