232 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Apr. 11, 



That this vile stuff is a fraud is plainly evidenced by the 

 fact that it is nowhere advertised and sold as such. It is made 

 in quantities like a river ; but without any flourish of trumpets 

 it disappears, and where does it ro ? Do you know of an 

 eater who calls for glucose in his food ? I don't. The 

 fact is, it makes its way to the dark cellars of our cities, and 

 is there mi.xed with syrups worth 50 cents a gallon, or about 

 5 cents per pound in a pure state. Here the American 

 mechanic in Louisiana is robbed directly of the difference 

 between 5 cents and the price of glucose, and the latter can 

 bo had in Chicago for 2,^' cents. Then the robbery is perpe- 

 trated again on the buyer, and the greatest damage is finally 

 done to the eater. If the robbery were done by an English- 

 man, our tariff would be revised. For one, I feel as willing to 

 be plucked by a man in England as by one in New England. 



For years I have not bought a pint of New Orleans mo- 

 lasses or syrup. I want some very much, and it is offered; 

 but its very handsome appearance satisfies me that it is wedded 

 to glucose," and I can't bear that. And right here is where we 

 honey-producers must open our eyes. We have already had 

 rumblings of the trouble. We know very well that the mi.fer 

 of glucose with honey is in the land; and although he is care- 

 fully watched, and honeyof undoubted purity can be obtained, 

 still the danger is over us. 



What American industry needs is protection from fraud 

 more than from competition. We need a law that will cause 

 glucose to be sold on its merits, and under its own name. If a 

 man sells maple syrup of less than a certain degree of thick- 

 ness, in this State, or labels his can with letters less than inch 

 high, he is fined ; but the mixer of glucose can compound his 

 wares just about as he pleases — at least, he gets rid of an 

 amount that surpasses any mental conception of it. 



But just as soon as I begin to think of a law to rectify 

 this matter, I begin to feel wearied ; for the most reasonable 

 food laws ever brought before Congress have been killed there 

 in committee session, for the law-makers themselves were 

 elected by the very corporations we ought to fight. 



If somebody would give us accurate figures, showing how 

 much labor is displaced annually in the United States by 

 adulterants, it would make very interesting reading. 



Who knows but beeswax itself will eventually fall among 

 the list of articles that are so skillfully adulterated that 

 detection will be almost impossible ? Imprisonment for life is 

 none too good for a man who adulterates food. 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



^ 



No. 1.- 



-Bits of Experience, and a Few 

 tions Suggested by Them. 



Ques- 



BY T. I. DUGDALE. 



Although still on the sunny side of 40, the writer has had 

 about 20 years of actual practice in the care and manage- 

 ment of bees, and can place them among earliest recollections 

 of boyhood when at home on the farm where my father kept a 

 few colonies in a long, open shed facing the south, at the end 

 of the garden. 



Of course it is almost needless to add that they were kept 

 in box-hives, which were from 12 to 14 inches square and 

 about 18 inches deep inside, with sticks across the middle to 

 help hold up the combs. The bees were the common blacks — 

 the only race of which anything definite was known here at 

 that time. The only way in which the coveted sweets stored 

 by the bees was secured, was the brimstone pit, and many 

 colonies I have seen destroyed in this way. 



Later on came the plan of boring a big hole in the top of 

 the hives and putting big boxes or caps, as they were often 

 called, on the tops of them into which the bees sometimes put 

 some honey, but many more times did not. Driving the bees 

 out into an empty hive and appropriating the contents of the 

 old hive to the family supply, was also tried, and usually 

 resulted disastrously to the bees ; owing, no doubt, to the fact 

 that it was not done at a proper time of the season, this plan 

 was soon abandoned entirely. 



Some time during the '70's, I think, as will be remem- 

 bered by at least some of the older readers, we had an unus- 

 ually severe winter for bees, when it was believed that fully }., 

 of the colonies in this country died, as they were mostly win- 

 tered on the summer stands with no other protection but the 

 hives they were in. My father had some 8 or 10 colonies at 

 that time, but only two succeeded in getting through till 

 spring alive — one colony very strong, the other very weak. 



