22 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



A Dark Subject. 



I1Y E. E. HASTY. 



It is u melancholy fact that not all 

 honey is of pearly whiteness. Some 

 of it is dark. Success in bee-keeping 

 demands that we shall be able to meet 

 this unpleasant fact, and get along 

 with it somehow. The premiums are 

 all awarded to white honey. We talk 

 about the white honey. The articles 

 in our journals are about the white 

 honey. The inquiry of the market is 

 the same, for No. 1 white honey. And 

 as to tbe honey that isn't No. 1 white, 

 why, that's a very dark subject indeed. 



Now, in the first place, it is neither 

 necessary nor reasonable that dark 

 grades of honey should be entirely ig- 

 nored at our exhibitions. Some dark 

 honey is of very excellent flavor in- 

 deed. When a number of premiums 

 are offered, at least one ought to be 

 for the best dark honey— flavor to rule. 

 In this we shall be familiarizing the 

 public with the fact that honey may 

 be worth buying and eating, even if it 

 is not white. Our present course 

 amounts to scratching out our own 

 eyes. It is teaching the public that 

 nothing is worth considering as honev 

 unless it is very light in color — a les- 

 son troublesome to ourselves, and un- 

 true as well as troublesome. If we 

 are to have exhibitions and premiums 

 let them be of such a character as to 

 enlighten the dark subject a little, in- 

 stead of making the darkness denser. 



For another thing honey that is 

 really poor in quality and off in flavor 

 had better not be sold for eating pur- 

 poses at any price. No matter how 

 honestly the real qualty of the article 

 is explained to the buyer it is killing 

 off customers to sell such People 

 who eat poor honey will soon cease to 



eat honey altogether. I have been in 

 the habit, to some extent, of giving 

 away inferior honey to poor people 

 who would be unlikely to buy. I 

 have pretty nearly come to the con- 

 clusion to quit it. Not that I have 

 grown more stingy with age, but that 

 it isn't fair to bring up the children 

 that abound in these families in the 

 belief that honey is rather poor stuff, 

 and molasses a good deal better. If 

 a man can float his poor article off 

 upon the general market possibly we 

 may find it hard to reach his con- 

 science, and make him feel that he 

 ought to stop those kind of sales; but 

 if he sells direct to customers I think 

 that with a little effort he can be made 

 to see the point. Really what is wise 

 for one little corner of the market is 

 wise for the whole market. 



When honey is ill-flavored it is not 

 imperative that we should know 

 whether it is ordinary floral honey or 

 insect honey. There is plenty of poor 

 stuff of both kinds. Practically, I do 

 not think we can always tell with cer- 

 tainty unless we spend an unreason- 

 able amount of time tramping over 

 the country to see where our bees are 

 at work each day. And what's the 

 use of hunting for a hole in your 

 stocking when you know you can't 

 mend it if you find one ? And, more- 

 over, much evidence has acumulated 

 that some insect honey is of very good 

 quality. Let good be good, and bad 

 be bad, upon its own merits. By the 

 way, we are still in need of a proper 

 term for insect honey. "Bug-juice" 

 had a great run, but was finally ruled 

 out and squelched as disgusting and 

 injurious. The common use of such 

 a term was making the public " skit- 



