464 



May 30, 1907 



American Hee Journal 



because it is fastened to the ends. The 

 4 pieces around the hive are fastened 

 together, and if the center board warps 

 or twists a little bit it does not allow the 

 cover to change so that the bees can 

 escape. The warping of the main cover 

 does not affect the warping of the rim 

 outside, which will maintain its shape, 

 because the ends of the 4 pieces around 

 are nailed together, and i;est down on 

 the square hive. I like it very much, 

 and I do not have any trouble at all with 

 the cover warping enough to let the 

 bees get out or the cold weather to get 

 in. 



Mr. Hutchinson — When a board 

 warps, it is the heart side, that is, the 

 convex; and in nailing up the hive turn 

 that side up. It is at the corner of the 

 hive, and not in the center — it is always 

 at each end. Nail them up with the 

 heart side out, and then the tendency is 

 to warp to the center, and that is almost 

 impossible. If the corner will stay the 

 board will last. 



Dr. Bohrer — I want to sanction what 

 Mr. Hutchinson said in regard to the 

 manner in which boards ought to be 

 put together, whether top, bottom or 

 side. With regard to the roof of a 

 hive, I think, as Dr. Miller said, that 

 it is one of the most important things 

 connected with the hive, to have a roof 

 that will not leak, and one that will be 

 the least trouble. The roof that has giv- 

 en me the most satisfaction is made of 

 two boards, coming together in the 

 center, and the outer edges being dressed 

 down, beveled with almost a feather 

 edge, or yi inch, maybe, at the outer 

 edge, ad % in the center, and then a 

 saddle-board on top of that. In putting 

 them together they won't come down 

 square on the roof, and I make it a 

 rule to put a weight on them — a brick- 

 bat. That will usually weight them 

 down, and I do not find that kind of 

 cover to warp very much. There is the 

 cover made of two boards, in the center 

 a piece of tin, and as long as the tin is 

 well painted it will last 15, 20, maybe 

 25 years. In calling this question up. un- 

 derstand it is not the price of hives that 

 I wanted to bring up a discussion in re- 

 gard to, but for convenience and dura- 

 bility — that is what we want. The price 

 is one thing, and the question of dura- 

 bility and practicability is another. 

 National Food Law and Honey. 



"Will the National Pure Food Law, 

 enacted by Congress, increase the sale 

 of either or both comb and extracted 

 honey?" 



Mr. Taylor— No. 



Mr. Nau — Yes. 



Mr. Arnd — I think it will. At least 

 I have found it so in the grocery trade 

 in Chicago. We used to have to send 

 a wagon to sell our honey, and now 

 they come to our place and get it. Those 

 people that have been putting up bogus 

 honey are out of business today. I 

 think it will increase the sale of pure 

 honey. 



Mr. Wilcox — I think the more pure 

 food laws we have the better. It does 

 increase the sale of honey. The pure 

 food law increases the sale of almost 

 everything that has been adulterated. It 

 restores confidence in the product, and 

 the people will buy. I think it is a 

 go»d thing in that way. 



Mr. Wheeler — I would like to ask 

 what is going to be done about the honey- 

 dew that happens to get in the honey. 

 How are we going to meet that? 



Mr. Moore — I think the answer to 

 th:s is that this law, as drawn, includes 

 honey-dew — a small amount. It is not 

 illegal to have a small amount of honey- 

 dew in the honey. That is my under- 

 standing of it. 



Mr. Wheeler— That is rather indefi- 

 nite, isn't it, a small amount? What 

 does that mean? One inspector might 

 say it was a small amount and another, 

 a large amount. 



Mrs. Glessner — Isn't the adulteration 

 to be by man instead of the bees? 



Mr. Taylor — Not according to the law. 

 If there is too much water in it it is 

 adulterated, even if the bees do it, as 

 I understand it. 



Pres. York — I would like to hear from 

 Mr. Burnett on this question. He has 

 a little (?) experience in honey, and 

 probably can tell whether this law is 

 going to have any effect upon the sale 

 of either comb or extracted honey. 



Mr. Burnett — It has not been in force 

 long enough for me to give an opinion 

 on it! 



Mr. Abbott — There seems to be a mis- 

 understanding about the law, and bee- 

 keepers ought to understand it thorough- 

 ly. The lady is correct as to the adul- 

 teration — the statement of the law ; but 

 the Board of Agricultural Chemists 

 have made some rulings in their appli- 

 cation of the law as they understand it, 

 and those rulings become law, and 

 among the rulings the last circular that 

 was sent out by Dr. Wiley's department, 

 who has charge of that, it is said a small 

 portion of honey-dew could be included 

 and it would not be considered adulterat- 

 ed ; but they specify how much water 

 may be in ; in other words, they de- 

 scribe what pure honey is. and if it 

 does not come up to their tests, no 

 matter where it came from, it is impure. 

