(pT£> OLDEST BEE PAPERS 



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DEVOTED TO SCIENTIFIC BEE-CULTURE AND THE PRODUCTION AND SALE OF PURE HONEY. 



VOL. XVII. 



CHICAGO, ILL., FEBRUARY 16, 1881. 



No. 7. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS G. NEWMAN, 



Editor and proprietor, 

 974 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 



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For the American Bee Journal. 



A General Law is Needed. 



G. W. DEMAREE. 



I regard the remarks of the editor of 

 the American Bee Journal, relative 

 to the common practice of adulterating 

 the food and drink of the people, to be 

 "timely" in every sense of the word. 

 It is highly gratifying to know that we 

 have a man at the head of our favorite 

 bee paper who cannot be bribed by the 

 hope of gain, nor driven by the horde of 

 adulterators, their aiders and abettors, 

 from the path of duty. This is no tri- 

 fling matter to deal with. The adulte- 

 lators have grown rich, and become 

 securely intrenched while the people 

 have slept. They can control legisla- 

 tures, and make Congress itself gentle 

 as fawns at their feet. This may be a 

 humiliating confession, but it is never- 

 theless true. 



The people, after their long nap, be- 

 gin to rise and " shake themselves," 

 but, like the strong man of old, their 

 locks have been shorn and their strength 

 is gone. I doubt very much whether 

 any law can be framed and enacted that 

 will prove equal to the task of driving 

 these scoundrels from their nefarious 

 practice of tampering with everything 

 that is capable of being adulterated. 



The editor has referred to the statuto- 

 ry law of Kentucky, framed especially 

 in the interest of the bee-keepers of the 

 State. We have such a law in Ken- 

 tucky, and to most people it would seem 

 to be everything that could be asked. 

 It speaks out plainly in unmistakable 

 words, and attaches a severe penalty : 

 but it is nevertheless a dead-letter — dead 

 as an Egyptian mummy. There is per- 

 haps ten gallons of that vile emanation 

 of satan— glucose— labeled and sold as 

 " pure strained honey," to one gallon of 

 the pure article, Not in Louisville 

 alone is this imposition carried on, but 

 I have seen it in the interior of the State 

 —right in sight of my apiary, and in 

 competition with its products. 



It will doubtless be asked why the law 



is not executed ? Simply because the 

 law contains no provision by which it 

 can be executed. The Commonwealth 

 of Kentucky, in order to make good a 

 charge of violation of her laws, must 

 prove the charge against the accused, 

 and he must be tried before a jury of his 

 country men, and not one juryman in a 

 hundred (however intelligent he might 

 be in other matters) would know glu- 

 cose from "Adam's off ox." Hence the 

 proof must be furnished by " expert 

 testimony," and where are you to get 

 an " expert" every time he is needed, 

 unless provided by law ? It appears to 

 me that right here will be found the 

 great problem to be solved. Any law 

 that does not protect the interests of the 

 whole people against the counterfeiters, 

 and does not embrace a rigid system of 

 inspection by which the law can be exe- 

 cuted in the simplest manner, will, in 

 my opinion, amount to but little in the 

 end. But the thing is possible, and 

 should be tried and tried again, till 



etc. I thank the Doctor for those timely 

 words ; and also thank Mr. Scudder, 

 for bravely speaking out as he does in 

 the same issue. 

 Christiansburg, Ky. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Improvement in Bees. 



L. R. JACKSON. 



I am glad to see the subject of im- 

 provement in bees discussed and hope 

 it will receive still more attention. I 

 was not long a bee-keeper till I dis- 

 covered that some of my bees were far 

 more valuable than others, and deter- 

 mined to try and improve my stock. 

 At that time I had but one imported 

 queen, she being of the dark variety. 

 I was rearing all of my queens from her, 

 and from what I had read believed we 

 should breed from no other. I bought 

 another imported one to cross the blood. 



Italian Worker Bee — magnified. 



such a law is made available. At any 

 rate, all these adulterators should be 

 classed with thieves and robbers in all 

 the statute books in the United States. 

 In the meantime, however, the people 

 must be educated to know the true from 

 the false, and when this is done much 

 will be done to drive the false " stuff " 

 out of the market, and thus break down 

 the counterfeiters. But it should be 

 borne in mind that the saying of " one 

 of old," who knew whereof he affirmed, 

 that "a man's foes shall be they of his 

 own house," is true in more than one 

 respect. Some of the bee papers have 

 held up the hands of the adulterators 

 by advertising for them and selling their 

 abominations, and even educating the 

 people how to mix table syrups with 

 glu — ' ' grape sugar. " The people ought 

 to be educated to give such papers (in 

 the language of the Rev. Mr. Clarke) a 

 good "letting alone." 



