NOVEMBER 1, 1913 



771 



together with that prince of goorl fellows, 

 and a very dear friend of mine, W. Z. 

 Hutchinson, have in the past rather favored 

 the production of extracted honey. I know 

 nothing- of the conditions in the East ; but 

 I do not think there has been the defiection 

 from the one branch of the business to the 

 other that you think. Take California, Col- 

 orailo, Idaho, and Utah. Outside of Cali- 

 fornia, where there has been a little falling 

 off in the production of comb honey in the 

 past few years, I think there has been a 

 gain in the other States in the tendency to 

 raise comb honey; and the fact that less 

 honey has gone forward is because of the 

 poor seasons rather than a changing to ex- 

 tracted lioney. 



You strike the keynote wlien you speak 

 of the miserable handling of a part of the 

 comb honey offered to the market. Now, if 

 a campaign is to be started urging the pro- 

 duction of more comb honey, let's first start 

 a school urging the placing of a better 

 grade on the market. 



It matters not how slipshod the methods 

 are tliat produce a can of extracted honey. 

 If it is ripened, settled, or properly strain- 

 ed, it's all right for the market ; and any 

 one who can turn a grindstone can produce 

 extracted honej', whether at a profit or not. 

 But the man who is to place a case of comb 

 honey on the market must cater to the 

 appetite of the eye, for he is dealing with 

 an epicure — one who is buying a luxury, 

 and he must strive to excel by, first, honesty 

 ■of weight; second, quality; tliird, neatness 

 of appearance; and he who meets the above 

 requirements must be a man of pride for 

 and taste in his work. If the advice to 

 produce more comb honey were taken in 

 many cases, where the extracted apiaries 

 have been run with hired help, schooled 

 only in the rough methods by which a crop 

 of extracted honey is obtained, in many 

 cases the product would be no better (per- 

 haps worse) than now. Then let them go 

 on and produce the excess (if there is to be 

 any) in the extracted form, for it is much 

 more capable of being worked off than an 

 excess crop of comb honey, whether in good 

 or bad shape; for we must never lose siglit 

 of the fact that comb honey is a luxury, and 

 luxuries must be neat and atti-active to sell 

 well. 



Utah is just as good a honey country, and 

 even better bee country, than Colorado; but 

 its beemen sadly need the schooling that the 

 Colorado comb-honey men have had for the 

 past fifteen years, t'tah's comb-lioney men 

 need to get together and school themselves, 

 using the motto "The best is none too good," 

 which will remove the low price and bad 

 name that now hangs over us, for no better 



can be produced anywhere; and I certainly 

 felt flattered this fall when I read in a 

 paper an account of a carload of comb 

 honey that I had sold to an eastern buyer. 

 He said that he had bought from me the 

 best-handled car of honey he had bought in 

 an experience of twenty years. 



I am not one of those who think that 

 more bees can be handled for extracted than 

 comb honey, after liaving had nearly twenty 

 years' experience with each; neither do I 

 think that the jjroduction of extracted is 

 more profitable when we take a term of 

 years and take into consideration the con- 

 dition of the capital stock. 



If you would travel over the country and 

 see the outfits that some people are using, 

 and see the " fool supers " in which it is 

 impossible to produce a first quality, you 

 would be surprised. This, of course, is on 

 account of the " penny wise and pound 

 foolish " plan of saving a nickel rather than 

 use standard supplies. 



In conclusion, 1 will say, as one who has 

 been in the comb-honey business exclusively 

 for twenty years, waiting for the time when 

 quality would be appreciated, that, if a 

 crusade is to be started inducing more peo- 

 ple to raise comb honey, we should use my 

 old class motto at school : " Not how much, 

 but how well." 



Hvrum, Utah. 



QUEENS INJURED BY BEING SENT THROUGH 

 THE MAILS 



Number of Queens Shipped in a Nucleus 



BY LOUIS MACEY 



While the mailing-cages in use at the 

 present time are cheajj, simple, and conve- 

 Fiient, and many queens "go through safely" 

 in them, usually arriving in apparently good 

 condition, it is universally conceded that a 

 queen which is sent in this way through the 

 mails very seldom arrives in normal condi- 

 tion. Conditions are not most favoi'able, 

 therefore, to her passing muster with the 

 strange bees and with her new owner. Never 

 in all her life is a queen subject to such crit- 

 i'-al inspection as when introduced. The 

 biped inspector has only two eyes, and a 

 much less critical "smelling apparatus;" 

 but his ciiticisms do not end with the first 

 day, nor with the first week. Even after two 

 or three weeks of pi-ying into her work he 

 is still in good position to " make a kick." 



p]verybody admits that the queen is 

 strange to the bees and in an abnormal con- 

 dition as to nerves, because she is f3 tired 

 and frightened that she is in poor condition 

 to maintain that queenly dignity so neces- 



