1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1361 



hearing shall be in private, and shall be con- 

 fined to questions of fact. If it be shown 

 that a mistake has been made, the parties 

 shall be discharged; but if it be sho^^n that 

 he is guilty, the fact will be published, and 

 in addition the offender will be subject to 

 the penalties already mentioned. 



The adulterators of food products fear pub- 

 licity more than any thing else. They do 

 not care so much about a small fine; but 

 Uncle Sam has fixed it so that the law-break- 

 er shall get a big fine, some free advertising, 

 and, in addition, a free ride, perhaps, to 

 prison. No wonder there was a tremendous 

 glucose lobby present to kill or weaken the 

 measure when it was before Congress. No 

 wonder the liquor and patent-medicine peo- 

 ple feared it. 



MISBRANDING, OR LABELING HONEY A8 COM- 

 ING FROM ONE APIARY THAT WAS PRO- 

 DUCED IN ANOTHER. 



Not only is it made a crime against the 

 United States to«misbrand an article of food 

 by putting out a cheap substitute under the 

 name of something better, as, for example, 

 a glucose mixture for honey, but it will also 

 be unlawful to sell a pz/re honey under a la- 

 bel showing that it came from some particular 

 apiary when, as a matter of fact, it was pro- 

 duced in another. Let us take a concrete 

 case: Mr. John Jones has purchased a lot of 

 labels that read "'Pure Honey from the Apia- 

 ry of John Jones. ' ' We will say he has pro- 

 duced 10.000 lbs. of extracted honey. He has 

 a right to use this label on all the honey he 

 produces in his apiary or apiaries, but on no 

 other, hotoever ])urc. He builas up a big 

 trade, and there is more demand for his goods. 

 His 10,000 lbs. of his own production is all 

 gone. He goes out into the open market and 

 buys more honey of the same source, no bet- 

 ter and no worse than he produces in his 

 own yard; but if he uses the same label to 

 put out this honey he will be rendering him- 

 self liable if I imderstand the law. It is true 

 no chemist could ever show whether the hon- 

 ey bearing such labels was produced in his 

 apiary or not; but other evidence might show 

 a misbranding, and our Mr. Jones would be 

 up against Uncle Sam in a way that would 

 kill him before his old trade. 



The law does not prevent him, however, 

 from adopting a trade label of wider scope 

 reading something like this: "Pure Clover 

 Honey put up by John Jones." Under this 

 label he may sell his own honey and that 

 which he purchases. But just the moment 

 he buys a mountain sage or a pure basswood, 

 and sells it under that label, he will be ren- 

 dering himself liable again. If he desires to 

 have a stock label that will apply to both 

 white, red, and alfalfa clover honey he can 

 use the words "Pure Clover Honey put up 

 by John Jones, ' ' for alfalfa is a clover the 

 same as sweet or red clover. He might, in 

 my opinion, without being liable, put up a 

 blend of white clover and alfalfa; but if he 

 desired to make a blend of clover and bass- 

 wood or sage honey he had better adopt the 

 wording, ' ' Pure Extracted Honey, put up by 



John Jones." In every case, when John 

 Jones buys honey he will do well to require 

 the seller to give him a guarantee of purity. 

 The law is very clear in making it unlaw- 

 ful to represent that a certain food product 

 was produced in any particular State when, 

 as a matter of fact, it came from another State . 

 To illustrate, no more can Ohio eheese be 

 sold as York State cheese. In the same way. 

 Wisconsin honey could not be put up nndber 

 the name of York State honey without ren- 

 dering somebody liable. 



FORM OF GUARANTEE. 



As I have already stated, it is quitye impor- 

 tant that every bee-keeper, when he buys 

 honey from some other bee-keeper, jobber, 

 or dealer, make him give a guarantee of 

 purity. The guarantee suggested is as fol- 

 lows: 



I [we] the undersigned do hereby ^narantee that 

 honey or beeswax shipped, distributed, or sold by me 

 [usl [specifying the same as fully as possible] is not 

 adulterated or misbranded within the meaning of the 

 food and drugs act, June 30, 1906. {Signed in ink.) 



Our customers are asking us to furnish 

 this guarantee, and we in turn are asking 

 those who furnish us honey or beesrs^ax t(j 

 give us the same guarantee. No producer 

 or jobber should hesitate to furnish such a 

 writing: for the moment he hesitates, that 

 moment his goods will be under suspicion. 



GENERAL EFFECT OF THE LAW. 



There are many other provisions of this 

 law; but those ah'eady given are the princi- 

 pal ones that I'elate to bse-keeping. Suffice 

 it to say, its general provisions apply equal- 

 ly to all products, medicines, and Jiquors. 

 No more can a medicine be sold under an in- 

 nocent name and yet contain some powerful 

 poison, unless the exact amount of such poi- 

 son as well as other ingredients be stated on 

 the label. Thousands of people have died as 

 the i-esult of liquor, cocaine, strychnine, and 

 other deadly poisons administered in medi- 

 cines having an innocent name. 



The effect of this provision of the law is 

 going to be to drive a lot of dangerous pro- 

 prietary medicines out of the market. As 

 soon as the dear public knows what these in- 

 nocent-sounding medicines are, it will leave 

 them severely alone, and it ought to. 



This national pure-food law may rope in 

 some innocent bee-keepers and other well- 

 meaning persons; but it is their business to 

 kyww the law, and Gleanings has taken this 

 opportunity to inform them. 



Every pound of honey that one buys of 

 somebody else should be covered by a guar- 

 antee, else the purchaser may assume a great 

 risk; and, further, the label shall not be mis- 

 leading in any manner whatsoever. 



Later: I notice that Chief Chemist Wiley, 

 of the Department of Agriculture, is giving 

 the liquor people a severe jolt No more 

 can they put out mixed liquors without show- 

 ing the character of the mixture on the la- 

 bel. This will help to increase the sobriety 

 of the drinkers, for of all the vile coijooctions 

 a mixed liquor is the most damning. Sure- 

 ly the world does move. 