 If you get it out of a bee-hive, and 

 never put anything in it, if it won't stand 

 the test of the law, it is impure. The 

 same thing occurs in milk. The regula- 

 tions, I presume of Chicago, make it 

 3 percent, butter-fat ; they do in Kansas 

 City, I know. It is a fact that Holstein 

 cows, and some very good ones, give 

 milk that tests but 2% percent, and a 

 man was arrested in Kansas City for 

 selling Holstein milk that he milked 

 from his cow. It was a gross injustice, 

 of course, and the law ought not to 

 be administered, in my opinion, in that 

 way. Bee-keepers ought to take that 

 matter up and agitate the question un- 

 til there is some relief along that line. 

 No man should be prosecuted for sell- 

 ing the natural product for what it is. 

 A man who sells the milk from a Hol- 

 stein cow that has 2^/4 percent, or even 

 2 percent, of butter-fat, ought not_ to 

 have to go to jail for it, if he milks 

 it from the cow, and does not put any 

 water in it. Any law that condemns 

 him is wrong. Any lavv that would 

 condemn a man for selling what his 

 bees gathered is radically wrong, in my 

 opinion, and he ought not to have to go 

 to jail for anything of that kind. But 

 as a bee-keeper he ought to avoid put- 

 ting anything on the market that would 

 injure his trade. I would not do that, 



not because I am afraid of going to_ jail, 

 but because I do not want to injure 

 the trade. Any honey that does not come 

 up to the standard ought to go into 

 manufactures, or into the sewer. That 

 is the way it looks to me. 



Mr. Wilcox — I think a man that 

 would produce milk testing less than 

 3 percent should be punished for it — 

 not for the injury done to others, but 

 for the injury done himself. A man 

 who produces honey testing more than 

 25 percent water is producing honey 

 that won't keep. If it is exposed to 

 a warm temperature it will sour. I 

 think the rules and regulations are right 

 as they are. 



Mr. Wheeler — Now don't you think 

 that we are up against a hard proposi- 

 tion? We can't follow the bees and find 

 out where they gather their honey. 

 What in the world are you going to do? 

 Are you going to have it tested every 

 time you sell a gallon of honey? One 

 colony may gather honey-dew, and an- 

 other one clover honey. Who is going 

 to tell ? You put that honey on the 

 market in good faith, and if it doesn't 

 stand the test, what are you going to 

 do? There was a committee appointed 

 at the National Convention to meet with 

 the chemists and formulate some kind of 

 a formula for honey, and what did they 

 do? They eliminated honey-dew — any- 

 thing gathered in the shape of honey- 

 dew was eliminated from pure honey. 

 Of course, they say now a little of it 

 will not do any harm — we will overlook 

 a little of it — but that leaves the lever- 

 age with the man who tests it — with 

 the chemist. He can put his finger orf 

 one man and not on another — do just 

 as he pleases. It seems to me that 

 the only straight way to do is to make 

 honey pure when it comes from the bee 

 — the only way that any man can safe- 

 Iv sell honey — as long as he can not fol- 

 low tne bee up, and he is not a chemist 

 himself. 



Mr. Moore — I do not think in his dis- 

 sertation that Mr. Abbott quite covered 

 this case fully. You must go back to 

 the origin. Honey is the nectar of 

 flowers gathered by the bees and stored 

 in the combs. I believe that is where 

 they start. But in order to protect an 

 innocent party whose bees might have 

 gone to the leaves of trees and gotten 

 honey-dew and mixed a small amount 

 with the honey, this small amount is al- 

 lowed. But I think that there will be 

 no trouble about this matter in the 

 minds of any one who acts in good faith. 

 Honey-dew tastes different, and the only 

 trouble comes if you sell honey-dew and 

 label it honey. You can sell all the 

 honey-dew you please and label it honey- 

 dew, or you can say, "Honey with a 

 small amount of honey-dew ;" and if 

 you, as experts — bee-keepers, honey- 

 dealers, if you please — can not tell the 

 difference between honey-dew and 

 lioney, if you do not distinguish any- 

 thing about it, don't you believe that 

 your customeri will. If you conscien- 

 tiously taste that honey and decide that 

 it is all right, your customers will be 

 pleased with it. You won't have any 

 trouble along that line. This law is 

 all right as it stands, for one who in- 

 advertently has a small amount of 

 honey-dew in his honey, but not so as 