About this time I had become quite interested in the bees, 

 and began to read about all of the little that was then written 

 on the subject, and having secured my fathers' consent to 

 manage them, I concluded to equalize them by exchanging 



stands with the two hives. As it was early in the spring, the 

 result was that they went to fighting and robbing, and both 

 soon dwindled down to nothing, and the moth-worms com- 

 pleted the job by destroying the combs. 



One thing that I was at a loss to account for at that time 

 was that the colony that was so strong in numbers was in an 

 old hive with a crack in one side from top to bottom, large 

 enough for the bees to pass through for nearly its entire 

 length ; while all those hives in which the bees died, were 

 sound from top to bottom. I wonder if that crack in that 

 hive did not serve a good purpose as a ventilator in allowing 

 the moisture to pass away from the cluster. And I wonder 

 if cold ever directly kills a colony of bees if all other condi- 

 tions are just right. 



About this time I began to have the impression that per- 

 haps theory and practice might be two entirely different 

 things. I am still a good deal inclined that way. And not to 

 be discouraged by my first attempt, I bought a fine, large 

 swarm of a neighljor who found them, paying S5. 00 for them, 

 which was the common price in those times. They filled the 

 hive that season, and stored 10 or 15 pounds in square boxes 

 with glass sides, these being the first T had ever used. I suc- 

 ceeded in wintering my one colony the following winter, and 

 also procured directions and made my first frame hives. Then 

 began the study and actual practice which soon enabled me to 

 fathom at least some of the mysteries which had puzzled me 

 so much before. During the next two years I increased my 

 colonies to 15, by natural swarming, and sold enough honey 

 to pay all expenses. 



My father then sold the farm, and in order to dispose of 

 implements, stock, etc., made an auction sale, at which I also 

 sold my bees at an average price of $15. (JO per colony. Thus 

 I secured $75.00 in two years from an investment of $5.00. 

 Previous to this time there was not to exceed 50 colonies of 

 bees within a radius of two miles from this place. At this 

 time there is upwards of 200 colonies within the same dis- 

 tance, and I wonder if that may not have some bearing on the 

 question of poor seasons, of which we hear so much of late. 



After leaving home I secured a position with Mr. J. H. 

 Nellis, of Canajoharie, N. Y., who was at that time quite 

 extensively engaged in rearing queens and making and dealing 

 in bee-keepers' supplies. Here I first saw the Italian bees, 

 and gained much practical knowledge in the successful man- 

 agement of them. At this time what was known as the 

 "Nellis hive" was brought to the public notice, and I might 

 add that I constructed the first one ever made, from plans 

 gotten out by Mr. Nellis. Also the Hoffman frame was offered 

 to the public for the first time with this hive. 



Comb foundation also was in its infancy. The first I ever 

 saw was a medium cell between drone and worker size, made 

 by A. I. Root. Here theory and practice did not seem to 

 agree, as the odd size did not give the desired results. Very 

 soon after this Mr. Nellis purchased a mill of regular worker 

 size, and began the manufacture of foundation. 



West Galway, N. Y. 

 [To be continued.! 



" Talking Back " an Important Element in 

 Modern Bee-Literature. 



BY F. L. THOMPSON. 



It is worth while to give some attention to the methods of 

 acquiring information, as well as to the information itself. 

 Modern education rests on that assumption. 



In the December Review, Mr. Hasty has this to say on 

 conventions : "Man is apt to meet instruction as a cabbage- 

 leaf meets rain — shed it all off. But when people meet together 

 for a definite good purpose, when the gathering is properly 

 engineered, and things work just right, a curious and indefin- 

 able something comes down and takes possession of all hearts. 

 Enthusiasm and open-mindedness make everything good strike 

 in." This influence, he says, cannot be transferred to print. 



True enough. And yet I have often wondered if printed 

 matter might not improve in that direction, so that it would 

 come three or four degrees nearer the inspiring influence of 

 conventions. It is a somewhat narrow view, after all, that 

 when bee-papers contain anything but fresh ideas, once 

 stated, they are printing superfluous matter. Every one has 

 had the experience that the clinching of an idea was as val- 

 uable to him as the idea Itself, or the refutation of an idea 

 was as valuable as he thought the original one was going to 

 be. This ?ieMi sensation, often repeated, is partly what makes 

 a convention. The exUnit of that repetition cannot be trans- 

 ferred to print, it is true. It would produce an effect some- 

 thing like the constant printing of inferior jokes. However 



