146 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Honey at our State Fair. 



Mrs. L. Harrison, Vice President 

 for Illinois of the North American 

 Bee-Keepers' Society, has been labor- 

 ing with the Executive Committee of 

 the State Board of Agriculture, to get 

 a liberal consideration of the impor- 

 tance of the bee-keeping interest in 

 Illinois. She has met with some suc- 

 cess, but not to the extent her persis- 

 tent efforts have deserved. In a 

 letter dated at Peoria, 111., Feb. 27, 

 1882, to the Bee Journal, she says: 



You are aware of my endeavors to 

 procure a large exhibit of honey pro- 

 ducts for tlie State Pair of 1882. As 

 the result of this work I have to re- 

 port, for the coming fair, an increase 

 of double premiums over that of last 

 year, and yef'I am not happy:" 



Best lot of comb honey, not less 



than 10 lbs $5 00 



Second best do 3 00 



Best lot of extracted honey -5 00 



Secondbestdo 3 00 



Best macliine for extracting 



honey 5 00 



Tlie Secretary writes: "I will only 

 add— and not to be repeated— that 

 large bodies move slowly, and you 

 must not be discouraged. You have 

 gained a little. I have added to the 

 questions in the blanks, for agricul- 

 tural statistics to be collected tliis 

 year by assessors: No. of colonies of 

 bees on hand May 1st, 1882, and No. 

 of pounds of honey produced in 1881. 

 These figures will show the impor- 

 tance of the busy bee." 



I wrote to a number of bee-keepers 

 and to publishers of bee literature, 

 with reference to "special premiums." 

 With but one exception all responded 

 generously. I was in high glee over 

 * my success in this direction, until 1 

 received the following from the Sec- 

 retary of the State Board : 



"The Board, several years since, 

 closed the State Fair list against 

 'special premiums.' It was not for 

 the purpose of excluding such as you 

 propose, but the door to special 

 premiums, the line could not be drawn 

 very well between legitimate offerings 

 and those for advertising purposes, 

 and it was thought best to exclude all 

 specials from the list." 



But the beggarly premiums offered 

 are not for a moment to be thought 

 the best results of Mrs. Harrison's 

 ■work. As the Secretary writes her, 

 ^'large bodies move slowly," and once 

 moved in the right direction, by per- 

 iSistent effort, they accelerate in speed. 

 We think the secretary's instructions 

 to the assessors will result in furnish- 

 ang a resistless motive power to move 

 that large body with greater velocity 

 in 1883. Meantime, much praise is 

 due Mrs. Harrison for tlie interest she 

 has taken in the matter, and we con- 

 gratulate her on the partial success 

 she has met with. That she has not 



met better success is not from want 

 of effort on her part, but owing to the 

 circumscribed material she had to 

 work on. 



Food AdiiKeratious before Congress. 



Our readers will rejoice with us in 

 the fact that Congress is at last en- 

 gaged in a work of reformation re- 

 garding food adulterations, and that 

 a bill has been introduced having for 

 its object the taxation of glucose and 

 oleomargarine to such an extent as to 

 greatly restrict their manufacture. 

 The bill, after reference to the com- 

 mittee on ways and means, was by 

 them submitted to Hon. Green B. 

 Raum, Commissioner of Internal Rev- 

 enue. His communication to the Sec- 

 retary of the Treasury, accompanying 

 the bill, will be found below, and will 

 be read with deep interest, while his 

 manly and undisguised condemnation 

 of the glucose and oleomargarine 

 traffic will command the admiration 

 alike of all honest producers, con- 

 sumers, and dealers. 



