1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



171 



The second evening the boys became tired, 

 and Messrs. Herron, Wilder, Kubias (McCnb- 

 bin), and Squires went to the theater. The 

 Rambler went along to keep the boys quiet. 

 When we returned they had the effrontery to 

 report that they just followed the Rambler to 

 take care of him. 



Please note that the Rambler (J. H. M.) is 

 put down as director at large. That means that 

 he can spread himself over the whole State. 



Note again that we have Mr. Honey as di- 

 rector — nothing like having a sweet and appro- 

 priate name in an organization. 



Mr. A. H. Naftzger, President of the South- 

 ern California Fruit Exchanges and the Over- 

 land Fruit Dispatch, gave the convention a 

 short address upon methods of organization, 

 etc. 



Mr. T. H. B. Chamulin, organizer, and termed 

 the " Father of the Fruit Exchanges," attended 

 all of the sessions, and gave valuable advice 

 upon lines of organization. 



SLOVENLINESS IN PUTTING UP COMB HONEY. 



A DESERVED SCORING FOR SLIPSHOD PRO- 

 DUCERS. 



By Geo. F. Robhins. 



For two years honey has been a blank failure 

 with me. To get some for myself and a few of 

 my customers I have this winter been buying 

 honey that was produced in northern Illinois 

 and Minnesota. But I must say, if all my pur- 

 chases of honey must be as unsatisfactory as 

 they have been so far I shall not buy very 

 much. Why will bee- keepers be so slipshod in 

 their methods of producing honey, and caring 

 for the same? Or if some such must be ob- 

 tained, why will they mix it up and send it off 

 with first class honey? I will tell you what 

 kind of stuff' I mean. In the two lots of comb 

 honey I have bought this winter I found speci- 

 mens of the following: 



1. Sections in which moth worms had hatch- 

 ed and begun to work. I wonder how many 

 other buyers found the same thing. I had to 

 cut some of the honey out of the sections, trim 

 it up, and sell it in bulk. 



2. Some which showed plainly that a queen 

 had been up in the super. I wonder if the pro- 

 ducer did not know that. Any bee-keeper of 

 experience ought to know what that means. 

 Brood had hatched, leaving their cocoons to 

 blacken and toughen the comb, while a section 

 on one side, it may be both, contained a mass of 

 dry pollen. 



3. Old partly filled sections of comb had been 

 used. Apparently they had been left on the 



hive the season before until fall, been daubed 

 up with propolis, and the comb blackened by 

 water settling upon it and by travel-stain. 



4. Some of the honey had granulated in the 

 combs. The producer may not have been aware 

 of that, nor have had any thought that such a 

 thing would occur. 



5. A few sections were hardly more than half 

 filled, and some of them but little more than 

 half sealed. 



This is a pretty formidable list of faults. Is 

 it possible that any one can send such honey to 

 market without knowing it? If that one does 

 know it, I wonder if he imagines himself in the 

 place of the consumer. Who wants to order 

 home a box of honey to find it wormy, webby, 

 and the surface chewed up? Yet that is no 

 worse than to cut into the honey to find the 

 comb dark and dirty looking, with an especial- 

 ly ugly streak from top to bottom where the 

 edges of the cells had been daubed with propo- 

 lis, or masses of dry bee-bread, or to find the 

 comb tough and strong. 



Such honey, if sent to market at all, should 

 be graded at least third class. To sell it as a 

 first-class article is not honorable, sensible, nor 

 business-like. I am not really harsh or censo- 

 rious because I speak thus. I simply alSrm it 

 as a truth that ought to be taken note of, and 

 that can not be stated in milder terms. That 

 to knowingly sell an inferior article as any 

 thing but an inferior one is dishonorable, all will 

 agree. It is not sensible; for the customer who 

 gets such stuff will be pretty sure to spot the 

 man from whom it came, if he can, and buy no 

 more of him. The consumer may not suffer — 

 she is pretty apt to send it back; but in that 

 case the dealer does. At any rate, the producer 

 will be followed up if he can be traced, and suf- 

 fer the consequences. And it is certainly very 

 unbusiness-like to saw oneself off in that way. 

 Honesty (and quality) are policy in business. 



This matter would not be so bad if the party 

 at fault were the only oae to suffer. But too 

 often he can not be traced, and neither the 

 consumer nor dealer may know the origin of a 

 lot of honey; hence, not being able to recognize 

 a faulty article, as a connoisseur might be, 

 even when such can be recognized by appear- 

 ances, and, thinking themselves liable to get 

 hold of some of it, they will be chary of buying 

 at all ? 



Do you think I give this matter too serious a 

 coloring? No, I do not. I know how you and 

 I are about such things. I admit we would no 

 doubt purchase less of many things than we do 

 if we were to be deterred by the chance of get- 

 ting a poor article. But r am equally certain 

 that, many times, we do not buy, because of the 

 risk of getting some poor stuff that we do not 

 want, or that is not worth the money. This is 

 especially so whenever any thing of the nature 

 of a luxury is concerned. Luxuries are always 



