474 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Dec. 



INTRODUCING OUR HONEV INTO ENG- 

 LAND, AND THfi PREJUDICE A- 



GAINST THE YANKEES. 



GRAPE SUG4.R, ETC. 



fjJIIE following I found on a torn scra,p 

 i of paper. 



VICTORIA'S HONEY. 



It is a curious commercial fact that, whereas, a 

 year ago, no American honey in comb was exported 

 to England, not less than a million pounds will be 

 sent during the next twelve months. The trouble 

 was, honey could not be strained and canned, for the 

 reason that it would candy. American honey is by 

 far the best honey in the world, as regards flavor 

 and purity of appearance. Knowing this, a New 

 York firm hired Mr. Hoge, a well-known honey ex- 

 pert, to introduce it in England. Over the water 

 went Hoge, with a big lot of the sweet stuff in the 

 comb. It required skill to pack and unload it, but 

 it arrived all right, not a cell being burst. The Eng- 

 lish dealers in honey gave him the cold shoulder. 

 They had the editors of the "British Bee Journal " 

 give • im a raking down, and they themselves added 

 all the mean things they could say. 



Mr. Hoge made little headway. He was about to 

 give it up as a bad job when a brilliant thought 

 struck him. He must get the honev on the Queen's 

 table. How was he to do this? While picking his 

 teeth after dinner and ruminating upon the sub- 

 ject, his eye lighted on the pickle-jar. It bore the 

 name of a man who had been his-h steward at Wind- 

 sor Castle. "He's my man," said Mr. Hoge to him- 

 self, and away he went for the pickle man. Did he 

 rush up to him and blurt out, " I want to put my 

 honey on Victoria's table"? Not a bit of it. He 

 began to talk pickles with the man - asked a thou- 

 sand questions about how they were made, ate a 

 score or more of them, and ended by proposing that 

 the pickle man furnish pickles to the American 

 house he represented. 



The pickle man was delighted. The New York 

 man grave him an order. They had a bottle of wine 

 together, and then the American said: " Now 1 have 

 helped you, you must help me. Can't you put 

 American honey on the Queen's table? " "Of course 

 I can," was the reply; and in no time the arrange- 

 ments were made. " A case of honey was given to 

 the pickle man, and another was sent to the high 

 steward, and in a short time some of it was before 

 the royal family. The young folks liked it so well 

 that Victoria gave orders that it be kept in the cas- 

 tle. 



That was enough. American honey was from that 

 moment in demand. Mr. Hoge has just sent orders 

 for the shipment of 500,000 pounds of this year's 

 crop. The "British Bee Journal " flopped over to 

 the other side, and was loud in praising the Ameri- 

 can article. Every fashionable person's table must 

 have American honey.— Cincinnati Enquirer. 



But it seems the "British Bee Journal" is 

 not quite satisfied yet, or else they were con- 

 vinced against their will, and have gone hack 

 again, as the following from their Nov. 

 number seems to indicate : 



YANKEE HONEY. 



The ingenious descendants of the manufacturers 

 of wooden nutmegs are forcing, by all the means 

 they can command, the sale of their honey (?) in 

 this land of ours, and as an advertisement they 

 have published a woodcut showing the back of a 

 bald head, beneath which are the words ' Utilised 

 at last 1 Wanted twenty bald-headed men willing 

 to have their heads painted, and march through the 

 streets as perambulating signs.' On the bald part 

 of the head the words (painted) are (in dreadful zig- 

 zag), ' Thurber's New Styles of Honey! ' and on the 

 collar, ' Ask your wife to buy it ' (sic). 



' But,' said a trustful lady friend, ' why could not 

 the forehead be made the advertising medium, and 

 the poor men be allowed to wear their hats? ' 



' Why,' said one who had had experience, ' they 

 who vaunt the rubbish are afraid to look one in the 



face, or let it be known until after they have passed 

 that they have aught to do with it. ' 



' But, ' said speaker No. 1, ' how do they mxnage 

 as regards followers? ' 



' That is easy,' says No. 2; ' they let them^fol'ow.' 

 The secret being, that those ' utilised ' are chosen 

 for their celerity in avoiding followers. Expe- 



RIENTIA DOCET, Lower NoTWOOd. 



While I cannot exactly approve of Thur- 

 ber's taste in his ways of advertising, I 

 feel pained to see such expressions from our 

 friends across the water. Thurber does 

 more than, perhaps, any other house in the 

 world, to encourage the industries of differ- 

 ent nations of the earth, by both buying and 

 selling the products of different nations. If 

 his goods are satisfactory (even to the Queen 

 and her household), and his ways successful 

 in calling customers, shall we not have char- 

 ity for his ways of advertising, though they 

 are not according to our ideas of dignity? If 

 Thurber's goods are not as represented, and 

 he fails to attend to complaints, give us the 

 facts, and we will give the people warning. 

 Although I feel very much tried with Mr. 

 Hoge, because he will not pay up his little 

 debts here at home, I feel we owe him a 

 vote of thanks for his energy and zeal in 

 disposing of so much of our American honey, 

 in foreign parts. The cry of adulterated 

 comb honey, like that of adulterated sugar, 

 I believe, has been fairly shown to have been 

 a fraud and a sensational scare. Grape sug- 

 ar, so bitterly persecuted and misrepresent- 

 ed, has now taken its place among the legiti- 

 mate products of our Indian corn, and its 

 manufacture has become a great industry, 

 benefitting many classes of people. 



SENDING QUEENS TO WASHINGTON 

 TERRITORY, ETC. 



V RECEIVED the package of six queens, Sept. 8th, 

 at 10 o'clock p.m. You shipped the 18th of 

 August, which makes 21 days of rail and steam- 

 boat travel. I will now give you the condition of 

 each package as I opened it. 



The first package was the section-box with hoaey. 

 The queen and one bee were alive. The honey was 

 all gone on one side; an inch and a half square of 

 capped honey on the other side had the wire cloth 

 pressed into it so that the bees would have to cut 

 the comb to get it. Neither queen nor bee was able 

 to fly. 



The next package was the section-box with candy, 

 and water-bottle. Only six bees were dead. The 

 queen and bees were able to fly to the window, and 

 were as bright and clean as though they had been 

 but an hour from the hive. 



The third package was a large comb cage. All 

 were dead ! The honey was all gone, and five or six 

 white worms, about half an inch long, with brown 

 heads, were in the box. I suppose they were moth 

 worm3. I never saw one before, as we have none 

 here. 



In the fouith package, the queen and about half 

 the bees were alive, but so swollen up with the dys- 

 entery that I thought they were all queens. They 

 were just able to crawl on the table; but, after emp- 

 tying themselves, they became quite smart. The 

 queen seemed all right. About half the honey was 

 left. 



