1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



766 



CUT COMB HONEY. 



A New Industry that has been Developed 



for the Dining-car Companies and the 



Dig Restaurants in the Cities. 



BY E. R. ROOT. 



For a number of years back, there has 

 been an ineffectual effort made to develop a 

 honey trade with the railroads for their din- 

 ing-cars and the big hotels and res- 

 taurants of our cities. Their objec- 

 tion to extracted has been the fear 

 of adulteration. Comb honey was 

 all right, but it did not pay them to 

 cut up a whole section just to get 

 one portion for an occasional cus- 

 tomer who might ask for it. The mu- 

 tilated comb left, it was explained, 

 might lie around a dripping mess 

 for some days before more would 

 be called for. No, Mr. Restaurant 

 Man did not care to bother with it, 

 neither did the dining-car people. 



About three years ago we con- 

 ceived the idea of making up indi- 

 vidual services of comb honey put 

 up in neat paper cartons tied with 

 a blue ribbon. We then put a man 

 on the road to wait upon the big 

 roads centering at Chicago, and the large 

 restaurants. 



The little services of comb honey looked 

 neat and pretty, and the dining-car people 

 gave it a trial. 



Each service was made just large enough 

 to contain a choice piece of extra-fine honey 

 sufficient for one person; and whether one 

 or a dozen calls came in, it made no differ- 

 ence, because there was no daubing or cut- 

 ting into a large piece of honey. The travel- 

 er, when he calls for a service on a diner, is 

 given a neat little package which the waiter 



opens up and places before him. The cut 

 chunk of honey is perhaps less liable to 

 arouse in his mind the silly idea of the so- 

 called "manufactured comb honey" he sees 

 in sections. ■ He is pleased, and so also 

 were the dining-car people. 



At first they bought in very small quanti- 

 ties, and later they increased the size of their 

 orders until now large quantities of honey 

 are sold to this special trade. In order to 



Unwrapping the service and tearing off the extra flap. 



Individual service of comb honey, designed especially for 

 Pullman dining-cars and fancy restaurants. 



give the reader an idea of how the railroads 

 are taking hold of it, it would be proper right 

 here to give a list of some of the prominent 

 roads that are furnishing it on their dining- 

 car service. The following is a partial list: 



Chicago & Northwestern, Baltimore & Ohio, 



Santa Fe, Big Four, 



Erie Great Northern, 



Lake Shore, New York Central. 

 Missouri Pacific, 



If any reader of these pages should hap- 

 pen to be on a diner of one of these lines, 

 let him ask for comb honey. When it is 

 served we believe that he will agree with us 

 that it is neat, attractive, 

 and appetizing— fully in 

 keeping with every oth- 

 er article served on these 

 beautiful palace cars. 



The large restaurants 

 and hotels are just be- 

 ginning to take it up; 

 and if the industry con- 

 tinues to grow it will 



* Some years ago one of our 

 subscribers took some extra- 

 fancy comb honey and offer- 

 ed it to some wealthy fami- 

 lies. They were suspicious- 

 thought it was "manufactur- 

 ed," and refused to buy. He 

 was disgusted, and went 

 home. He cut all those beau- 

 tiful combs out of the sec- 

 tions and put them in wooden 

 butter-dishes. These he took 

 back and sold to those same 

 families, and actually sold it 

 for a higher price than he 

 had formerly charged forthe 

 same honey in sections. This 

 is, perhaps, an isolated case; 

 but it shows how, sometimes, 

 the public will take to cut 

 combs when they will not buy 

 regular section honey. 



