20 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
[ January 1, 1885. 
No. 2 query. It is the underbody box that rests on it. There is no 
crevice. Ledges are objectionable and should never be employed on hives. 
4, It depends entirely upon the will of the bee-keeper bow- 
much space is covered with sections. The uncovered spaces are all 
closed by the use of the slides, but should have additional packing 
to prevent the escape of beat and so hasten the completion of supers. 
5, “Basil” must make his hive first, then get the measurement 
from it, for the frame being shallow a bottom rail is not required; the 
ends may be j inch thick and about 1 inch broad; the top bar ^ inch 
thick and lj) inch broad. 
6, The outside sections may have either two pieces of wood with a 
piece of glass in the centre nailed permanently (on outside sections) or 
moveable as desired, or it may be all glass or wood. 
7, “ Basil’s ” suggestions do not remove the objectionable features in 
sections such as crates and bottom bar of section, which ought to be 
avoided, causing unnecessary expense and trouble, besides thwarting the 
bees and reducing the yield of honey. I have tried similar plans—better, 
no doubt, than the ordinary way, hut otherwise deficient from the section 
I have explained in previous issues of this Journal. It contains no 
obstruction to the bees, and forms of itself a packing-case preferable to 
any crate containing the common sections. 
I have omitted answering some of the queries fully, because if “ Basil ” 
peruses the article in the number for the 18th December, pages 537, 538, he 
will learn from it the particulars required, and if he further studies the 
former replies to his questions he will, I think, attain his point.—A Lanark¬ 
shire Bee-keeper. 
SPURIOUS HONEY. 
It is a fact well known to bee-keepers that there is a large quantity 
of glucose and other substances imported into this country under the 
name of honey. According to the “ American Bee Journal ” sulphuric, 
nitric, and muriatic acids are employed in the manufacture of glucose, 
and lead is present as well as arsenic in some kinds of sulphuric acid. 
A correspondent, “ T.,” page 494 (November 27th), asks me to make 
myself acquainted with the “ Yankee methods of apiculture, and read 
their bee journals.” I am not altogether unacquainted with them ; and 
because I choose to warn your readers when I am convinced such 
warnings are needed in the interests oE the public generally and of that 
section known as bee-keepers and genuine honey raisers, am I to be 
held as maligning honoured transatlantic brethren ? I have had the 
pleasure of meeting Mr. Thomas C. Newman, Editor of the “ American 
Bee Journal,” who has often warned the worshippers of “ The Almighty 
Dollar” that they were ruining by adulteration their own and their 
honest brethrens’ trade in honey. Nor has the Editor been alone in raising 
his voice against practices that many others equally condemn. The 
following are extracts from that Journal January 19th, 1881, No. 3, 
page 18 :—L. H. Schudder says, “ I feel the importance of waging an 
incessant warfare against the use of the vile stuff in adulterating honey, 
sugar, and syrups of all kinds. We, as honey producers, feel the effect of 
adulteration of honey keenly. So long as enough honey can be obtained 
to flavour the compound the market will be supplied with * pure honey ? ’ 
Now when you take into consideration that they obtain over three gallons 
per bushel of what they call ‘ glucose ’ or corn syrup, you will see that 
fifteen million gallons annually are thrown upon our markets to be sold 
and used in various ways, but not one gallon is sold to the consumer by 
its proper name, the people buy it in their honey, candy, sugar, golden 
syrup, drips, and in other commodities we know not of.” Again, at 
page 22, J. P. H. Brown says, speaking of glucose, “It is now used in 
enormous quantities for the purpose of adulteration in sugars, syrups, and 
honey. Fully one-fourth of all the common grades of sugar consists of 
glucose.” Thurberg says, “ In order to prevent the honey from 
granulating it has been saturated with corn syrup.” Then he adds, 
“ that there is no doubt but this nefarious practice of adulterating the 
food we eat is daily on the increase, that if the adulteration of honey is 
allowed to go on without restriction it will ultimately destroy the entire 
honey-producing interests.” Then at page 28, under the head of “ Com¬ 
pulsory Honesty”—“They do not adulterate honey of course, but they 
have to add a certain quantity of glucose to keep it from granulating.” 
The foregoing is sufficient to show that glucose is largely employed for 
fraudulent purposes, and subsequent numbers teem with like strictures. 
I never stated that Heather was the only pure honey in Scotland. 
If your correspondent would indulge in a holiday trip to Lanarkshire and 
Ayrshire in the coming season and visit their apiaries, he would see the 
exudation of the white Clover stored in unsurpassable purity. The latter 
county, Ayrshire, is also entitled to the honour of inventing the best hive 
and system of bee-keeping—viz., the Stewarton, now indelibly stamped 
as such. After Lanarkshire he should visit Ayrshire, then turn his steps 
to Glasgow, and passing to the archives of the police court, he would find, 
under the Adulteration Act, 1875, the name of a respectable west end 
shop-keeper, who was fined £2 for selling American adulterated honev, 
certified by Dr. Clark, city analyst, as containing 57 per cent, starch, 
glucose. 
As to hives, I should have thought your correspondent would have 
known that the Rev. L. L. Langstroth only gave his frame hive to his 
own continent. For more than ten years before I either saw Lang- 
stroth’s book, or heard of him, I had frame hives of such a construction 
that no frame hive is now made without my ideas, appropriated both by 
my own countrymen as well as by Americans. 
