1881. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



149 



no equivalent for the money they re- 

 ceive, even if they do not sell an un- 

 wholesome article in their adulterated 

 mixtures? The American peeple may 

 be somewhat slow in reaching results, 

 but how often have we found that they 

 effectually reach them at last V Let 

 laws be made compelling those who 

 manufacture grape sugar and glucose 

 to sell their products for what they are, 

 and forbidding the use of them in adul- 

 terating our commercial sweets, and 

 how long will it be possible for manu- 

 facturers or dealers to make such exor- 

 bitant profits out of a deluded public ? 

 Then if their products are wholesome 

 and have a substantial value.prices will 

 rind their proper level, and the new 

 sweets may be of benefit to the public. 

 L L. Langstkoth. 

 Oxford, O., April, 1S81. 



Oleomargarine and lard-butter are 

 rapidly working their own destruction. 

 While the best medical authorities are 

 attributing the rapid increase of Bright's 

 disease, diabetes, and other complaints 

 incident to the urinary organs to the 

 excessive use of glucose, bogus butter 

 is now charged with giving rise to indi- 

 gestion, cramps, " winter cholera," and 

 even trichina?. The recent legislative 

 investigation in New York has brought 

 to light some interesting statistics, and 

 verified a prediction we made several 

 months ago, that while it was not only 

 a fraud perpetrated upon the uncon- 

 scious consumer, it was an injustice to 

 manufacturers of genuine butter and 

 cheese, and would bring their goods into 

 disrepute. We collate the following 

 from the reports of the investigation : 



The direct injury to the dairy inter- 

 ests of the country was put at $50,000,- 

 000 to $75,000,000 per year. Francis D. 

 Moulton showed that last year 25,000,- 

 000 lbs. of oleomargarine and 28.000,000 

 lbs. of butter were exported from the 

 United States. The committee visited 

 the oleo-grease-butter factories without 

 warning, and found them dirty and of- 

 fensive. Consumption is being greatly 

 curtailed by the fear of oleomargarine and 

 lard butter, and the trade in good butter is 

 much injured. 



C. A. Butler testified that some man- 

 ufacturers made oleomargarine from 

 the fat of offensive meat, and extracted 

 it at a temperature of 150°, which was 

 nearly 100° below the temperature nec- 

 essary to destroy animal lire in fat. He 

 had little faith in the legislative meas- 

 ures to prevent the sale of an adultera- 

 ted article for genuine butter, but 

 thought a small license fee and a penalty 

 of $500 for each offense might do some- 

 thing toward suppressing the adultera- 

 tions. He would compel grocers who 

 dealt in bogus articles to display the 

 sign, "Adulterated butter and cheese 

 sold here." 



Walter Carr testified that an immense 

 amount of lardine or lard butter was 

 disposed of in the New York markets. 

 Not one-hundreth per cent, of the bo- 

 gus articles manufactured is sold for 

 what it is, and grocers sell it at an enor- 

 mous profit for the reason that if they 

 took only a fair profit, customers would 

 suspect the character of the article sold 

 them for butter. Customers, if they 

 knew what they were getting, would 

 not buy it. 



H. K. Thurber, of the firm of H. K. 

 & F. B. Thurber & Co., testified that 

 he is now manufacturing about 2,500 

 tubs of oleomargarine weekly. Last 

 year he exported nearly one-half of his 

 manufacture, but this year only 7 per 

 cent. He branded all his goods as re- 

 quired by law, but was aware that some 

 retail dealers removed this mark when 

 they had the oleomargarine in their 

 possession. 



Of course, there are some persons who 

 do not hesitate to declare that oleomar- 

 garine and lardine are as wholesome 

 and desirable as good butter, and pref- 

 erable to poor butter ; yet they acknow- 

 ledge that it is sold, if at all, underany 

 name but the right one. The fact that 

 glucose and grease-butter have to be 



sold under fictitious names, is argument 

 conclusive that they should be retailed 

 under their right names ; the same is 

 applicable to all food and medicinal 

 adulterations. If a customer asks a 

 grocer for sugar or honey, he should 

 have it, and not a decoction of sulphuric 

 acid and corn-juice; if he buys butter 

 he should have it, and not wagon-grease 

 at butter prices. 



Viewed from a moral standpoint, the 

 whole system of food adulterations and 

 their imposition upon the public is 

 wrong, radically wrong. But if chemi- 

 cal and medical testimony is entitled to 

 any weight, then the moral wrong is 

 transformed into a serious crime. In- 

 stead of feeding our families with 

 wholesome, nutritious food, we are daily 

 administering insidious poisons which, 

 though not merciful enough to cause 

 speedy death, is quite as certain in ac- 

 complishing final destruction. What 

 does it matter whether days, months or 

 years be consumed, if under the guise 

 of legitimate food a nation or race of 

 people may become contaminated, their 

 duration of life shortened, temporary 

 ailments become chronic, and activity 

 and intelligence degenerate into effem- 

 inacy and imbecility, does it relieve the 

 government of its duty in the matter ? 

