i8o 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEE'PER. 



September, 



Do you think he would make such a 

 satement unless he had analj-zed 

 foundation and found such to be the 

 case? If this was not a fact then 

 \vh}' did not the prominent manufac- 

 turers make him take it back? No. 

 the}' remained as silent as could be 

 notwithstanding that Air. Abbott chal- 

 lenged them to prove the accusation 

 false. I ask j^ou also, Why did Prof- 

 fessor AUyn give out that he had 

 anal3'zed comb honey as found upon 

 the market and found it to contain 

 paraffine wax? These statements be- 

 ing made by men high rn authority are 

 published throughout the land ana 

 are taken up and republished, not only 

 in other papers, but in encyclopedias, 

 and when we write articles in the 

 papers denying these assertions, the 

 editors and reporters think, we are ly- 

 ing because when a professor says a 

 thing is thus and thus it can't be any 

 "thuser," and they find by turning to 

 their cyclopedias that professor so 

 and so is right. Now, fellow bee-keep- 

 ers, are these men of high standing- 

 wrong, and are they doing us this 

 great injury because they are a set ot 

 ignoramuses, or are they right and 

 are we being wronged because the 

 manufacturer has become so eager 

 for profits that he is not content with 

 paying twenty-eight to thirty cents for 

 wax and selling foundation for sixty- 

 five cents per pound, we paying 

 freight both ways, but must mix it 

 with parafifine and thus do us this 

 great injury? Comb honey built on 

 full sheets of pure beeswax founda- 

 tion is not one bit adulterated, but if 

 paraffine is used in foundation, then it 

 becomes an adulterated product and 

 the law should interfere. If the state- 

 ments made by these professors are 

 false, what do you think of the idea 

 that men who are chosen to high 

 postions and draw a fine salary from 

 the people and are supposed to be 

 there working for our interests and 

 then give out statements which do us 

 more wrong than anything else caii 

 do; but not only so, but those state- 

 ments go on record to be a continual 

 injury for years to come? I am satis- 

 fied that this has done the honey 

 market more injury than all else com- 

 bined. Is it not time we seek to find 

 who are the guilty ones, the manufac- 

 turers of comb foundation, or the men 



who are paid by us and working for 

 us at these agricultural colleges? Let 

 us hear from others on this matter. 

 Williamsfield, 111., Aug. 6, 1905. 



POLITICS IN THE APIARY. 



By Henrv E. Horn. 



GOV. FOLK of Missouri, has veto- 

 ed the foulbrood bill passed by 

 the Legislature of his state be- 

 cause of the unreasonable power with 

 which it invested the foulbrood in- 

 spector. Gov. Folk deserves the 

 thaiiks of the bee-keepers of Missouri 

 for his conscientious act, though that 

 is about the last thing he is getting 

 from some of them. The bill appears 

 to have been partially cqpied after the 

 California law. and as the actual work- 

 ing-out of the latter is by some of our 

 bee-men feared more than foulbrood 

 itself, the wisdom of Folk's veto may 

 becoiTie manifest. 



According to the provisions of 

 choosing inspectors "made and pro- 

 vided" by our law the board of super- 

 visors of a given county are authoriz- 

 ed to appoint either by petition or 

 free choice any one they may deem 

 fit to the office of inspector. There 

 is no test necessary to prove fitness, 

 no examination to show coiiipeteiicy. 

 The office carries a good salary, as do 

 also the jobs of sub-inspectors, or 

 deputies if each are appointed, as is 

 usually the custom 



After being thus legally appointed 

 the inspector, or his deputy, has the 

 power to eiiter any apiary and to make 

 a lengthy examination of every coloiiy 

 of bees present, serving no iiotice of 

 the iinpending invasioii oii the owner, 

 nor leaviiig no report, nor word of aiiy 

 kind behiiid him after departure. To 

 him, the owner siinply docs not count. 

 It would be strange iiideed if under 

 such conditions — keeping in mind the 

 well nigh terrific pressure of universal 

 coiiipetitioii for jobs on the one hand, 

 and on the other the political debts 

 elected county officers usually owe to 

 petty politicians, and which are regu- 

 larly paid of¥ with public jobs and 

 snaps — results fearful rather than 

 beneficial did not follow iii the wake 

 of the march of the law through the 

 apiary. 



There are apiaries after apiaries that 

 have beeii thus inspected and re-in- 



