THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



371 



Oleomargarine Before Congress. 



The Associate Press dispatches 

 from Wasliington, of the 8tli inst., 

 contain the following paragraph : 



Tlie house committee on commerce 

 will hear representatives of the oleo- 

 margarine interest to-day against the 

 bill to regulate the exportation of 

 articles made in imitation of butter 

 and cheese. The committee will 

 eitlier report this bill as it now stands 

 or amend it so as to better insure the 

 accomplishment of its purposes. The 

 bill requires the word "oleomargar- 

 ine," " sueine," " butterine," or some 

 other word ;is may be proper to desig- 

 nate the article, to be branded on 

 every tub, box, (irkin, or package for 

 shipinent to a foreign country, con- 

 taining any article or substance in 

 tlie semblance of butter or cheese, not 

 the actual product of the dairy and 

 not made exclusively of milk and 

 cream, but into which the oil or fat of 

 animals not produced from milk 

 enters as a component part, or into 

 which melted butter or any oil thereof 

 has been introduced to take the place 

 of cream. The penalty for a failure 

 to brand, mark or stamp such articles 

 and tiling in the custom-house a mani- 

 fest thereof is $1,000, one-half of 

 which is to go to the informer. Tlie 

 bill provides that the secretary of the 

 treasury shall appoint an inspector of 

 dairy products for the port of New 

 York and for any other port where he 

 may deem it necessary. Under the 

 bill the collector shall not grant any 

 clearance for a vessel on which is 

 found any of these unbianded articles 

 until the same are properly marked 

 and described in the manifest. 



We sincerely hope the committee 

 on commerce will report the bill back 

 recommending its adoption. If the 

 precedent is established regarding its 

 exportation, as a commercial neces- 

 sity, then it is subject to Congressional 

 legislation as between the States, and 

 it opens the way for restrictions upon 

 the glucose traffic, and all poisonous 

 adulterations, not only as a sanitary 

 measure, but as a commercial neces- 

 sity. We are still of good heart con- 

 cerning the " good time coming," 

 when commercial transactions will 

 mostly be carried on honestly, many 

 from conscientious dictation, but gen- 

 erally from compulsion— when it will 

 be declared a punishable offense to sell 

 bogus honey and butter. 



The Chicago Evening News of June 

 8 has the following suggestive para- 

 graph : 



Owing to the depression in the glu- 

 cose and grape-sugar trade, the na- 

 tional association, at a meeting in 

 Chicago Wednesday, appointed a 

 committee to devise plans for consoli- 

 dating all the factories. 



Whether the depression in the trade 

 is owing to competition, or is indica- 



tive of a growing disfavor we are not 

 informed, but it is probably attribut- 

 able to both causes ; nor are we told 

 what benelit they expect to derive 

 fi'om consolidation, unless it be to 

 concentrate all their energies in the 

 way of bribing legislation, and to re- 

 sist the growing hostility which will 

 ere long assume form and demand 

 legislation from Congress to regulate 

 the glucose traffic, and protect honest 

 consumers from their poisonous adul- 

 terations. 



Curiosities of Bees. 



The i^ondon Times gives its readers 

 the following as some of the " curiosi- 

 ties of bees," which were believed in 

 ancient times. The modern bee- 

 keeper will smile (and jjcrhaps audi- 

 bly, too) at many of the statements : 



According to Virgil, Jupiter gave 

 the bee its marvelous habits, because 

 bees fed him with honey when, as an 

 infant, he lay concealed in the Cretan, 

 cave from his father's search. The 

 Curetes, a Cretan tribe, used to dance 

 round the babe and drown his cries 

 by rattling brazen cymbals, whence 

 comes the origin of swarms of bees 

 at the present day being pursued 

 with much clanging of kevs against 

 frying pans, the belief being univer- 

 sal that this noise is agreeable to 

 them. Indeed, Pliny, with question- 

 able logic, argues, because this clatter 

 is always made when bees swarm, 

 therefore they must be gifted with 

 the sense of hearing. 



Kirby, who wrote a most valuable 

 monograph on bees, estimated that 

 there are about two hundred and 

 fifty species of them in England. 



