66 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



The Paraffine and Glucose Story. 



Wo have received tlie following 

 letter from Mr. .J. W. Torter, Char- 

 lottesville, Va., dated Jan. 18, 1883 : 



Dear Editor :— In yesterday 's Cin- 

 cinnati Commercial Gazette, weekly, 

 appears a remarkable editorial article 

 on "Food Adulteration." I have, by 

 this mail, written them a letter, 

 which, if published, will tend to cor- 

 rect the impressions such an article 

 would produce, when the public mind 

 is so sensitive on the subject of adul- 

 teration. 



1 take the ground that comb honey 

 is almost the only unadulterated 

 sweet on the market, and such, be- 

 cause the cupidity of man has devised 

 no way to prolitably substitute a 

 counterfeited article. Let us, one 

 and all, labor for legislative protec- 

 tion against food adulteration,until we 

 get as full protection as the law gives 

 the Englishman. 



The following are the paragraphs 

 referred to by Mr. Porter, contained 

 in the editorial article of the Cincin- 

 nati paper : 



" It used to be considered safe to 

 use honey in the comb, but now nearly 

 all this is manufactured." 



" At first pure honey was extracted 

 from the comb, and the bees were fed 

 on glucose, from which the comb was 

 rapidly refilled, but now. artificial 

 combs are produced, and bees being 

 fed on glucose, so-called honey is 

 turned out in comparatively large 

 quantities, and bees, at the same time, 

 are being demoralized." 



The editor of the Commercial Gazette 

 has been imposed upon by that man 

 " Wiley," who invented the " parafflne 

 comb and glucose " story as " a joke," 

 as he stated in the Indiana Farmer 

 last June, which was copied into the 

 Bee Journal of June 14, 1882, and 

 commented upon. 



Mr. Wiley's own version of the ori- 

 gin of the story [lie], and our remarks, 

 are as follows : 



Perhaps it may be well enough to 

 give here the origin of the " parafflne 

 comb " story which has appeared, I 

 believe, in almost every publication in 

 the country, The original ajipeared 

 in the Popular Science Monthly for 

 June, 1881, in an article entitled 

 ■' Glucose and Grape Sugar," which I 

 contributed to that number, and on 

 page 254, occur the following words : 

 " Bees eat glucose with the greatest 

 avidity ; or rather, they act as funnels 

 by which the glucose is poured into 

 the comb. For it is quite true that 

 the honey made by bees which have 

 free access to glucose differs scarcely 

 at all from the glucose itself. But 

 the quantity of honey wliich a bee 

 will store away when fed on glucose 

 is truly wonderful. This gluttony, 

 however, rapidly undermines the 

 apiarian constitution, and the bee 

 rarely lives to enjoy the fruits of its 

 apparent good fortune. In commer- 



cial honey, which is entirely free from 

 bee mediation, the comb is made of 

 parafiine. and filled witti pure glucose 

 by appropriate machinery. 



This last clause which, when writ- 

 ten, was meant for a scientific pleas- 

 antry, came near throwing tlie wliole 

 bee world into epilepsy. It appears 

 that persons who devote themselves 

 to Bee Journals undergo a certain 

 cerebral inspiration which renders 

 them incapaljle of seeing a jol^e. The 

 only point which they can appreciate 

 seems to be the sting of a bee. 



The rejoinder reminds us of an an- 

 ecdote we heard many years ago, lo- 

 cated in a rural district in Indiana. 

 A well-to do-farmer lost a very fine 

 filly from his pasture-lot, and after 

 several days' search found it snugly 

 tied in the log barn of a distant 

 neighbor of doubtful repute. The 

 neighbor was indicted, tried, and 

 found guilty of larceny ; when the 

 Judge asked what he had to say, why 

 sentence should not be passed, he put 

 in a plea that the animal was only 

 taken fora joke. The Judge inquired 

 how far his barn w.^.s from the past- 

 ure lot, to which he replied, " about 

 •5 miles.'' " Well," said the Judge, 

 " that is carrying a joke too far ; hard 

 labor in the penitentiary for seven 

 years." The writer above says he 

 contributed to the Popular Science 

 Monthly his " parafiine comb " story 

 [lie] about a year ago, " which has ap- 

 peared in almost every publication in 

 the country." The latter part of the 

 article, however, was only meant for 

 a scientific pleasantry. 



