788 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Nov. 24, 1904. 



been crowded out by the medium-size — one-pound. The 

 late ' tall section ' fad is the only menace to loom up before 

 the very desirable condition of uniformity in American 

 comb-honey packages." 



The chief, if not the only cla,im for superiority on the 

 part of the tall section, is that it looks larger than the 

 square section. In general it is right to concede some- 

 thing for looks. Indeed, a considerable part of the value of 

 a section of honey lies in its looks. Not many would be 

 likely to pay so much more for a pound of section honey 

 than for a pound of extracted honey, if it were not that a 

 section of honey upon the table is a " thing of beauty ". Is 

 there, however, more beauty in a tall section than a square 

 one ? Probably few would say that an oblong section looks 

 more beautiful on a plate than a square one. The customer 

 prefers the tall section, not because it looks better, but be- 

 cause it looks larger. In plain words, he is deceived into 

 the belief that it is larger. 



If there are other advantages in the tall section, it 

 should have its fair chance in securing favor ; but is it well 

 to urge a claim that is based on deception ? 



Comb Honey for Candy. 



Honey has been known to be used to some extent in 

 the manufacture of candy, and some years ago the lamented 

 " Rambler" — J. H. Martin — went so far as to put up very 

 small packages of granulated honey as a confection. All 

 this, however, was extracted honey, and it comes as a sur- 

 prise to be told that comb honey is now used in the manu- 

 facture of candy. Although details are exasperatingly 

 meager, here is what J. A. Green says about it in Gleanings 

 in Bee-Culture : 



" A bee-keeping friend tells me that he sells a great 

 deal of dark honey to a confectioner who uses it in the 

 manufacture of high-grade candies. This is comb honey, 

 mind you, not extracted honey. When I first heard this I 

 thought the buyer had the idea that he had to buy it in the 

 comb to be sure of a pure article, but it seems he has an 

 altogether different reason. The whole thing, comb and 

 all, is put into the candy. He claims it makes it ' stand 

 up' better. That is, I presume, it endures better the 

 changes of temperature and moisture. I had heard already 

 of using paraffin for this purpose, but he claims that the 

 honey-comb is superior. It is possible that here is a mar- 

 ket that might profitably be cultivated and enlarged." 



ITItsccUancous Hcxps Items 



The Chleago-NoFthwestepn Convention will be held 

 next week — Wednesday and Thursday — Nov. 30 and Dec. 1. 

 The first session will be at 10 a.m., Nov. 30, in the Revere 

 House, southeast corner of North Clark and Michigan 

 Streets. A big attendance and a big time are expected. 

 Better come. 



Gus Dittmer's and Comb-Foundation Maliing.— We 



left St. Paul at 8 :30 Wednesday morning, Oct. 19, on the 

 Chicago & Northwestern railroad, and arrived at Augusta, 

 Wis., at about 12 :20 p.m. It was just beginning to rain — a 

 soft of drizzle-drozzle. We inquired of the station agent 

 where Mr. Dittmer's factory was. "Gus Dittmer?"he 

 asked. "Why, right across there ", he pointed; "where 

 you see those red buildings ". 



We thanked him, and started for the " red buildings ". 

 By the way, Mr. Dittmer has done his share toward " paint- 

 ing the town red ", for he has four buildings of that color 

 devoted to the bee-supply and comb-foundation business. 



It was a little late, so we stopped at the hotel for din- 

 ner, after which we went on to Mr. Dittmer's. Arriving, 

 we opened his office door, and there he was as busy as a 

 honey-bee in a basswood blossom. Of course he was sur- 

 prised to see us, as he was not expecting us at all. We had 

 met him at the Wisconsin convention last February, so we 

 were not entire strangers to each other. He is the excellent 

 secretary of the State Bee-Keepers' Association. 



After a little visiting he took us over to his pleasant 

 home to meet his good wife, daughters, and son. The sec- 

 ond son, Clarence, had left about a month before to attend 

 school in a Kansas university, having graduated from the 

 Augusta schools last June. "Fred " (24 years) and "Bes- 

 sie " (22) are the oldest son and daughter, respectively, and 

 are the main helpers in the business. 



Fred is really his father's right-hand man, having en- 

 tire charge of the manufacturing and shipping, while Mr. 

 Dittmer attends to all the office-work, melting wax, and has 

 a general supervision of the business. 



Bessie runs a comb-foundation machine as easily as 



many another young lady would run a sewing machine. 

 The fact is, that the whole Dittmer family are " in the busi- 

 ness ". And they are a happy family. They seem to en- 

 joy each other so much. We shall not soon forget our stay 

 there. And we stayed longer than we intended, but it was 

 not wholly our fault. We expected to leave on the 10 : 20 

 p.m. train, and Mr. Dittmer started with us for the station. 

 We arrived just about a half minute too late, for the train 

 pulled out before our eyes — " so near and yet so far ". Mr. 

 Dittmer declared that it was a minute ahead of time ! 



Before leaving for the train both Mr. and Mrs. Dittmer 

 had urged us to remain all night, but we thought we would 

 better go on to the next place. So when we came back to 

 the house again with Mr. Dittmer the rest of the family 

 rather had the laugh on us. But it was all right. The 

 " Dittmer House " is a good place to stop. There was not 

 another train going east until the next noon. But the time 

 was all too short. Mrs. Dittmer, and, in fact the whole 

 family, are royal entertainers. Even little Margaret (9 

 years old) recited several beautiful selections, and she and 

 her little girl friend sang a duet for us before starting for 

 school in the morning. Mr. and Mrs. Dittmer may well take 

 pride in their children. They are all bright, and full of 

 push and energy. And the children may also rejoice that 

 they have such a father and mother. 



We had never before seen comb foundation manu- 

 factured, so here was our chance. Everything was open to 

 us except the sheeting process, which is one of the Dittmer 

 secrets. We should judge, however, from what Mr. D. said, 

 that this process of sheeting beeswax is superior to that of 

 the Weed process. 



It was very interesting to see the machine turn out the 

 clear, bright surplus foundation and pile it up with sheets 

 of tissue paper between the sheets of foundation, all done 

 automatically. Mr. D. probably has the only automatic 

 papering arrangement there is in existence. It is a very 

 simple arrangement, indeed. And the proper length of both 

 paper and foundation is cut off together with one move- 

 ment of the sharp knife. 



