THE SMERICMM BE© JOtTRltaiU. 



537 



of June they began to"hans: out" in 

 large masses, which the knowing ones 

 admonished me to be a sun- indication 

 that I might expect a swarm from the 

 colony at any time. 



As I had but tliree colonies at that 

 time, I watched them closely for about 

 three weeks. The morning of July 8, 

 1880, was cloudy with a heavy fog, and 

 as I could not work at haying, I took 

 my ax and went to repair some fence 

 about a hundred rods from the apiary. 

 Being busy with the fence, the thought 

 of bees had deserted my mind, luilil Old 

 Sol from a rent in the clouds, warned 

 me of my forgetfulness. It may be 

 truthfully imagined that I took a bee- 

 line for the apiary, double-quick and— 

 more. 



On my arrival, I found my long- 

 looked-for swarm clinging to the under- 

 side of a large limb, on an old-fashioned 

 apple-tree. The cluster was about two 

 feet long, and must have contained at 

 least ten quarts of bees — a black, seeth- 

 ing mass, presenting to a novice of 

 my experience, a serious job of hiving, 

 with the experience of thehivingof but 

 one swarm to '• fall back on." 



After " fixing up " as per instruc- 

 tions, viz : pants tucked into my boot- 

 legs, thick coat on and buttoned up, 

 thick woolen mittens on my hands and 

 a couple of yards of musquito-netting 

 enveloping my head, I tackled the 

 swarm with brush and basket. A 

 couple of swoops with the brush landed 

 about % of the bees in the basket ; the 

 remainder went back to their hive. 



After emptying my captives on a sheet 

 in front of the hive that 1 had prepared 

 for them, and getting them started in, 

 I went into the house to ■' unharness," 

 and cool off. In a short time I returned 

 to the yard, to note the success of my 

 efforts, and while I stood complacently 

 observing laggards disappear as they 

 entered the hive— previa ! out they all 

 came with a rush, some returning to 

 the old hive, while the rest, after circle- 

 ing in the air awhile, clustered on a 

 high limb. 



I took them down on the limb and 

 put them into the hive again ; but they 

 would not stay. On coming out, they 

 circled around a few minutes, as if to 

 marshal their forces, and took a bee- 

 line for the woods, some ten rods dis- 

 tant. After following the rovers 

 twenty rods or more, and marking their 

 course, I concluded to give up the pur- 

 suit and postpone the concluding act of 

 the drama to a more favorable oppor- 

 tunity, deciding that the weather was 

 extremely hot, and that two quarts 

 of bees were not worth further effort. 



On the third day after leaving the 

 swarms, I took the line where 1 left it, 

 and after following the directions a 

 short distance, I found my absconders 

 passing in and out of a knot-hole in the 

 trunk of a decaying hemlock, 2-5 feet 

 from the ground, 'not more than 40 rods 

 from the apiary. 



On reviewing the course afterwards, 

 I was satisfied that the swarm went in 

 a direct line from where they were clus- 

 tered when I attempted to hive them, 

 to the tree in which I found them, im- 

 pressing me very strongly in the belief 

 that they had selected a home in that 

 same tree prior to leaving the maternal 



domicile. Had I kept the swarm in view, 

 from the time they left the bee-yard 

 until they reached their abiding-place, 

 the proof of pre-emption — a " fore- 

 thought "—would have been very con- 

 clusive. 

 Cumberland, Maine. 



SOPHISTICATION. 



The History and Re8ult§ of the 

 Adulteration of Honey. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 

 BY CHAULES DADANT. 



The first intimation of adulterated 

 honey came to me about 20 years ago, 

 when, after sending six or seven barrels 

 of extracted honey to Mr. Perrine, a 

 dealer of Chicago, at 17 cents per 

 pound, I saw at a grocery in Hamilton, 

 one or two dozen small glasses contain- 

 ing liquid honey, sent by the same firm, 

 at 16 cents per pound. This adulterat- 

 ing business was a paying one, the 

 glucose added being sold at 16 cents, 

 with a profit of about 11 cents per 

 pound. 



After having made this discovery, I 

 hastened to write in the bee-papers, 

 and to put on our labels, that the best 

 proof of purity forlioney was its granu- 

 lating. Of course tliis statement was 

 fought by the adulterators, who af- 

 firmed that it was just the reverse. 

 But now this truth is accepted by all 

 the consumers who buy our honey ; so 

 it would be a hard task for the adulter- 

 ators to sell their stuff around us. Had 

 all the bee-keepers insisted on selling 

 their honey granulated, as we did, the 

 adulteration would be altogether a 

 thing of the past. 