It is generally supposed that those 

 bees which are peculiar to the New 

 World are destitute of all ofl:ensive 

 weapons. Humboldt, however, ex- 

 plains that they have stings, though 

 comparatively feeble ones, and they 

 use them very seldom — only, in short, 

 when irritated and forced to defend 

 themselves. While seated on the 

 peak over Caracas, in South America, 

 he tells us, "determining the dip of 

 the needle, I fouml my hands covered 

 with a species of hairy bee, a little 

 smaller than the honey-bees of the 

 north of Europe. These insects made 

 their nests in the ground, they seldom 

 fly and from the slowness of their 

 movements I should have supposed 

 they were benumbed by the cold of 

 the mountain. The people call them 

 angelitos (little angels), because they 

 very seldom sting " {Cosmos, i. 43.5). 



Among the numerous tribes of leaf- 

 cutting and mason bees common in 

 England, most possessors of gardens 

 must have noticed the ravages of the 

 r)iegachile centuncidaris, one of the 

 former class. It is much smaller than 

 the hive bee, and cuts little segments, 

 as clear as if punched out by a machine, 

 from tlie leaves of roses and peas. 

 The operation is very speedily per- 

 formed when the bee has once made 



her choice ; tlie strong mandibles go 

 to work, and soon the bee flies off 

 with her green load. If followed, it 

 will be founil that her nest is situated 

 in some palisade or gate-i)ost. The 

 creature runs her tunnels into the 

 wood by means of these same power- 

 ful jaws, and then lines them with 

 the pieces of leaf. They are not 

 fastened together, but the cells are 

 honey tight, and as fast as they are 

 lined witli leaves, an egg is dropped 

 into each. Perhaps Virgil, Pliny, 

 and the other ancient wi'iters who 

 speak of bees carrying ballast to 

 steady themselves in windy weather, 

 had witnessed the doings of leaf cut- 

 ting bees, and confounded them with 

 hive-bees. 



The working bee never lives longer 

 than nine months ; they labcn' so in- 

 cessantly it is supposed they never 

 sleep. The daily consumption and 

 waste of a large hive of bees in sum- 

 mer may be taken at two pounds of 

 honey ; it will show the industry of 

 the working bees to bear in mind 

 that, beyond this, such a hive in 

 favorable weather will often accumu- 

 late honey to the amount of four and 

 six pounds daily. Indeed it is upon 

 record that ;i hive once gained twenty 

 pounds weight of it in two days ! 



It is curious that even wild bees 

 can soon be taught to recognize and 

 refrain from attacking people who ap- 

 proach them. No wonder that the 

 ancients esteemed them as divine ; 

 that their poet laureate, according to 

 the Platonic philosophy, assigns them 

 "a participation in the Supreme mind 

 and in heavenly influences;" and 

 that another speaks of their power of 

 presaging wind and hue weather. 

 Modern science points out thai the 

 fructifying of many flowers is due to 

 the labors of bees in mingling the 

 pollen ; and most gardeners must have 

 noticed the difficulty of preserving a 

 pure strain of any plant when these 

 active workmen have access to other 

 varieties of it. 



i^"Mr. James A. Daniel, of Alex- 

 andria, La., has our thanks for a copy 

 of the New Orleans Times-Democrat, 

 detailing the mode of making glucose 

 by a new process, as recently dis- 

 covered by a couple of gentlemen of 

 that city. As the names of the 

 chemicals employed are purposely 

 withheld, we draw the inference that 

 it is no improvement on the vile stuff 

 now in use, and has nothing to recom- 

 mend it, except, perhaps, that it is a 

 cheaper and quicker way of produc- 

 ing it. 



1^" Mr. Robert Corbett, Manhat- 

 tan, Kans., has our tlianks for a very 

 fragrant bouquet, composed of roses, 

 acacias, spirea, Indian currant, and 

 other flowers. It is gratifying to ob- 

 serve the growing interest being man- 

 ifested, by bee-keepers, in Nature's 

 most pleasing work— the flowers. 



