1902 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



897 



fight should be forgotten; and it seems to 

 me as if we should take the course that 

 will be least likely to tear open the old 

 sores of the past. 



WHY THE COMB-HONEY CANARD BOBS UP 

 EVERY NOW AND THEN. 



While I was in Denver I fell in with a 

 reporter who very frankly told me that he 

 was after "good stuff" for his paper, and 

 he wished to know if I would be kind enough 

 to give him some facts on which he could 

 base a "good story." Of course, I was 

 willing to accommodate him, and did sup- 

 ply him with plenty of material. But im- 

 agine my consternation when, the next 

 morning, my "good story" was made into 

 another so different that I did not recognize 

 it, and, what was stranger still, I was cred- 

 ited with an interview that I never had with 

 any one. A day or two afterward I saw my 

 erring brother, and called him to account. 



"Well," said he, "you know a prophet 

 is not without honor save in his own coun- 

 try. You see it was this way: I was talk- 

 ing with several local bee-keepers who 

 went on to tell me something about a bee's* 

 tongue, and it was good stuff; but I knew 

 my paper would never print it unless I 

 stuck the interview on to some one from 

 away off. Thinking you would be a good 

 subject I hitched it on to your name, and, 

 as you see, it passed muster with the eagle- 

 eyed editor." My reporter friend said, in 

 explanation, and he was a royal good fel- 

 low, even if he does know how to serve his 

 masters well, "It would not do to stick too 

 closely to facts. They would be too dry 

 reading. It must be good stuff or the edi- 

 tor would not use it. So we fill in, don't 

 you see, to give it flavor and character." 



It was this reporter, or perhaps some oth- 

 er one, who, after an interview with Dr. 

 Mason, credited the good doctor with hav- 

 ing tired into a bee-tree when he was try- 

 ing to kill a bear. He missed the beast and 

 bit a tree, and from the hole made b}^ the 

 bullet there poured out barrels and barrels 

 of honey ! I ! I ! 



It appears that all the reporters are after 

 "good stuff." Some are after the sensa- 

 tional — the kind of material that, when 

 placed together in "readable" form, will 

 startle and interest. So long as the story 

 has little foundation in fact, it is as good 

 as or better than if it were all true word 

 for word. 



Unfortunately many of the large papers 

 of the countr}' are anxious to get hold of 

 just such "stuff" as this. Can we wonder, 

 then, that the comb-honey yarn should be 

 so eagerly grabbed up and passed from one 

 to the other. It is sensational; it shows the 

 wonderful (?) skill of man. The average 

 person is more willing to believe ill of his 

 fellow-man than good; and when he hears 

 how the "other fellow" is defrauding him 

 he believes the lie, of course, especially 

 when it appears in his newspaper. 



It is an actual fact that there are many 

 papers right in my own vicinity that I will 



not read, for so much that they do print is 

 not true, or so fearfully exaggerated that 

 I am not able to pick out truth from fiction. 

 I do not mean to go into a tirade against 

 the average paper; for, be it said, there are 

 a great many of them of high character 

 that will print only the truth; but I only 

 desire to show how and why the comb-hon- 

 ey canard gains currency about every ten 

 years among the yellow journals. 



the cor,ORADO CONVENTION ; honey in 



GLASS VS. HONEY IN THE CANDIED FORM. 



At one of the sessions we listened to 

 quite a spirited discussion between Mr. R. 

 C. Aikin, of Loveland, Colo., and Mr. Geo. 

 W. York, editor of the Amer. Bee Journal, 

 on the subject of putting up extracted hon- 

 ey for the retail trade. It really resolved 

 itself into a debate on the question, "Re- 

 solved, that extracted honey should be put 

 up in the candied form for the retail trade, 

 and that consumers should be educated to 

 purity of honey in that form." 



Mr. Aikin took the affirmative, and Mr. 

 York the negative. In beginning his talk 

 Mr. Aikin admitted that for large cities 

 containing many people who could afford to 

 pay fancy prices for something pretty in 

 glass, honey in the liquid form in bottles 

 might be all right; but in his locality the 

 average consumer could not afford to pay 

 fifteen cents for a bottle and get only five 

 cents' worth of honey. He had been work- 

 ing on the problem of putting up candied 

 honey in bottles for some time. His idea 

 was to make the honey and the package so 

 cheap that the laboring man could afford to 

 buy such a pure and wholesome sweet in 

 preference to sugar, molasses, and others 

 of like character. He had put up alfalfa 

 honey, which granulates very rapidly, in 

 lard-pails. When candied, it was ready 

 for market; and his trade had learned to 

 buy such honey in five and ten pound lots. 

 At the price he offered it, it would compete 

 with other sweets. He exhibited before the 

 convention a paper bag which had been, so 

 to speak, treated with oil or paratifine in 

 such a way that candied honey could be 

 put in it. It was neatly printed, and when 

 tilled with drj^ candied honey made a very 

 pretty appearance. For such a package 

 the consumer paid for practically nothing 

 but the honejs for the bag could be furnish- 

 ed at an insignificant cost. His customers 

 had learned to liquefy this product so they 

 could have either the candied or the clear 

 extracted article, just as they preferred. 

 He objected to the glass on account of its 

 expense, and because it made honey a deli- 

 cacy. He also objected to the machinery 

 necessary to carrying on the bottling busi- 

 ness — the messing of the wife's stove, etc. 

 Then, too, honey in glass had to be kept 

 liquid in order to sell. Paper bags and 

 lard-pails were the cheapest packages that 

 one could get for retailing hone}'; and he 

 thought we might just as well educate the 

 consumer first as last that honey in the can- 



