1897 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



247 



It was interesting to note how th(! bees seemed 

 to follow down the wires (without foundation) 

 witn their tins and patches of comb. To secure 

 this result, the wires were first coated with wax. 

 It will be remembered that, in natural-comb 

 building, bees following the comb-guide will 

 build down several patches of comb more or less 

 pear shaped. These different patches, as they 

 enlarge, finally unite, and at the point of junc- 

 ture ther.' are necessarily irregular cells— many 

 of them drone cells. For our use we should 

 greatly prefer full sheets of light brood founda- 

 tion on wires, and then every cell is uniform, 

 leaving little chance for the rearing of drones. 



FAIR CRITICISMS AND SLURS. 



Referring to foundation made without any 

 side wall, as mentioned in atiother column, the 

 machine for making which we made, Mr. T. F. 

 Bingham says: 



A macliine that will do such work is a great credit 

 totlie maker of it. Figs do not ijiow on tliistles. 

 Ttie man or firm of men using capital and talent in 

 development of enterpriser that are for tlie gt)od of 

 all and tlie iniuryor none should be recognized 

 witliuut a battle. T. F. Bingham. 



Far well. Mien. 



This is as generous as it is kind; for it must 

 be remembered that Mr. Bingham differed with 

 us in regard to the policy of putting out the 

 new drawn foundation. But such a spirit as is 

 manifested above will readily yield, if wrong to, 

 reason and to the developments of the future. 

 Almost the same sentiment has been put forth 

 by Mr. Hutchinson, who thinks or did think as 

 Mr. B. Such sentiments stand out in marked 

 contrast to the uncalled-for statements in the 

 Progressive Bee-keeper. We are willing to 

 meet fair criticisms, but prefer to ignore, as a 

 rule, any thing else. 



CALIFORNIA HONEY- ADULTERATION LAW. 



A LAW, a good stiff one, has recently been en- 

 acted in California, to prohibit the adultera- 

 tion of honey. It is very specific, defining the 

 meaning of extracted honey, and what shall be 

 construed as adulteration. It would be a good 

 one for other Slates not now in possession of 

 such a law. Here is the text: 



Section 1. No person shall, within this State, 

 manufacture for sale, offer lor sale, or sell any ex- 

 tracted honey whi' h is adulterated by iheadmi.\ture 

 therewith of either rt fined or commercial glucose, 

 or any other substance or substances, article or ar- 

 ticles, which may in any manner affect the purity 

 of the liouey. 



Section 2. Every person manufacturing, expos 

 ing, or ottering for sale, or delivering to a purchas- 

 er, any extracted honey, shall furnish to any per- 

 son interested, or demanding the same, who shall 

 apply to him for the purpose, and tender him the 

 value of the same, a sample sufficient tor the anal- 

 ysis of any such extracted honey which is in his 

 possession. 



Section 3. For the purposes of this Act, " ex- 

 tracted honey" is the tran-formed ne> tar of flowers, 

 which nectar is gathered by the bee from natural 

 sources and is extracted from the comb after it has 

 been stored by the bee. 



Section 4. Whoever violates any of the provis- 

 ions of this Act is guilty of a misdemeanor, and 

 upon conviction thereof shall be fined not less than 



twenty-five nor more than four hundred dollars, or 

 imprisoned in the county jail not less than twenty- 

 five days nor more than .si.\' months, or both such 

 fine and imprisonineut. And any person found 

 guilty of manufacturing, offering for sale, or sell- 

 ing any adulterated honey under the provisions of 

 this Act, may, in the disciftion of the court, be ad- 

 judged to pay. ill addition to the penalties hereinbe- 

 fore provided for, all nec^^sary costs and expenses, 

 not to exceed fifty deiUars, incurred in anatjzing 

 such adulterated honey, of which such person may 

 have been found guilty of manufacturing, selling, 

 or offering for sale. 



Section 5. This act shall be in force and take ef- 

 fect from and after its passage. 



SELLING THE NAMES OF BEE-KEEPERS A BAD 

 POLICY. 



The selling of the names of bee- keepers, I 

 firmly believe, is bad policy, and decidedly 

 detrimental to bee-keepers. We once sold the 

 names of catalog applicants; but we discontin- 

 ued the practice years ago. Since Bro. Hutch- 

 inson has begun selling his list of names I 

 notice that several snide commission houses 

 have got hold of them, and are sending out 

 their circulars, and, of course, some bee-keep- 

 ers bite, and get badly bitten in return. It is 

 truly astonishing to note the number of fake 

 commission houses that have started up in the 

 last year or so, and they all seem to make a 

 specialty of honey. The first thing they try to 

 do is to secure a list of bee-keepers. They 

 get in all the honey they can, sell it, and per- 

 haps skip the country, the same asWheadon did. 

 There are several other mushroom concerns 

 that probably contemplate the same tactics. 

 If they could not secure the names of bee-keep- 

 ers for love nor money, they probably could not 

 bait their suckers so easily. There is no harm 

 in selling names to reliable well-known bee- 

 keepers, but I believe it would be wise for Mr. 

 Hutchinson not tu sell tu outsiders. 



The readers of bee- journals, I believe, are 

 not very often caught; for I have before me 

 the names of two bce-keeper.-> who are not sub- 

 scribers to our paper, and 1 should judge they 

 do not take any paper devoted to bees. They 

 have shipped their honey, large lots of it, to 

 these people. On referring the names of the 

 parties to us we can not find that they are even 

 mentioned in Dun or Bradstreet. One party 

 we had Uun hunt up. He finally found him in 

 New York, after considerable search. Liis 

 record is crooked, and, after getting in debt in 

 one town, he goes to another, and now he is 

 operating in New York. 



It takes almost no capital, you know, to go 

 into the commission business. A few dollars 

 will pay for the rent of a room or two, a few 

 dollars more for stationery with a high-sound- 

 ing name, plenty of cheek, and just enough 

 knowledge of law to evade it. On this basis 

 some rascals do a thriving business. We have 

 said so much about crooked ways that I am 

 afraid it will get to be an old chestnut; but it 

 seems very necessary to keep harping, for occa- 

 sionally a subscriber to a bee-paper is caught. 



