THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



89 



out of what quality you raise the one or tlie 

 other. For instance, in this part of the 

 country, whei'e white clover honey gives 

 universal satisfaction for table use, I sliould 

 nor hesitate to run most of mine into 

 machine-extracted honey. Had I. in ad- 

 dition to the above, a basswood or other 

 light honey crop, I should turn all of it into 

 comb honey. Comb honey is a fancy article 

 only, consequently its appearance is of the 

 sanie importance as its taste, to insure a 

 ready sale. There are exceptions. I sold, 

 this winter, several large lots of buckwheat 

 honey very readily. They were in neat 

 frames, the honey well capped and of good 

 taste. Unfinished combs should not be 

 sent to a dealer; they should be extracted, 

 and they will be a valuable acquisition for 

 another'season. All comb honey should be 

 put up in frames, not only because it finds a 

 better sale, but also because all unfinished 

 combs can be extracted, and nothing be 

 lost. 



If the side bars of the honey frames are 

 ^ in. wider than the top and bottom bars, 

 so that the sides extend X iu- and allow the 

 bees M iu. space between the frames, they 

 ship, iu sectional boxes, with comparative 

 safety. Care should be taken to provide 

 each frame with a true "starter" to insure 

 straight combs. It is, perhaps, not so uni- 

 versally known that each sectional box 

 should be provided with one full sized 

 comb, serving the bees as a ladder. This is 

 especially necessary if the bees are Italians, 

 and is the means of nuiking them take to 

 the second story readily. 



Shippiu'j; boxes should not be larger than 

 a soap or candle box, containing 4, 6 or 8 

 sectional boxes. It should not be heavier 

 than 50 or 60 lbs., and a strip should be 

 nailed on the upper halves of the two sides 

 — no handles extending— so that baggage- 

 smashers can see at once "whicii side up," 

 and get hold of the strips. This insures the 

 cases being placed on their bottom, instead 

 of having them thrown on edge or a corner. 

 Heavier boxes than these should have 

 handles extending. I am speaking of my 

 own experience; parties in other localities 

 may differ with me. 



Extracted honey is a luxury, and a med- 

 icine, and is in a fair way of becoming a 

 formidable rival of cane sugar. The intro- 

 duction of grape sugar or glucose diminish- 

 ed the use of glycerine in a few years. 

 Should not honey— the very best of grape 

 sugar— be apt to make short work with its 

 inferior rival? 



Breweries use car loads of grape sugar 

 annually. Once convicted of the superior- 

 ity of honey, a market for our California 

 brethren may be opened. They will not be 

 long in being convinced, if earnest attempts 

 in the right direction are made. The lower 

 price of glucose, will be the first and great- 

 est objection. But we shall have to meet 

 their views. A demand once established, 

 the price of honey will be regulated like the 

 price of other products— by supply and 

 demand. The difficulty with brewers is 

 that they won't admit of their use of grape 

 sugar. They have to be approached pru- 

 dently. The American Brewers' Gazette, 

 published by John Flintoff, 194 Fulton St., 

 New York, may be a splendid medium. 



It is a similar case with wine growers; 

 large quantities of cane and grape sugar are 

 used annually at harvesting time. Not for 

 the adulteration of wine, but, as they say, 



to make it more palatable. I am convinced 

 of this being a fact; yet, they don't in 

 general, admit of their use of sugar. I 

 speak of personal experience in the latter 

 case, as I am selling several loads of coffee 

 sugar annually to several of my friends, 

 who tell me confidently, what use they 

 make of it. Several, this year, have tried 

 small lots of honey with the best result. 

 Wine grower's journals should be our 

 mediums. An occasional article in such 

 journals would induce experiments and 

 hasten good results. The editors of our bee 

 papers could do, perhaps, a great deal in 

 this matter, and earn the gratitude of our 

 brotherhood, by a little elaboration in the 

 right direction. 



The retail trade depends a great deal on 

 locality, but every bee-keeper should stimu- 

 late a home trade. Large cities are the 

 centres for all produce, including honey, 

 but the success of the business depends on 

 the man— his prudent management and fair 

 dealing. Purchasers should, by all means, 

 be convinced that the honey is pure. Re- 

 member with what suspicious eyes extract- 

 ed honey was looked down upon a few 

 years ago; it is astonishing that the trade 

 in it could take such dimensions in so short 

 a time. 



Comb honey sells better than it did, be- 

 cause it is put up in a more attractive style; 

 I suppose 1 could not have found a better 

 medium to introduce machine -extracted 

 honey in this locality than 1 and 2 ft square 

 honey jars. They look neat and sell 

 readily, where honey retails at all. Round 

 jars can be furnished at about $1 less per 

 gross than square jars; but square jars 

 pack better. A spurious article has been 

 offered for years in our market, in round 

 bottles, and marked, "White clover honey," 

 so that a friend here and myself thought it 

 very desirable to have a different appear- 

 ance for our " Pure machine - extracted 

 honey." 



I send you a case of 1 ft jars of our honey 

 for a test of its merits, as to merchantable 

 shape. This package will also convince 

 you that the tendency of honey to granulate 

 is immaterial to me. My customers are 

 posted and buy pure honey either way. 



I wish to speak of the bad habit of stick- 

 ing a piece of comb into a jar of extracted 

 honey. It looks pleasing only to the eye of 

 the ignorant. Bee-keepers know that ex- 

 tracted honey is the only pure honey, and it 

 should require no piece of comb to convince 

 our friends. I find quite a lot of tumblers 

 and jars in our wholesale houses ill-shaped 

 and unsalable, because honey and comb are 

 a granulated mass. 



Now let me give you a little example:— 

 Suppose friend A. has a farm, no matter 

 if large or small, and keeps, say, 50 stands 

 of bees; he raises, perhaps, 5,000 lbs. of 

 honey; he may not do that the first year, 

 and such is not necessary. It is, perhaps, 

 better for him if he raises less. Our friend 

 must learn as we have done. His 5,000 lbs. 

 of honey are apt to realize him $500; if it 

 does not, he did not get his honey in proper 

 shape. Our friend must learn to comply 

 with the demand of the market. If they 

 realize him only .S^iOO, it is a better business 

 than anything he has on his farm, in pro- 

 portion to labor and investment. It is true, 

 we have had bad years, but with what crop 

 may we not be disappointed by a poor sea- 

 son ? 



