1893 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



595 



Sarah Thacker. page 527, has probably been 

 misled by W. M. Hoge's rascality. Those who 

 should know, say that there is not a particle of 

 honey in his widely advertised " Honey of 

 Figs." I know him to be a rascal and a cheat, 

 to be avoided by all honest men. 



Hawks Park, Fla., July 11. W. S. Hart. 



RAMBLE 89. 



CALIFORNIA HONEY ; WHAT CAUSES IT TO DROP 

 IN PRICE, ETC."? 



The notice, upon the borders of the Rambler's 

 apiary. "Danger to horses and women," and 

 the temper of the bees, had a very salutary 

 effect upon my neighbors, resulting in their 

 keeping afar off. For instance, one evening, 

 just as the work of the day had been finished 

 up, a shout attracted my attention; and, ad- 

 justing my " spects," I saw a fellow an eighth 

 of a mile away, among the greasewood bushes, 

 swinging something in his hand that looked 

 very much like a jack-rabbit. I thought he 

 wanted to giveit to me, and. shouted lo him, 

 "No! don't want him," and turned toward my 

 cabin: but he shouted and gesticulated all the 

 more, and I went down to see what the ado was 

 about. A nearer view showed that, instead of 

 a rabbit, he was swinging a wooden -jacketed 

 two-gallon can, and wanted honey. His wants 

 were supplied, and. after soothing his fears by 

 telling him that the bees had gone to roost, I 

 interested him by showing the operation of the 

 honey extractor. His wife was still further 

 away in the bushes, with :he horse and road- 

 cart, and it took our united shouts and persua- 

 sions to get her to drive up anywhere near the 

 apiary. A big June-bug flew over her head, 

 and the gone-to-roost theory had but little 

 weight with her; and as soon as her husband 

 and the honey were adjusted, the whip was 

 applied, and away they went, with my most 

 benign smiles following them. Other lovers of 

 honey in Bloomington were also in a nervous 

 state over bees. June-bugs, etc.; and now 

 whenever the Rambler walks over to the post- 

 office for his mail, charming ladies, with an 

 empty pail In hand, will request that, '• the 

 next time you come over, take this pail and. 

 bring me two bits' worth of honey." Sometimes 



PEDDLING HONEY " A LA CHINAMAN." 



I have more pails of various sizes than I know 

 what to do with. Now, Jake Smith's plan for 



Seddling honey on a "syckle" may do for 

 ake's boy on a smooth road; but when it 

 conies to following a blind trail through grease- 

 wood bushes and cactus-plants, the " syckle " is 



clearly out, and I think of adopting the Chinese 

 plan as far better. The slant-eyed Mongolians 

 have a way of carrying quite large loads of 

 various articles by properly balancing them 

 over the shoulder, on a long pole; and so my 

 plan for distributing honey Is, to attach my 

 multitude of pails to a pole, as shown in the 

 sketch. 



Although there are many in this State whose 

 palate delights to be tickled with a touch of 

 honey, there is not so much consumed here as 

 there would be if we had a colder climate. 

 Honey is a heat producing food; and as our 

 climate supplies nearly all of the exterior heat- 

 that the system demands, the interior applica- 

 tion of heat in the form of food is not called for. 

 The great bulk of our honey is, therefore, 

 shipped to other consumers, and our sales of 

 honey are probably conducted upon a larger 

 scale, and different from methods in vogue in 

 any other State in the Union. It is safe to say 

 that there is no other portion of the country, 

 with an equal area, that ships so many car- 

 loads of honey as Southern California. 



The clouds and winds during the rainy sea- 

 son are watched with care by the bee-keeper. 

 If the winds blow from the right quarter to 

 bring rain, there is evident pleasure; but when, 

 after a few drops fall, the wind changes and 

 the skies become clear, there is liable to be a 

 spell of the blues. It may be surmised, then, 

 what the effect is when several inches of rain 

 falls; and the more inches recorded, the higher 

 the spirits rise. Over 20 inches of rain is quite 

 a sure indication that there will be a good 

 honey-flow. 



The next anxious condition the honey-pro- 

 ducer gets into is when he begins to whirl the 

 extractor, and the honey begins to flow. About 

 this time the local dealers begin to come around 

 to renew their acquaintance with the bee-men, 

 or a new buyer may be on the ground, and, of 

 course, he is very affable, and wishes to be 

 remembered when you sell your honey. Upon 

 these first rounds no prices are offered, and the 

 producer's mind is left in a state of speculation. 

 After a few tons of honey begin to accumulate, 

 the dealer comes around again, and this time 

 carefully makes an offer. It is usually low 

 enough to suit the most exacting bee-keeper, 

 and not a few grasp at it as a drowning man 

 grasps at a straw, and, of course, a carload sold 

 at the lowest figure the dealer dare offer sets 

 the price for all of the rest. This year the price 

 offered for extracted honey has been 4K: cents, 

 and this long before any one knew whether the 

 yield would be large or small. The dealer, of 

 course, has great stories to relate about great 

 yields here and there, while the fact appears, 

 at this date, that, though we had a fine rain- 

 fall, the honey-yield as compared with the crop 

 of 1880 is but an average crop. 



The Rambler contends that the obstacles the 

 honey-producer has to contend with in order to 

 obtain uniform prices for his honey are small 

 in comparison with the fruit-industry. The 

 greatest obstacle is the selling of the honey for 

 first offers, and long before the real output is 

 known. These first and low offers are taken 

 usually by producers whose need of money is 

 immediate. For instance, a bee-keeper, thus 

 in need of money, drove out with a dealer to 

 one of his apiaries, and sold the honey there for 

 4>.^ cents; they then went to another apiary, 

 and half the honey in that apiary vyas sold for 

 4«:i : and before they reached town the other 

 half was sold for 5 cents, and the honey all of 

 the same quality— sage. If the dealer was will- 

 ing to pay 5 cents for a portion, it is.rea*onable 

 to suppo.se that 5 cents could have been obtain- 

 ed for all of it. In Wall Street parlance, the 

 dealer is a bear— he bears down upon the price 



