450 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Farmers Rejoicing. 



The crop prospects throughout much 

 of the country are very encouraging. 

 The excessive rains, we are sorry to 

 note, have been quite damaging to 

 corn, whicli will require the most fa- 

 vorable weather from this tlirough to 

 make even a fair crop, but wheat, 

 oats, rye, barley, clover, grass and 

 potatoes, will be more than an average 

 in yield and quality. 



In Kansas the oats crop has in- 

 creased from 280,167 acres in 1881 to 

 447,695 acres in 1882, and all reports 

 say that it will be the heaviest crop 

 ever harvested in that 8tate. The 

 wheat crop just harvested will reach 

 over 30,000,000 bushels, and of superior 

 (luality. The acreage of corn will run 

 6 per cent, over last year, amounting 

 to 4,500,000 acres, which, at 30 bushels 

 per acre, will foot 135,000,000 bushels ; 

 it is expected, however, to reach 

 175,000,000. 



A dispatcli from Lincoln, Neb., 

 says " each day strengtliens the be- 

 lief in a harvest such as was never 

 known in the State before." Of rye 

 the yield is much larger than in any 

 year previous, and the wheat crop is 

 larger and of better quality than the 

 average. Oats and barley are heavy 

 and of good quality. Wild and tame 

 grasses look well, and potatoes and 

 other vegetables were never better. 



In one county in Indiana (Miami) 

 alone, the present wheat crop will run 

 over 1,200,000 bushels. Corn is not 

 doing so well, being neglected by the 

 farmers to secure their immense 

 wheat crop. 



So far as we can learn from differ- 

 ent prominent points in Illinois, crops 

 of all kinds, excepting corn, are very 

 encouraging, even better than was 

 anticipated a short time since. 



A report from Dakota says " the 

 prospect to-day has never been 

 equaled. Wheat, oats and barley are 

 heading out with a stand indicative 

 of a crop simply enormous." 



In Micliigan the grain crops are 

 hardly so flattering, but the yield will 

 be a fair one. 



We have no reliable data of late 

 date from other States, but anticipate 

 the generality of crops will be equally 

 good, as complaints are soonest cir- 

 culated when at all unfavorable. 



Prices of live stock, especially hogs, 

 liave reached a fancy figure. We are 

 told by dealers that the prices are 

 purely fancy, speculative, and that 

 they will have to be moderated con- 

 siderably, as there is no real justifica- 



tion for them. Of course, prices of 

 other meats sympathize largely with 

 pork ; but, with the excellent pastur- 

 age, it will be impossible to keep up 

 the figures on cattle and sheep, and 

 hogs will then sympathize to a certain 

 extent with them, or they will be more 

 largely substituted for food. 



Glucose in Fraudulent Uses. 



Mr. Le Roy Whitford, Lecturer to 

 the Chautauqua Co., N. Y., Pomona 

 Grange, has kindly sent us a copy of 

 an essay read by him before the 

 Grange. We have not space for it 

 entire, and give only that portion re- 

 lating to the glucose traffic, which 

 will be read with interest. 



Published statistics show 21 manu- 

 factories of glucose and corn sugar in 

 this country, turning out 1,200,000 lbs. 

 per day from 48,000 bushels of corn. 

 The consumption of this vast product 

 is effectecHhrough fraud by mixing 

 with sugar, maple syrup, candy, 

 jelly, honey and other sweets. 



It iias been supposed that, although 

 of so low and poor a sweetening 

 power that nobody would accept it 

 for sugar or syru]) when unmixed, it 

 was not necessarily unwholesome as 

 an article of diet when well made, 

 and the numerous instances of injury 

 to health, and even death from paral- 

 ysis and other diseases which are 

 known to have resulted from its use 

 were supposed to be due to the pres- 

 ence of a remnant of chemicals used 

 in its manufacture. On the part of 

 the manufacturers it is claimed that 

 the sulphuric acid is all precipitated 

 so that none can possibly remain in 

 the product or in the refuse meal 

 which is sold to farmers to feed to 

 stock. Where the truth lies in this 

 controversy is not of paramount in- 

 terest to consumers. It is enough for 

 us to know that its use for only a few 

 years has alarmingly increased the 

 frequency of lirignt's disease, and 

 also that certain new and dangerous 

 maladies which are developing among 

 the poorer classes are attributed to 

 the use of glucosed sugars and syrups 

 by many of our best medical authori- 

 ties. I will only mention here, Jas. 

