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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



September 29, 



In an October number of a bee-paper I see this advertise- 

 ment : "For sale, 25,000 pounds of the finest honey in scant 

 one-pound sections in 12pound cases, a very fancy lot. The 

 price is 20 cents a pound on board cars here. Who wants the 

 lot?" 



In November the Columbus, Ohio, dealer said : " Honey 

 is scarce and in demand at 18 to 20 cents for nice white 

 clover." 



December 15, 1890, the Roots quote as follows : " White 

 sage, one to three 60-pound cans, 11 cents a pound. Choice 

 white comb 1-pounds, one to three cases, 20 cents a pound." 



Can we draw a moral from these prices that prevailed in 

 1890, nearly twice as much as producers obtained in 1896 

 and 1897, when they dumpt their crops wholesale on the 

 market? Doesn't it seem as if a better distribution of honey 

 was the answer to all, or nearly all, of the apiarists' troubles ? 

 Isn't personal work with the consumer, by as many of the 

 producers as possible, the way to get a big price for our 

 product? 



Look at the prices that prevailed in the wholesale trade 

 all over the country in 1890. Didn't a large proportion of 

 the consumers pay 25 cents a pound for their honey ? 



By a certain statistical table I am informed that there are 

 300,000 bee-keepers In the United States, and a total pro- 

 duction of 100,000,000 pounds of honey. Suppose our pop- 

 ulation is 75,000,000 persons, and half the people never eat 

 honey at all, this only gives 2-a pounds of honey per year to 

 each eater of honey on an average. Doesn't this seem like a 

 demonstration that we should get 30 cents a pound for our 

 honey when properly distributed, if it is as scarce as that? Is 

 there any impossibility in getting at least 20 cents a pound 

 for all the good table honey iu the country, if properly sold to 

 the consumer ? 



Non-Swarming Bees. — Why can't we get down to some 

 hard work along the line of a non-swarming strain of bees ? 

 All seem to agree that to give lots of room and prevent swarm- 

 ing will give the largest amount of surplus honey. I think 

 Mr. Doolittle has written some along this line. Can't we 

 breed by selection, and practice dividing for increase, and in 

 a few years have strains of bees and queens that have almost 

 no desire to swarm, if given abuudant storage-room ? It 

 would not be well to breed the swarming Impulse entirely out, 

 for then the rearing of queens might go with it, except for 

 supersedure. 



Foul Brood — The question of foul brood and ways and 

 means of spreading it is becoming a matter of very great In- 

 terest. Will Mr. McEvoy and Mr. France arise and tell us 

 how to assure ourselves that when buying queens or bees we 

 are not also buying a bad case of foul brood ? If it is true, as 

 a certain writer claims, that fully iO percent of the colonies 

 of the country are infected, it is the most serious matter that 

 confronts us at present. Can we write to the foul brood in- 

 spector of a certain State and enquire if he can or will give a 

 clean bill of health to the particular bee-keeper of whom we 

 wish to purchase? One colony or one queen may be the 

 means of ruining an entire apiary. We might require a writ- 

 ten guarantee or certificate from any one dealing in bees and 

 queens that they had no foul brood in their colonies. Then in 

 case of a loss there would be a legal remedy If the seller is 

 financially responsible. 



Selling Adulterated Honey. — Should wholesale 

 grocers and honey-bottlers all over this country be allowed to 

 sell adulterated honey with " pure honey " on the label ? Of 

 course not ; but how to prevent them — ah, there's the rub ! In 

 many of the States all that is necessary is to prosecute them 

 under the laws as they exist. In many of the States the only 

 lack is in the enforcement of the law, and not in the law 

 itself. 



The associations of bee-keepers, to which must naturally 

 fall the duty of seeing to the enforcement of pure food laws as 

 they relate to honey, may well learn a lesson from the maple 

 sugar associations of Vermont and Ohio in these matters. 

 These associations have been seeing to the amending of the 

 laws and the enforcing of them for years with good effect. In 

 Ohio a pure food commissioner has been selected who gives 

 his whole time for a salary to the work of prosecuting adul- 

 terators and examining samples of suspected foods. 



The Illinois law is an ironclad law, and yet Chicago is the 

 great hotbed of impure foods of every kind and character on 

 the face of the earth. Look at the law as the Chicagoans 

 have it laid down to them in the statutes : 



CRIMINAL CODE OF ILLINOIS. 



