egg-nog, ice-cream and ham and eggs, 

 it would soon be reduced to whiskey, 

 butter-milk and starvation. Few are 

 adapted to any pursuit in its widest 

 sense, however lofty their aspirations. 

 The many must move on with the means 

 at their command and while they can- 

 not raise honey by the ship load in 

 penny packages, they must be content 

 with raising by the ton or hundred in 

 such packages as will sell. No fact is 

 better established than that five or six 

 colonies of bees and their increase, will 

 gather a much greater average amount 

 of honey in average seasons than if 

 kept in larger numbers. It is not to be 

 presumed that honey is to be all of one 

 price, any more than cigars and tobacco. 

 Honey will differ in quality and flavor, 

 as well as in style of package. Some 

 will prefer one kind of flavor or pack- 

 age, while others would prefer another 

 and very difierent article in a very 

 different form. The supply of honey 

 has reached such proportions that 

 diversity of taste as w r ell as style may 

 in the hear future become a leading 

 feature. 



While it is desirable to elevate taste 

 as much as possible, all may not be 

 able to compete in its supply. Such 

 must fall back on ready-made appetities, 

 faulty in gastronomic construction per- 

 haps, but strong, wide and deep. 



Abronia, Mich. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Why Honey is Slow Sale in Market. 



EDWIN PIKE. 



Adulteration of all sweets is so well 

 known that further proof and argument 

 are unnecessary. Bee-keepers have 

 other vexations to encounter, which 

 turn up in various ways, and materially 

 affect the sale of pure honey. 



The scarcity of money is a serious 

 drawback in selling honey in western 

 home markets even such a small crop 

 as was obtained during the season of 

 1878. People naturally buy that which 

 is cheapest, getting the most for the 

 money invested. Quality is not so much 

 of a consideration with a majority of 

 customers, and a good article not as 

 well apreciated. Grocers not only do a 

 little injustice to bee-keepers in selling 

 on commission, but are sometimes slow 

 to sell for their own interests. 



Farmers and others who know but 

 little how to obtain good honey, will 

 often bring small lots of honey in such 

 shape and offer it for just what they can 



get. Perhaps the grocer buys it for 

 alf price in trade. Being satisfied 

 with his profits on goods, perhaps ha 



will sell it out the same as paid, and 

 thus a uniform price of honey is harder 

 to maintain. Again, perhaps some one 

 comes along, who has been pretty well 

 puffed up by some 2d or 3d rate bee 

 publication, with some extracted honey 

 from combs within the hive, promis- 

 cuously strewed with the honey knife 

 through honey, bee bread and all, and 

 offers it a little less than the price, pur- 

 chasers thinking thev are getting a 

 bargain, buy some. Such honey lasts 

 them a long time, and they will not care 

 to purchase even good honey at a trifle 

 higher figure. 



I believe a correspondent in the 

 American Bee Journal for Feb., 

 says that dealers and consumers demand 

 glucose in their honey. Dealers may 

 think it quite a fancy thing to raise the 

 price of glucose by its mixture with 

 honey. This would be a financial view 

 of the case. As for consumers demand- 

 ing a mixture of that article is some- 

 thing I have not heard of before. If a 

 consumer thinks glucose improves good 

 honey, why don't they buy the article 

 instead of honey ? It could be bought 

 at a much less price than honey, and if 

 the taste suited, it would be quite a 

 financial success for the consumer. 



A refiner says that glucose is an arti- 

 cle of commerce, but does not say for 

 what purpose it is used, except for mix- 

 ing with other sweets. If there are 

 other purposes for which it is used, I 

 think the board of trade will have to 

 see that no such mixtures are shipped to 

 Europe. If they do, our exporters will 

 be rubbing their hands for the next 10 

 years to find anything more there to 

 do, in such a line of business. The 

 export of good honey to foreign 

 countries would receive a severe blow. 



It was stated in the Scientific Ameri- 

 can for February, that some bee-keep- 

 ers are feeding their bees immense 

 quantities of glucose, and shipping to 

 eastern markets. Perhaps this explains 

 why we read of such immense yields. 

 This being another mode of adultera- 

 tion, our markets for comb honey will 

 be seriously affected. 



One publisher of a bee paper advo- 

 cates feeding grape sugar to bees, and 

 now see its result. Honest production 

 is baffled and it occurs to us that Con- 

 gress should compel dealers to label 

 their mixtures just what they are, and 

 compel producers to label their honey, 

 comb or extracted, just what it is, under 

 severe penalties. 



Consumers have a moral right to 

 know what they are buying for them- 

 selves and their wives and children to 

 eat. I believe they not only have a 

 moral right, but a legal right to know 



