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Published Weekly at 91.00 a Tear by Gieorge W. ¥ork & Co., 334 Uearbom St. 



QBORae W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAY 18, 1905 



VoL XLV— No, 20 



The American Bee Journal is absolutely an independent publication, and not 

 connected with any bee-supply business whatsoever. It stands entirely upon 

 its merits as an educative force in the field of bee-keeping, and as a medium 

 for legitimate advertisers in apicultural or other lines. It is the oldest, and 

 only weekly, journal of its kind in America. Its publishers believe that it 

 deserves to be in the hands of every would-be progressive successful bee- 

 keeper in the land. It is in its 4Sth year, and to-day is acknowledged to be 

 better in every way than at any time during its long and honorable history. 



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Bee-Keeping Being Recognized 



More than ever before is bee-keeping being 

 recognized as a rural industry that deserves 

 consideration on the part of those who are 

 seeking a healthful as well as fairly remun- 

 erative outdoor occupation. We are led to 

 this remark on account of the large space re- 

 cently devoted to instructive illustrated arti- 

 cles on bees and bee-keeping in such maga- 

 zines as Country Life in America, The Hoifte 

 Beautiful, Country Calendar, etc. The last- 

 named publication is a new one beginning 

 with the May ( this month's) number, and the 

 large edition printed was s61d almost before 

 it was off the press. 



So it seems that bee-keeping is just begin- 

 ning to be appreciated. Like poultry-raising, 

 only within a few years has it been developed, 

 and to-day see to what wonderful proportions 

 it has grown. 



As our country grows in population, more 

 and more will the smaller rural industries be 

 developed, and so beekeeping will come in 

 for its share of the increased interest and con- 

 sequent enlargement of its borders. 



All this should increase the general demand 

 for honey as much, perhaps, as it will aug- 

 ment the size of the crop produced. But 

 what is most needed is that those who are led 

 to embark in bee-keeping through the recent 

 published articles shall be impressed with the 

 necessity of thoroughly imtorming themselves 

 on the subject if they expect to make a suc- 

 cess of the work. Otherwise they will simply 

 invite failure, and thus become disgusted with 

 the pursuit. 



By avoiding too high an idea of the finan- 

 cial possibilities of bee-keeping, many will 

 save themselves a far and rapid fall, with its 

 resultant bump. 



The thing for all new recruits to do is to 

 " make haste slowly," and thus be more 

 likely to differ from the mushroom in their 

 growth and lasting qualities as bee-keepers. 



Unripe Honey— Quality vs. Quantity 



Mr. R. A. Burnett, of R. A. Burnett & Co., 

 of this city, who has had over 25 years' ex- 

 perience in handling honey, writes as follows: 



I have just read the article by Mr. E. D. 

 Townsend, on "The Importance of Having 

 Ripe Honey When it is Put Upon the Mar- 

 tcet." 



In the autumn of last year we sold a barrel 

 of honey to a man who would use about 500 

 pounds per week. We had sampled one of 

 the barrels of the lot and found it to be well- 

 ripened honey, but as the lot was from dif- 

 ferent producers, having been consigned to us 

 by a dealer, the barrel which he got proved to 

 be of a low quality io flavor, wholly from the 

 standpoint of having; been extracted when the 

 honey was not cured sufficiently to give it 

 flavor, or prevent it separating so that there 

 was about half a gallon of water in the barrel 

 that had been exuded during the candying 

 process. This caused the man to return the 

 package, and the so-called water in a can. We 

 endeavored to satisfy him by offering to sub- 

 stitute another package for it, but he felt 

 that he could not afford to risk it, and said he 

 had great difficulty ia getting honey outside 

 of one producer, whom he knew always had 

 good honey. The result of it was, we lost a 

 customer for honey, and the man who sent us 

 this unripe honey missed the sale of several 

 hundred pounds of his product. 



It is our opinion i which we have voiced for 

 some years) that uoripe honey has had more 

 to do with the curtailment of its use by peo- 

 ple generally than aoy other things combined, 

 for when a per-sun gets a coarse-grained, 

 flavorless extracted honey, he does not like to 

 throw it away, nor to return it to the vender, 

 but keeps it around until everybody in the 

 family tires of seeioi; honey, and gets out of 

 the habit of using it sometimes for years. 



If we tail to giv. people a good article, it 

 will be time thrown away to try to convince 

 them they should ;'.'.• more of it. Producers 

 of honey should e free from commercial 

 selfishness to the extent that they should seek 

 quality before quani;;y. We will venture the 

 opinion that if the honey to be gathered in 

 1905 will be allow e i 'O ripen in the hives be- 

 fore being offered ijr sale, the consumption 

 of honey will he greatly enhanced, and also, 

 if that is kept up i ithoul variation for the 

 next five years, the imount consumed will be 

 double what it has icn in the past five years. 



It seems to me the remedy is very simple, in 

 the fact that it lies wholly in the producer's 

 hands. 



In conclusion I will say this: That begin- 

 ning with the crop of this season, any unripe 

 honey that comes to us will not be offered 

 for sale, but held subject to the owner's or- 

 ders. It might be that a unanimous under- 

 standing to this effect among honey-dealers 

 would be a most effective means of stopping 

 the unwarrantable greed of the producer who 

 endeavors to market a product that will bring 

 him money at the expense of all intelligent 

 and honorable producers. 



R. A. Burnett. 



We think that Mr. Burnett's suggestion is 

 a good one, that all honey-dealers agree not 

 to receive unripe honey. Certainly they have 

 it in their power to stop the shipment of such 

 honey, and by all means should do so. Of 

 course, no sensible bee-keeper would think 

 for a moment of bottling unripe honey for the 

 retail trade. If he did so, he would soon 

 have no demand for it. And not only that, 

 but such stuff will always kill the desire for 

 any more honey of any kind. Unripe honey- 

 disgusts the consumer, and, in the end, is a, 

 loss to all concerned. 



This danger is one that must be considered 

 should the National Association ever furnish 

 labels to its members. It could not afford to 

 allow its name and guaranty to be used by 

 any bee-keeper who is such a fraud as to put 

 unripe honey on the market, knowingly. 



Tlie New Honey-Producers' League 



Under this heading Editor W. H. Putnam, 

 of the Rural Bee-Keeper, has this to say : 



Bee-keepers and farmers have been for a 

 long time learning how to produce honey. 

 The industry has reached a critical point, 

 where the supply seems to be greater than the 

 demand. We. as bee-keepers, have been pro- 

 ducing, we have sold our product for what it 

 would fetch. Certain natural conditions have 

 arisen which have brought up the price of 

 supplies. Bee-keepers all over the land have 

 entered a protest, and all agree that the price 

 of supplies is too high compared with the 

 price of honey. 



All dealers and manufacturers have heard 

 so much about this subject that they have 

 looked about for a remedy. They And that 

 very few peoi)le comparatively are users of 

 honey, and a great many do not even know its 

 taste. They tiud cheap syrups (composed 

 mostly of glucose) in every retail store, and 

 flaming advertisements declaring that this 

 poisonous concoction is better than honey. 

 Many farmer bee-keepers are letting their 

 bees go to the woods rather than buy hives and 

 supplies at the present scale of prices. 



As every manufacturing industry must 

 depend upon li'e prosperity of the consumer 

 or producer, and one upon the other, the con- 



