1908 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



339 



(price $6.00). complain of B, the ((ueen- 

 breede", because the queen died several 

 months after her safe arrival and introduc- 

 tion. On this account the buyer demands 

 his money back. B, the queen- breeder, says 

 he can not do that, because he was not noti- 

 fied until months after the death of the queen; 

 but to effect a compromise he offers to fur- 

 nish a good queen in lieu of cash. The cus- 

 tomer refuses this offer. 



We think most people will absolve us from 

 any responsibility in the matter, more par- 

 ticularly as we have gone to some trouble to 

 get the dispute settled We know the queen- 

 breeder acts on the square-deal principle, 

 and have a high respect for him accordingly. 

 On the other hand, the buyer feels the loss 

 of $6.00 very keenly. 



What complicates the situation still more 

 is that we too had a complaint from the same 

 buyer several years ago. He bought a breed- 

 ing-queen from us which died a few days 

 after receipt. We made the matter good by 

 sending another queen in a nucleus, because 

 we guessed either of two things had happen- 

 ed — the queen was injured in the mails or 

 she was unsuccessfully introduced. 



What we wish to point to buyers of queens, 

 more especially breeding-queens heavy with 

 eggs, is the very great desirability of having 

 such queens sent in a nucleus by express. 

 This reduces the risk to a minimum, and is 

 more satisfactory in every way. Heavy 

 queens can not stand the banging of the 

 mail-bags; and middle-aged queens, or the 

 queens old enough to have been well tested, 

 can not stand the shocks of a mail-bag as 

 well as very young queens. 



We are of the opinion that none of our 

 subscribers would expect us to do more than 

 we have done in the foregoing case. We 

 can not do wonders or impossibilities. 



SENDING OUT TRAVEL-STAINED, BROKEN, 

 AND NO. 2 HONEY AND LABEL- 

 ING IT NO. 1. 



The illustration on page 358 shows a very 

 conspicuous example of this very thing. 

 We will explain by saying we received a car- 

 load of honey from a broker who bought 

 what he supposed was No. 1; but much of it 

 so graded was hardly No. 3 No, it would 

 not even pass for that. It will have to be 

 cut out and sold for chunk honey. The sec- 

 tions shown in the photo were taken out of 

 the cases at random, and piled one on top 

 of the other, and are a fair average of that 

 one lot. Unfortunately the camera fails to 

 show all the varying shades of travel-stain 

 and bee-glue, but it gives one an idea and at 

 the same time portrays very clearly where 

 the honey was leaky and broken, with only 

 a portion of the surface capped over. No- 

 tice, also, that this supposed No. 1 honey 

 was of the non-separatored kind. There 

 are some bee-keepers who can produce good 

 No. 1 stock without separators, but they are 

 few and far between. The great bulk of 

 such honey that we see at commission houses 

 is inferior, and oftentimes a bad lot. The 



sections are bulged, and when two bulged 

 surfaces come together the results are al- 

 ways the same — both sections are ruined, 

 and in most cases the whole case of honey is 

 knocked down several cents per pound, 

 even though the other sections are No. 1. 



The samples shown in the photo do not 

 by considerable represent the whole car of 

 honey, but it was a fair sample of some of 

 the so-called No. 1. I say some of this No. 1, 

 because a good portion of it, having been 

 produced by other bee-keepers, came up to 

 the standard of the grade called for. But 

 this particular lot of No. 1 ( ?) was produc- 

 ed, evidently, by some man who was not as 

 ignorant of what he was doing as he might 

 be. To state the plain facts, it is apparent 

 that he deliberately put a lot of No. 2 and 

 off-colored honey in the cases knowing they 

 were such, and marked them No. L The 

 broker, a large buyer, apparently took the 

 whole lot without examination, and it w as only 

 when he sold it to us that he became aware 

 of what had been palmed off on him. We 

 at first refused to accept the car, and you can 

 imagine the telegrams and letters that flew 

 back and forth over this thing. 



If there is any thing in this world that 

 hurts the sale of good honey, and injures the 

 honey business in general, it is the bee-keep- 

 er who resorts to such dishonest practices as 

 this. We don't wonder that honey-buyers 

 lose patience when they have to deal with 

 such kind of trickery as this. It is not at all 

 strange that some dealers quit handling hon- 

 ey at all. 



Speaking about unseparatored honey, we 

 wish to register a most emphatic protest 

 against trying to get along without separators. 

 If there ever was a penny-wise-and-pound- 

 foolish policy, this is it In the photo here 

 shown, five cents' worth of separators would 

 have saved something like $2.00 in the valu- 

 ation of the honey. While the non-separa- 

 tor man did not lose on this one deal, he will 

 have hard work to sell to that same broker 

 again. 



We feel so strongly on this subject, that, 

 if the bee-keepers in any locality know of 

 any one who is wrongly grading his honey, 

 calling it No. 1 when it is not even No. 2, 

 we should be glad to have somebody buy a 

 case of it, take it to a photographer, and 

 have a photo taken of it just as it is, show- 

 ing every section. Send the photo to us; 

 and if the bee-keeper is an old offender we 

 shall publish his name to the bee-keeping 

 world. Such a man ought to be run out of 

 the ranks. He secures only a temporary ad- 

 vantage, but in the end injures himself and 

 every one else. 



Please do not get the impression that we 

 are affirming that no one can produce good 

 honey without separators; but we do say 

 that the average man should not attempt it. 



ALSIKE VERSUS RED CLOVER. 



The following excerpt from the Indiana 

 Farmer for Feb. 1 hits the nail on the head 

 in a way that will be quite pleasing to the 