Dr.Brown's article in the Journal of 

 the 19th January is a complete refuta- 

 tion of the assertions of some who have 

 interestedly published to the world that 

 "honey is composed of grape sugar," 



She was of the light variety, and her 

 bees better honey gatherers than the 

 dark. The next year I reared all my 

 queens from the light colored, and was 

 delighted with their beauty, but found 

 that the workers from these young 

 queens were not as good as those from 

 the dark, and I now determined to try 

 a few queens from my home-bred and 

 selected the one that had given the best 

 results the previous year, which was of 

 the dark race, and run them in this way 

 to the third generation, always selecting 

 the best. The results have been very 

 satisfactory to me. The best queen I 

 | now have is of the third generation, and 

 i of the dark variety, with every appear- 

 i ance of a cross from the light, as the 

 bees are of a much lighter color than 

 the others. This colony gave me 28 lbs. 

 more comb honey than any other— the 

 average being 23 lbs., and I And it runs 

 clear back to the imported, all the time 

 gaining. 



Prof. Cook thinks as soon as we cease 

 importing queens, we will find our api- 

 aries deteriorating. I will admit, if we 

 keep up the dollar-queen business this 



will be so. He gives as a reason for 

 this, the severe pruning of nature, on 

 account of the limited pasturage. We 

 must, of course attend to this pruning, 

 even with a more rigid hand than nature. 

 He says color and beauty are of no ac- 

 count with them ; neither should it be 

 with us. He says if Mr. Benton had 

 not fed he would have lost all his bees. 

 Here is a great trouble with the im- 

 ported queens, they now come on the 

 list with our dollar-queens ; they are 

 kept and used for the money there is in 

 selling queens, not for their honey- 

 gathering qualities. I will say here, 

 that I do not believe it will pay any one 

 to make this severe pruning for the pur- 

 pose of rearing queens at one dollar 

 each, and I would not advise any one to 

 buy one of these cheap queens, though 

 I do not doubt that there are many good 

 queens sold for one dollar, yet there are 

 so very many that are entirely worthless 

 as honey-gatherers. I would rather pay 

 some reliable person So for a queen that 

 I knew had been reared only for her 

 honey-gathering and amibility, than to 

 risk one of these cheap queens as a gift. 



Another reason I would give for home- 

 bred queens is that they have become 

 acclimated to our country, which I be- 

 lieve to be very essential. When I take 

 into consideration that there is not one 

 of my neighbor bee-keepers that ob- 

 tained over 12 lbs. of honey from their 

 best colonies, while I obtained 63 from 

 1 colony, and averaged 23, 1 cannot help 

 thinking that I have been well paid for 

 all my pruning. 



The past season had been a very poor 

 one for honey in this section of the 

 country. Many of the bees did not 

 gather enough honey to winter on, and 

 fully one-third are already dead. I do 

 not believe one-half will survive the 

 winter. One man had 15 colonies, and 

 they are all dead. Many are becoming 

 discouraged in the business, and will 

 make no effort next year, although I 

 look for a good season and have made 

 arrangements for it, and if I am disap- 

 pointed, I know I will be paid for my 

 trouble in the pleasure I find in keep- 

 ing and working with them. My bees 

 are in good condition, and are winter- 

 ing well so far. I packed them in chaff 

 on their summer stands, in October, and 

 was ready for winter when it came. 



Fairland. Ind., Jan. 13, 1881. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Riding the Billows. 



w. J. DAVIS. 



"When smooth old ocean and each storm asleep, 

 Then ignorance may plow the watery deep; 

 But when the demons of the tempest rave. 

 Skill must conduct the vessel through the wave." 



It is equally true that the strongest 

 craft, manned by the most skillful mar- 

 iners, cannot resist every storm that 

 lashes the ocean. The present may well 

 be called trying times for the bee-keep- 

 ers of the United States, a poor honey 

 season, followed by a rigorous winter. 

 Experienced and judicious apiaristS; in 

 view of the stinted yield of honey that 

 came with the flowers of 1880, and the 

 presence of that abominable stuff, (the 

 product of plant lice), could apprehend 

 trouble ahead. Like Job's war-horse, 

 "they snuffed the battle from afar," or 

 like the skillful mariner began to light- 

 en up ship, by doubling up colonies, and 

 with the free use of brimstone, giving 

 the stores thus elect to the colonies, 

 hoping that a poor summer for honey 



