Vol. XYIII. 



FEB. 15, 1890. 



No. 4. 



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MARKETING HONEY. 



VALUABLE HINTS THAT EVERY BEE-KEEPER 

 SHOULD READ, BY J. A. BUCHANAN. 



In your issue for Jan. 1 you hare an article writ- 

 ten by J. B. Colton. He wishes to know what is the 

 most acceptable and economical package to use for 

 retailing extracted honey, in large cities. If the 

 honey is to be sold by city dealers, or even by the 

 producer, the package must be charged to the ac- 

 count of the purchaser of the honey; and to make 

 it "acceptable and economical," the package must 

 be worth all it costs the purchaser, else he will soon 

 see that he is buying something valueless. Mr. C. 

 says he has succeeded pretty well with the l!4-lb. 

 glass pail. If these pails are so constructed as to 

 be air-tight they might do; but why not use Ma- 

 son's pint, as these hold IVz lbs., if you like this 

 quantity; and as they are air-tight, the honey will 

 not candy if put in them at nearly a boiling heat. 

 This package, when bought in large lots by the 

 bee-keeper, can be given to the purchaser of his 

 honey at a reasonable price, and it is always worth 

 as a fruit-jar what it has cost him. The use of 

 tumblers, glass, or tin pails, for putting extracted 

 honey on the market, will never do, unless strictly 

 air-tight. In selling honey last fall I saw in the re- 

 tail stores thousands of pounds of candied honey. 

 From curiosity I often dropped in to see what the 

 storekeepers had to say about the honey that had 

 candied on their hands. Taking a jar or can of it 

 in my hand 1 would say to the dealer, "What have 

 you here? " Some would say that it was honey, but 

 that it had candied; but the most of them would 

 say, " I bought that stuff from a man who lives out 

 in the country. He told me he had the bees, and 

 raised his own honey; but from the appearance of 

 it now, I think he raised most of it out of a sugar- 



barrel. What he brought in first was all right, and 

 sold well, but the last lot is a fraud." 



I explained that the first bought was sold before 

 cool weather came on; but that the last lot had 

 simply candied, as it is so affected in the liquid 

 form by a low temperature. I want to emphasize 

 with some stress, that it will not do to use packages 

 for extracted honey unless they are easily made 

 air-tight, and the honey sealed up while hot. Mr. 

 Colton suggests that the pails that might be re- 

 turned to the groceryman could be refllled by him 

 from a 60-lb. can. Not many grocers will be trou- 

 bled with this business, and especially after the 

 honey has candied in the large can. 



We bee-keepers must solve one problem more be- 

 fore we consider ourselves masters of the situation. 

 We must discover what treatment, or what may be 

 added to liquid honey, that will retain it, when we 

 desire it. In this form. Just so long as the honey 

 we sell, either to grocers or consumers, candies on 

 their hands, there will be complaints, and suspi- 

 cion of its purity. Talk about educating the public 

 to know that this candying propensity of honey is 

 the only guarantee of its purity is all a waste of 

 time. Better add something to the honey that will 

 retain it in the liquid state, and have no talk about 

 its " going back to sugar," and " sugar-fed bees." 



My elder son and I have canvassed many towns 

 and small cities this season, selling honey; and our 

 extensive experience in the business convinces us 

 that there is still a growing mistrust and suspicion 

 concerning the purity of honey, and that much of 

 this distrust is created in the minds of the people 

 because the nice clear honey they bought and liked 

 so well had, as they say, "gone back to sugar." 



I have talked myself tired a thousand times, to 

 convince the people that there is no such thing as 

 manufactured honey now on the market, but it 