If America has taken such a lead in apiculture, would your corres¬ 
pondent “ T.,” kindly name on his list given, who were using, making, 
and disseminating in 18G2 (one year after the oldest bee paper in America 
was established) comb foundation as was then the present writer, besides 
constructing the apparatus for its manufacture, although “Hoge ” another 
“ refiner of honey ” stated in the Pictorial World a few months since 
that he was the introducer of it in 187G. I chance to know more of 
American bee literature possibly than “ T.” is aware of. One of my 
articles, that appeared in this Journal a few months since, appeared lately 
in an American one as a genuine bond fide article of an American writer, 
and if “ T.” turns the leaf on which his remarks appear, he will find a 
paper, read before an admiring transatlantic audience, entitled, “ Foul 
Brood ; its Cure by Fasting without the use of Drugs or Chemicals,” and 
then let him turn to vol. v., new series, page 78, of this Journal, and he 
will find the cure as given by its discoverer, the late Mr. T. W. Woodbury, 
twenty-one years ago, who, as “A Devonshire Bee-keeper,” most ably 
guided bee-keepers in this periodical.—A Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
BEES IN A CHIMNEY. 
Can you tell me in the next number of your Journal how I can secure 
a stock of bees that have taken up their abode in an outside chimney 
about 20 feet from the ground, that has an opening about 7 feet from the 
top through which they enter, and between which and top they have their 
combs ? I should like to take the stock next season alive if possible, and 
I know how to manage, as I fancy it will not be an easy matter upon the 
top of a ladder. Could they be driven up to the top into a skep by any 
means ?—H. T. 
The situation and structure of the building as gi en is too deficient in 
details ; but assuming that it is a chimney in an outside gable which must 
not be interfered with by the removal of any part, I would leave them 
until warm weather, selecting a fine day for the operation. A proper 
survey of the chimney must be taken and arrangements made accordingly. 
A light and small platf jrm must be made to stand upon at the chimney top. 
A piece of canvas must be prepared to fit with a little slack inside the 
chimney. In order to keep this distended, the rim must be supplied with 
something to insure this, such as a piece of indiarubber tubing, wire, 
willow, or cane, so that the canvas will yield to any irregularities and 
keep as close to the building as possible ; then fasten little hooks of wire 
at intervals round the edge of the canvas, which completes this part. 
Next prepare a truss of something that will exactly fit the chimney, cover 
this material with some old cloth and smear it well with carbolic acid, 
having a card attached so that it may be drawn from its place I will 
hereafter explain. 
Another article required is a triangle to rest upon the chimney top. 
This triangle mud; have a hole at each end to allow strings to pass through 
and keep them the proper distance apart Plaster up the entrance and 
prepare for the assault. A slight knocking on the gable will cause the 
bees to gorge themselves and become tame. Take three strings long 
enough and three pieces of gas piping which the strings pass through, 
having a painted bullet of lead at each end. Keep the end tight to the 
pipe and push these down through the combe close to the chimney and 
equidistant from each other. When the piping is clear of the combs slack 
the string, and the bullet will take it down, leaving the pipe behind amongst 
the combs. Be sure that each string is marked, so that an operator 
beneath will know the proper place to fasten it to the c invas. After this 
is done, if the chimney is dark a reflector may be necessary to show those 
on the top of chimney the position of the bees and combs. When this is 
ascertained, some instrument is required which they must be previously 
provided with. If the chimney is square a broad cutter will do, but if 
round the instrument must be narrow, so that every piece of the comb 
will be detached. If the haul could reach far enough a common saw 
might do to sever the combs from the wall ; failing that, a piece of sheet 
steel fastened to an elastic handle will do it efficiently. Before cutting 
the combs the canvas must be drawn up hard to them and the cords held 
or fastened so that they will not slip during the operation of severing 
the combs. 
After these are all cut replace the triangular piece or pieces of wood on 
chimney top. Now draw the cords, which will bring up the canvas, combs, 
and bees. As the combs appear lash round the cords a piece of cloth and 
tie firmly ; then as the contents are brought up fasten the under edge of 
this cloth to hooks in canvas, this will steady the combs while they are 
lowered either down the chimney or over to the outside. If there is much 
soot in the chimney the latter way will be better. When the bees and 
comb3 are safe, bring up the chimney by a cord lowered from top the 
carbolicised truss to where the combs commenced, and further carbolicise 
the inner walls and round the entrance. The distracted bees will soon 
find their way to the combs, which may be tranferred to a frame hive.— 
Lanarkshire Bee-keeper. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Sutton & Sons, Reading.— Amateur’s Guide in Horticulture , 1885 (illus¬ 
trated). 
Daniels Brothers, Norwich.— Illustrated Guide for Amateur Gardeners 
for 1S85. 
W. Leighton, 89, Union Street, Glasgow.— Catalogue of Vegetable and 
Mower Seeds. 
Dickson & Robinson, 12, Old Millgate, Manchester.— Select Vegetable 
and Flower Seeds. 
Dickson, Brown & Tait, 43 and 45, Corporation Street, Manchester.— 
Garden Seed Catalogue and Cultural Guide. 
Charles Sharpe & Co., Sleaford, Lincolnshire.— Seed List, 1885. 