 R. Nichols, editor of the Boston 

 Jotmml of Chanistiy, who states posi- 

 tively " that it does produce aggra- 

 vated dyspeptic symptoms, and causes 

 flatulency and painful affections of 

 the bowels, and that its use in larger 

 quantities as mixed with our sugars 

 and syrups is deleterious to health." 

 His very interesting article closes 

 with the declaration, "That all con- 

 sumers of sweets in this country are 

 victims to a form of fraud which de- 

 serves the prompt attention of our 

 law makers." 



But it strikes me that the true 

 cause of these effects upon the health 

 may be concealed in the secret pro- 

 cess by which the liquid glucose is 

 converted into granulated sugar. This 

 process is said to be unknown to 



classical chemistry. Much as we owe 

 to chemistry, it cannot be forgotten 

 that from the days of the alchemists, 

 when they tried to make gold from 

 the baser metals they have been 

 reaching after impossible things, and 

 have often exclaimed " Eureka too 

 soon. The product of the laboratory 

 may be identical in composition with 

 that of nature and yet differ widely 

 in its eflectf upon the human system. 

 Nature, in some of her finer processes, 

 is not to be approached by all the 

 subtleties lif the chemist's art. 



Ask the chemist to tell you by his 

 test what the difference is between a 

 piece of Parian marble and a piece of 

 the chalk cliff of England, and the 

 answer from his laboratory will be 

 that tliere is no difference whatever, 

 both are carbonic acid and lime, and 

 in tlie same relative proportion. Now 

 ask him why tliey are not equally 

 valuable as "food for plants, and he 

 cannot tell you. 



A piece of carbonate of magnesia 

 from the rocks of Iloboken treated 

 with sulphuric acid is epsom salts. 

 The chemist will pronounce it such 

 and pure. But if given as a cathartic 

 it will produce severe griping if not. 

 death. 



Other instances might be cited 

 showing that substances which are 

 alike in composition are not always 

 alike in their effects on the living 

 organism, but it is enough for my 

 purpose to show why grape sugar 

 from corn starch treated with sul- 

 phuric acid is not as wholesome as 

 the fruit sugar which is produded in 

 nature's laboratory. 



James' powder.s made from phos- 

 phate of lime and oxide of antimony, 

 were found after 100 years to be good 

 for nothing when made of calcined 

 lime rock. The East India Company 

 sued the manufacturer but could not 

 recover, for chemists, Mr. James 

 among them, decided that it was all 

 right in every respect. 



One word more in closing as to the 

 remedies for the evils Complained of. 



And first I would avoid the use of 

 these deleterious compounds by using 

 instead pure articles purchased of 

 producers. To thwart the consumers 

 and at the same time turn an honest 

 penny the glucose men bought the 

 whole product of amber cane syrup of 

 Iowa last year, mixed it with their 

 stuff and then threw it on tlie market 

 as pure. 



Iloney directly from the apiaries is 

 almost never adulterated and as this 

 fact is becoming well known an 

 unprecedented demand is springing 

 up for extracted honey to take the 

 place of syrups. " The honey of the 

 trade," as it is called, is no better, as 

 it is manufactured in the great citiies 

 by such wholesale jobbers as the 

 Thurbers of New York. If lioney 

 granulates in cold weather it is the 

 best evidence of purity. 



And finally, the only effectual 

 remedy is to be sought in stringent 

 laws against selling anything for 

 what it is not, ancl the people have 

 got to take this matter in hand and 

 urge ui)on Congress a general law 

 that shall put an effectual quietus upon. 

 these nefarious practices. 



