JANUARY 15, 1914 



43 



leaving the colony severely alone, allowing 

 several days to elapse after the queen is 

 supposed to have emerged from her cage. 

 Repeatedly have we seen queens balled that 

 had been out of the hive only a few hours. 

 Naturally enough, she is shy, and the act of 

 opening the new hive frightens her the more. 

 If she starts to I'un, or skulks, and especially 

 if she pipes or squeals, she invites attack, 

 with the result that she is promptly balled. 

 Yeare ago, when we were rearing queens, 

 and introducing, we found so many cases of 

 balling immediately after opening the liive 

 that we concluded it was a bad practice. 

 Now, then, to return : 



If Mr. Miller figures in the class of be- 

 ginners who will tinker with their bees too 

 much while the process of introducing is 

 going on, the loss may be as gTeat as 40 per 

 cent; but we do not believe that, with the 

 experienced beekeeper, it will be over 10 per 

 cent. We remember one large producer or- 

 dered 100 queens. He ■wi'ote back and ordered 

 ten more queens after he had introduced the 

 hundred, saying he had bad luck. He had 

 lost ten queens by the cage plan, and he 

 wanted ten more. He intimated that some 

 of the queens might have been old virgins, 

 and if that were true it would account for 

 his failure. 



AN IMPORTANT CASE OF HONEY ADULTERA- 

 TION W^ON BY THE GOVERNMENT. 



When the new pure-food law went into 

 effect, and later the pure-food laws in the 

 various States, the adulterations of honey, 

 particularly with glucose, were stopped or 

 almost entirely so. Prior to that time a large 

 part of the bottled honey on the market put 

 out by the packing-houses was adulterated 

 with glucose, and there was no way to stop 

 it. In the mean time the honest beekeeper 

 had to compete with this cheap twangy 

 stuff; and as the grocer could buy the glu- 

 cose mixtures for less money, the beekeeper 

 was given a poor show. But since the en- 

 actment of the national pure-food law 

 (thanks to Dr. Wiley) glucose adulteration 

 has, to a great extent, ceased. To some ex- 

 tent cane-sugar syrup has been used as an 

 adulterant, but to only a very limited extent, 

 because glucose Avas so much cheaper. As 

 it was comparatively easy to detect the addi- 

 tion of cane sugar or glucose — especially 

 the latter — the honey adulterators were 

 compelled to quit using them or get into 

 trouble with Uncle Sam. 



But later on there came a species of adul- 

 teration that was very difficult to detect. A 

 process had been discovered for making 

 what is called " invert sugar." Although an 

 artificial product, this came very near an- 



swering the chemical tests for a pure honey. 

 The adulterators then saw their opportunity 

 to put invert sugar into honey and sell tlie 

 combination for much less than any pure 

 honey could be sold for. They felt safe 

 from detection because they believed no 

 chemist would positively be able to show up 

 tlie fraud. But it was not long before the 

 Governmfiiit chemists were able to do so, f^-l 

 the adulterators were stopped. Shortly 

 after, however, the chemists of tlie manufac- 

 turers discovered another process for making 

 a new invert sugar that they felt sure would 

 defy the best pure-food chemists of the 

 country, and for a time the Government 

 men were up against a hard proposition. 

 But the Bureau of Chemistry, Washington, 

 D. C, kept busy, and finally discovered sev- 

 eral methods by which even this new invert 

 sugar could be detected when mixed with 

 honey. 



A recent test case before the United States 

 court held in Philadelphia was tried and 

 won by the Government. This is one of the 

 most important cases ever held; and the 

 fact that the Government is now able to 

 detect any form of invert sugar when mixed 

 with honey or any other kind of sweet is 

 going to mean much to the beekeeping in- 

 terests, not only in the United States but to 

 the whole world, for Uneie Sam will see to 

 it that all the chemists are properly inform- 

 ed as to the methods he used in detecting 

 invert-sugar adulteration in honey. 



So important and far reaching was this 

 case that we asked our chemist, Mr. Selser, 

 who was not onlj^ present 'but a witness at 

 the trial, to prepare a technical statement 

 showing the methods that were used by the 

 Government to prove the presence of invert 

 sugar in tlie honey that was seized. Before 

 doing so he shows the difference between the 

 two invert sugars. 



Furfural was so pronounced in the conversion of 

 the dextrose of cane and beet sugar into the first in- 

 vert sugar or levulose and dextrose that Browne & 

 Fehles' chemical tests soon exposed the fraud. The 

 food adulterators soon discovered their mistake. They 

 then, by using a small per cent of tartaric or other 

 acids, and heating at a low temperature, accomplish- 

 ed the inversion without producing any furfural. 

 They now felt they had an invert sugar that the 

 pure-food chemist could not detect from the natural 

 article, honey. They became very bold through the 

 assurance of their chemists. 



About January, 1912, a large syrup and honey 

 company of New York, doing a business of a quar- 

 ter of a million a year in mixing honey, etc., sold and 

 shipped to a Philadelphia dealer in pure honey six 

 cases of what he bought as pure honey, and labeled 

 " Choice Pure Strained Honey." The government 

 officers, waiting for the opportunity, at once seized 

 the shipment as misbranded and adulterated. This 

 New York firm, evidently, were so sure their adul- 

 teration of honey with invert sugar could not be 

 detected that they employed the highest-priced and 

 best corporation lawyers doing a large business in. 



