226 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



Apr. 



grades from this up to straight, neat, well-flnishert 

 white combs, in smooth white sections, crated in 

 small crates of clean white basswood. There was 

 but little, however, of the latter; for it had been 

 bought up "too quick." 



Scattered about in the heart of this great city, 

 Chicago, are the stalls of fruit-venders, and it is in- 

 teresting to see how well the owners of these stalls 

 have learned that appearance has a market value. 

 They never buy any apples except red ones, and they 

 rub and polish these with a cloth until they shine 

 like mirrors. Their plums, pears, peaches, and 

 grapes are always placed with the bloom uppermost. 

 Some of them will take a small round peach-basket, 

 and fill it with a mixture of grapes, plums, peaches, 

 pears, and apples. These fruits are so artistically 

 placed as to form a perfect picture, and over them 

 is fastened a piece of pink mosquito netting, which 

 gives the whole a hazy, mazj', far-away sunset rud- 

 dy glow that is very alluring— perhaps too much so. 

 The mind knows that the eye is deceiving it, but 

 the deception is so pleasant, and 50 cts. changes 

 hands, causing scai-oely an economical twinge of its 

 owner's conscience. 



Now, on the other hand some people, mostly pro- 

 ducers, put their products on the market in a con- 

 dition that is absolutely lujattractive, if not disgust- 

 ing. Why they do so is beyond my comprehension. 

 When will honey-producers learu that appearance 

 has a market value? The honey stored in bulged 

 combs, in weather-beaten sections uncleaned of 

 propolis, and crated in an uncouth manner, may be 

 just as sweet as any honey, but it will never sell for 

 so much as that stored in straight combs, in white 

 clean sections, and crated in neat, clean crates. It 

 costs but little more to raise strictly flrst-elass " gilt- 

 edge" honey, that will sell for from one to three 

 cents per pound above market price, and sell 

 quickly at that, than it does to raise " stuff." 



The first step necessary in raising flrstclass comb 

 honey is, that the honey be white. This depends 

 upou the source from which it is gathered ; hence the 

 bee-keepers must be located where the main honey- 

 producing plants furnish white honey. Next, it is 

 imperatively necessary that the sections be smooth 

 and white. To save (?) one or two dollars in buying 

 lOOD second-class sections is the very poorest kind of 

 economy. Getthe/jcsf. The white poplar sections 

 are superior to all others as regards whiteness, 

 smoothness, and hardness. 1 have been quite en- 

 thusiastic in explaining how to dispense with sepa- 

 rators, and have shown by my works that flrst-elass 

 honey cajx be raised without them; yet, if anyone 

 does not wish to comply with the conditions that I 

 gave, or having done so, still does not succeed, then 

 let separators be used hy all means. We must have 

 straight combs. Unless the tiering-up system is 

 used, it is necessary to i-emove the sections as soon 

 as finished, otherwise the combs become travel- 

 stained. I have seen considerable honey placed 

 upon the market, in which a few cells along the 

 lower edges of the combs were unsealed. No honey 

 can rank as first class in which the cells are not all 

 sealed, or the sections are daubed with propolis. 

 Too much attention can not be paid to crates. 

 Even second-class honey will sometimes sell quite 

 well, if nicely crated. This matter of crates is bo- 

 coming so important that it is even mentioned in 

 the market reports (see what A. C. Kendel says in 

 his market report in Gleaninos of Mai-ch 15th). 

 The crates should be of thin white lumber, and 



kept as clean as possible; in fact, I have sometimes 

 thought of covering them with thick paper when 

 shipping them, that they might reach the market 

 with their immaculate whiteness unsoiled. Of 

 course, holes should be cut in the paper where it 

 comes over the glass. 



Please don't paste a great placard upon each 

 crate, announcing that "this honey is from the 

 apiary of the great Mr. So and So, of So and So." 

 The fli'St thing the commission merchant will do is 

 to soak and partially scrape off these placards, thus 

 giving the crates a ragged, dirty appearance. You 

 had better send to your commission merchant for a 

 stencil-plate. This plate will have 3285, or some 

 such number, artistically woven in with the ad- 

 dress. That is your number, the number of your 

 stencil, and is recorded in a book opposite your 

 name and address; and when your honey arrives 

 the merchant will look up 3285, and find that the 

 honey belongs to John Smith. When marking 

 the crates, don't daub the blacking all over every 

 thing, but try to make the marking look as neat as 

 so much printing. 



First-class comb honey must be first class in ap- 

 pearance as well as in quality; in fact, so far as its 

 sale is concerned, the appearance is of more im- 

 portance than the quality. Not so with extracted 

 honey, in which quality is fully as important as ap- 

 pearance. Comb honey is a thing of beauty, is 

 used as a table ornament as well as a delicacy, while 

 extracted honey can be made no more ornamental 

 than molasses or syrup. The only way in which an 

 attractive appearance can be given to extracted 

 honey is to put it up in attractive packages. The 

 only i-equisite in raising first-class extracted honey, 

 aside from the source from which it is gathered, is 

 that the honey be thoroughly ripened. Some of 

 our best apiarists assert that honey extracted 

 as soon as gathered, before it is ripened and sealed 

 over, and then ripened or evaporated by exposure 

 to the air or to the svin's rays, is as good as that 

 ripened and sealed up in the hives. Others, among 

 whom is the writer, think no honey is so rich, 

 sweet, and finely flavored, as that ripened and 

 sealed up in the hives. 



Now, if in order to have extracted honey first 

 class it m«st be sealed over, it appears very foolish 

 to raise it. We take a frame of sealed honey from 

 the hive. Now, if this honey had been stored in sec- 

 tions, the honey would have been worth 15 cts. per 

 lb. ; now we must extract it and sell it for 8 cts. Of 

 course, the comb is left; but, see here: the honey 

 and comb weigh 6 lbs.; and if in sections would sell 

 for 93 cts. We extract 5 lbs. of honey and sell it for 

 40 cts.; is the empty comb worth half a dollar? 

 " But," says some one, " we can not get so much 

 honey per colony when it is stored in sections as we 

 can in frames." Beg pardon, my friend, that is 

 simply because you don't know how. 



w. z. Hutchinson, (U— 94. 



Kogersvillc, ISIich., March 29, 1885. 



And SO, friend W. Z., yon are going to 

 " sit down on '' extracted honey, are you ? 

 Well, all right. Your article is certainly a 

 most excellent one, and hits the nail right 

 S(]uare on the head. If there is any mistake 

 anywhere in it. it is in that last paragraph, 

 and may he there is not any there, al- 

 though i think there may be circumstances 

 under which one can raise extracted honey 

 to a better profit than comb honey. We 



