120 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 25. 



^\^ A 



CEORCB W. YORK, - Editor. 



PUBLI8BT WEEKLY BY 



GEORGE W. YORK & COMPANY, 

 IIS Afichig-an St., - CHICAGO, lil,. 



$1.00 a Year— Sample Copy Sent Free. 

 [Kntered at the Post-Offlce at CtaicaKo as Second-Class Mail-Matter. 



VolfflVII. CHICAGO, ILL., FEB. 25, 1897. No. 8 



Editorial Z^on)n)^r)\<,^ 



Puttlngf Honey into Comb.— Messrs. Van Deusen 

 & Son, the manufacturers of flat-bottom comb foundation, 

 received the following letter, asking about putting Southern 

 honey into comb : 



Baltimore, Feb. 4, 1897. 

 Messrs. Van Deusen & Son— 



Oentlemen : — Please send us a sample of your honey-comb 

 foundation. We get considerable barrel honey from the 

 South, and if there is any way to put it in comb, we could 

 make much more out of it. Also state if you have a prepara- 

 tion for cappiug the same. Yours truly, 



The M. p. Co. 



The receivers of the above ask : " Is it a branch of Horrie 

 &Co.?" We must confess that it has such appearance. It 

 reminds us of a fellow here in Chicago, a few years ago, who 

 came into our office and said that he was studying on the 

 question of making comb honey without the aid of bees. He 

 told us he'd have a grand good thing if he could only succeed 

 in making the comb and capping it over. But there was the 

 trouble. Of course he failed at that, as he deserved, but it 

 didn't prevent him going right into the criminal business of 

 adulterating extracted honey and selling it for the pure arti- 

 cle. But even at that he is not getting rich very fast, for we 

 learn that the stores which have been selling his "pure ex- 

 tracted honey," are refusing to longer handle the miserable 

 stuff, and are beginning to sell the real thing. And we are 

 not too modest to say that we had a big hand in getting those 

 dealers to quit imposing upon their customers, and to sell pure 

 honey. 



Oh, if we only had a good anti-adulteration law here, how 

 we'd like to help make Chicago honey adulterators hop ! No 

 trouble to get plenty of evidence, and it would be easy to locate 

 and capture the rascals. 



Ors:anizin$>: a Bee-Society.— We have received 

 the following from a subscriber in Florida : 



Friend York : — I read the American Bee Journal with 

 much interest every week. There are lit people here trying 

 to keep bees, and 1 have tried to get them to subscribe for 

 some bee-paper, but I can't do it — they know more tbau the 

 bee-papers. Florida bee-keepers are not organized — have no 

 protection from foul brood or adulteration of honey. (I know 

 one merchant here who has been guilty of this fraud.) If the 

 people here would only unite, we could work against such to 

 a degree. This party would buy " chunk honey," make sugar 

 syrup and pour it on the combs in jelly glasses, and tell his 

 customers, " Tliiit in llic wau the hccif made it In the glasses!" 



I wish to help organize Florida bee-keepers to get a law 

 to punish adulterators, and a law to keep down foul brood. 



The natural resources here for bee-keeping are away ahead of 

 the North, and we have no winters. My bees gather some 

 pollen and honey every day of the year. 



I would ask you to point out some method of gaining the 

 desired legislation and organization. I have the promist co- 

 operation of a prominent bee-keeper in this matter. 



Subscriber. 



We are not sure that we can aid our correspondent very 

 much in what he asks, at least we can't do any more than to 

 tell what others have done to secure the objects he desires. 



To organize a new bee-society requires some work on the 

 part of the prime movers. " Subscriber " can perhaps enlist 

 one or two other bee-keepers to aid him, and write a personal 

 letter to all the surrounding bee-beepers he knows, calling a 

 meeting on a specified date, and at a certain place. Then 

 those who assemble can organize themselves into a society in 

 the usual way. They can also discuss various matters of 

 interest, and try to enthuse all present in such a way as to 

 start them out to work to build up the society. Another meet- 

 ing can be arranged for, and in the meantime continue to 

 write letters to all the bee-keepers you can learn of in your 

 State, urging attendance at the next meeting. 



The first move against foul brood and adulteration is the 

 drafting of Bills by the new society, to be presented before 

 the State legislature for enactment into law. The very best 

 representative the society has should be sent to the capital 

 to go before the committees to whom the Bills will be referred, 

 for the purpose of answering questions and urging the com- 

 mittees to report favorably upon their passage. The best 

 work is needed in the committee meetings. 



Specimen Bills have often been given in these columns, 

 which can doubtless be used with slight alterations. 



Xreatinsf Soured Honey.— In the book, " Lang- 

 stroth Revised," by Dadant, we find the following concerning 

 the treatment of soured or fermented honey ; 



"If any honey should ferment, let no one think that it 

 is spoilt, unless it was really unripe and has turned quite 

 sour. A slight amount of alcoholic ferment can be evaporated 

 readily by melting the honey over water, when the ferment 

 escapes in the shape ot foam. As this fermentation is caused 

 by the presence of unripe honey, some of our friends succeed 

 in entirely preventing it by melting all their honey immcdiatelu 

 after granulation. The melting evaporates all excess of mois- 

 ture contained in it, and we highly commend this method." 



Not Do-wn on House-Apiaries.— A Nebraska 

 correspondent in the February Progressive Bee-Keeper writes 

 this sentence : 



"The editor of the American Bee Journal, In comment- 

 ing on house-apiaries a short time since, said they are a thing 

 wise bee-men have decided to let alone, or to that ejfect." 



Now that wouldn't be so bad if only it were true. We 

 shall have to deny "the soft impeachment" this time — at 

 least until proof is shown that ive said anything even "to that 

 effect." We are not in the habit of advising for or against a 

 thing in bee-keeping that we know nothing about personally. 

 There are some very excellent and "wise bee-men" who 

 strongly favor house-apiaries, and we don't question their 

 value at all. 



Perhaps the Progressive will condescend to correct its 

 correspondent's error as to our views on house-apiaries. 



Plantings Trees. — Hon. Eugene Secor, of Winnebago 

 Co., Iowa, attended the January meeting of the Southern 

 Minnesota Horticultural Society, held at Albert Lea, and read 

 an excellent paper on "Ornamental Trees for Street and 

 Park." The local newspaper thus epitomized it : 



"This is a subject about which there may bo honest dif- 

 ferences of opinion. Uur tastes and experiences differ so 

 widely that probably few of us would select the same list of 



