294 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Apr. 



factuiers of the bogus article which you 

 presume exists did not take advantage of 

 the state of affairs and run their machinery 

 night and day. The editor of the American 

 Bee Journal, of your own city, called atten- 

 tion to this fact : When the pure article 

 furnished by nature could not be brought 

 forward, would it not seem rational that 

 such a time would be j ast tlie time for a 

 harvest for the manufacturers ? Here is 

 the same item sent in by another friend, 

 clipped from the Mail and Express, of JMew 

 York : 



Mr. Root .-—On page 907, Gleanings for 1887, you 

 are reported as having said that " comb honey can 

 not be made by men, but only by bees." It seems 

 from the clipping inclosed that there is a mistake 

 somewhere. Where is it? H. A. Huntington. 



Poquonock, Ct., Feb. 31, 1888. 



Friend H., the mistake is in the falsehood 

 your printed slip tells. The slander on our 

 industry has been refuted, and the refuta- 

 tion published over and over again ; but it 

 seems that it is destined to continually crop 

 out. 



In the same line we find in the Health Jour- 

 nal and Temperance Advocate, of Oakland, 

 Cal., the following, extracted from Good 

 Housekeeping : 



Some curious facts were revealed by the packers 

 of canned goods in private conversation. " You 

 would not think the parings and cores of apples of 

 any use, would you? "' said one of the packers to a 

 friend. He then continued: "Well, a fruit-pack- 

 ing establishment makes use of every thing, like the 

 pork-packing factories, which save every thing ex- 

 cept the pig's grunt. When we are packing and 

 drying apples we have tons and tons of parings 

 and cores. These we sell to the makers of jelly. 

 All kinds of jellies are made of the material. Every 

 bit of it is apple with some essence in it. But that 

 is not the sole use of apple-parings. Occasionally 

 we keep them so long that they can not be converted 

 into jelly. Then we sell them to the makers of 

 strained honey. All the ' strained honey ' that you 

 see in the market is made of it." 



Now, it is possible that some sort of jelly 

 may be made from stale apple-parings ; but 

 it is not possible that all or any of the strain- 

 ed honey on the market is made in this way ; 

 and it is a shame that papers like Good 

 Housekeeping and the Temperance Advocate 

 should allow such statements to go out in 

 their pages. Is it possible, friends, that you 

 know nothing of the recent developments 

 in the way of bee-keeping, especially in 

 California ? The liquid honey to be found 

 in our markets comprises /mncZy-eds 0/ tons; 

 and it is just as pure and wholesome as the 

 barrels of Hour that fill our stores and ware- 

 houses. If you are friends of the truth (and 

 we suppose you are, being publishers of such 

 journals) we hope you will make some apol- 

 ogy for such a statement as the above — 

 that " all the strained honey we see in the 

 market is made of stale apple cores and 

 parings." Wliat are your readers to suppose 

 the world is coming to ? and what will 

 journalism come to ii^ you continue to place 

 before your readers such absurd falsehoods ? 

 If it was through carelessness and inadver- 

 tence that the above was allowed to go into 

 print, will you not have the kindness to so 

 state it, that you may undo, so far as pos- 

 sible, the wrong you have done? 



MANUFACTURED (?) COMB, ETC. 



SOME VALUABLE SUGGESTIONS FROM M. H. TWEED. 



HO is responsible for the very general be- 

 lief in the cities, that comb honey as well 

 as extracted is adulterated? I answer: 1. 

 The want of general information of a re- 

 liable character about the manufacture 

 and use of foundation comb; 3. One bee-keeper 

 uses foundation; his neighbor does not; and when 

 the latter goes to sell his crop he says this other 

 man uses manufactured comb, but he does not. 

 For example, I noticed recently a large label on the 

 outside of a case of comb honey, as follows: " Pure 

 honey. 1 guarantee this honey to be absolutely 

 pure, and gathered by the bees directly from the 

 flowers of the field. C. M. Gibbons, Winchester, 

 Va." Now, does not that plainly say, "All the 

 comb honey you see is not necessarily pure? 1 give 

 you pure honey, but all bee-keepers do not." Last 

 year a bee-man in this vicinity went to some of my 

 customers and told them that my honey was manu- 

 factured comb, and his was not; that most of the 

 bee-men had got to cheating the people now by 

 having the comb made. H. The general desire of 

 traveling salesmen to appear smart. A case in 

 point will illustrate what I mean: 



A short time ago a drummer, traveling for a Balti- 

 more fish-house, was standing in a store as I was 

 delivering honey in glasses, comb and extracted to- 

 gether. He picked up a glass and asked if it was 

 pure, with the air of a man who thought that he 

 knew it was not, but simply wished to see if 1 would 

 tell a lie about it. I answered him that it was pure, 

 and asked if there was such a thing as manufactur- 

 ed comb honey. He looked at me as though he 

 thought I was a fool to ask such a question, as he 

 replied, "Certainly they do." 

 I said, " My friend, have you seen it made?" 

 " Yes, sir," he replied. 



I then said to him, " I am glad I have met you, 

 for I have heard that story about manufactured 

 comb for several years past, but you are the first 

 man I have come across who has seen it done. 

 Now, where did you see it made?" 

 "Out in Ohio," was his answer. 

 "Ohio! that's a big place. Where did you see it 

 made there?" 



He replied with some hesitation, "On the West- 

 ern Reserve." 



I said, " That is a big place too; where did you 

 see it made on the Western Reserve?" 



With a great deal less confidence he replied, "In 

 Orrville." 



"Orrville?" I said, "that small country town? I 

 have been there; who makes it there?" 



Being fairly cornered, he replied, " Well, there 

 was a man told me he saw it made there." 



Now, you see had I not cornered him he would 

 have explained to the grocer all about how the 

 comb was manufaclured. You will easily see that 

 his knowledge came simply through some man in 

 Orrville having been seen making foundation comb; 

 and by the time two or three smart fellows repeat 

 it, the cells are completed, filled, and capped. 



A WORD IN B'AVOR OP THE MUCH-ABUSED EXPRESS 

 COMPANIES. 



Are you sure you are right when you say they 

 are solely responsible for the large percentage of 

 broken honey in the market for several years 

 past? 1 know they handle more than honey care 



