THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



65 



represents the finest grade of honey now pro- 

 duced, and sold at two or three cents per 

 pound more than the next f,'rade, is there not 

 danger of its having a good deal of iucon- 

 genial company very soon, and " selected 

 fancy " would be required to represent the 

 same grade, and a little later "selected 

 fancy snowliake," and so on until the end of 

 our crate is covered with superlative adjec- 

 tives that would mean little and be a great 

 waste of stencil paint. But this would be 

 grading up. 



I believe it is important to have a system 

 of grading, well known from one end of the 

 country to the other, as an ideal that honey 

 producers may approximate, but doubt if it 

 will be possible for producers living in dif- 

 ferent sections to grade their honey so nearly 

 alike as to be able to sell by grade alone. 

 The appearance of comb honey gathered 

 apparently from the same sources, varies 

 greatly in different localities ; a few miles 

 will sometimes make a great difference. I 

 believe honey should be graded and sold as 

 are the semi-tropical fruits, by sample, and 

 the marks of the producer. In this way I 

 have seen a cargo of thousands of barrels 

 of Malaga grapes with oranges and lemons 

 sold in an hour's time, although produced 

 by many different persons. A single pack- 

 age is shown to represent each mark, and 

 then the whole of that brand struck off to 

 the highest bidder. I do not mean that 

 honey should be sold by auction, but that 

 each producer's marks should accurately 

 represent from year to year the different 

 grades of honey he produces. These grades 

 should approximate local or national stand- 

 ards so far as practical, and each case in 

 every grade fairly represent every other case 

 in the same grade in both weight and quality 

 if we desire our honey to become more and 

 more a staple article of commerce. 



F. S. — I have been much pleased with your 

 Review, and am glad to know that you are 

 prospering in its publication. 



MiDDLEBUBY, Vt., Jan. 20, 1892. 



[Since the above was written I have re- 

 ceived a letter, from which I extract the 

 following :— Ed. ] 



MiDDLEBUBY, Yt., Jan. 25, 181)2. 

 Feiend Hutchinson.— Our Vermont Bee 

 Keepers' Convention which met here yester- 

 terday has been a very pleasant gathering 

 although not so many in numbers as some- 

 times. In conversation with some of our 



best bee keepers they thought little if any 

 more in price could be obtained by putting 

 up their choicest combs in a separate grade, 

 but said that such a grade would sometimes 

 sell to a very particHlar customer when the 

 other may not. But mention was made of 

 the opposition of commission men, or rather 

 large honey dealers to making two grades of 

 the choicest, and that a little imperfect. 

 While a very fancy grade might suit some 

 customers it seems to be much more difficult 

 to sell the next grade. My crop of comb 

 honey this year was 21,000 lbs. (XX). 



Very truly yours, 

 J. E. Ceane. 



Mr. J. E. Crane is now 53 years old. In early 

 life he greatly desired a liberal education, but 

 poor health made it impossible. The open air 

 seemed to furnish the only condition for an exis- 

 tence here. At 25 he began the study of medicine. 

 but lack of strength soon drove him back to the 

 farm. At the age of 26 he bought his first bees, 

 hoping that with the proceeds he might pay for 

 having the hard work <>f the farm performed. In 

 a few years the bee keeping had so grown that 

 the farming was only a secondary matter. For 

 the last eight or ten years his stock of bees has 

 been between 500 and 600 colonies, and his yearly 

 crop of honey has averaged 17,000 lbs. His suc- 

 cess has stimulated others until about 100,000 

 lbs. of honey are now annually produced in his 

 county, (Addison.) He was one of the first to 

 advocate and practice the protecting of bees in 

 winter by the use of chaff. During the last two 

 or three winters he has spent his leisure in giving 

 temperance lectures, illustrating them with the 

 stereopticon ; himself preparing the various dia- 

 grams, pictures and illustrations. I wish that 

 each of my readers might secure from bee keep- 

 ing the prize that Mr. Crane has gained— that of 

 a beautiful home. 



The Beauty of Variety.— How Grading Tends 



to Sameness. — No Set Rules 



Needed in Selling. 



J. TAYLOE. 



ra^OME things can 

 K£) be measured by 

 fixed rules ; can be 

 graded and meas- 

 ured by a standard. 

 We can say that one 

 pound shall be the 

 standard section; 

 that twenty sections 

 shall make a stand- 

 ard crate, but we 

 cannot make a 

 standard for that in- 

 tangible thing called quality, or the artistic 

 arrangement of material things. A city has 

 its beauty, chiefly, because there was no 



