April, 191 r. 



American Vee Journal 



prohibiting the shipping of wormy or cull 

 fruit, and other Western States will soon 

 have the same. We shall have to have 

 the same thing in regard to honey ; it is 

 coming just as surely as anything. When 

 cull fniit is shipped to a distant market, 

 the loss from rotting is very great, and 

 comb honey insecurely fastened to the 

 wood breaks out in shipment, and poorly 

 finished combs are handled over so much 

 that often the last few combs in a case 

 are discarded by the grocer. This is not 

 honest, and it is not good business, and 

 we as bee-keepers owe it to ourselves to 

 improve our methods so that cull honey 

 will be almost a negligible quantity in 

 our yards. 



We do not need to feeil, as many do, 

 when better equipment is urged and bet- 

 ter grading insisted on, that it is money 

 being taken out of our pockets. It is pos- 

 sible that the initial expense may be a 

 little more, but the cumulative effect of 

 putting an absolutely honest and intelli- 

 gently produced crop of honey on the 

 market, year after year, is going to boost 

 the price beyond what most of us think 

 is a top price. 



I am going to tell of a little incident 

 showing how the public appreciate special 

 efforts to make progress in the industry. 

 The Colorado Hone>'-Producers' Associa- 

 tion was making an exhibit at the Inter- 

 State Fair, in Denver, and Mr. Frank 

 Rauehfuss, the manager, was spending 

 part of the time caring for the exhibit 

 A gentleman who had been admiring the 

 display of comb and bottled honey asked 

 if he could not purchase some, and when 

 told that he could, said he would like 3 

 sections of that fine white honey. Now, 

 Mr. Rauehfuss was going to charge him 

 about 20 cents apiece for them, but our 

 friend handed him a dollar (!) and said 

 he thought the honey was well worth 

 that, and that he was glad to know there 

 were bee-keepers who were raising the 

 standard of their product to such a high 

 level. 



Human nature is slow to adopt new 

 ways. We ought to maintain a different 

 attitude toward things. Some of us are 

 always "agin things." I hardly think I 

 could do better than append the follow- 

 ing from The Rural New Yorker which 

 gives the fruit situation in a very good 

 way; we can apply all the points to the 

 production and grading of comb honey : 



" The Cull in the Package " 

 It is the rotten apple in the box, the 

 painted knothole in the board, the musty 

 streak in the butter or bacon which will 

 decide the price of the second package 

 of food you try to sell a private custo- 

 mer. Most people will forget to praise 

 the good specimens if they think you are 

 trying to deceive them with a cull. Most 

 of us have heard of the fine packing of 

 the Pacific Coast fruit. Interested in this 

 matter, we wrote the firm of Steinhardt 

 & Kelley.who for some years have handled 

 apples from the farmers of the Hood 

 River region. Their answer foLlows, and 

 it is worth the attention of any fruit- 

 grower. — Rural New Yorker. 



First you would like to know if the 

 packing of the Hood River apples is so 

 perfect that we accept them without close 

 investigation. Not only do we accept 

 them without any investigatiion, but we 

 accept them without any investigation 

 whatever, leaving the entire matter up to 

 the Hood River Apple Grcrwers' Union, 

 a body of men with about 9 directors un- 

 der whose personal supervision all the 

 fruit is packed and shipped to market. 

 Out dealings with these men for the last 

 3 years, during which time we have pur 

 chased their crop, have always been of 

 such a straight and upright character that 

 we have never had occasion or cause to 

 dQubt their packing, and we have never 



been disappointeed in our business deal- 

 ings with them. 



