892 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15 



very simple law would cover the whole 

 question. 



Now let me get back to the comb-honey 

 story, pure and simple. It seems almost in- 

 credible that intelligent people should be- 

 lieve such an astounding yarn; yet I know 

 that, in the towns and cities of the United 

 States, almost everybody has heard the sto- 

 ry and believes it. Probably honey would 

 sell in the United States at European prices 

 if it were not for this pernicious yarn. How 

 to overcome this evil is not easy to tell, but 

 something can be done. When I resided in 

 New York the Brooklyn Eagle, one of the 

 greatest of American daily papers, and said 

 to be immensely wealthy, printed the story, 

 with variations. It stated that comb honey 

 was regularly made in Brooklyn, in the 

 neighborhood of a certain street. I thought 

 of getting up a case for myself, and con- 

 sulted two friends who are eminent lawyers. 

 One was legal counselor to the Manhattan 

 Elevated Railway Co., and the other now oc- 

 cupies a place as a judge in an important 

 New York court. Both said there was little 

 hope of doing any thing, for several rea- 

 sons, one of which was that the newspapers 

 invariably carried their cases from one court 

 to the next till opponents got wearied with 

 the fighting. Now, the Eagle is one of the 

 most reputable of American dailies, and St. 

 Clair McKelway, one of the most prominent 

 ethical writers in the United States, its edi- 

 tor. The article, too, was written by "a 

 very reliable reporter." Now, what can be 

 done? The story keeps spreading. Cham- 

 bers' Journal, one of the oldest and most 

 reputable of English magazines, says comb 

 honey is regularly made by machinery; and 

 Nature, the most widely read and probably 

 the best scientific paper in the whole world, 

 says the same thing. It is clear that this 

 story has gone too far. There is a craving 

 for stories of this kind, or papers would not 

 publish them. To illustrate, I have before 

 me a copy of the Standard Magazine, in 

 which is an article advising ladies to keep 

 pet animals, and is quite beautifully illus- 

 trated; but underneath the first cut of a 

 beautiful specimen of a Scotch fantail pig- 

 eon appear the words ' ' Pouter Pigeon, ' ' an 

 entirely different sort of bird. Of course, 

 the article is misleading. Pigeon-fanciers 

 will tell you the newspapers constantly con- 

 fuse two entirely different birds— the carrier 

 pigeon, which never leaves its coop, and the 

 homing and Antwerp, which carry little pel- 

 lets of tissue paper for hundreds of miles. 

 Dog-fanciers also complain of the newspaper 

 talk aJooMt fierce bloodhounds, when German 

 mastiffs are meant. It would be a good 

 thing if we could compel newspapers to tell 

 the exact truth, but we can't. 



Is there no remedy for this evil, when 

 even so reliable a paper as t\\e Ladies' Home 

 Journal, with so great a personage as Dr. 

 Mary E. Walker to stand sponsor, baptizes 

 the comb-honey canard anew? Dr. Walker 

 is, no doubt, an authority on babies ; but 

 this one is no baby, for it has gone the 

 rounds of the press for more than 21 years. 



Does she suppose for one minute the Amier- 

 ican epicures would eat a horrible mix ur" < f 

 paraffine, glucose, and sulphuric acid? And 

 yet this is precisely what she claims ihey 

 do. Should she run for the presidency I 

 pray for her defeat. The editor of Glean- 

 ings says the Ladies' Home Journal is all 

 right. So it is; but is it not the same jour- 

 nal which employs Mrs. Rorer, of culinary 

 fame? If so, bee-keepers have no great 

 reason to be proud of said journal. Ladies 

 seem to be nearly as bad as men in misrep- 

 resenting us. 



Not so long ago, Heinz, the pickle-man of 

 Pittsburgh, sent one of his lady experts to 

 the West Indies to demonstrate the superi- 

 ority of his specialties. As I knew the 

 Heinz factory long ago I called to hear the 

 lady dilate on the various preparations; but 

 happening to have a bea.utiful sample of 

 comb honey in my hand she at once chal- 

 lenged me about it, asking me if I had a 

 factory for making the same, telling me 

 there was a factory of the kind in Pitts- 

 burgh, and intimating she had actually seen 

 it at work. I got her cornered, however, 

 when I stated I was fairly well acquainted 

 with the Smoky City, and would be glad to 

 be favored with the address of the factory in 

 question. Here she refused to say any more 

 on the subject. But Mr. Heinz would hard- 

 ly like it if we bee-keepers were to return 

 the compliment. 



Why all this misrepresentation of the bee 

 and honey industry? The answer is very 

 simple. All industries, more or less, suffer 

 from misrepresentation by newspapers. Just 

 ask some one engaged in any particular line 

 if his industry does not suffer more or less 

 from this evil. For example, many people 

 in New York believe that eggs are regular- 

 ly made by machinery. Understanding all 

 this we shall be better able to get a true so- 

 lution for our dilemma. People read, and 

 read any thing. Bee-keeping is a mystei'i- 

 ous business to many. Let us take these 

 people into our confidence. 



The A. I. Root Co., G. B. Lewis Co., Fal- 

 coner Mfg. Co., and all the other makers of 

 sections hold the matter pretty much in 

 their own hands. Let them print a direct 

 refutation of the comb-honey canard on eve- 

 ry section they make. Something like this 

 ought to be stated: 



Whereas it has been stated by many newspapers that 

 honey in the comb is being regularly made by machin- 

 ery, and palmed off on the public as real comb honey, 

 the National Bee-keepers' Association wishes to state 

 that no such thing has ever been done. Furthermore, 

 the said Association offers $1000 for the first sample of 

 artificial honey in the comb. The honey and wax con- 

 tained in this box are. therefore, fully guaranteed to be 

 the work of bees, and all dealers will be fully protected 

 in court of law if necessary. 



Figure to yourself the effect of fifty mil- 

 lions of sections, with this announcement 

 printed thereon. The editor might let us 

 know what it would cost to have this done. 



It has always seemed to me that honey 

 should command about the same price as 

 butter; and if it were not for a certain lack 

 of confidence we could get it. It seems, 



