

4 2d YEAR. 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAY 22, 1902. 



No, 21. 





^ Editorial. 



Answering Comb Honey Lies. — This 

 should be ilone iu the very same papers that 

 publish the lies. We are very glad to have 

 our readers send us clippings from newspapers 

 showing what is being said on the honey 

 <|uestioD, but please don't ask us to answer 

 them all in the American Bee Journal. So 

 few of the people who read those lies in the 

 daily press take this journal, that it is hardly 

 worth while for nx to devote much time or 

 space to them. 



The thing to do, is for the readers who 

 subscribe for and read the newspapers that 

 are guilty of publishing untruths about 

 honey, to write to the editors of such news- 

 papers, placing the truth before them in a 

 courteous manner, and requesting Its publi- 

 cation. 



Not even the editor of a newspaper can 

 possibly know everything, and if he is only 

 half-witted he will be glad to publish a cor- 

 rection of misrepresentations that have unin- 

 tentionally appeared in his paper. But it is 

 useless to publish such corrections in a paper 

 not read by the same people who read the 

 misrepresentations in the first place. Some- 

 thing like a paper that for a time tried to cor- 

 rect the errors found in other papers, when its 

 own circulation was only a fraction of the 

 papers it was correcting. It seemed to be 

 almost a Hat failure. 



Alfalfa and Irrigation.— Editor Root 

 having expressed the opinion that alfalfa 

 does not yield nectar except on irrigated 

 lands, Carl F. Buck replies in Gleanings in 

 Bee-Culture he does not know what they 

 would do in Kansas if it were not for alfalfa. 

 He says; 



Alfalfa does not seem to do much good in 

 Missouri, Illinois, and other eastern States; 

 but in Nebraska. Kansas. Oklahoma, and In- 

 dian Territory, alfalfa on the bottom lands 

 does yield honey, in some quantity at 

 least, and in many localities it yields it in 

 abundance — but. of course, not like the irri- 

 gated districts of Colorado and other western 

 States. 



Honey-Questions In Newspapers. — 



Several of these have appeared recently in a 

 certain Chicago daily newspaper, having been 

 referred to one of its special writers for re- 

 ply. Here is a sample: 



" Please inform me if pure honey will turn 

 to sugar. I have been told it does. If so, 

 what can I do to get it back to a liquid < 



■• L. H." 



Our readers will enjoy the indication of the 

 quantity of inf(jruiation on the characteris- 

 tics of honey possessed by the one who an- 

 swered the question, when they read this: 



" I'ure honey should last for years without 

 candying if kept in a close jar or bottle. 

 Nothing will bring it back to a litiuid state 

 alter it has candied, unless you adulterate it 

 with water and boil it." 



Think of mixing water with granulated 

 honey, and then boiling it, in order to re- 

 liquefy it! What a big free advertisement 

 that is of the amount of ignorance concern- 

 ing honey the one answering has in storage. 

 How much better it would have been to have 

 (|U0ted from Dr. Miller's large stock of "I 

 don't know's." 



Well, here is another that is pretty good ; 



" Do you agree with Dr. Kellogg, of Battle 

 Creek, in his statement that honey should be 

 partaken of very sparingly and as a relish 

 only, for the reason that the bee injects a 

 small quantity of poison into each cell just 

 before capping the same for the purpose of 

 preserving the honey ? I believe this poison 

 is called formic acid." 



And this is the answer given to the fore- 

 going question ; 



•■ The idea is novel to me — and startling. 

 However opinions may vary as to the cause, 

 honey is certainly extremely unwholesome 

 when eaten in large quantities. Some people 

 can not eat it at all. I have supposed this to 

 be in consequence of the clogging and con- 

 gesting effect of the wax upon the alimentary 

 organs. The suggestion of formic acid is an 

 unpleasant complication." 



Surely, it is a novel idea that the bee " in- 

 jects a small (|uantity of poison into each 

 cell just before capping" it. 



