THE AMERICAN BEE JOUEXAL. 



129 



the C(|iiilil)!iiiin of tlu> suLiar {growers, in the 

 .state of Louisiana. There is already eonsid- 

 erable in(iuir.v iiow tiiey ean f,^id\v more 

 suj^ar at tiie same expense, or to use tlieir 

 own lanjiiiase, "get a hijiherjiriee orbeeome 

 bankrni'it," a statement to tliat effect 1 saw 

 in Louisiana ivaper. Nnw you nuiy thinlv 

 me wihl to assert that it the peoiile were ed- 

 ucated in r>ee-Culture and were willing we 

 eon Id go into eomiietitiim with Louisiana 

 in produeinglsweetning at tlieir prices. Even 

 now in California ([notations go bidow the 

 liriees on Louisiana sugar or syru]> diul yet 

 hccs luivc hardly hceii introd'iiccd tJicre. 



Formerly in Louisiana they had their la- 

 bor perf(»rmed very elieaji. It costs more 

 now ; they nnist get more for sugar or go up 

 the spout— their language. Our laborers 

 work for nothing and board themselves ; 

 we only furnish them house rent. As Bee- 

 keepers we have found out how we can pro- 

 duce the largest amount of honey witli the 

 least outlay— the sugar planter has yet 

 got that ])roblem to solve. We have our 

 national association in good running order, 

 state organizations doing work, country 

 organizations to some extent and more in 

 expecteucy, all calculated to forward the 

 cause. Then again, we are blessed with the 

 best standard works on Bee-culture. Jour- 

 nals by the dozen advocating and enligliten- 

 ing, with the experience of the best bee- 

 keepers in this coimtry. and from the old 

 world. Besides state, sectional and coun- 

 try agriculture societies are offering more 

 inducements at their amrual gathering for 

 the exhibition of apiarian products, and oc- 

 casionally an opportunity is given for bee 

 men to show up their caiise in the best shape 

 they can, at agricultural conventions. 



We have, also, tested the diiTerent kinds 

 of bees and found which are the best ijro- 

 ducers. We have an aVmndance of forage 

 all over our vast domain if we wish to im- 

 prove upon it. AVe have practical men in 

 the business that we can pattern after- 

 take one, for example, vis : Adam Grinnn, 

 if you please, and what he has done in bee- 

 keeping others may do. He has made a 

 fortune in a few years. He re]:)orted his 

 product for 1ST4, amounting to 84.700. at the 

 depot in Jefferson, besides several hundred 

 pounds retained at home. 



We have a report from San Diego county, 

 California, that that county produced 40('),- 

 000 pounds last season. No more than our 

 county might do, A neighbor of ours bought 

 last spring K> swarm— increased six— and 

 took ;>5S0 pounds of honey, five hundred of 

 it box honey. Your huuible servant took 

 120.5 i5ound"s from six swarms, and four 

 swarm increased. I would state that we 

 both had the advantage of empty cards of 

 comb, but an unfavorable season "at that. 



1 have si>oken of the bright side of our 

 cause ; but there are some dark spots on its 

 surface, those done away with, and our suc- 

 cess is nearly complete. We loose more 

 bees during winter than l)y all the other 

 disasters put together. Where only a few 

 swarms are kept this evil need no"t be ex- 

 perienced, but on a larger scale it is some- 

 what expensive and a little uncertain. 



Another difliculty and much the worst to 

 overcome is to educate the masses that un- 

 dertake to keep bees. I will state a case 

 that will illustrate the condition of nineteen- 

 twentieths of them. I was invited to talk to 

 a gathering of bee-keepers in the State of 

 Ohio; there was present some thirty. In the 



course of the meeting I was criticised (juite 

 closelv. and when it came my turn to (pu-s- 

 tion. I asked, 1st, Has any of vou got one of 

 the Elementary Books "on Bee-keeping '.* 

 Ans. No. '.hi. 1)0 any of you take either (.f 

 the Bee Journals iniblisiied in the Lniti d 

 States ? Ans. No. :id. Have any of y< ii 

 ever attended a !5ee-keeper's Convention? 

 Ans. No. 4th. Have any of you ever been 

 humbugged by patent "bee-hive vendeis ? 

 Ans. Yes, all of ns. I told them they were 

 just the subjects to be operated ujum, in 

 their i<?norauce. 



Well, the result of that meeting was the 

 organizing of a county society, and I sent 

 for several bee-journals for them and occa- 

 sionally now some of those members have 

 articles in the journals giving their experi- 

 ence in Bee-Culture, that are very instruc- 

 tive and interesting. 



Not long ago a gentlemen of the humbug 

 patent hive" stopped a few days in this 

 city advocating a tneory that the comb was 

 not built by the bees, but was a fungus 

 growth while the bees were gathered in fes- 

 toon. He cheated several prominentgentle- 

 men out of several hmidred dollars on ac- 

 count of their ignorance of bee-hives. 



It seems almost impossible to induce old 

 fogy bee-keepers that are full of prejudice 

 and superstition, to take a journal. It re- 

 minds me of the old Deacon that was a 

 great stickler for the doctrine of election 

 and reprobation— claiming that infants not 

 elected must be lost. A friend of his, en- 

 deavored to prevail on him to give up sucli 

 an eroneous idea. In rejily the old Deacon 

 said, I think it safer to rely on old establish- 

 ed errors than adopt new"trutlis. 



Another quite a serious drawback on our 

 cause, is the amount of adulteration going 

 on that militates against the sale of the pure 

 article of honey. It had been known for a 

 number of years that syrup and honey had 

 been largely adulterated, and at the national 

 bee-keepers convention in ISTo, the subject 

 come up for discussion, whicli resulteu lu 

 the appointment of a committee to investi- 

 gate the matter and report at the next an- 

 nual meeting to be held at Pittsburgh, Nov. 

 1874. The rejiort of that committee showed 

 that a large establishment in New York and 

 another in Cliicago, were engaged in manu- 

 facturing and distributing through the 

 country a spurious article calling it honey. 

 It is put up in cans with a piece of honey 

 comb shown through the glass of compound 

 composed of ^g honey and X glucose, an ar- 

 ticle manufactured largely in France from 

 dried grapes, starch and refuse fruit, &., itc. 

 Those gentlemen adulteratcn-s buy and ship 

 the article at a cost of about 6 cents per ft. 

 Thus you see ])ersons buying it that are not 

 judges prejudiced against extracted honey 

 and prefer to buy it in the comb when the 

 facts are that extracted is in reality 

 worth considerably the most, especially if 

 separated at the tiiue of extracting and can- 

 ned and numbered according to (piality. 

 I will mention a case that you may see 

 wherein bee men may suffer by the adulter- 

 tion going on. 



J. B. llarbison, the man that took the 

 first bees around the Isthmus to California, 

 is now the greatest bee-keeper in the LTnited 

 States, had this season two thousand swarms 

 and shipped twelve car loads to Chicago 

 and New York ; at New York the adulterat- 

 ing gentlemen had the frankness to say to 

 him, he would by his comb honey but did 



