THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



217 



water, and forming a tasteless com- 

 pound bearing no resemblance to 

 honey. And yet tiie dealer was 

 ignorant enoiigli to say •' they (mean- 

 ing his oustomers) might Icnow it was 

 white-elover honey, as they could 

 taste tlie comb in it." 



Again, I noticed honey quoted in 

 the ]5ee Jouunal, at i}.{ to 5 cents 

 per pound, and I then concluded to 

 ponder no longer in the dark, but im- 

 mediately sent for a sample of the 

 " four-and-half -to -five -cent honey," 

 and to-day I received by express a 

 package in which were two little 

 bottles containing what I supposed to 

 be honey, but which I found upon ex- 

 amination to be an admixture of 

 coarse, dark, brown sugar, glucose, 

 ad infinitum, Viet up to a stage resemb- 

 ling in an exceedingly remote degree, 

 partially granulated honey. 



It is needless to add that my won- 

 derings at the possibility of selling 

 " honey " at such rates were now at 

 an end, but still I wondered ; my 

 wonderings now, however, were of a 

 different order, viz : I wondered now 

 how it was possible for them to get 

 customers even at this low (y) price ! 



It seems to me it is a bold affrontery 

 upon a trusting public, for men (if men 

 they should be called) to make and 

 sell such stuff as an article of diet ; 

 but is it not a vile, yea, villainous 

 imposition upon the bee-keeping 

 fraternity for the manufacturers of 

 those repulsive compounds to herald 

 them to the world as honey, bringing 

 disrepute upon that God-given nectar, 

 gathered from the cells of flowers- 

 Nature's own repository — by the 

 " little busy bee," and stored in clean, 

 white comb to be converted to the 

 use,health,and happiness of mankind ; 

 thereby damaging the interests of 

 the thousand-and-one honest men en- 

 gaged in the noble pursuit of bee- 

 keeping ? 



The manufacturers of oleomargarine 

 are no longer allowed to call this vile 

 mixture of tallow, lard, etc., by the 

 name of ''butter;" and why should 

 that other class of impostors be per- 

 mitted to heap odium upon the heads 

 of bee-keepers by stylingtheir noxious 

 and repulsive compounds as " honey V" 



Surely our Legislatures, if not our 

 General Government, should be im- 

 portuned to protect and sustain us in 

 this one of the noblest pursuits of 

 man. 



Mt. Sterling, K) Ills. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



The Sectional Brooil-Cliafflljer Hive, 



13— J. V. CALDWELL. (12.5-165). 



This new hive seems to be under- 

 going a liery ordeal, and in view of 

 the claims put forth by its friends 

 and champions, it is but right that 

 such should be the case. Any hive 

 or other implement used in the apiary, 

 and for which it is claimed will effect 

 a complete •' revolution " in our busi- 

 ness, must be carefully and fairly 

 criticized. 1 think that no candid 

 and fair-minded apiarist will deny 

 this. I believe that Mr. Heddon is 

 working for the good of the cause. 



and in proof of this witness his care- 

 ful and often losing experiments in 

 wintering ; and taking these things 

 into consideration, the claims he puts 

 forth regarding this hive must have a 

 fair and unprejudiced hearing. 



We who "have read carefully Mr. 

 Ileddon's articles during the past 

 year, know that he has been trying to 

 handle his apiaries with as little labor 

 as possible, knowing as he does that 

 honey so produced must be cheap, 

 when compared with honey produced 

 by much high-priced labor. And as 

 our product is yearly becoming 

 cheaper in the markets, it is an idea 

 of no little importance— at least to us 

 who are making a specialty of the 

 business. 



I like the idea of a shallow frame, 

 and, in fact, for the past ten years I 

 have used and like much the best a 

 frame but 7}4 inches deep, inside 

 measure. I have also a good many 

 bees on Langstroth frames, but they 

 are too deep for me. 



But concerning this new hive, as 

 Dr. Miller says. tTiere are some things 

 I do not understand. We, who win- 

 ter our bees in cellars, want to know 

 if We must carry all the double lower 

 story into the cellar ; if not, will one 

 of the divisions hold enough honey to 

 safely carry the bees through the 

 winter, or at least until it is time to 

 place them on the summer stands? 

