898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKK. 



Dec. 1. 



hours wlicn tlie bt'e-kceppr can not do much 

 else, is about lOcts. per 100. The expense of a 

 few broken-down combs, meaning 'loss of bees 

 and loss of time in fixing up in the busy season. 

 to say nothing of the extra caution in handling 

 the whole apiary on wired combs, more than 

 pays for the expense of having every comb in 

 the yard wired. 



HONEY NOT GRANULATING NOT NECESSARILY 

 ADULTERATED. 



Some of the friends have of late been sending 

 us samples of honey which they assume to be 

 adulterated, and ask that we commence pro- 

 ceedings against the guilty parties at once. 

 With one or two exceptions we have pronounced 

 all such to be strictly pure, genuine product 

 from the flowers. One sample sent in, of beauti- 

 ful thick clover honey, having a trace of bass- 

 wood, was as clear as crystal. It had been 

 standing on the she\f something over a year, 

 and our correspondent thought that, as it had 

 remained uncandied. it must, of course, be adul- 

 terated Willi glucose. The honey was so thick 

 and thorouglily ripened that it did just what it 

 ought to do — remain liquid. We have had sam- 

 ples of basswood and clover honey remain clear 

 for three years, and yet we knew the goods to 

 be strictly pure. The fact that honey remains 

 liquid for a year or so is no sure evidence that 

 it is adulterated, and we regret that, through 

 the agency of honey-labels, the impression is 

 conveyed that, unless the honey does granulate, 

 it is not pure. It is a fact, however, that, when 

 it does candy, it is pretty good evidence that it is 

 pure; but it does not by any means follow that, 

 when it does not do so, it is adulterated. It is 

 well known that pure California sage honey isn't 

 apt to candy at all. Now, while we are discuss- 

 ing ways and means for putting down adultera- 

 tion, let us not go to the other extreme of call- 

 ing a good many samples glucosed, and so. very 

 possibly, place a ban upon the honesty of repu- 

 table bee-keepers and dealers. 



COMMISSION MEN AND THEIR RELATION TO THE 



HONEY-PRODUCER IN THE FIGHT 



AGAINST ADULTERATION. 



We have received excellent reports in regard 

 to the manner in which S. T. Fish & Co., com- 

 mission merchants of Chicago, treat their pa- 

 trons. Of all the commission houses in the 

 West, we believe none are working more dili- 

 gently for the suppression of all kinds of adul- 

 teration in honey than S. T. Fish & Co. They 

 realize, as does every commission house, that 

 adulteration does harm, not only to the bee- 

 keeper, liut to the seller of pure honey. One of 

 their salesmen, at the Chicago convention, pi'o- 

 posed that every commission house tha,t quotes 

 prices of honey in the bee-journals be requested 

 to make an affidavit to the editors of the bee- 

 journals, to the effect that they furnish only 

 pure honey, and that the names of such houses 

 furnishing such affidavits be published before 

 the bee-keeping world. The only objection we 

 see to this is, as was also suggested at the conven- 

 tion, that men are so dishonest as to adulterate 

 would also be dishonest enough to furnish a 

 false affidavit. While we do not believe that the 

 commission men who quote prices in (Clean- 

 ings would refuse to furnish us affidavits, as 

 above, yet at the santie time they might feel as 

 if their nam<» and reputation would be worth 

 more than all the affidavits that could be pro- 

 duced. However, we should be glad to receive 

 responses from all the hon(>y-sellers who will be 

 willing to work with us, and, in fact, with all 

 the publishers of bee-papers, for the suppression 

 of adulteration in honey, and at the same time 

 furnish such evidence as may be in their pos- 



session, of persons adulterating, or .place where 

 the same is practiced. The source of such in- 

 formation would, of course, be held in strict con- 

 fidence by us. 



We feel thoroughly impressed with the belief 

 that producers, honest honey-buyers, and hon- 

 ey-sellers should combine together in a union so 

 as to fight successfully the common enemy. 

 Such an organization might do nothing more 

 than this: Prove that but little or no adultera- 

 tion was practiced. At all events, the mere fact 

 of such an -Organization being in existence 

 would go a long way in preventing both those 

 who contemplate adulterating from doing so, 

 and those who have in the past been engaged to 

 a greater or less extent in the business, from 

 continuing in it. We have many good laws 

 that rarely if ever need to be enforced; but it is 

 necessary to have them on the statute-book, 

 simply because of their moral force. 



IT is NOT (iOOD THAT MANC SHOULD BE ALONE. 



—GEN. 2: 18. 

 At the end of one of Dr. IMiller's Straws, on 

 page 79.5, he exhorts Bro. Wilder to look up a 

 wife, etc. This thing has b( en on my con- 

 science for ^ome time. When I read of the 

 lonely ranches where bee-men stay year in and 

 year out, without a woman in the house or 

 out around the house, it really troubles me. I 

 remember the lonely ranches I visited. I re- 

 member the sad and lonely attempts that some 

 of the bee-keeping brethren were making, and 

 perhaps are making, at housekeeping. Now, 

 please do not understand me as saying that I 

 have any thing to complain of. Many of these 

 bachelor ranches were neat and tidy. Money 

 enough had been expended — yes. and more too 

 — but yet the place was not a home. I just won- 

 der how these poor fellows can stand it to live 

 so. If there is anybody in the world who might 

 be expected to get weary of life, and think of 

 taking the life that God gave them, it seems to 

 me it would be these people who think them- 

 selves obliged to live amid such surroundings. 

 Again and again in California. Arizona, and 

 other western places, we approached something 

 that looked like a home. When we got nearer, 

 the symptoms I had learned to dread became 

 more and more painfully apparent. No matter 

 how much money is expended, there seemed to 

 be a listless air of death about the whole sur- 

 roundings. It was a shadow of a home without 

 the substance. The life had departed, or else 

 had never been there at all. A ivoman's touch 

 was wanting. Now. friends, it is wrong and it 

 is wicked.* There are thousands of women 

 living alone, with comparatively nothing to 

 do. If you live and die that way. it is just com- 

 mitting a sort of wholesale suicide; for what 

 would be the result if all men followed your ex- 

 ample? Yes. Bro. Wilder, and all the other 

 brethren, clear through from A down to Z, for 

 heaven's sake look up some good woman who 

 will be glad of the chance, and let her bring 

 life and animation into that lonely., deserted 

 hoiue of yours. Do not let that deathlike still- 

 ness hang over the place you call Jiome an 

 hour longer. Remember that Bro. Root himself 

 said it was not right, and God himself said it 

 too, when the human family was first inaugu- 

 rated: "And the Lord Gofi said. It is not good 

 that man should be alone." 



* If our Chinese brethren insist and persist in liv- 

 ing' after that fashion wlien they come to our shores, 

 let them do it — no. no I I wouldn't let them do it. I 

 would tell them that, unless they bring their wives 

 and children, like wliite folks, tliey can not set foot 

 on our shores; and then either make them go back 

 or send by next ship for Mrs. " Jolin Chinaman " to 

 come along and bring the children. — A. I. R. 



