146 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



is no hindrance to our detecting such frauds, 

 puuisliiny the perpetrators, and winding up 

 the ivhole business. Suppose an occasional 

 sample were beyond detection. Such glucose 

 would rarely be secured by the man wlio was 

 engaged in the manufacture, and still more 

 rarely would such samples be seized by the 

 person eugaged in detecting the iniquity. 

 Thus the chemist by use of reagents, aided 

 by the polariscope, could and would bring 

 the evil to the light. I tell you the Union can 

 and must kill this arch enemy of apiculture. 

 I believe this is to be its greatest conquest. 

 AoKiouLTUKAii CoL., Mich., .]nue 0, 1K)1. 



Selling Honey Under One's Own Label. — 



The Diificulties When the Crop is 



Large. 



B, WILKIN. 



)R. EDITOR, I am glad you continue 

 this subject of adulteration of hon- 

 ey, which is intimately related to 

 the variations m the quality of ihe genuine 

 article. I have seen much more harm from 

 uurjpe and off grades of honey than from 

 adulteration. So indiscriminate has become 

 the purcliase and sale of honey that there is 

 but little encouragement to the bee-keeper 

 here to aim at excallence in his products, as 

 it is mainly sold from all parts of the State 

 through commission men of San Francisco. 

 The main test being that of color; strictly 

 white commanding 1 to 13^2 cents per pound 

 more than dark amber. It is shipped East 

 by the car load and manipulated there to 

 suit the interests of the dealers. Owing to 

 the variations in the color, flavor and con- 

 sistency of honey, and the many tastes and 

 fancies to be consulted, it is very difficult to 

 grade according to merit, and when we add 

 to this what seems to me the almost insur- 

 mountable difficulty of readily detecting 

 adulteration, it is not strange tiiat the con- 

 sumer gets his honey in a hap hazard sort of 

 a way. If bee-keepers were convinced that 

 in most cases we could have the experience 

 that Byron Walker had when Health Officer 

 Duffield tested the honey, we could in a short 

 time raise the necessary thousands of mem- 

 bers to the Bee-Keepers' Union, which would, 

 if necessary, employ an expert to travel and 

 look after this matter of adulteration. But 

 can we rely on its being so i)ractical? 



Last season the man on whose place I kept 

 bees, bought nearly a car load of my honey 



to take with him to his old home in Mis- 

 souri to sell to his acquaintances as honey 

 that he knew was made on his farm in Cali- 

 fornia. It did not sell so fast as he expect- 

 ed, and he left it with a commission man in 

 Kansas City to sell for him. Soon after, the 

 commission man reported that he had the 

 honey tested by a chemist who pronounced 

 it 28 per cent, glucose, and consequently 

 sold it at a sacrifice. (I know it is possible 

 that the chemist never saw the honey as it 

 was represented he did. ) But from what I 

 understand of the composition of honey, it 

 would be an easy matter to make just such a 

 blunder and bring the force of science to 

 bear cujainst the innocent bee-keeper. 



Being of the same faith with yourself, that 

 the most practical thing was for each 1 see- 

 keeper to work up a trade for himself, I liave 

 made three efforts at it. In 1H79, I went to 

 London, England, with MO tons of extracted 

 honey. With much labor it was sold at some 

 profit. I formed an acquaintance with Pel- 

 ling, Stanley & Co., of Liverpool, extensive 

 grocers, who expressed themselves inclined 

 to deal in California honey, but were dis- 

 couraged by their experience in buying 

 from Cutting &, Co., extensive packers of 

 honey in San Francisco, as they found Ijoth 

 good and bad honey under the same label 

 marked orantre blossom honey, ('i) But in 

 1881 I succeeded in getting their order for 10 

 tons in 2-gallon tins with my label. Tlie 

 next season they ordered 32 tons, and the 

 third year they ordered 48 tons, one-half in 

 1-gallon tins, the other half in 2-gallon tins, 

 but here set in trouble. la this region, honey 

 was scarce and none of it so fine as I had 

 been furnishing. I informed them of the 

 fact, but they had their demand created, and 

 I filled the order as best I could, but it, was 

 not satisfactory; and about that time honey 

 poured into London from all p'lrts of the 

 world, running the price away down, thus 

 killing our trade there. In 1884 the price of 

 honey came down to 3 cents here; 4 in San- 

 Francisco. I took a car load to Boston, 

 where I sold it at an average of i\l-^ cents per 

 pound. Taking the cost of transportation 

 and my expenses from it, reduced it to 3 

 cents, wlrile the cost of package and hauling 

 from the mountains, reduced it o le cent 

 more. But Boston was far awa>, iiuikingit 

 difficult to follow up the trade aire idy start- 

 ed. 



In 188(; honey was very abundant and ex- 

 ceedingly fine, but only brought 'A% cents in 