 Again, will not the bees be clustered 

 in both parts so we must pull them 

 apart in cold weather when putting 

 them into winter quarters? We who 

 are iisked to throw away our old hives 

 and adopt this new candidate for pub- 

 lic favor, would simply like to know 

 how much more comb honey can be 

 taken on an average than from our 

 old hives, other things being equal ; 

 for, in the end, honey and not bees is 

 what we are after. Doubtless Mr. 

 Heddon can enlighten us on these 

 things, as we must know all we pos- 

 sibly can about it before we spend 

 our hard-earned dollars for any new 

 bee-hive. But on the other hand, if 

 it will be a benefit to us, of course we 

 want it. 



Cambridge,^ Ills. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



■Interests of Florida, etc, 



W. S. HART. 



" The mangroves have been en- 

 tirely destroyed by the recent cold 

 wave," so wrote Mr. Jno. Y. Det- 

 wiler, on page 60 ; and on page 102, 

 about the greatly damaged honey- 

 interests of the Florida coast. I do 

 not wish to enter any prolonged con- 

 troversy over the effects of the cold 

 in this State, but as I believe Mr. D. 

 is inclined to look upon and present 

 to others the dark side of this matter, 

 I would ask permission to "state 

 plain facts," also ■' let it injure "—no, 

 let it benefit " whom it may." I do 

 this even at the risk of being classed 

 among the ''property-owners who 

 have lands for sale." But to escape 

 the consequences of this grave charge 

 as far as possible, I will say that it is 

 on record that I often recommend 



good people to go to other parts of 

 the State where I have no property, 

 and in what I write herein I will give 

 references and figures that can be 

 traced up and proven false if they 

 are so. 



First, he states that " the mercury 

 is reported by various parties as being 

 as low as 10^ to 20^^ above zero." True, 

 such were the reports, and at the date 

 of his first writing it could not be 

 satisfactorily proven false, but as the 

 10'3 report was from only one person, 

 and he living on the peninsula near 

 Mr. Detwiler, who reports "on the 

 peninsula the mercury was 2{p above 

 zero," I feel sure there was a mistake 

 of some 10^ in the lowest report. As 

 further evidence I will state that the 

 lowest point indicated by my ther- 

 mometer was 23° above zero, at 3 

 a.m., on the morning of .Jan. 10. The 

 lowest reported here at Hawk's Park, 

 from the thermometers in the most 

 exposed positions, was 20° above. At 

 New Smyrna, two miles north, with 

 the exception of the 10° report, the 

 lowest showing was from a thermom- 

 eter hung in the most bleak place to 

 be found on board of a steamer 

 moored to one of the wharfs. It reg- 

 istered 18° above. At Jacksonville, 

 100 miles north of here, the Signal 

 Office report at 6 a.m. on Jan. 12 (the 

 coldest day there), was 15° and 3 

 minutes, which was the coldest regis- 

 tered since 183-5. On the place where 

 the 10° report came from, I am told 

 that the little nursery trees retained 

 their leaves, and look as thrifty as 

 ever. Evidently there was some 

 mistake. 



2. Notwithstanding the " personal 

 examination," I believe that much of 

 the mangrove here is still alive, and 

 if the blossom buds of the surviving 

 trees are not blighted, we may get a 

 small crop of mangrove honey even 

 this year. A "personal examination" 

 by Messrs. O. O. Poppleton, A. S. 

 Brown, H. W. Mitchell, myself and 

 others, shows quite a per cent, of the 

 black mangrove trees still alive, some 

 of them not having even a twig hurt. 

 It is true that the tree is a slow 

 grower, but as all the bees kept here 

 could take but a small part of the 

 honey heretofore produced by the 

 mangrove, I think there will very 

 soon be enough for them again. In 

 the lower part of the State the man- 

 grove, and even tomatoes, pine-apples, 

 cocoanuts, etc., have escaped unhurt. 

 Some bees and fixtures are offered for 

 sale, for in this as in every other 

 industry, there are some weak-kneed 

 parties that are ready to wilt as soon 

 as the starch of success is withheld 

 for a time. 



3. As to the interior's having " suf- 

 fered much more than admitted," it 

 seems to me that people from all 

 parts of the State have been unusually 

 candid in their statements of the 

 losses, and as each locality has its 

 peculiar advantages, and the building 

 up of any part of the State is a benefit 

 to it as a whole, it is a narrow, near- 

 sighted policy that tries to build up 

 one section or industry by defaming 

 another. 



4. " Take away the honey and 

 orange interests of Florida, and there 



