684 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



most equivalent to naming- some of our 

 brothers who had broug-ht disaster upon 

 themselves as well as others who were en- 

 gag-ed in the production of extracted honej'. 



We are creatures of evolution, and it is 

 only the more highly evolved that escape 

 punishment, because they will learn with- 

 out. When the soul has sufficiently inform- 

 ed itself so that any transg^ression will re- 

 sult disastrouly, it beg^ins to avoid disap- 

 pointments; and if we wish to evade them 

 in our daily life in producing or vending we 

 must endeavor to produce the best that we 

 can, and do it in love and kindness. 



In the second paragraph of my letter of 

 June 6 I begin the second sentence by say- 

 ing that " I do not know that I have read 

 any thing in a long time which annoyed 

 me more than the publicity given to that 

 method of obtaining a large quantity of 

 honey." I am not so sure but that the best 

 method of curing ills is to give them great 

 publicity, as attention is thus attracted, 

 and the ills can be more readily discerned; 

 hence the hasty thought of your senior mem- 

 ber, committed to print, may after all be 

 productive of more good than harm; for 

 greatest of all of the hindrances to the sale 

 of extracted honey that I have met with in 

 over a quarter of a century has been the un- 

 ripe article. R. A. Burnett. 



Chicago, July 17. 



[You do not need to offer any apologies 

 for what you wrote. If we can not endure 

 honest criticism from a large-hearted man 

 like yourself we will quit the bee-journal 

 business. As you say, the probable effect 

 of the articles, yours and A. I. R.'s, will 

 be productive of good. — Ed.] 



IS IT POSSIBLE THAT SOME MEMBERS OF 

 THE N. B. K. A. ADULTERATE HONEY? 



A great deal is being said about adulter- 

 ated honey. You say in footnote, page 537, 

 "The N. B. K. A. together with the local 

 State organization is doing much to get laws 

 that will make the adulteration of honey a 

 crime." That may be so, and I guess is all 

 right; but do none of the National adulter- 

 ate honey? 



I bought a lot of honey from a man whom I 

 am satisfied belongs to the National (I have 

 no list), and it was sugar syrup, or some 

 other kind of syrup flavored with cinnamon. 

 When I wrote him that the stuft" was here 

 subject to his order, he declared it was 

 "pure honey." I proposed to have it ana- 

 lyzed. If pure I would pay all expenses; 

 if not, he was to pay them. He would not 

 agree to this; but to convince me that it was 



pure he had me send a sample to 



who, I suppose, is another member, a spe- 

 cialist, and he pronounces it pure honey. 



From this and other facts I am satisfied 

 that honey is adulterated after it gets into 

 the hands of the speculators. The specu- 

 lator buys no such stuff as that for "pure 

 honey" and pays pure-honey prices. The 

 speculator, who himself is often a bee- 

 keeper, is the man to watch. The man who 



sells it to the speculator knows he can not 

 put off on him an adulteration. 



Alexandria, Tenn. David Wauford. 



[If there is a man who is a member of the 

 National who adulterates honey, we do not 

 know who he is. One of the very objects of 

 the Association is to put down adulteration. 

 It would f eem truly inconsistent for a mem- 

 ber to adulterate honey when he is in fact 

 paying down his good dollars to stop that 

 very kind of business. Referring to the 

 case in point, you say you are "satisfied " 

 that the man in question belongs to the Na- 

 tional; but you do not know that he does; 

 and in the second place, neither you nor 

 any one else can positively determine 

 whether honey is adulterated or not by 

 the mere taste. There are many different 

 flavors of real honey — as many as there are 

 of ordinary confectionery. You imply, if I 

 understand you, that the other member, the 

 specialist who analyzed the honey, either 

 did not know his business or else he was in 

 league with his brother-member the adul- 

 terator. I know of only one man in the 

 membership of the National who is compe- 

 tent to analyze honey, and that is W. A. 

 Selser, of Philadelphia. Adulteration has 

 hurt his business as a honey-merchant. He 

 would no more adulterate than he would 

 commit any other crime. If we can not re- 

 ly on the statement of our chemist, or a 

 member of the National, we are in a bad 

 way. The membership of the Association 

 is made up of a different set of fellows en- 

 tirely. Your guess-so, think-so evidence 

 would not be entertained in any court for 

 even one minute. Get some real evidence, 

 send another sample of the honey to the U. 

 S. Chemist, Prof. H. W. Wiley, if you can 

 not trust Selser, and we will pay the bill 

 if the honey is adulterated, and help to 

 make it hot for the offending member of the 

 National. — Ed.] 



FOREST COCKROACHES AMONG THE BEES. 



There is a bug which bothers my bees, 

 and I can not get rid of them. I will send 

 you one to see what I can do to get rid of 

 them. Minerva Marshall. 



Nadine, Pa., June 9. 



[This was sent to Prof. Benton, of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, who replies:] 



The insect belongs to the genus Phyllo- 

 droniia, and is one of the forest cockroaches, 

 which are very common in wooded sections, 

 and come about bee-hives chiefly for the 

 warmth generated by the bees. They like 

 to congregate above the quilts, and partic- 

 ularly to deposit &^^ masses there and rear 

 their young. I really think they do very 

 little damage. Of course, if they have ac- 

 cess to honey — that is, combs not well pro- 

 tected by bees, they may eat some, and 

 probably also feed on dead bees to a cer- 

 tain extent. Frequent removal of the cov- 

 ers, and brushing them away, is about the 

 only remedj^ since il is only where hives 

 are not opened for many days or weeks that 



