JUNE 15, 1916 



possibly using honey, the extensive adver- 

 tising of the A. I. Root Company in plac- 

 ing honey in families where it has never 

 been before is doing its part. Many, some 

 of whom are competitoi's, are hoping that 

 the Root Company will continue its cam- 

 paign of advertising honey. 



How European Foul Brood Spreads; 

 a Plausible Explanation 



In this issue, page 479, Mr. Allen Latham, 

 an unsuall}^ close and careful observer, has 

 an article that is worth a careful reading — 

 not only on the part of one who has Euro- 

 pean foul brood but the one who may get it, 

 and the latter class is by no means small. 

 His theory, that the spread of the disease 

 may come thru an infected water supply 

 from the fecal discharges of nurse bees 

 from diseased hives, may have something in 

 it. It is vei-y clear that European foul 

 brood does not spread in quite the same way 

 that American does. If Mr. Latham's the- 

 ory* can be proven to be correct, it will help 

 us materially in combating the disease. 



That the disease can be held in control, or 

 cured by the introduction of a mild acid in 

 the food supply, does not seem quite so 

 plausible in view of the fact that liberal 

 feeding without medication or a good hon- 

 ej'-flow will nearly always cheek European 

 foul brood, and sometimes cure it. How- 

 ever, the plan is worth tiying. Possibly the 

 bacteriologist under Dr. Phillips could de- 

 tej-mine whether a mild acid is destructive 

 to the Bacillus pliiton that is the cause of 

 European foul brood. 



Exaggeration in Advertising; a U. S. Su- 

 preme Court Decision 



Every now and then an advertiser, while 

 giving value received, in order to get busi- 

 ness will make extravagant claims. Not 

 long ago an advertiser in our columns made 

 claims concerning his queens that we re- 

 garded as extravagant and imjjossible, and 

 we wrote him, requesting that he remove the 

 objectionable feature ; but he demurred. We 

 insisted, and he finally complied. We were 

 uncertain at the time whether we had the 

 legal right to withdraw the objectionable 

 sentence; but we came to the conclusion 

 that Ave would stand damages if necessary. 



We now learn that the Supreme Court of 

 the United States has handed down a deci- 

 sion to the effect that an advertiser is guilty 

 of fraud if by exaggerated advertising he 

 secures business, even tho he gives value 

 received. For example, a real-estate agent 



467 



may make certain plausible but impossible 

 claims concerning the productiveness of 

 lands he advertises. He makes sales, and 

 the properties are worth the price paid for 

 them. But according to the Supreme Court 

 it is a fraud if that tidverliser makes exag- 

 gerated claims that are not true, and a 

 fraud order may be issued against him, 

 shutting him out from the mails even tho 

 the price charged is fair. 



The Rural Xeiu-Yorker, in commenting 

 on this decision, says, " It certainly squares 

 with common honesty and decency in busi- 

 ness transactions. Too many otherwise per- 

 fectly honorable concerns consider they are 

 licensed to make all sorts of unwarrantable 

 claims in their advertising so long as they 

 are giving fair value for the money they 

 received. We are glad to see the Supreme 

 Court put the stamp of dishonesty on un- 

 warranted advertising claims." 



We hereby give notice to our advertisers 

 that we shall exercise our discretion in re- 

 moving objectionable statements — .state- 

 ments which, in our judgment, are calculat- 

 ed to catch customers, even tho those cus- 

 tomers receive full value for their money. 



Granulation of Comb' Honey ; the Re- 

 sults of an Experiment Covering 

 Three Months 



We believe it is a generally recognized 

 fact that honey, either comb or extracted, 

 if subjected to variable temperature will 

 granulate more readily than the same honey 

 kept at a constant temperature, either high 

 or low. It has also been proven beyond 

 question that a cold atmosphere is much 

 more conducive for making honey go into a 

 solid state than a warm one. 



To demonstrate the first proposition, we 

 made up a case containing a few sections 

 from the West, a few from the middle West, 

 and a few from the East, of clover honey. 

 The lot was put indoors and outdoors every 

 day beginning Feb. 1 until last week. Re- 

 sults : One of the samples gTanulated solid ; 

 the other two remained entirely free from 

 granulation. Contrary to expectations, the 

 two last named did not granulate iu 

 spite of the extremes of temperature during 

 the February, March, and April weather 

 almost down to zero at times, and up to 80 

 or 90 at night. This puzzled us not a little 

 until we remembered that tliose three lots 

 of honey had been keot prior to that time 

 and continuously at a temperature of 90 

 F., since the first of November. That high 

 temperature, without any variation, had put 

 the honey in a state where any subsequent 