" Sec. 4~.S. — No person shall mix, color, stain or powder any 

 article of food, drink or medicine, or any article which enters into 



the composition of food, drink or medicine, with any other ingre- 

 dient or material, whether injurious to health or not, for the pur- 

 pose of gain or profit, or sell or offer the same for sale, or order or 

 permit any other person to sell or offer for sale any article so mixt, 

 colored, stained or powdered, unless the same be so manufactured, 

 used or sold, or offered for sale under its true and appropriate 

 name, and notice that the same is mixt or impure is markt, 

 printed or stampt upon each package, roll, parcel or vessel con- 

 taining the same, so as to be and remain at all times readily visi- 

 ble, or unless the person purchasing the same is fully informed by 

 the seller of the true name and ingredients (if other than such as 

 are known by the common name thereof) of such article of food, 

 drink or medicine at the time of making sale thereof or offering to 

 sell the same." 



" Sec. 475. — Any person convicted of violating any provision 

 of any of the foregoing sections of this Act shall, for the first 

 offense, be fined not less than twenty-five ($25) nor more than two 

 hundred dollars (-$200) ; for the second offense he shall be fined not 

 less than one hundred dollars ($100), or more than two hundred 

 dollars (^200). or confined in the county jail not less than one 

 month, nor more than six months, or both, at the discretion of the 

 court; and for the third and all subsequent offences, he shall be 

 fined not less than five huudred ($500), nor more than two thou- 

 sand dollars (.$2,000), and imprisoned in the penitentiary not less 

 than one year, nor more than five years." 



What a rattling of dry bones would there be, my country- 

 men, if an organization with grit and money should take up 

 the prosecution of adulterators under such a law as that 1 



Some think a National law is the only thing that will fill 

 the bill. The way to get a National law, and get Uncle Sam 

 to enforce it, is to enforce the local laws, and so educate pub- 

 lic sentiment that a general law covering the whole country 

 will be demanded. 



This is " the land of the free and the home of the brave," 

 and I for one demand the freedom to know absolutely what is 

 in everything I buy out of the store or elsewhere. If salicylic 

 acid is used in my corn and tomatoes, I want to know how 

 many grains to the quart. If oats is in my pepper, I, who 

 pay the bill, have a right to know what percent. If my honey 

 is part glucose. I the consumer have a right to know whether 

 one-fourth or three-fourths, and so ou through the list. 



If the names of all the ingredients are printed on the out- 

 side of a package I can spend my money for it or not, as I 

 choose ; but to label a can " pure pepper " when half is some- 

 thing else, or " pure honey" when part is glucose, is a fraud, 

 and is a lie and a theft, if I part with my money for them 

 supposing them to be pure. 



The one great reason why those interested in bees move 

 so slowly toward any given point is that so few of them realize 

 the importance of association and combination. Suppose 300,- 

 000 are keeping bees in the United States. Not more than 

 25,000 of them take a bee-paper, and not more than 2,000 

 are members of an organization to forward bee-keepers' in- 

 terests. Let the apiarists combine, as do the brewers, the 

 dairymen, the grocers, and others, and there is hardly any re- 

 sult that cannot be attained, that is for their interests. 



Cook Co., 111. 



Boiling Foul-Broody Honey for Feeding. 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



The following paragraph appears in the Bee-Keepers' Ee- 

 view for September : 



" Dr. Miller, to the question. Could I safely feed it [honey 

 from a colony having foul brood] by boiling ? replies : ' Put water 

 with it. bring it to a boil [sic], then after it comes to a boil [sic] 

 keep it builing for two hours and a half.^ The Italics are his. Was the 

 Doctor in a playful mood f That would be hard on the bacilli un- 

 less plenty of water were added. I consider 15 minutes boiling 

 sufficient : having first added an equal amount of water." 



I wish I knew what Mr. Taylor means by that word 

 "sic." Coming as it does twice after the word "boil," it 

 looks as if he might be objecting to the use of that word, but 

 as I know of nothing Incorrect in the word, or the way in which 

 it is used, I shall be obliged to him if he will tell what he 

 means by saying " sic." 



Mr. Taylor says : "I consider 15 minutes boiling suffi- 

 cient." I might reply, " I do ?iot consider 15 minutes boiling 

 sul3Bcient." Pitting one statement against the other, the first 

 has by far the greater weight, for Mr. Taylor knows vastly 

 more than I do about foul brood, and it is right that I should 

 give some reason for insisting on more than 15 minutes 

 boiling. 



Dr. Wm. E. Howard, in his pamphlet on "Foul Brood," 

 reports some experiments upon the point in question. Tubes 

 of liquid gelatinecontaining sporesof bacillus alvei were placed 

 in an open vessel of boiling water. The contents of a tube 

 thrust in boiling water would of course come very nearly to a 



