504 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLH^AU. 



July 21, 1904. 



ladled out as the conditions would best permit. Without 

 going into details, we can well imagine that the whole 

 transaction from beginning to end was a mussy, inconven- 

 ient, and unbusiness-like affair. With the exception of the 

 use and the advantage of the movable frames, the chunk- 

 honey business of to-day has a striking similarity to the 

 doings of SO years ago. 



But this is not so very serious. If bee-keepers prefer to 

 produce their surplus honey in chunk-honey style, and con- 

 sumers prefer to buy in this way, no particular harm is 

 done, although from natural inclination I would neither 

 produce nor buy it. 



But what about adulteration ? We are making a great 

 noise about having laws passed against food adulteration 

 (bee-keepers in particular against honey adulteration),'and 

 then we turn around and open the way, fairly inviting 

 others to engage in this nefarious business. I do not wish 

 to intimate that bee-keepers would be found guilty of any 

 sleightof-hand performances of this kind. No 1 bee-keepers 

 are too honest for that ; but what is to hinder the unscrupu- 

 lous retailer from putting a lot of chunk-honey in a tub and 

 filling it up with Mr. Rockefeller's corn-juice, and selling it 

 all as honey ? The very idea of mixing extracted honey with 

 comb honey beats the stamp of trickiness on its forehead. 

 Why mix it ? Is it necessary to dispose of our extracted 

 honey under the disguise of comb-honey? If we wished to 

 sell extracted honey why not make a clean job of it and sell 

 it as such — it will sell on its own merits if properly handled ; 

 and then produce the comb-honey in neat, clean sections, 

 and sell them as comb honey. This would not only be more 

 business-like, but it would reduce the chances of adultera- 

 tion SO percent ; we would be sure that the comb honey, at 

 least, could not be adulterated. 



Then, again, what is the object in producing chunk- 

 . honey ? If it is easier and cheaper to produce it we also 

 get a cheaper and greatly inferior article by that means, 

 which has to be sold at a less price to sell it at all ; and if 

 this is the case, I emphatically say. Don't produce chunk- 

 lioney, for we only run competition to our own business. 

 Better produce a No. 1 article and get a No. 1 price, even if 

 it is a little more expensive. 



But I hear some one say, "It will bring as much in 

 market as the best section honey." This I doubt very much. 

 It may be true in some cases, where consumers never had 

 an opportunity to get acquainted with the more attractive, 

 neat and tasty section-honey, but in more progressive locali- 

 ties, where the people have been educated in their tastes 

 and notions by the progress of the times, chunk-honey 

 would have to take a very prominent back seat. And this 

 is not strange. 



Let us step into one of our up-to-date grocery stores and 

 look around. There we find on one of their highly polished 

 counters, conspicuously exhibited amoag other first-class 

 goods, a clean, tasty and properly-putup case of 24 A No. 1 

 sections of extra-white clover honey. Near by, we will sup- 

 pose, stands a tub or crock of chunk-honey, with a ladle or 

 large spoon for the means of distribution. To make a dis- 

 play of its contents, the vessel has to be open, thus making 

 a grand gathering-place for all sweet-loving insects, to say 

 nothing of the dust that is constantly settling on our pre- 

 cious sweet. To retail it, the buyer has to furnish his own 

 dish, or the grocery man has to supply the necessary uten- 

 sil in the shape of a wooden butter-tray or paper oyster- pail. 

 In either case it is a wasteful venture, for a good propor- 

 tion of the purchase will remain sticking to the dish when 

 the honey is finally transferred to the plate for the table, 

 and, if ever so carefully managed, it will be more or less 

 mussy. 



Then compare this to the handling of sections. Any 

 number of pounds can be readily taken from the case and 

 wrapped up ; it makes a convenient and clean package to 

 handle, and when the good housewife places the contents of 

 one of the sections on the table she is sure to tempt the 

 most exacting of her table company with its tasty and in- 

 viting appearance. 



