250 



THE A3fEBICAN APICULTURIST. 



prevent injury to the cloth ; then to 

 simply cover the entrances with the 

 cloth. These as I then thought 

 were all that were needed, viz., 

 honey, water and plenty of air ; but 

 you note that my experience in this 

 proved another equally important 

 preparation, — room for exercise, — 

 and this was given in the cases that 

 proved this fact by their having room 

 between the frames and the wire 

 covering to fly at will. 



It has been often asked me if I 

 thought it advisable to ship bees 

 from southern Florida to the north 

 early in the spring, in order that one 

 may get an early start here, and 

 while I think we might profit by 

 adopting a method of strengthening 

 our winter stock with young bees, if 

 it be done at the proper time and 

 under the best condition, yet as they 

 begin their brood-rearing very ac- 

 tively in February and keep the same 

 up until the time when, if shipped 

 here it would be necessary to have 

 them sent, it is evident that it is only 

 the most prolific queen that can keep 

 up this necessary work through the 

 season that we should require them 

 to be doing their best. 



I think, however, that queen- 

 rearers might through the proper 

 means be able to furnish queens 

 considerably earlier than they are 

 doing at a very little expense, iDut of 

 this I must ask your readers to either 

 try it themselves or wait upon the 

 result of my own experiments in this 

 direction. 



Laiisingbitrgh, N. V. 



For the American Apiculturist. 



ADULTERATED BONEY. 



C. M. GOODSPEED. 



PROF. Wiley's report criticised. 

 In the report of the Commission 

 of Agriculture for the year 1885, in 

 the chemists' report (pages no and 



in), will be found a classified anal- 

 ysis of forty-three samples of honey 

 from different parts of the union. 

 Out of the forty-three samples, twenty- 

 eight are classed as adulterations, 

 viz. : seven samples " adulterated 

 with starch sirup ;" four "apparently 

 adulterated with sucrose," and sev- 

 enteen samples " apparently adulter- 

 ated with inverted sucrose." This 

 is what our government chemist, 

 H. W. Wiley, says, in his report to 

 the Committee of Agriculture, which 

 report has been printed and scattered 

 among the most influential classes, 

 to the enormous extent of 310,000 

 copies. Can you wonder that people 

 suspect adulteration, especially when 

 it can so easily be accomplished as 

 in extracted honey. But nine of 

 these twenty-eight adulterated sam- 

 ples are denominated comb honey 

 in the report. Friends, this is a bad 

 showing ; if it be true, it cannot do 

 otherwise than hurt our industry. 

 Coming from the source it does, it 

 will be held by many as being true 

 beyond a shadow of a doubt. But 

 to my mind there are chances for 

 mistakes. May not different flora 

 produce honey with its constituent 

 parts varying largely? In other 

 words let me ask. Will an analysis al- 

 ways tell when honey is adulterated ? 

 It doesn't seem possible that twenty- 

 eight out of forty-three of our bee- 

 keepers would adulterate their honey 

 and I don't believe they do either. 

 There must be a mistake somewhere. 

 I think if friend Wiley's attention 

 were called to the matter, he could 

 give us some light on the subject. 

 In a note apart from the tables, he 

 allows us to think he has a doubt 

 about the adulteration of some sam- 

 ples he has classed in the tables as 

 " apparently adulterated," etc. Now 

 if those twenty-eight samples were 

 adulterated (beyond a doubt), it is 

 time for beekeepers to take the mat- 

 ter in hand in dead earnest. Or 

 even the seven samples which he says 

 without "ifs or ands," were "adulter- 