Our contract with the Hood River Ap- 

 ple Growers' Union, as represented by 

 their board of directors, is certainly a 

 very stringent one. they guaranteeing us a 

 perfect pack, and also guaranteeing that 

 ever>- apple in every box is absolutely 

 perfect. We have handled several hun- 

 dred thousand boxes, and never have we 

 fouTid ourselves in condition to make a 

 single complaint against their pack. It is 

 as near perfect as human ingenuity and 

 honesty of endeavor can make it ; in fact, 

 we shall be glad to have you drop in our 

 place of business at any time and take a 

 box of fruit from any heap, and you will 

 find that every box is practical identical, 

 and that ever>' apple is absolutely perfect, 

 whether you open the top, bottom or side 

 of any package. This is more than we 

 have been able to say for any large pack 



good tiers on top and the rest is a lot of 

 inferior goods. This is the reason why 

 the public is now turning toward the box 

 apple to take the -place of the barrel, and 

 it is the w-riter's personal opinion that it 

 will be only a few years wdien the barrel 

 apple will be practicaHy out of the use for 

 tlte better class of trade, owing to no iOther 

 reason than dishonest methods employed 

 in packing. 



The entire matter is simply one of hon- 

 esty and quality. Fruit can be had just 

 as good in tlie East as in the West, and 

 we see no reason why the Eastern grower 

 can't get just as much for his goods as 

 the Western grower, if he will only make 

 UD his mind to one absolute fact, and that 

 is, that he has to be honest ; and that if 

 he thinks he can fool the people all the 

 time by putting up a fake barrel of apples 

 he is making a big mistake. 



Steinhardt & Kellev. 



Wesley Foster's Concrete Honey-House. 



of fruit that we have ever contracted for. 



Referring to jour second question. The 

 very best fruit from the Hood River 

 country is purchased by us on f. 0. b. 

 basis. Hood River. and although of 

 course the prices are not exactly public 

 property, still we may tell you that they 

 average somewhere around $2.25 a box 

 there. Of course you understand that a 

 box of fruit will cost us a great deal 

 more, as the freight from Hood River to 

 New York is on an average of 60 cents a 

 box. Regarding your quesjtion whether 

 dt were possible for a number of individ- 

 uals who are not connected with this as- 

 sociation to do business on the same plan 

 as that of the Association, suffice it to say 

 that if you can get a number of honest 

 men who are also good business men to- 

 gether, they could do just as well as the 

 Hood River Apple Growers' Union. 



Regarding your endeavor to encourage 

 Eastern fruit-growers to put up a package 

 as good as that of the West, suffice it to 

 say that this could be done just as well 

 in the East as in the West if you can get 

 enough (as we stated before), honest men 

 who will pack honestly. The whole thing 

 in a nutshelil is simply and purely a busi- 

 ness proposition. You no d-oubt know that 

 the Eastern barrel pack, to say the least, 

 Ic.ives a great deal to be desired.. You 

 know that there are usually three or four 



A Good Concrete Honey-House 



We have use<l slieds, frame buildings, 

 and rooms in the house for the honey- 

 work, such as scraping and casing comb 

 hoiiey, and putting up sections and filling 

 supers. As we produce scarcely any ex- 

 tracted honey there is not quite so much 

 stickiness around, though there is enough. 

 We had long been disgusted with the way 

 propolis and wax has of sticking to the 

 floor and also to the shoes, requiring that 

 the shoes be scraped with a knife each 

 time one leaves the honey-room or shoo 

 for the house. 



We thought that propolis would not stick 

 so tightly to cement as to a wood floor, 

 and so we decided that our new shop 

 sliould have a cement floor; we have not 

 been disappointed in the results, for 

 though it sticks to the feet as badly as ever, 

 it sticks but little to the floor — practically 

 all of it being swept out with the broom. 

 And so we do not get so much of it on 

 our feet, for the floor can be so much 

 more easily cleaned, and it gets the clean- 

 ing oftener. 



When we were ready to begin work on 

 the shop my father bought a pile of brick- 

 bats at a local brickyard, not a half mile 

 distant, for $5.00. This pile of brick-bats 

 laid up almost all of the two-course wall. 

 For sand, all we had to do was to dig a 



