ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



57 



Mr. Tyrrel: — Does he handle ex- 

 tracted, also? 



-Mr. France — He is working now 

 more in the extracted. A boy in Mil- 

 waukee, whose health was failing, had 

 finished school and was in a place of 

 business, but kept inside. The doctors 

 told him there was one of two things 

 to do, that he could take his choice, go 

 to a lighter altitude, to some place out 

 West, or not get well. 



Well, it did not appeal to him that 

 that was the thing to do; he was his 

 father's only son and was thought 

 everything of; they did not like his 

 going away among strangers, and they 

 asked my advice; I said to him — 

 "Walter, you have to have fresh air. 

 Your father is more than busy, caring 

 for his bees. Why can't you take a 

 horse and ride around the neighbor- 

 hood and sell honey? 



"Don't be in a hurry to go to Col- 

 orado." He took my advice and re- 

 mained at home, and did not have to 

 go out W^est, and today that boy is 

 running five delivery wagons and he is 

 buying honey to supply his trade. 



I have furnished him the fourth car- 

 load this year, and he is a hearty, ro- 

 bust boy. 



Mr. Tj-rrell — What size packages? 



Mr. France — His goes into the gro- 

 cery stores. One night when I was 

 there, he came home at a late hour 

 for his supper, and he said, "Papa, I 

 wish you would, while I am eating my 

 lunch, get the engine a-going", and be- 

 fore we went to bed he had consider- 

 ably over a wagon load of horseradish, 

 grated and bottled, ready for delivery 

 next morning. 



He is robust now — and it shows the 

 ingenuity of the boy. The horsei'adish 

 is washed well, goes into a grater and 

 into the bottles, and he has not touched 

 it at all. This little engine does the 

 whole business. 



Mr. Vaughn — I would like to ask 

 Mr. France what per cent of combs 

 should be capped to be considered ripe 

 honey. 



Mr. France — That depends. I have 

 seen combs filled without any caps 

 and it was ripe, and I have twice seen 

 combs entirely capped over the honey 

 and not ripe. I want them in my lo- 

 cality nearly all sealed. I don't care 

 for the lower set of cells around the 

 borders — but nearly full. If you have 

 not anything else to judge by and 



there are some uncapped cells, if you 

 will hold the comb flatwise and give 

 it a quick jerk upwards and the honey 

 stays in there, it is all right, but if 

 it goes out I would rather put it back 

 in the hive. 



Mr. Vaughn— Mr. A. J. Cook says, 

 if two-thirds of the comb is capped it 

 is considered ripe by him. 



Pres. Dadant — The trouble with Pro- 

 fessor Cook is he is not a practickl api- 

 culturist; he is a scientist. 



I believe Mr. France has it right — 

 When they are harvesting honey very 

 fast they will cap it over fast and 

 sometimes, unripe. I have seen more 

 basswood unripe than any other kind. 

 In the fall, when the weather is dry, 

 on the other hand, you cannot possibly 

 shake any of it out; that is ripe; but 

 if the least quantity of it shakes out, 

 that is enough to spoil it. 



Mr. Baxter — Mr. France's method is 

 a very good one. I have kept a record 

 of every man to whom I sell honey, 

 since 1880 — the quantity of honey sold, 

 the mode of payment, and I am selling, 

 today, honey to customers I sold to 

 twenty-five years ago. I have sold 

 as high as 40,000 pounds in one sea- 

 son, and never left home, and there 

 was only one man that ever beat me 

 out of a cent. 



Mr. France — On this question of 

 ripening honey: I found two men in 

 New York who did not let any combs 

 cap over and they have good honey; 

 but their honey crop is mostly buck- 

 wheat — nearly ripe when it comes from 

 the field. 



They don't let any combs cap over; 

 I don't approve of their method for 

 this part of the country-. 



Mr. Duby — I listened very attentively 

 to what Mr. France said, and I am 

 somewhat confused in regard to get- 

 ting bad honey. He seems to lay the 

 cause to the man. Now I don't know. 

 I produce good honey, and bad honey, 

 and I am the same man all the time, 

 and have the same bees, and in the 

 same locality. Of course the climate 

 differs and the temperature varies 

 sometimes. 



If a man is the cause — what is he 

 going to do? Is it lack of education? 

 Now of course I have several colonies 

 of bees, side by side, but out of one 

 colony I got first class honey, and out 

 of the other colony I did not; it seems 

 to have a different fiavor, a different 



