IQOS- 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



175 



couragement, as an evil to be sub- 

 mitted to, only when absolutely neces- 

 sary, and will very much prefer to ob- 

 tain his supplies from what Shakes- 

 peare has so beautifully termed the 

 merry pillage' of the blooming fields, 

 than from the neighboring grocery." 



These far-sighted men saw the dan- 

 gers and sounded the warning but it 

 was unheeded, and to-day the bee- 

 keepers of the land are suffering in 

 ons^quence. 



Just as long as bee-keepers feed 

 5Ugar syrup to their bees they must 

 jxpect to be accused of producing 

 idulterated honey, and I am not sure 

 ;hat in states having a pure food law 

 :hey would not be subject to criminal 

 )rosecution. It is folly for the Honey 

 Producers' League to rail against the 

 ;tories of adulterated comb honey so 

 ong as their leading men publicly 

 idvocate feeding sugar syrup for any 

 )urpose except in cases where the 

 )eesare absolutely starving — an occur- 

 ence exceedingly rare in most parts 

 )f the land if the bees are rationally 

 reated. 



The bee text-books and papers are 

 ull of instructions on feeding and 

 )ages of the catalogues are devoted to 

 lescriptions of feeders. Comb foun- 

 lation is universally talked of in bee 

 iterature and is called by the public 

 irtificial comb. It is folly for the 

 -eague to assert that there is no such 

 hing as artificial comb when there ap- 

 )ears in good plain type in the "A B C 

 >f Bee culture" — a book published 

 )y a company of which the 



eague's treasurer is an active 

 nember — the following: "Several 

 ttempts were made to produce 

 rtificial comb in the years gone 

 y. but it was not until E. B. Weed, 

 lormerly of Detroit, now of Cleveland, 

 ni'ent to work at the problem that any- 

 hing like the real articre was pro- 

 uced. His first samples had cell 

 /alls as delicate as the Dees make 

 hem but the base was flat, and the 

 ees did not take as kindly to them as 

 heir own product. And, moreover, it 

 /as soon discovered that they thick- 

 ned the base making a comb that 

 ■ hen eaten showed a perceptible 

 lidrib. 



Mr. Weed finally set about making 

 le same article with natural bases 

 nd this he accomplished perfectly, 



indeed it was a marvel of skill and 

 workmanship. This comb was nearly 

 as delicate and as perfect as the 

 natural production," etc. 



Comb foundation in section honey 

 is accountable for much of the dis- 

 trust of its purity. The public know 

 some such thing exists and when they 

 cut through a tough strip along the top 

 of the box or get their teeth into the 

 tough substance they are not slow in 

 thinking, "artificial product." It may 

 be quite true that foundation can be 

 made as thin or thinner than the base 

 of natural comb, but it is not friable 

 like that. 



It will mean more or less of a revo- 

 lution in methods of comb honey pro- 

 duction to dispense with foundation, 

 etc., and the big manufacturers of it 

 may do some vigorous fighting against 

 its abandoment for that purpose. 



The objection to its use is no new 

 thing but the leading papers have 

 certainly not fostered the opposition. 

 In plain English, the bee-keepers have 

 had preached to them a lot of things 

 which have been to their injury and 

 they are now feeling the evil results 

 r)f following the advice. Let us see if 

 the purveyors of these harmful doc- 

 trines now have the courage to open- 

 ly acknowledge their mistakes — if that 

 is all they are, as we hope — and strive 

 to correct the evils. It may cost them 

 some prestige— which means money 

 — and it may curtail the sale of some 

 goods, but they cannot serve mankind 

 and Mammon at the same time. 



As to the honey producers, they 

 must not only avoid evil but every ap- 

 pearance of evil if they expect the 

 world to accept their goods as ster- 

 ling. 



Providence, R. I., Aug. 14, 1905. 



A VETERAN APIARIST. 



By J. \V. Tefft. 



EDITOR BEE-KEEPER: I came 

 here to visit my old friend, Mr. 

 Albert Daken, from whom I 

 bought my first bees, in 1855, and 

 received my first instruction in bee- 

 keeping. 



Mr. Daken, at T2) years of age, still 

 adheres to his resolution adopted 

 when he began bee-keeping, to have 

 nothing but the very best of every- 

 thing about him, and I regard him as 