With this contrast so plainly to be noticed, I can hardly 

 believe that any rational being would be willing to buy 

 chunk honey as long as any honey in sections can be 

 bought at the same price ; and to sell it for less would, as I 

 said before, have a tendency to hurt our section-honey mar- 

 ket. There is a certain class of people who are not overly 

 particular in their demands as regards style or neatness, 

 and these would undoubtedly buy chunk-honey if they could 

 save a cent or two per pound. This, of course, would lessen 

 the demand for section-honey just so much, and a down- 

 ward tendency of its price would be the natural conse- 

 quence. 



There is another point, although not exactly in the 

 chunk-honey line, where, I think, we bee-keepers make a 

 mistake, and that is, to sell a little ofl grade or imperfect 

 sections at less than regular market price. This may seem 

 no more than fair, but under certain conditions it may be 

 detrimental to our own interests. 



For instance, a short time ago a neighbor called at my 

 place to buy some honey. He did not feel inclined to pay 

 the full market price, but wanted to know if I had any 

 second-grade stock that I would sell for less. I explained 

 to him that all my honey was first-class white honey, no 

 other being produced here, but that I had a lot of unfinished 

 sections, reserved for my own home use, that I would sell 

 for less per section. After looking it over he decided to 

 take a case of. 24 sections at the price I had named. I will 

 say right here, that as near as I could estimate the weight 

 of those unfinished sections, I charged him as much per 

 pound as I sold my full-weight sections for. 



Soon after, on one of my trips, I called at a place where 

 the lady of the house wished to buy some honey. When I 

 stated my prices ([ had comb and extracted) she said: 

 '■ Can't you sell to me as cheap as you did to such and such 

 a person ?" My reply was that he had bought unfinished 

 honey, while I offered her all finished sections. " Oh I 

 well," she said, " I ate some of that honey at their table, 

 and it was just as good as your sections. If I can't buy as 

 cheap as he did, I won't buy any." It took me some time 

 to convince her that I had given her friend no better bar- 

 gain than I had offered her. 



To obviate all such trouble, and do a straight-forward, 

 systematic business, my motto is, " Sell regular goods at 

 regular prices." And I consider chuok-honey one of the 

 irregularities. Niagara Co., N. Y. 



[ Our Bee-Heepin§ Sisters | 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111. 



Sisters, What Has the Harvest Been ? 



Dear Bkh-Kekping Sistbrs : — Now that we are fairly 

 launched in the season of 1904, wouldn't it be a nice thing 

 for each to report as to the harvest ? As members of one 

 family each naturally likes to know what the others are 

 doing. The brothers are no doubt too busy, but can't the 

 sisters find just a little time to give us some idea of how 

 the bees are progressing ? 



Especially is it desirable to have a report from each as 

 soon as the harvest is over. Such a report should always 

 give the number of pounds of comb honey harvested, the 

 number of extracted, and also the number of colonies spring 

 count. Sometimes a report is given something like this : 



"I took 360 pounds of comb honey this season." 



Now, what idea can one have from that alone whether 

 the season was a prosperous one or not ? If 360 pounds are 

 taken from 4 colonies, spring count, it's quite a different 

 thing from getting the same amount from 20 colonies. And 

 yet sometimes the amount harvested is all that is given, 

 without a word said about how many colonies were engaged 

 in the work. Come to think of it, I'm not sure any of the 

 sisters every reported in that imperfect way — perhaps it 

 was only the brothers. 



Now, dear sisters, please keep track of the amount of 

 honey you take, and then report, if it is only on a postal 

 card. Emma M. Wilson. 



California Bee-Keeping: for Women. 



In the June number of Good Housekeeping, is an article 

 entitled "Honey," written by Miss Flora Mclntyre, the 

 daughter of the well-known California apiarist, J. F. Mc- 

 lntyre, the man who has had.a larger number of colonies 

 in one apiary than perhaps any one else in the world. Miss 

 Mclntyre is a practical beekeeper, and her father speaks 

 with pride of the tons of honey she extracted last summer. 

 As we might expect, coming from such a ource, the article 

 is well written. The illustrations are a! i good. She has 

 a word to say about bee-keeping for wom . and closes with 



