212 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



hive when the honey-board was in place; 

 and the workers could also pass down 

 through the two strips of perforated 

 zinc. 



For mode of using : When a swarm 

 Issues, remove the old hive from its 

 stand, and put in its place a new brood- 

 chamber, on which put the comb or ex- 

 tracted-honey supers from the old hive. 

 Let the old brood-chamber remain be- 

 side the swarm until they have begun 

 work in their new quarters, then re- 

 move the cover of the new hive, and put 

 in its place one of the bee-escape honey- 

 boards, on which put the old brood- 

 chamber, and cover up, with a shade- 

 board on top of all. 



The bees are now all in one hive, 

 where they will go on with the work 

 with renewed vigor, and in only one 

 case have I had an after-swarm, al- 

 though the young queens were left to 

 hatch out at will. 



It is very easy to make sure of no 

 after-swarm, as there is nothing but the 

 cover to remove to get at the frames con- 

 taining queen-cells, to cut them out. 



There are other uses to which this 

 style of honey-board can be put, which 

 would take too much time and space to 

 describe now ; but my use of it the past 

 season has been very satisfactory in sev- 

 eral ways, though of course I know that 

 a single season's test is not enough to 

 determine its value. 



Downer's Grove, 111. 



THe Best Honeys of llie Worll. 



Bro. Chas. F. Muth, of Cincinnati, O., 

 was recently asked for his opinion of 

 sourwood honey, which he gave in 

 Oleanings. He also gives his opinion of 

 other honeys as well, that will be of in- 

 terest to all, as Mr. Muth is perhaps 

 better posted on honeys than any other 

 person in this country, if not in the 

 world. Here is what he says : 



Sourwood furnishes a very good honey 

 of light color and good flavor. I should 

 put it. in the same class with basswood 

 of the North and Northwest, or the 

 orange-blossotn or saw-palmetto of the 

 South. Wo have .just now a new arrival 

 of orange-blossom honey. It is of good 

 quality and fine taste, and we advertise 

 it as s(>mething " new and choice ;" but 

 we shall be no more able to raise a cus- 

 tomer for it now than we were at former 

 trials. A certain preference would be 



given to basswood or sourwood honey, 

 because of the former having a lighter 

 color. All the above will be sold to 

 manufacturers, principally, almost ex- 

 clusively. 



The most popular and most praise- 

 worthy honeys are: Northern white 

 clover ; mangrove of Florida, and sage 

 of California, in their purity — i. e., with- 

 out an admixture of other qualities. 

 According to my experience, this trio 

 includes the only qualities accepted by 

 the public for table use. Almost all 

 other qualities go to the manufacturers, 

 principally. 



It must be remembered that our tastes 

 are cultivated. While basswood honey 

 is of fine quality, and, no doubt, popular 

 in the basswood region, still it will never 

 be successfully introduced in a clover 

 country, for table use. I have tested 

 the matter for many years. 



Horsemint honey, very obnoxious to 

 our taste at first, loses its bad flavor 

 gradually by our handling and tasting it. 

 When my friend. Dr. Lay, said, " Horse- 

 mint is the honey for a man of Texas," 

 and when I replied that it amounts to 

 nothing in business (what he and I 

 should like), both of us were correct. 

 Only those qualities which are popular, 

 or can be made so, count. All qualities 

 next to the above-mentioned trio, in re- 

 gard to flavor and color, go to manufac- 

 turers. 



The idea I intend to convey is, that, 

 according to my experience in the busi- 

 ness, white clover honey stands at the 

 head of the list ; next comes mangrove 

 of Florida; next, sage of California; 

 and next, any amount of other varieties 

 too numerous to mention, all of which 

 can bo sold to manufacturers only, be- 

 cause of their lower prices. However, 

 anything is possible these times, the 

 business features of which are abnor- 

 mal and unnatural. Since we 'sold at 

 6, and even 5}4 cents per pound, by the 

 carload, each of first-class California 

 and of clover and basswood extracted 

 honey, we can hardly find customers for 

 dark honey at any price. The bottom 

 has come out of prices of all articles of 

 late, which, I hope, is temporary only. 



Cincinnati, O., May 7, 1894. 



In commenting upon what Bro. Muth 

 says in the foregoing, Bro. Root adds the 

 following paragraph : 



What Mr. Muth has said in regard to 

 the taste of individuals in different locali- 

 ties is quite true ; and along with this 

 idea it may be well to say that, in cer- 

 tain parts of New York State, a consid- 



