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\eepeps' fveViecu 



A MONTHLY JOURNAL 



Devoted to tl^e Interests of Hoqey Producers, 



$L00 A YEAR, 



W. Z. H^TCH^NSOfl, EditoP & Prop. 



VOL, IV, FLINT, MICHIGAN, MAY, 10, 1891, NO, 5. 



The special topie of this issue is 



''Adulteration of Honey," 



That of the next issue cuill be 



A Continuation of the Subject. 



Honey can Never Compete Witli Glucose.— 



The Bee-Keepers' Union Ought to 



Prosecute Adulterators. 



BYKON WALKF.K. 



^ S you call on those of your readers, 

 whose views on the adulteration of 

 honey do not agree with your own, to 

 t ke part in this discussion, and having fre- 

 quently had my attention drawn to this mat- 

 ter in the last six months, while marketing 

 honey in all of the large cities of the West, 

 east of the Mississippi, and west of Cleve- 

 land, lying between and including Minne- 

 apolis and Cincinnati; I venture to accept 

 the invitation. 



There is no room to dispute the truth of 

 your first leading proposition, that if honey 

 can be produced so as to be sold as low as 

 glucose, or as sugar may yet be sold, that its 

 adulteration will at once cease; but I can 

 hardly agree with you when you tell us that 

 all that is needed in order to secure this re- 

 sult, is to so perfect our appliances and 

 methods that we can winter our bees without 

 loss, and so that one man can handle several 

 times as many bees as he now can with ordi- 

 nary methods and appliances. 



No doubt there are rhany localities where, 

 in good seasons, an increased number of 

 colonies can be handled with the same labor 

 now employed, and that without overstock- 

 ing, but it may be safely said that the re- 

 verse of this statement, except as to the item 

 of labor, is equally true of just as many 

 localities in })oor seasons. During the last 

 ten years, new hives, systems of management, 

 and methods of wintering that were to com- 

 pass all of these desirable results, have been 

 brought forward only to be discarded by 

 even their inventors. I presume you will 

 admit that Mr. Heddon's new hive and sys- 

 tem is as good as any that is likely to be 

 generally adopted in the future, and he tells 

 us, see A. B. J. for April 16th, "that bee- 

 keepers can't afford to submit to any further 

 reduction in the price of honey." 



Now for the sake of argument, let us sup- 

 pose that the fixtures and system of man- 

 agement adopted, have been so perfected, 

 that in all good localities, with good seasons 

 honey can be produced so as to compete 

 with glucose, what will become of that large 

 class of bee-keepers who are not favored 

 with such localities when their markets are 

 supplied with this cheap honey; and what 

 about competing with glucose, such seasons 

 as we have had lately in nearly all localities? 

 Does it require any argument to show that 

 when bee-keepers if ever must have a good 

 price for honey, the markets will be filled 

 with glucose honey, and they must sell for 

 glucose prices? You have showed us that 

 the price of honey will not rise in times of 