And so it is extremely unwholesome to eat 

 large quantities of honey \ It might be just 

 as unwholesome to take ''large quantities"' 

 of water, or large doses of anything else that is 

 good. But who eats honey like a hog eats 

 corn or potatoes? It isn't necessary to make a 

 whole meal of honey alone, any more than 

 one would eat all butter or all pie at one meal. 

 A person ought to use a little sense in eating, 

 that is, if he has any. 



Yes, we have seen people who couldn't eat 

 honey. The trouble was, we found, they had 

 been trying to eat glucose with a piece of 

 honey-comb in it. As soon as they got hold 

 of liimeij they were all right. Now, we can eat 

 perhaps a half section of honey at one meal, 

 if we feel like it, but that, of course, is almost 

 bordering on the swinish idea, we must con- 

 fess. Perhaps a quarter of a section of honey 

 would be sufhcient. But we never stop to 

 count the cells and estimate how much bee- 

 poison we are eating. That would be ridicu- 

 lous. 



When it comes to extracted honey, we like 

 to have at every meal about two full tea- 

 spoonfuls in a little side-dish. We like to 



clean it all up at each meal. Then it " tastes 

 like more." But if we were to be a little 

 piggish, anil try to put down a half-pound at 

 one meal, we would likely not care for any 

 more at the next meal, or for several dayi^ A 

 little and often we believe is a good practice 

 when it comes to eating honey. 



But to return to the poison the bees put io 

 the honey. Dr. Kellogg ought to get a few 

 bees and watch them inject the poison into 

 each cell. Unless he l;iiitw.i such to be <i 

 fift, he should not give utterance to the idea. 

 Some people are so easily influenced by what 

 they read that they might be induced to 

 deprive themselves of so luscious a viand as 

 honey, and all because they had read some- 

 where that a certain doctor •' said so." We 

 have no doubt some people will actually stir 

 some water with granulated hone}', and then 

 boil it, in order to u/tgranulate it. 



But we wonder why the daily papers don't 

 refer their bee and honey questions to people 

 who are supposed to know something about 

 such things. Dr. Miller and many other bee- 

 keepers would gladly help to get the truth 

 about bees and honey before the people. 



The Denver Convention promises to 

 b'e fully equal to the Chicago conventions of 

 the National Association, and that is saying a 

 good deal. Of course, there is a possibility of 

 the Denver one being greater in many ways. 

 We hope it will be such. The following has 

 been received from Pres. Hutchinson ; 



THE COMING CONVENTION AT DENVER. 



Of course, we naturally expected, if the 

 National convention went out to Denver, that 

 those Western people would do the hand- 

 .some thing, but the present indications are 

 that they are going away ahead of anything 

 that any of us have ih-fiimnl of. Some things 

 have come to me in private letters, giving 

 hints of what may be expected, but all of 

 their plans are not yet sufficiently completed 

 to be given to the public; however. I have a 

 letter from Secretary Working, that I have 

 permission to publish, and here it is : 



Denver, Colo., April '26, 190'2. 

 Mr. W. '/.. Hutchinson. — 



D,,ii- Sh- : — We have put both feet into it ! 

 Yesterday and the day before our Executive 

 Committee (Harris, Gill. Rauchfuss. and 

 Working) made the preliminary arrangements 

 for the big meeting in September. Following 

 are the chief points decided upon : 



The Colorado Association will meet on 

 Tuesday morning, Sept. '2, and devote the day 

 to business, and in the evening and the follow- 

 ing days take part in the general sessions of 

 the National Association. Our program com- 

 mittee will work with yours. 



We will give a complimentary banquet to 

 members of the National Association coming 

 from other States than Colorado, and a " See- 

 ing Denver" trolley ride to all the attractive 

 places iu the city to the same people. Our 

 members, and those of your Association who 

 have the good fortune to live in Colorado, 



