THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



247 



the top of this p^'ramid was set a large 

 number of two-oound, square bottles 

 of honey. On top of the bottles was 

 laid a platform of glass made by put- 

 ting together two sheets of double 

 strength glass, bound together at the 

 edges with cloth pasted on and covered 

 with gilt paper. Upon the glass plat- 

 form was set more bottles, then an- 

 other sheet of glass a little smaller 

 than tlie iirst one, and so on up, 

 until a p3'ramid of extracted hone}' 

 was constructed upon the pyramid 

 of comb hone}', the former being sur- 

 mounted by a huge boquet of golden 

 rod. I remember building one such 

 pyramid that was 16 feet in height. 

 The spaces between the outer ends of 

 the cases in the comb honey part of the 

 P3'ramidwere filled with small, "dime" 

 bottles of honey. By thus combining 

 the comb and extracted honey display, 

 one "sets off" the other; in fact, my 

 competitors sometimes complained of 

 this, put it was their privilege to have 

 taken advantag^e of this fact had they 

 so chosen. Mr. M. H. Hunt one year 

 had a castle in which the pillars were 

 cases of comb honey piled up, and the 

 balustrade was formed from panels of 

 beautifully molded beeswax. 



There is seldom a fair ground with 

 no bees near it, hence, no honey should 

 be exposed. All honey should be shut 

 up close, and no stickiness left on the 

 outside of the package. Wax should 

 be molded in to fanciful shapes — statues, 

 or something of that sort, if the exhi- 

 bitor has the skill to make them. 

 Fruits, vegetables, ears of corn, and 

 the like, may be made of wax by first 

 making molds, of plaster of Paris, 

 from the objects themselves. It is not 

 necessarj' that the articles be solid 

 wax. First soak the molds in water, 

 then pour in a small quantitx'of melted 

 wax, close the molds, and then immed- 

 iately shake them vigorously while the 

 wax is cooling, thus coating the inside 

 of the molds with wax. When the 



wax is cool it will come out all in one 

 piece. 



Let the beg^inner not try to show a 

 multiude of things, but let what he 

 does show be as good as it is possible 

 to make it. Competition is so very 

 keen, at least where the premiums are 

 liberal, that it is folly to expect pre- 

 miums on second-class articles. 



A judge should never be compelled to 

 take an exhibitor's word for anything. 

 Let the article exhibited show for itself. 

 Don't offer premiums on samples of 

 different kinds of huney, when they 

 can be so easily gotten up for the occa- 

 sion by mixing. Don't put at the head 

 of the list such requirements as: 

 "Honey must be of this season's crop;" 

 or, "Must be the product of the exhib- 

 itor;" when there is no way of know- 

 ing whether they are lived up to or 

 not. 



In my experience one man to award 

 the premiums, and he an expert, has 

 given better satisfaction than three 

 judges. It is difficult and expensive to 

 get three men that are experts, and, 

 even then, the work is not always done 

 so conscientiously, because it is not so 

 easy to place the responsibility; each 

 being able to shield himself behind the 

 "other two. " 



Upon this point of judging', there is 

 one other point often neglected that 

 ought to be printed in connection with 

 the premium list, and that is a "scale 

 of points" for deciding in regard to the 

 merits of exhibits. Particularly is 

 this true in regard to honey. I would 

 suggest the following: Color, 5; body, 

 5; flavor, 5; comb — straightness, 5; 

 color of cappings, 5; completeness of 

 capping, 5; uniformity, 10; style, 10. 

 Possible number of points, 50. By 

 "uniformit}'" is meant the closeness of 

 resemblence in the sections composing 

 a specimen. "Stj^le" includes the at- 

 tractiveness of the section and case; 

 also the absence of propolis. 



If a bee-keeper is going to make an 

 exhibit of apiarian products, it often 

 happens that he can also make exhib- 