 Is it not imperative upon Congress to 

 protect the people from national calami- 

 ties V Can Congress ignore the univer- 

 sal demand for protection from imposi- 

 tion, when it has been convincingly 

 demonstrated, time and again, that as a 

 sanitary measure it is absolutely neces- 

 sary ? State Legislatures have nobly 

 attempted a partial reformation, and 

 have ignobly failed. Food adulteration 

 is a National evil, and nothing short of 

 a National law can regulate it. If any 

 imitation is equal in point of excellence 

 to the genuine article, then its manu- 

 facturer or retailer need not fear honest 

 competition under its proper name ; but 

 if it is inferior, then the genuine article 

 should be protected in its superiority, 

 and the purchaser be protected against 

 imposition. 



Correction. — On page 139. in Mr. 

 Boardman's article, 15th line from the 

 top, the word pushed should be perislied; 

 36th line, the word feeding should be 

 fussing. These errors occurred through 

 the oversight of the printer. 



r^" We attended the Central Michi- 

 gan Convention on the 5tb. inst. There 

 were about 100 members present — some 

 8 or 10 being ladies. The Rev. J. W. 

 Ashworth presided and Mr. Geo. L. 

 Perry was secretary, and both were re- 

 elected for tha coming year. Mr. Perry 

 worked faithfully to get up a good 

 meeting, and must have been flattered 

 at his success in that direction. We 

 enjoyed a short but very pleasant visit 

 with Prof. A. J. Cook, well known 

 throughout the apiculturaf world as a 

 scientific and thorough bee-master. A 

 report of this Convention may be ex- 

 pected in our next issue. The Chicago 

 Times of Friday had the following spec- 

 ial telegram : 



Lansing, Mich., May 5.— The Cen- 

 tral Michigan Bee-Keepers' association 

 was in session here to-day. Mr. T. G. 

 Newman, editor of the Bee' Journal, 

 of Chicago, delivered an excellent ad- 

 dress, which caused much enthusiasm. 

 Prof. A. J. Cook, of the Agricultuial 

 Collage, reviewed the subject of winter- 

 ing bees and the causes of disaster. The 

 losses of bees during the past winter by 

 those present amount to 55 per cent. 



LONDON JOURNAL OF HORT. 



Apis Dorsata.— Mr. Alfred Neighbour 

 has translated from the Bienen-Zeitung, 

 a letter from Hern C. J. H.Gravenhorst, 

 on the introduction into Germany of 

 this large bee of Java. Mr. Graven- 

 horst quotes from a letter received* from 

 Mr. Benton concerning his visit to Java 

 to obtain these bees, and also says that 

 he is in correspondence with Dr. Gra- 

 bowsky, a young savant of Prussia, who 

 is going to Borneo to collect insects, 

 plants, etc. The editors of the Beinen- 

 Zietung append the following comments 

 which will be read with interest : 



Mr. Vogel received some very special 

 information about this species of bees 

 direct from India a few years ago, and 

 in his opinion the introduction of the 

 species (not race) would be of great 

 scientific interest, as its hybrid offspring 

 especially would afford bee-keepers 

 some very valuable information. To 

 acclimatize this bee in Germany will be 

 impossible, as coming from the tropics 

 it will not be able to live through our 

 northern winter. This was our expe- 

 rience with Apis fasciata, which dies in 

 the hive when the temperature of the 

 air outside shows from 3° to 5° R. frost, 

 though the walls of the hive may be 

 thick and warm. Nevertheless, in the 

 interest of science we recommend the 

 importation of Apis dorsata, and Mr. 

 Vogel will announce in due course how 

 to make it safely and without difficulty 

 live through the winter. 



There can be no question of any 

 practical importance attending the in 

 traduction of Apis dorsata into Ger- 

 many, but it might be possible to accli- 

 matize it in the Southern States ot the 

 United States of North America. 



GLEANINGS. 



r@° Mr. C. E. Glazier says : " He has 

 lost 70 out of 88 colonies with prospect 

 of losing still more— 50 " spring dwin 

 died." 



rgT Novice says: "I think you are 

 right, friend N., in deciding that good 

 cellars are almost the only sure winter 

 repository in a winter like the past." 



r®" Mr. J. H. Townley, the original 

 chaff-hive man, is disgusted with them, 

 and offers to sell his " 38 chaff-packed 

 wintering hives at a price much below 

 their actual cost." 



i®° Mr. James Heddon says : " Out 

 of -212 colonies, nearly "^ are dead and 

 worthless ; about % were packed with 

 chaff, and Y 2 with sawdust, and shav- 

 ings above. The loss is greater among 

 those packed in chaff, though they be 

 ing in another apiary, it is no test of 

 packing shat we can be sure of." 