Do scientific men indulge in pleas- 

 antries which will cast a gloom over 

 thousands of honest producers 

 througliout the country, and depre- 

 ciate the value of their product by 

 creating a prejudice against it V For 

 nearly a year this scientific joker saw 

 his fabrication published in nearly all 

 the papers in the country, and reiter- 

 ated from across the ocean, and yet 

 he lacked the manhood to affirm it a 

 joke until the " Bee Journal man " 

 counteracted its influence by showing 

 the falsity and absurdity of the arti- 

 cle. Whether it be true, as has been 

 often intimated, that the story was 

 instigated by parties interested in 

 the glucose traffic, in retaliation for 

 the hostility of the bee men to their 

 frauds, we cannot affirm ; but we do 

 believe it originated with no honest 

 intention. 



Iowa State Convention. 



1^" We have a few copies of our 

 pamphlet entitled " Bee Culture " left, 

 and have reduced the price from 40 

 to 2.5 cents each, or S2 per dozen. 



Mr. M. Sorrick, Des Moines, Iowa, 

 has written us as follows concerning 

 the practicability of holding a State 

 Convention, and getting up a good 

 Bee and Honey Show at the next Iowa 

 State Fair in that city. He says : 



Mr. Editor :— Ought there not to 

 be a State Convention in Iowa y It 

 seems as if we were getting behind in 

 the matter of not having a State Con- 

 vention. As the State Fair is located 

 at Des Moines, for 18S3, 1 should like to 

 see a State Bee-Keepers' Convention 

 some time during the Fair week, if 

 not sooner; as this is a central point. 

 At that time there will be a good 

 many bee-keepers here from all parts 

 of the State, as well as other States. 

 VVould not that be a good time to get 

 the bee-keepers together? I really 

 think there ought to be an organiza- 

 tion sooner. I should like to hear 

 what the other bee-keepers of Iowa 

 think of the matter. 



We have had steady cold weather 

 since December 25, with good sleigh- 

 ing ; tlie snow is two feet deep, on the 

 level. Half of my bees are under a 

 snow drift, where I shall leave them, 

 without disturbing them until the 

 weather moderates. Then I will dig 

 them out and clear out the entrances. 

 M. Sorrick. 



Des Moines, Iowa, Jan. 18, 1883. 



As Iowa is a grand field for bee- 

 keeping, and as it contains a large 

 number of wide-awake, progressive 

 apiarists, we see no reason why it 

 should not have a State organization, 

 and a very large and creditable dis- 

 play of lioney and bees at the forth- 

 coming State Fair. 



The very interesting lecture lately 

 delivered by the Rev. O. Clute before 

 the State Agricultural Society, should 

 have made that body favorable to the 

 bee and honey interests, and we hope 

 to see very liberal premiums offered 

 by the Board. Mr. Clute is one of the 

 best of public speakers — interesting 

 and eloquent — and he is, withal, a 

 thoroughly practical and pirogressive bee- 

 keeper. If he can be enlisted to labor 

 with the Board, we have no doubt but 

 that he can secure premiums, as lib- 

 eral as have Mr. Cutting and Prof. 

 Cook, of the Board of the Michigan 

 State Agricultural Society. We think 

 all it needs is a little united action 

 among apiarists, and they can secure 

 all the premiums that they can con- 

 sistently ask for. " Ask and ye shall 

 receive " is a promise, trite but true. 

 Try it. 



i^°Renewals may be made at any 

 time ; but all papers are stopped at 

 the expiration of the time paid for, 

 unless requested to be continued. 



