1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



951 



from one State to another, and the party receiving it 

 puts his own label on it as if he were the producer, he 

 violates the law by representing the product as hav- 

 ing' been made in a State different from that of its 

 actual production. The shipper, however, of such 

 honey will not be amenable unless he is a party to the 

 fraud, and benetlts thereby. The law does not require 

 a label to be placed upon food products, but does re- 

 ouire that if one is used it must be a truthful one. 

 Unlabeled food products are covered by Section 8, 

 first paragraph under foods, which states that a food 

 is misbranded " If it be an imitation of or offered for 

 sale under the distinctive name of another article." 

 Thus honey which is pure and unlabeled, sold as hon- 

 ey, is wholly within the protection of the law; but if 

 honey be adulterated by admixture with glucose, and 

 sold as honey, then the law is offended. If honey 

 which is produced in Wisconsin, however, is sold to a 

 dealer in Illinois, and the dealer in Illinois places up- 

 on it his own label as if it were produced in Illinois, 

 and sells it in original packages in Illinois, or repacks 

 and ships in interstate commerce, the law is offended, 

 because a false statement is made respecting the 

 State in which it is produced, which is a violation of 

 the first paragraph of Section 8 of the law. You will 

 find the law on standards of purity of honey in Circu- 

 lars 19 and 21, which I enclose. Respectfully, 



Jambs Wilson, Secretary. 



In a word, the Secretary says that it is not 

 neressary to label pure honey; but if a label 

 is used it must state the truth and nothing 

 but the truth. There is one point, hovvevei', 

 on which we are not quite clear. We have 

 written to the Secretary for information, and 

 as soon as we receive his reply we will place 

 the same before our readers. 



To illustrate the point of uncertainty we 

 will suppose a case. Mr. John Jones, of 

 Blankton, Ohio, does a general bottling busi- 

 ness in pure extracted honey. The labels he 

 uses on all the bottles read as follows: 



' ' Pure extracted honey put up by John 

 Jones, Blankton. O." 



We will suppose that the honey that John 

 Jones produces in his own yard is usually a 

 blend of clover and basswood, and that his 

 own apiaries can not begin to supply the 

 bottling trade, so that he is compelled to buy 

 largely, and make up a blend of pure clover, 

 basswood, and alfalfa. The bassv\ood may 

 one year come from Wisconsin, and at anoth- 

 er time it may come from Mic^higan; and the 

 same is true of the clover. His alfalfa may 

 one year be produced in Colorado, and at 

 another time in Nevada. Now, the question 

 is, would he be violating the national pure- 

 food law if he makes up a blend of these 

 three pure honeys and sells them under the 

 label given, in any State but Ohio? Or, to 

 put the question in another way, can John 

 Jones, if he iloes not claim to i^foduce the 

 honey, sell his labeled goods in any State, 

 providing the claim made is that the honey 

 is pure and is "put up by" him? We are 

 in doubt, but have written the Secretary for 

 a ruling on this point, and hope to be able to 

 give his reply at a later time. 



Should it not be permissible to make up a 

 blend of pure honey from three or four dif- 

 ferent States, then honest honey-bottlers^ — 

 those who handle nothing but pure honey- 

 might be placed in a very awkward position, 

 for the reason that they can not always de- 

 termine from which State the honey is pro- 

 duced, neither can they beforehand, when 

 ordering labels for the season, anticipate 

 from what State the stock will come. Bot- 

 tlers would take the position, pi'obably, that 



if honey be guaranteed to be pure, and no 

 further claim than that it was " put up by '' 

 a responsible individual or firm, there would 

 be no violation of the national law, because 

 no wrong or misleading statement would be 

 made. But it is perfectly clear that he can 

 not say "produced by" unless such honey 

 bearing such labels came from his own bees. 



SWARMING INDUCED BY SUPERSEDING. 



Nearly every swarm I have had this year 

 could be traced directly to a failing queen. 

 It does not pay the bee-keeper who expects 

 to control swarming to allow the bees to do 

 their own superseding. Too often they will 

 select the beginning of a honey-flow as the 

 time for this. The result is a swarm, al- 

 though the colony may be in poor condition 

 to swarm. Very often the old queen never 

 amounts to any thing afterward, and some- 

 how it often happens that they do not try 

 again to supersede her, so unless they are 

 watched, and the queen replaced, the colony 

 soon dwindles away to nothing. 



SMOKER-LIGHTERS. 



The use of pieces of rag or other material 

 soaked in a solution of saltpeter to use in 

 starting the fire in the smoker is one of those 

 kinks that add largely to the comfort and 

 convenience of the apiarist. In preparing 

 these, be careful that you get the right kind 

 of saltpeter. What you want is the nitrate 

 of potash. I have known cases where the 

 druggist substituted, for this, nitrate of soda, 

 or "Chilian saltpeter," as it is sometimes 

 called. For many of the purposes for which 

 saltpeter is used this is all right; but it is not 

 good for smoker-lighters. It does very well 

 when it is dry, but it absorbs moisture from 

 the air so readily that in damp weather it 

 becomes quite wet, in which condition it is 

 very unsatisfactory for starting tires. 



SHAKING BEES OUT OF SECTIONAL HIVES. 



Are you really sure, Mr. Editor, that it is 

 practicable to find queens by shaking the 

 bees out of the hive, only with black bees? 

 Fbr some years 1 have had the idea that I 

 could shake any colony, Italian or black, out 

 of a properly made sectional hive, and find 

 the queen in far less time, on an average, 

 than is ordinarily consumed in finding a 

 qvieen by hunting her up on the combs. I 

 use a little variation of the Heddon method, 

 and told the readers of (^leanings how it 

 was done, some years ago. You threw cold 



