1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



415 



it is not safe to determine a variety by the 

 seed alone unless the characteristics be very 

 clearly defined, and are representative of one 

 of the species. 



Catalpa ovata (Kaempferii) is a Japanese 

 species, but has not been grown very generally 

 in this country. The flowers have a yellow- 

 ish cast which in itself is sufficient for identi- 

 fication of the species. The fruit-pods are 

 very long and very slender. The seeds have 

 the appearance of very much reduced speci- 

 osa seeds. 



The seeds which Dr. Webley sent are of 

 the speciosa type. He should be able to deter- 

 mine for a certainty from the aboVe descrip- 

 tion whether they are speciosa or not, in 

 which case he will need no other seed. 

 There is but little of the catalpa seed grown 

 in this part of the country, and all I know 

 of is spoken for. 



C. W. Waid, Ass't Horticulturist. 



Wooster, O. 



HOW TO CATCH HONEY-THIEVES. 



Don't Advertise a Reward, but Get out a Search 

 Warrant and Search for the Stolen Property. 



BY ELIAS FOX. 



I should like to reply to G. M. Ames, page 

 1161. I am of the opinion the only good to 

 be derived from putting up a siyn offer- 

 ing a reward for the capture and conviction 

 of thieves would be to attract attention and 

 encourage this class of people, as they could 

 say, "Well, I will show him I can disregard 

 that sign and not get caught." There is 

 one thing certain — any one doing th's kind of 

 work is going to do it in such a manner that 

 there will be no one to squeal on him, and 

 he won't be foolish enough to tell of it so he 

 could be informed upon from this source. 

 As Mr. Ames is at a loss to know what to 

 do, for his and others' future benefit I would 

 say, have a search warrant issued, and plac- 

 ed in the hands of a competent officer, and 

 search all suspected premises. You will 

 doubtless say, " What proof have we, should 

 we find honey on the premises searched?" 

 If an officer is on to his job he will get a 

 confession out of the guilty parties. As an 

 explanation I will cite you a similar case we 

 had here two years ago. An implement- 

 dealer here in the village had bought a dressed 

 hog, and had it upstairs in the warehouse, 

 and the door locked every night. One Sunday 

 morning he had occasion to go upstairs, and 

 found the staple drawn and the meat gone. 

 I being a deputy sheriff he came to me and 

 asked what he should do. I told him if he 

 would have a search warrant issued on Mon- 

 day morning I thought I could find his meat; 

 so, with little faith, he had the warrant is- 

 sued on Monday morning, and handed it to 

 me with the remark, " If you find that meat 

 you are a dandy." I had thrfe names of 

 suspected parties put on the warrant, and 

 iri the second house I visited I found a small 

 piece of meat, but could not identify it, and 

 at the third house I found two stone jars 



tucked away in the corner of a small pantry, 

 packed full of pork, covered nicely with 

 brine, and jars covered with large din- 

 ner-plates, and a ham of meat on a shelf 

 from which they were cutting fresh steaks. 

 The meat in jars, to all appearances, had 

 been packed for a month. I unpacked it 

 and cut the largest piece in two, and cut a 

 small piece out of the center of it, and tast- 

 ed it, and it was slightly salted through. 

 When questioned as to where he got it he 

 stated that he got it from a certain farmer 

 four miles out of town. I got the owner of 

 the meat, but he could not identify it. It 

 was then 11 a.m.; so, after dinner, I hitched 

 up my team and drove out to see the farm- 

 er, but could get nothing definite from him, 

 but I could see the trend of his story. Be- 

 ing forty miles from the county seat I 

 phoned to the district attorney and laid all 

 the facts before him, and he thought the 

 fact of our not being able to identify the 

 meat would not warrant us in making an 

 arrest. Regardless of this, I was satisfied I 

 had the right party, so Tuesday morning I 

 had a subpoena issued for the farmer in 

 question, and went out and brought him in. 

 I had him sworn, and he testified that the 

 suspected party had come to his place, cross 

 lots, just before I reached there, the day 

 before, and told him he stole this meat, and 

 wanted him to swear that he sold it to him; 

 but he told him if there was any honorable 

 way he would aid him, otherwise if he was 

 put under oath he would testify to the truth. 

 Then I had a warrant issued, and arrested 

 the suspect, and he confessed before I 

 reached the justice's office with him, plead 

 guilty, and paid his fine and costs. So I 

 say, when crimes of this kind are perpetrat- 

 ed, and we have good reasons for suspecting 

 any one, instead of setting down and putting 

 up scarecrow notices, get after them; get 

 the right parties, and convict them, and thus 

 hold them up as an example for others, and 

 I will guarantee there will be no more honey 

 stolen from your yard. Elias Fox. 



Hillsboro, Wis., Dec. 26. 



[In some localities the putting-up of a re- 

 ward of $100 for the arrest and conviction 

 of thieves would work very well. It has 

 served a most excellent purpose at our out- 

 yards. Prior to the putting-up of these 

 signs we had some trouble, but that has now 

 entirely disappeared. In other localities it 

 would, perhaps, be best not to advertise the 

 fact, but proceed on the plan of a search- 

 warrant as described. I remember there 

 was some petty thieving done in our town 

 some years ago. An officer, armed with a 

 search warrant, made a general search and 

 very soon located all the stolen goods. As a 

 result, the holder of them served time in 

 the penitentiary. 



Extracted honey and a good deal of comb 

 honey could be so changed in form of pack- 

 age, perhaps, as to make its sure identifica- 

 tion very difficult if not impossible. If each 

 of the individual sections were stamped 

 (which, as a rule, they are not) it might 

 then be easy to prove ownership. —Ed.] 



