246 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



how prepared for market, how mar- 

 keted, and the prices secured. This 

 is simply an outline of what I would 

 like to know; in fact, a man could not 

 tell me too much. Especially, would 

 I like to have him tell me what he 

 thinks is the greatest drawback to his 

 success. After I g-et such a letter, or 

 history, from a man, I mig-ht wish to 

 write to him and ask him a lot of ques- 

 tions; in fact, there might several let- 

 ters pass between us before I would 



feel justified in giving an opinion in 

 the matter. 



What will be charged for such servi- 

 ces? There will be no charge. I ex- 

 pect that the rest of my life will be de- 

 voted to helping bee-keepers, and each 

 man that I can in this manner assist 

 to greater success, will enable me to do 

 still better work in this line for others 

 needing similar assistance, and, at 

 the same time, will better fit me for my 

 duties as editor of the Review. 



EXTRACTED DEPARTMENT. 



A NATIONAL TRADE MARK. 



Let an Inspector in Each Large City Ex- 

 amine the Honey of Members as 

 It Comes in, and Affix the 

 Seal of the Association if 

 it is Deserved. 



For 5'ears there has been talk of a 

 National Trade Mark, to be used only 

 by members of the National Associa- 

 tion. Each member was to be sup- 

 plied with copies of this trade mark 

 which he could affix to his packages 

 of honey as he sent them to market. 

 This trade mark was to be widely ad- 

 vertised and made known to the public, 

 and was to stand for an emblem of 

 purity and excellence. There has 

 been, and is yet, one great obstacle to 

 the adoption of this plan, and that is, 

 unfortunately, that joining the Nation- 

 al Association does not prevent a man 

 from putting poor honey upon the mar- 

 ket. Only a dealer knows of the thin, 

 unripe, detestable stuff that is* some- 

 times put upon the market, even by 

 members of the National Association. 

 I think that the practice of putting 

 such honey on the market is on the 

 decline, but there is still enough of it 

 to bring disg-race to any trade mark 

 under which it might sail. There is 



one way, and only one way, in which 

 the National can ever afi^ord to place 

 its brand upon honey, and that is 

 when a competent officer has first ex- 

 iimined it. and found it worthy. On 

 this point, Gleanings publishes some 

 excellent suggestions, and it is pos- 

 sible that something may yet be done 

 in that line. Here is what it says: 



"The suggestion has been continual- 

 ly coming to me of late whether or not 

 the National Bee-Keepers' Association, 

 in view of the widespread distrust of 

 all comb honey and a large part of the 

 extracted, could not in some way place 

 its own brand of purity on honey pro- 

 duced by its members, so that the pub- 

 lic and the large buj'ers would know 

 that such honey was necessarily pure. 



One of the York State local county 

 societies did for a few years (I do not 

 know whether it does now or not,) 

 brand all the honey put out by its mem- 

 bers, guaranteeing its quality and pur- 

 ity. It strikes me that the National 

 might and ought to do something of 

 this kind. If a large part of the gen- 

 eral public believes that comb lionej' is 

 manufactured, and if it can be satisfied 

 that a certain brand of honey is pure, 

 it would purchase without hesitation. 



It would not be very expensive for the 

 National to have a local inspector for 

 each large cxty-, and have him look over 

 each large lot of honey, inspect the 

 shipping and way bills, and look over 

 the correspondence to make sure that 

 the honey was produced, put up, and 

 shipped by some known responsible 

 bee-keepers' society or individual mem- 



