mand for comb lioney will decrease, and 

 that extracted honey will almost supersede 

 it in a few years ; hence, in some quarters 

 there is a tendency to produce only extract- 

 ed honey. It is well to look at this subject 

 carefully, and not allow ourselves to be led 

 into unvvise methods of work, by conclusions 

 formed hastily and on insufficient premises. 



1. I have not a word to say against 

 extracted honey. When it is well ripened 

 in the hives before extracting, it is, without 

 question, a superior article. Such good 

 extracted honey, put up in convenient and 

 elegant packages, will continue to sell 

 readily. The demand for it ought to 

 increase, and will increase. 



2. But a very large part of the consumers 

 of honey have a strong prejudice against 

 extracted honey. As it comes into the 

 market in the same shape as strained 

 honey, and as these consumers are not 

 familiar with the methods of bee-culture, it 

 is only natural that they should rank it 

 with strained honey. This prejudice is, of 

 course, ill-founded. It is a prejudice, 

 which is for the benefit of all honey- 

 producers to labor to remove. Neverthe- 

 less the prejudice exists, and will continue 

 to exist in a decreasing degree for some 

 time to come. While it exists, it will keep 

 up a demand for comb honey, which pro- 

 ducers will do well to supply. 



3. After some years, the consumers of 

 honey will generally come to understand 

 that well-ripened, extracted honey is a most 

 excellent article, that it is just as pure, and 

 of just as good flavor as comb honey of the 

 same kinds. When consumers generally 

 learn this, will the demand for comb honey 

 largely decrease, and finally cease alto- 

 gether ? To this question not a few pro- 

 ducers of honey are inclined to say, yes. — 

 But there is another element of the prob- 

 lem, which, I think, they do not sufficiently 

 consider, an element which, it seems to me, 

 will not only keep the demand for comb 

 honey as great as at present, but even 

 increase it much beyond what it now is. — 

 Let us for a moment consider this element. 

 A purchaser goes to a merchant to buy 

 cloth ; he is shown different pieces, among 

 which he finds two, of about the same qual- 

 ity, as to durability, but one of them is of 

 finer texture and more elegant finish than 

 the other. This finer piece does not prom- 

 ise to be quite so durable as the otiier, and 

 It is somewhat higher in price. But in a 

 very large number of cases, the purchaser 

 will choose this more expensive article. — 

 Durability is, with him, not the only 

 quality by which he judges the value of 

 cloth. He wants a garment that will be 

 neat and attractive, as well as durable. — 

 Hence, he is willing to pay a higher price 

 for the fine goods of elegant finish. 



A man wants to buy a cow. He is shown 

 a number of animals of about the same age, 

 size, and quality as milkers. He looks 

 them all over, and is sure to pick out the 

 cow that has the points that make an 

 animal beautiful in the eyes of a co?iiiois- 

 seur of cattle. Other qualities being as 

 good, he prefers the animal that is beauti- 

 ful, and willingly pays a higher price for 

 such animal. The stock-breeder soon finds 

 that beauty is a marketable quality. 



The house-keeper goes to her grocer to 

 buy butter for her table. She looks over 

 his stock. Some of it is not of good color, 

 and has a mussed, untidy look. She passes 

 over this with contempt ; but when she 

 sees bright, yellow rolls, solid, neatly 

 shaped, nicely stamped with an appropriate 

 design, she is at once desirous of trying it, 

 and if it is not positively poor in quality, 

 she will buy it. It may not be quite so 

 sweet and delicate in flavor as some of the 

 miissed butter, but its better appearance 

 makes it command, readily, a higher price. 

 High color has become, in some butter 

 markets, so important that artificial color- 

 ing matter is freely and openly used to give 

 the butter the desirable tint. The color, 

 the appearance, and the beauty of the butter 

 is a most important item, and has a ready 

 market value. This is so well understood 

 that a large number of dairymen are now 

 turning their attention to the production of 

 a really good, highly colored, often artifi- 

 cially colored butter, which they send to 

 market in M R>- 3^ lt>- and 1 lb. prints, and 

 for which they get a gilt-edged price. 



The strawberry is one of the most popular 

 fruits in the marki^t. In the last 25 years 

 its consumption has increased immensely. 

 It is produced in the East, West, North and 

 South. It is found in every market, even 

 in the smaller villages. Let any purchaser 

 go to a fruit stall to select berries for the 

 tea-table, and they will choose those that 

 are largest, plumpest, best-colored, and 

 most beautiful. It is a well-known fact 

 that often strawberries that are most deli- 

 cious in flavor are not good market varieties, 

 because they are not so beautiful as some 

 other varieties of inferior flavor. Most of 

 the purchasers understand that they are 

 sacrificing something of delicate flavor to 

 beauty of appearance; yet, they willingly 

 pay a iiigher price for the less delicate fruit. 



Indeed, the beauty of the articles which 

 appear upon our tables is an important 

 point with us all. When we sit at our 

 meals, we like to satisfy, not only the 

 appetite for food, but also that love of 

 beauty, which is found more or less in all. 

 In the most humble homes we find the 

 good housekeeper has a commendable pride 

 in the attractive appearance of her table.— 

 The spotless linen, the few articles of glass 

 and silver, the few flowers that she has 

 found leisure to cultivate, lend a ray of 

 heauty to her humble board ; and she serves 

 the flood, prepared by her own skillful 

 hands, with as much elegance as she can 

 command. Larger wealth gives greater 

 facility for gratifying this love of beauty, 

 and the tables of the rich often charm the 

 eye with their array of china, and glass, 

 and silver, from the hands of the most 

 artistic workmen, and with viands pre- 

 pared by cooks with whom their profession 

 has become almost a fine art. 



4. There is, perhaps, no article for the 

 table that is more beautiful than the best 

 comb honey. The delicate comb, of fairy- 

 like structure, the crystal-white or golden- 

 tinted honey, of delightful fragrance, are 

 most attractive to the eyes of all. It seems 

 to me that this element of beauty in comb 

 honey will not only keep the demand for it 

 as great as it now is, but as people become 