It will be observed, Mr. Raum takes 

 practically the ground assumed by the 

 Bee Jouhnal more than two years 

 ago, and which we have reiterated 

 from time to time, that State and 

 municipal laws were incompetent to 

 cope with these bare-faced frauds, 

 and that relief should and must 

 come from Congress. In fact, so 

 familiar is the language he employs, 

 that, were his communication not of 

 very recent date, we might fear that 

 our articles had been more or less a 

 reflex from him. While we surmised 

 the inability of States and municipal- 

 ities to cure the evil, he has learned 

 by demonstration that we .were cor- 

 rect, and that relief must come from 

 Congress. It is so seldom we are 

 called upon to express gratitude to 

 officials high in power for unsellish 

 acts of duty, that Mr. Raum's honor- 

 able communication is the more grati- 

 fying. The following is the document 

 referred to, and we bespeak for it a 

 careful perusal : 



Treasury Department, ) 



Washington, Feb. 14, 1882. )' 



Hon. Chas. J. Folger, Sec'y Treds'y : 



Sir— I have received, by reference 

 from the honorable Committee of 

 Ways and Means of the House of 

 Representatives, H. R. 920, being a 

 bill to amend section 3328 of tlie re- 

 vised statutes of the United States, 

 in relation lo tax on native wines ; II. 

 R. 142, being a bill to tax the manufac- 

 ture of oleomargarine, and H. R. 3170, 

 being a bill to tax and regulate the 

 manufacture and sale of glucose, 

 with a request that I furnish the com- 



mittee with the views of this office 

 upon the merits of these respective 

 bills. 



The adulteration of food and drink 

 is an evil which State and municipal 

 laws and regulations apiiear unable to 

 prevent under our multiform system 

 of government, audit seems that If 

 the people are to be protected against 

 the frauds of manufacturers, who 

 palm off wines charged artificially with 

 carbonic acid gas as genuine cham- 

 pagne ; prepared tallow, lard, or 

 grease as genuine butter, and glucose 

 produced from cornstarch by the use 

 ofsulphuric acid, and soda ash flavored 

 with a small percentage of Louisiana 

 molasses as the best of golden syrup, 

 it will be necessary for Congress, in 

 the exercise of its undoubted power 

 of taxation, to make provision that 

 these spurious and adulterated articles 

 shall be sold upon tlie market for what 

 they really are, and shall not be 

 palmed off on a trusting public for 

 what they are not, to tlie great en- 

 richment of those engaged in their 

 manufacture. Oleomargarine and 

 glucose are manufactured almost ex- 

 clusively for purposes of fraud and 

 adulteration. It is safe to say that 

 few householders would buy for their 

 own consumption butter which they 

 knew to be composed, wholly or in 

 part, of oleomargarine, syrup" which 

 they knew to be nine-tenths glucose, 

 and champagne which they knew to 

 be spurious. 



It is by deception only that such 

 articles are sold, and it seems to me 

 that Congress will perform a most ac- 

 ceptable service to the people of this 

 country by passing the bill in ques- 

 tion substantially as introduced. In 

 connection with this subject the sub- 

 joined extracts from an article in 

 Appletons' Annual Encyclopedia, for 

 1879, are deemed of interest. 



I inclose herewith the bills referred 

 to me, suggesting some slight amend- 

 ments thereto. 



Very respectfully. 



Green B. Raum, Corner. 



Glucose. — The adulteration of syr- 

 ups with glucose is a practice which 

 has recently spread alarmingly. The 

 extensive use of glucose, or the grape 

 sugar of commerce, is held to be the 

 main origin of Bright's disease of 

 the kidneys, and the cause of the 

 present prevalence of that fatal mal- 

 ady. The importations of glucose in- 

 creased tenfold between 1875 and 1877, 

 and at the same time extensive 

 factories were established for its man- 

 ufacture in the Western States. The 

 article sold as grape sugar is manu- 

 factured by boiling cornstarch with 

 sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol) and mix- 

 ing the product with lime. A portion 

 of the siiljihurio acid and sometimes 

 copperas, sulphate of lime, and other 

 noxious principles remain in the glu- 

 cose. In the analysis of seventeen 

 samples of table syrup by Dr. Kedsie 

 fifteen were found to be made of glu- • 

 cose, one of them containing 141 

 grains of oil of vitriol and 724 grains 

 of lime to the gallon, and one from a 

 lot wliich sickened a whole family 

 contained 72 grains of vitriol, 28 of 

 sulphate of iron (copperas), and 363 of 

 lime to the gallon. The cheap sugars 