Nine or ten years later, while offer- 

 ing our extracted honey to some dealers 

 in St. Louis, I was shown comb honey 

 in small glass-jars, filled with liquid 

 glucose, sold by Messrs. Thurber & Co., 

 of New York, cheaper than I asked for 

 my extracted. I bought one of these 

 bottles and exhibited it at a meeting of 

 bee-keepers held at Burlington. On 

 my request, a committee composed of 

 Messrs. Thomas G. Newman, Rev. O. 

 Clute, and myself was appointed, with 

 the mission of sending to Congress a 

 petition against adulteration, 



I took the affair in hand, and sent to 

 Washington the petition signed by 

 more than 30,000 names. But all my 

 trouble was for nothing, for the peti- 

 tion, although well backed, was sent to 

 a committee which never reported on 

 it; our "honorables" having no time 

 to spare for the health and the interest 

 of the people. 



It was at about the same time that 

 Mr. A. I. Root invented his comb foun- 

 dation machine. The announcement 

 of this new step in bee-culture gave to 

 many people the idea that, to produce 

 comb, we could dispense altogether 

 with bees; esi)ecially when it was 

 hinted that paralhne could be used in- 

 stead of wax. Vet parafBne was soon 

 discarded by those who tried it, not 

 only because the bees objected to it. but 

 on account of its lower melting point, 

 for its smallest adjunction increasing 



the ductility of the wax, the comb 

 dropped in a mess to the bottom of the 

 hives. 



Yet those who consider nearly all 

 men as rascals, continued to speak about 

 this business of using paraffine, and 

 soon got the idea that bee-keepers had 

 found the means of making comb honey 

 entirely free from bee-mediation. Such 

 a statement was so absurd that it 

 would have collapsed of itself, had not 

 a professor of chemistry, Mr. II. W. 

 Wiley, taken it under his own respon- 

 sibility, by writing the following sen- 

 tence in the I'dindar Science Monthly 

 for June, 1881 : 



"In commercial honey, which is en- 

 tirely free from bee-mediation, the 

 comb is made of paratline, and filled 

 wiih pure glucose by appropriate ma- 

 chinery." 



These fallacious ideas spread like fire 

 in the whole country, not only on ac- 

 count of the large number of comb- 

 foundation machines bought by bee- 

 keepers, but especially because the 

 statement was backed by a professor of 

 sciences. The Brithh Jkc Jounvd for 

 March 8, 1888, speaking of the Wiley 

 lie says: "Naturally, subjects coming 

 from a professor would be considered 

 facts ;" and it is for this reason that a 

 man who fills the high oHice of profes- 

 sorship, ought to be careful not to pub- 

 lish scientific jokes, like clowns in front 

 of the tents of the Barnums ; especially 

 when their jokes accuse of fraud a 

 large class of citizens. Such a slander 

 deprives its author not only of the 

 honor attached to a good name, but of 

 all the confidence indispensable to 

 pupils towards their professor ; inspir- 

 ing doubts as to the reliability of his 

 teachings and experiments. 



But this joke did not suflice for Mr. 

 Wiley; angry at seeing bee-keepers 

 " handling him without gloves," he 

 published a report, to prove that nearly 

 all the honey put upon the market was 

 adulterated. Of course this prciuuled 

 f(ii((;'/.s'('x continued to injure the trade 

 of bee-keepers, by increasing the sus- 

 picion of buyers ; the sale of honey be- 

 came more difficult, and its price 

 lowered. „ ^ 



But a large number of bee-keepers 

 were ml duped by the chemist o/ the Gov- 

 ernmeid; tor he had gone too far; ac- 

 cusing of adulteration several men who 

 were above suspicion. 



To my mind, either Mr. Wiley is a 

 poor chemist, or he continued his slan- 

 der, lie says that he desires to fight 

 adulteration in the interest of bee- 

 keepers. Then he acted as the bear of 

 the fable, that used a big stone and 

 broke the head of his friend to kill a fly 

 resting on his nose while he was sleep- 

 ing. The bee-business would have 

 been more prosperous had not Mr. 

 Wiley busied himself about it. 



I think that we were among the ones 

 who could best see to what extent the 

 Wiley slander took root in the minds 

 of the iieople at large ; for after show- 

 ing to visitors the shops in which cooab 

 foundation is manufactured, we have 

 often been asked for the privilege of 

 seeing how we put glucose in the 

 combs! ^, „_., ^. ,. 



As soon as Mr. Wiley saw his lie re- 

 produced by other papers, his strict 

 duty was to write to the Popidor tieience 



