§12 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



than low rates on railroads, and the rates 

 this year are the lowest we have ever en- 

 joyed. And next, the association is now on 

 a new basis, is striking out in new paths 

 that promise to lead to real, tangible, valu- 

 able results, and there is a feeling that now 

 is the time to join, to boom things; in short, 

 there is hope once more in the bee keeper's 

 breast, and the hopeful man is the one to 

 dare and do. The Secretary writes me that 

 he has a letter from a Canadian saying that 

 the writer expected to see as many Ca- 

 nadians as V. S. bee keepers at the conven- 

 tion, and if such proved to be the case they 

 might vote it a Canadian instead of a U. S. 

 organization. The Secretary adds, "Let's 

 enough of us go so that we won't get licked 

 on our own soil." He adds, still further, he 

 will take his wife with him, and that I can 

 ask my "girl readers to meet her there. 

 Let's all go to Butfalo and have a grand 

 time and at the same time give the new 

 Union such a boost that it will be in position 

 to help us if we should need it. 



THE GRADING OF HONEY. 



Mr. Byron Walker has a long and able 

 article on this subject in Gleanings for Aug. 

 1. But I must say that I agree with the edi- 

 tor in thinking that his methods are too 

 complicated. There is too much hair-split- 

 ting. J^ or instance, he thinks that we ought 

 to have at least five shades of color. He 

 would have "amber" and " light amber." 

 Of course, there are a great many varying 

 shades of ho'iey from very dark, almost 

 black, to honey that is as clear as spring 

 water, but if we attempt to recognize them 

 all we are going to have too much machin- 

 ery. It seems to me that the three colors, 

 "white," "amber," and "dark," are as 

 many as it is wise to attempt to use. Some 

 light honey may be clearer or whiter than 

 another variety of light honey, but let us call 

 it all white when it pretty nearly approaches 

 white, and when it begins to show a little 

 color, for instance, a pale straw color, let's 

 call it amber until it is so dark that it must 

 be called dark. We cannot get down to 

 mathematical exactness on this subject or 

 we shall spoil the whole thing. 



Before me as I write, lie sixteen little 

 bottles tilled with as many samples of differ- 

 ent kinds of honey. Of these sixteen 

 samples I would class only three as dark. 

 These are buckwheat, palmetto and tulip. 



Orange, wild buckwheat and sumac I would 

 call amber. Alsike, horsemiut, sweet clover, 

 mesquit, basswood, willow herb, alfalfa, 

 white sage, oatclaw and white clover I should 

 class as white. I think that all honeys can 

 be easily brought within these three classi- 

 fications. 



Travel-stain is another thing that seems 

 to cause quite a lot of argument. Perhaps 

 we do not all agree as to what is travel-stain. 

 Mr. W' alker says that he has for years not al- 

 lowed a slight soiling of the comb surface to 

 exclude a section from the fancy grade, but 

 at the same time he has kept such sections 

 in a case by themselves, and put the " snow 

 white" in a separate grade that he has 

 called "extra fancy." I fear that this is 

 another case of hair splitting. In all the 

 rules for grading that I have ever seen there 

 is no call for " snow white " combs, and I 

 doubt the advisability of introducing such 

 words, or making a grade that calls for this 

 qualification. Comb honey can have an ap- 

 pearance that is far from " snow white " and 

 yet be free from travel-stain. The strain or 

 variety of bees has much to do with the 

 whiteness of the cappings. We all know 

 that black bees, yes, and the Carniolans, 

 cap the honey very white. They make thick 

 cappings and leave a little space beneath 

 them, and this gives the "snow white " ap- 

 pearance, while the Italians produce honey 

 that has a creamy appearance, but this hon- 

 ey with the creamy appearance would not be 

 ruled out of the highest grading by any set 

 of rules that have yet been formulated. 

 Then there are combs that have been in the 

 hive until they are thoroughly capped and 

 the honey thoroughly ripened, and the sur- 

 face has a sort of glazed appearance just as 

 though it had been varnished. Such combs 

 are not quite so white as those taken off im- 

 mediately after they are capped, but in my 

 opinion they are not travel-stained. As I 

 understand the matter, travel stain is a yel- 

 lowish brown color seen upon combs that 

 are left on for a long time immediately over 

 old brood combs in the brood nest. It is 

 easily avoided by removing the combs as 

 soon as capped, or by always keeping un- 

 sealed combs next the brood nest, and I 

 should never think of such a thing as putting 

 travel -stained sections into a fancy grade of 

 honey. I fear some have been calling sec- 

 tions travel-stained when they are not. 



In Mr. Walker's extra fancy grade he 

 would not have the sections vary in weight 



