THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



185 



protection is a necessity, to a 

 certain extent, under all circum- 

 stances, in supplying natural con- 

 ditions. 



FINALE. 



Proposition sixth and last : — 

 Protection is needed in summer 

 to guard against excessive heat. 

 There is no doubt in my mind but 

 that many times bees refrain from 

 entering the section cases and 

 surplus boxes, and cluster upon 

 the outside of the hive, solely 

 from the etfects of the excessive 

 heat within the upper portion of 

 the hive. This I saw demonstrated 

 last season, and have seen frequent 

 cases before. An empty space 

 above the section case in the upper 

 story of the hive aflbrds some 

 relief, but I think some non-con- 

 ducting material above the swarm, 

 immediately above the sections 

 when they are on, or over the 

 frames in spring and early summer, 

 quite essential . — Lewiston Journal. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

 Ed. Am. Apiculturist. 



Dear Sir : The July No. of the 

 " Api" is before me and I notice 

 with much gratification your kindly 

 mention of my little pamphlet on 

 " Preparing and Packing Honey 

 for Shipment, " and I greatly appre- 

 ciate your words of commendation. 



It is my earnest etfort to serve 

 the honey interest in everj^ way 

 possible, being thoroughly identi- 

 fied with it myself, and I believe 

 one of the best ways to serve that in- 

 terest is to restore confidence in 

 the minds of the people in the gen- 

 uineness of what they buy for hon- 

 ey ; hence my affidavit of the purity 

 of all honey that I sell. There are 

 many people who would eat honey 

 freely, if the}-- felt sure they could 

 always get the genuine article. 

 Then, too, it will be noticed that I 



make my affidavit to cover all kinds 

 of honey, both comb and extracted. 

 This may seem unnecessary to 

 beekeepers and those who know- 

 that comb honey cannot be adul- 

 terated, but it is astonishing to 

 see what a number of people actu- 

 ally believe that comb honey is man- 

 ufactured, and t\\Qy seem surprised 

 that I, being a honey dealer, don't 

 know all about how and where it is 

 done, and think they are imparting 

 a piece of valuable information to 

 me when they tell me about it ; but 

 when I offer them $25.00 for a 

 pound of the manufactured stuff, 

 with ample proof of its having been 

 made entirely b}' human means and 

 not by the bees, I seldom hear from 

 them again. 



Now, in regard to the stencil 

 question, I will say that it is not 

 with a view of hiding the identity of 

 any honey, that I suggest no other 

 than the shipping mark to be put 

 on the crates, but simply because 

 nine dealers in ten will scratch 

 it off anyway and it only spoils 

 the looks of the crate. If a dealer 

 is disposed to misrepresent the 

 goods and wishes to sell eastern 

 honey for Californian he can easily 

 scratch off the eastern grower's 

 name and substitute a California 

 brand. No, the better way would 

 be if it is particularly desirable to 

 have the grower's name and his 

 goods to use a small rubber stamp 

 directly on the section boxes, and 

 then both evils are at once remedied. 

 But it is impossible to fool any- 

 body with eastern honey for Cal- 

 ifornian as the sections, frames, 

 cases, general style of packing, etc., 

 are so entirely ditierent, that any- 

 one, being at all familiar with either 

 will at one recognize a marked 

 difference between them. 



I furnish now a stencil to my 

 shippers, on application, with a 

 number for each b^'^ which I may 

 always recognize from whom any 

 honey was received. 