Save the Empty Combs.— "Do not let 



your empty combs go to waste. If they 

 are nice ones, do not try them up for 

 wax, either. Look at them often, fum- 

 igate them if the worms get started on 

 them, and save them for another year, 

 if you do not need them all this. I have 

 often saved them over, without a parti- 

 cle of injury." 



Langstroth Frames for Wintering. — 



Mr. II. B. Harrington says : " Facts 

 will show that bees in hives with deep 



frames have died just as badly, if 



not worse, than those in the usual hives 

 (Langstroth frames). Out of 37 hives 



of bees 17 in the American " hives 



and 20 in Langstroth— all died in the 

 American hives but 2, and there were 

 10 in the Langstroth hives that lived." 



"No-rice's" Report.— The following is 

 taken from the department of " Blasted 

 Hopes," in Gleanings for May: 



Started" into winter quarters with 

 about 140 stocks, in chaff hives, well 

 protected, but pretty weak in bees. — 

 During the winter and spring, the 

 queens were, sold out of perhaps 20 of 

 them,' and the bees were put with 

 others. To-day, April 22, I have 12 

 hives with bees in them. Three of the 

 12 are gathering pollen fairly, but the 

 other 9 will pull through, only with the 

 very best kind of weather and c;ire. 

 The cause of the loss, so far as I can 

 tell, is, first, too few bees ; second, that 

 the combs were handled and mixed dur- 

 ing the process of uniting after quei n- 

 rearing, so that the bees had no chain e 

 to build and wax up in old tough combs 

 before the approach of cold weather, as 

 they usually do; third, the long winter, 

 which gave them no good opportunity 

 to fly, tor a period of nearly 6 months. 

 I am not quite sure in my convictions,, 

 from the fact that others lost heavily,, 

 who complied, so far as I can tell, with 

 the first of the above conditions, andi 

 also that some wintered well whose 

 bees were in as bad shape, or nearly so, 

 as mine. Another thing, I do not know 

 why those three fair colonies came out 

 better than almost a hundred others. 

 The above report is for myself, 



A. I. Root, Editor of Gleanings. 



r^-Mr. G. M. Doolittle says: "If 

 this weather keeps up long I shall lose 

 half of my bees that were wintered on 

 the summer stands, packed in chaff. 

 Those in cellars are doing much better." 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



®" By the Eichstadtsche Beinenzietung 

 we learn that a committee has estab- 

 lished itself to erect a monument to the 

 honor of the Baron von Berlepsch, who 

 has done a great deal toward the ad- 

 vancement of modern bee-culture. The 

 monument of marble and metal will 

 cost about $300 v and will be erected in 

 Erfurt, the capital of the Baron's native 

 country. The petition closes with these 

 words: " Honor yourselves, by honor- 

 ing this great dead." 



Timely Hints.— Mrs. L. Harrison, in 

 the Prairie Farmer, gives the following 

 timely hints to novices in bee-culture : 



The last half of April was very favor- 

 able for bees. It was astonishing how 

 much pollen was carried in during; 

 warm, moist days. As there are "but 

 few bees in this locality, besides our 

 own, we feed them diluted honey in the 

 open air, and we never saw them build 

 up faster at this time of the year. The 

 shade trees of the city, such as cotton- 

 wood, box elder, soft and silver-leafed 

 maples, hummed with the music of 

 busy workers. 



As soon as a colony becomes popu- 

 lous, it would be better to remove 

 frames of hatching brood, and give them 

 to weaker colonies than to put on sur- 

 plus boxes. Frames containing worker 

 comb should be put in place of removed 

 brood, and some apiarists claim that it 

 is best not to separate brood combs, 

 but to place these empty frames at the 

 side instead of the centre of the brood 

 nest. Bee-keeping is a knowledge of 

 small items, and good judgment must 

 be exercised in the practice of it. Thus 

 in building up weak colonies at the ex- 

 pense of the strong, if we are not very 

 careful we will soon have the best ones 

 in the same condition that the poor ones 

 were formerly ; but if hatching brood 

 is taken away no faster than the strong 

 one can bear, and the colony is stimu- 

 lated with feed, the apiary will be ben- 

 efitted by the exchange. A good way 

 to feed during stormy weather is to un- 

 cap frames of sealed honey and put it 

 in the place of empty comb. 



During seed time remember the 

 winged stock, and put in a tid-bit for 

 them. Sweet clover, migonette, borage, 

 mustard, etc., will bring quick returns, 

 and when setting out trees do not for- 

 get the linden. 



®" Dathe, a noted German apiarist, 

 has recently died. 



