1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



71 



ADVIiTERATED COMB HON£Y. 



ALSO SOME REMARKS IN REGARD TO ADULTERATIONS 

 IN GENERAL. 



SB INCLOSE here a slip cut from the editorial 

 columns of the Cincinnati Commercial Gazette 

 — ' of Jan. 12, as follows:— 



It used to he considered safe to use honey in the 

 comb, but now nearly all this is manufactured. At 

 first the pure honey was extracted from the comb 

 and the bees were fed on eUicose, from which the 

 comb was rapidly refilled; but now artificial combs 

 are produced, and bees being fed on glucose, so-call- 

 ed honey is turned out in comparatively large quan- 

 tities, and bees at the same time are being demoral- 

 ized. 



What the editor says of the adulteration of other 

 foods, we can leave to thos"^ engaged in the produc- 

 tion of those particular articles; but what he says 

 about honey, touches the honor and the interests of 

 bee-keepers. Do you suppose the assertion, that 

 "nearly all the comb honey is manufactured," 

 can be shown to be a slander on the honey-produ- 

 cers? 



For my own part, I have raised honey for market, 

 and sold it, and could defy any chemist to find any 

 thing in it but what the bees gathered in the fields; 

 in fact, it was absolutely pure honey, and I have 

 scarcely any doubt but that the honey sold by all the 

 bee-keepers of our acquaintance is just as good, and 

 the most of them would not know glucose if they 

 should sec it. 



But if it be true, that there is adulterated honey 

 on the market, it behooves the producers of good 

 honey to expose and put a stop to such adulteration; 

 for to just the extent that the belief extends, that 

 honey is unsafe to eat, to that extent is the produc- 

 tion of honey, and the bee business permanently 

 damaged. Besides, the adulteration of honey would, 

 in the long run, be unprofitable, even to the guilty 

 party; because for every dollar that a dishonest per- 

 son would make selling impure honey, a hundred 

 dollars would be lost by the lack of demand for any 

 honey, good or bad, caused by want of confidence 

 that any of it was good. 



It would be a tremendous pity to have the great 

 and growing bee interest injured to the extent it 

 would be by the general belief that all honey is spu- 

 rious; there are so many people who depend largely 

 on it for their living, and so many who make the 

 production of honey an auxiliary to their other oc- 

 cupations, yielding them not only profit, but instruc- 

 tion and pleasure, that it would be an immense loss, 

 pecuniarily and otherwise, to lose the market for 

 their honey. And it would be no small deprivation 

 to the lovers of good honey to deny themselves the 

 pleasure of such good eating, for fear they should 

 get something spurious. 



I think few persons, outside of the bee-keeping 

 fraternity, have any correct idea of the number of 

 bees actually kept, and the amount of pure honey 

 gathered in the country. It is probable that the 

 mind of the editor who wrote the above article is as- 

 sociated with the old style of keeping bees, before 

 movable frames were used; when the only way to 

 get honey was to bore an auger-hole in the top- 

 board of a box hive, and set a " cap" on it to be fill- 

 ed, or kill all the bees in the fall, and "take up" 

 the honey. To such a person, the sight of the quan- 

 tities of beautiful honey offered for sale only sug- 

 gests, " manufactured from glucose;" "too much of 



it to bo pure honey." They have no knowledge of 

 the improvements in the breeding and management 

 of bees discovered in late years, which insure the 

 large production of pure honey, and which elevate 

 bee-keeping to the importance of a regular and 

 profitable occupation. 



And right here we can see the importance of the 

 compilation and publication of statistics showing 

 the number of hives kept, and the number of pounds 

 of honey produced, so that our editors can have 

 some knowledge of the quantity of good honey 

 gathered by the bees, and need not jump at the con- 

 clusion that the honey is counterfeit because of the 

 abundance. 



Of course, it is perfectly right for newspaper men 

 to warn people of food adulteration. The important 

 thing is, that they shall state only that which is true. 

 We arc told that " the bees are being demoralized 

 by feeding on glucose." Just ho w the demoralization 

 takes place, the editor does not say. I am sorry he 

 did not tell us; for if he had, I have no doubt we 

 should have had something in bee literature quite 

 entertaining, if not instructive. He probably means 

 that the bees are injured in their moral character, 

 perhaps made lazy and unprincipled by being fed on 

 glucose, instead of being compelled to practice hab- 

 its of industry by gathering pure honey in the fields, 

 or perhaps rendered dyspeptic, and consequently 

 unreliable, in their moods and tenses by having 

 their stomachs full of such stuff as glucose. 



Well, I expect to buy some q^ueens and bees in the 

 spring, and I want it distinctly understood by all 

 queen-raisers, that I do not want any " demoralized " 

 bees, none whose morals are damagedby eating glu- 

 cose; only those of good habits wanted; only those 

 will be received that can bring a certificate of char- 

 acter stating that they have not been fed on glucose. 



Cincinnati, Ohio, Jan. 11, 1883. Thos. Hunt. 



The article you send us, friend 11., will 

 probably go the rounds, and many people 

 will believe it ; but I do not think those who 

 give place to such items have any idea they 

 are true. Editors, as a general rule, are well- 

 informed men ; but for some time past there 

 has been quite a demand for sensational ar- 

 ticles on the adulteration of food, and report- 

 ers as well as newspaper men, knowing this, 

 are keeping the papers full of it. No doubt 

 it is well to consider these things, and no 

 doubt but that great harm has been done, 

 and people should be awake to the matter ; 

 but the opposite extreme is in imagining 

 that everybody is a cheat except yourself, 

 and that your neighbors, right and 'left, are 

 perpetrating frauds on each other every day. 

 Within a few days one of our bee-men writes 

 that some of his own honey was analyzed 

 by some professor from some university, 

 who styled it principally glucose. 1 do not 

 believe the liquid honey in our market is, as 

 a rule, adulterated, nor do I believe many 

 well-established grocers will give you sugar 

 or any thing else that is adulterated, when 

 you ask for the pure article. Are bee-men 

 the only men in the world who are honest ? 

 We are all of us more or less responsible for 

 the folly that is going the rounds of the pa- 

 pers, and we ought to be ashamed of it. 

 Adulteration will out, like murder; and the 

 man who is proven guilty of such littleness is 

 killed for ever in business, and in the esti- 

 mation of all who know him. 



