.^^^ 



DEVOTED EXCLUSIVELY TO PROGRESSIVE BEE CULTURE. 



VoL XVIII. 



Chicago, 111., May 3, 1882. 



No. 18. 



Published every Wednesday by 



THOMAS C. NEWMAN, 



KJJITDK A.SI) HKOI'KIETOR. 



925 WEST MADISON ST., CHICAGO, ILL. 

 At «i3.00 a Year, lit Advance. 



WEEKLY— (62 numbers) »8 a year, in advance. 

 Three or Six Months at the same rate. 



C^ Any person sendinR a club of six is entitled 

 to an extra copy (like the club) sent to any address 

 desired. Sample copies furnished free. 



Enttred at Chicago post office as second clois matter. 



TOPICS PRESENTED THIS' WEEK. 



Editorial — 



Fraud in Food.. 



Successful 



Kditorial Items.. 



27a 



274 

 274 



Amoii^ Our Exchanges — ; 



Rules for Economic Apinrie.'* Competition. 



See thiit tlie Bees liiive Uoney 



A lice Ijawsuit in Cermany 



Correspondence — 



My Reply to Mr. Heddon ^ 



Review of tlie Dzierzou Theory 



Italianizing Cyprian Bees 



Extracted Honey— No. :i 



Kearinn tlie " Best" Bcea 



More about Beliows Smokers 



1^^^ jilninDn wrr- 



275 

 275 

 275 



276 

 277 

 278 

 278 

 279 

 279 



ConTention Notes — 



Local Convention Directory 28() 



Central Michigan Convention 280 



Maryland, Virginia and W.Va. Convention 280 



Selections from Our Letter Box — 



Artilicial Comb Honey 280 



Glucose .' 280 



Very Kncouraging 280 



Three Weeks Ahead of Time 280 



Snaiies Eating Bees 281 



My Early Work 281 



Judge Andrews' Lecture 28i 



Almost a Blizzard 281 



Preparing Pasturage 281 



Bee Notes from Kentucky 281 



Care of Comb Foundation 282 



An Error 282 



The Industrial E.\position in Denver 282 



Last Year's Record 282 



Saw Palmetto 282 



California Notes 282 



What Hive to Use 283 



First K.\perience with Italian Bees 283 



Sueenless Colonies 283 



reary Uutlook 283 



Stray Swarm 283 



Cold in Massachusetts 283 



Business Notices— 



Clubbing List 283 



Premiums 283 



The Apiary Register 284 



Honey as Food and Medicine 284 



Honey and Beeswax Market 285 



Fraud in Food. 



The Chicago Tribune, of April 23d, 

 remarks under the above caption : 



Tliere is scarcely an article of food 

 in the market sold for man's con- 

 sumption tliat is not adulterated in 

 some manner. From flour to candy, 

 and from brandy to mixed pickles, the 

 work of the adulterator is seen. 

 Nothing is too large or too small for 

 him to tamper witli, and the only 

 guard against this growing evil is the 

 possession of a thorough scientific 

 knowledge and a microscope. Scien- 

 tists say that food adulteration is the 

 worst evil witli which sanitary science 

 has to battle. Many of the states have 

 tried to suppress it, and much has 

 been written against it, but to no 

 avail. Sloe leaves and sand still con- 

 tinue to reduce tlie purity of tea and 

 sugar, and the boarder still revels in 

 chicory, plumbago, Prussian blue, 

 oleomargarine, starcli, alum, burnt 

 sugar, glucose, rye, beans, ground al- 

 mond shells, salts of tin, gypsum, and 

 enough of the insoluble to make a 

 Pennsylvania goat die of indigestion 

 in a week. Scientists divide adulter- 

 ations into tliree kinds, fraudulent, 

 deleterious and accidental. The lat- 

 ter, of course, scarcely enters into the 

 question. It is said by the virtuous 

 grocers that adulterated articles never 

 reach even tlie medium class of cus- 

 tomers, but are confined to the trade 

 whicli demands, through necessity, 

 the cheapest grade of goods. They 

 say tliat a sufficient number of arti- 

 cles have been so reduced in price as 

 to make adulteration unnecessary and 

 impossible. This is denied, liowever, 

 by a ereat portion of the people and 

 by chemists, wlio say they are con- 

 stantly analyzing specimens of adul- 

 terated goods bought from reputable 

 stores. Each grocer has liis own ex- 

 cuse, and they all generally lay the 

 blame upon the wholesaler or pro- 

 ducer. Tlie farmers and millers are 

 " out " a convenient distance, and, 

 therefore, come in for their share of 

 the responsibility. These parties in 



turn claim that their produce is adul- 

 terated by the middlemen, whicli class 

 disclaim the accusation and give it to 

 the dealers themselves. 



Thus it is impossible to fix the re- 

 sponsibility upon any one class, and 

 the people liave their choice, if they 

 ■wish to do anything in the way of an- 

 athema, when tlie almond-slie'll in tlie 

 coffee swells the swearful yearn in tlie 

 human breast. Ijcgislation in this 

 matter is next to impossible, because 

 it is seldom that the complaining part- 

 ies can trace their injury, if any, to 

 the suspected article, and the case, 

 therefore, goes by default. 



Among tlie adulterations which are 

 most common and most injurious is 

 the practice of putting copper in pick- 

 les, lead in pepper, and poisonous 

 colors in candy, tlie weakening of 

 drugs, and, last but not least, the di- 

 lution of milk with water, thus weak- 

 ening the food of children. The 

 fraudulent adulterations are the most 

 common, because legislation is power- 

 less in their case. This last includes 

 the mixing of low grades witli the 

 high grades of an article, such as 

 Hour, sugar, tea, coffee, oils* and 

 liquors, putting flour in mustard (af- 

 ter coloring it with tumeric), corn 

 syrup and glucose into cane syrup, 

 oleomargarine into butter, etc. 



Tlie accidental adulterations might 

 possibly include sand in sugar and 

 milk, dust in tea. and lead from mill 

 stones in flour. Through ignorance, 

 a " green " miller can spoil tlie best 

 flour by running his mill stones too far 

 apart or too close, or by the selection 

 of damp grain. Tea brought by rail- 

 road from San Francisco, accumulates 

 more or less dust on the journey, so 

 the grocers say, but the railway men 

 deny the fact. 



The following list of articles is 

 given, with the deleterious sub- 

 stances used to adulterate them : 



Bread, alum, sulphate of copper; 

 butter, copper; canned vegetables and 

 meats, salts of copper, lead ; cheese, 

 salts of mercury in tlie rind ; candy, 

 poisonous colors, grape sugar ; flour, 

 alum ; fruit jellies, poisonous colors ; 

 lard, lime ; milk, water; pickles, salts 

 of .copper, alum ; sugar, salts of tin 

 and lead, gypsum ; spices, flour, 

 starch ; cloves, arrow root ; tea, for- 

 eign leaves, plumbago, gum, indigo, 

 Prussian blue, soapstone, gypsum ; 



