March 1. 1906 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



193 



bee-keepers put unripened honey upon the market, and il is 



done untold damage. If a man puts out a g 1 <|iial 



well-ripened honey, he can make more money out of ex- 

 tracted honey than out of comb honey. 



Dr. Bohrer — Mr. Ferris, do the people of your part of 

 the country ever question the extracted article' 



Mr. Ferris — People said I was feeding extracted honey, 

 glucose and sugar. I made no reply whatever to the charge, 

 but told the people I did feed my bees sugar, a half ton 

 and my honey has sold higher this year than ever before. The 

 people found my honey was good. They did not care whether 

 it was adulterated or not, but I put it out under special seal, 

 and they know, under the laws of Wisconsin, that no honey 

 could be put out under the labels such as 1 use without us 

 being pure. 



Dr. Bohrer — I would understand, then, that what you fed 

 them was the article that you put on the market? 



Mr. Ferris — No; according to the statements made, the 

 people thought I did put it on the market. That was not the 

 case. I fed to winter my bees. I feed entirely sugar. I use 

 no honey whatever in wintering my bees. But it had the same 

 effect on the people, as though it had been adulterated. Yet, 

 on the other hand, honey never sold better with me than it 

 did this year. In fact, I could have sold four crops if I had 

 had them, and would have had it all sold by this time. 



J. E. Johnson — Speaking from my own experience, if I 

 had my way, it would be extracted honey. I suppose if most 

 bee-keepers had their way, it would be the same thing, but 

 we have to do the way people demand that buy the honey. 

 The people want something nice, and just as long as they 

 want something nice, we have to furnish something nice. I 

 have no doubt but there will always be a good future for both 

 comb and extracted honey. 



Wm. M. Whitney — May I ask wdiat the question is? 

 Mr. York read the question, when Mr. Whitney re- 

 sponded, "I don't know." 



Thos. Chantry — I would just like to say I agree with 

 Mr. Johnson. If we want people to eat honey, we must give 

 them wdiat they want. If I had both to sell, I would sell two 

 carloads of extracted honey to one of comb. Nevertheless, 

 those who wanted comb honey would not buy the extracted. 



Mr. Whitney — To whom would you sell the extracted 

 honey — to the ordinary consumer, or to some jobber? 



Mr. Chantry — I am speaking of retailing to consumers 

 entirely, both comb and extracted honey. 



Mr. Fletcher — My experience is that the comb honey has 

 the most brilliant future before it. for two reasons: First, 

 people of intelligence are ascertaining that it cannot be 

 adulterated. They are coming to that conclusion ; there has 

 been so much light thrown upon that subject. In the second 

 place, they are satisfied that extracted honey can be adulterated. 

 As to feeding sugar to bees, that would be unprofitable. 



Mr. Moore — I have been doing some very heavy thinking 

 here. You see. I have been selling honey to families for about 

 20 years, and, naturally, have some opinions. The hard job 

 is to convince the public of these things you have been speak- 

 ing about. My opinion is, there is only one way to do it, and 

 that is by personal acquaintance. People buy of me because 

 they like me. The illustration is, you have got to convince 

 people by your personality, that you are dealing fairly with 

 them, and that is the only way there is any future to this 

 family trade. Of course, when you are selling to the whole- 

 sale dealer by carloads, you have another purpose altogether. 

 I do believe that the solution of the honey question for the 

 average bee-keeper in our land is in supplying evet 

 within 5 or 10 miles of his home. Get a personal acquaintance 

 with them. After a while they will learn that your honey is 

 good, and will demand it. 



Or. Bohrer — What effect would a national pure food law 

 have upon this subject of adulteration of honey? Would not 

 a national pure food law convince the people, if it were rigidly 

 enforced ? Would not that go to quite an extent towards 

 convincing the people that there was no such thing as glucose 

 or sugar and wax sold to the public for honey? I think that 

 is one of the things we must have. 



Mr. Moore — It seems to me that the only effect these pure 

 food laws have is advertising. They do not convince anybody 

 of anything, but make people more particular to inquire if 

 your honey is pure. I do not believe there is any other 

 effect. The more advertising there is, the more particular 

 people are; but as to their faith in the purity of the article, it 

 is less than before, because there is so much said about it. 

 It increases their faith in the individual, perhaps. 



Mr. McCain — I am not an authority on bee-keeping, but 

 I have listened to this discussion, and I have tried to think 

 what I would gather from it if I did not know anything about 

 a bee-hive. Men have admitted here that they feed i 



sugar. What impression rs thai likely to make on a man's 

 mind? He is inclined to think sugar is fed for perceptible 

 purposes. Oh, yes! I told you sol The conclusion I come 

 to is this: We cannot expect the public to believe that hi 

 in the comb is absolutely an unadulterated article until we 

 can make them understand how the section is made in the 

 hive, and something of the character of the work done by the 

 bees. It is a matter of education. If I tell a man I fed my 

 bees 500 pounds of sugar, he does not know where that sugar 

 goes. He does not know anything about it at all. The im- 

 pression would be made in his mind that it goes into the hive, 

 and that I take it out in the comb form and sell it. 



Mr. Ferris— One point I want to speak about that has 

 caused the most trouble, and that is, the bee-keepers them- 

 selves are putting on the market an inferior article. When 

 I made the statement that I feed tons of sugar— which I do— it 

 was to impress the fact that though I do feed tons of sugar, 

 when people get hold of a good batch of honey, it settles the 

 question with them. That is why I wanted to impress upon 

 the bee-keepers to stop putting unripe honey on the market. 

 I hat is doing more against the bee-keepers' interests than 

 anything else I know. When people get bad honey— extracted 

 too green— they do not forget it, and it takes a good while to 

 get them to be willing to try again. Honey that has no 

 flavor is not well ripened, or has been injured bv storing in a 

 cellar, if put upon the market always works an injury to the 

 bee-keeper's interests. If people would work to that end- 

 putting a good article on the market— it would cover the 

 question. While my feeding tons of sugar may have had 

 some effect on the people in one way, in another way the 

 superior article I have put out has more than counterbalanced 

 that, so that the output has more than doubled. 



Mr. Whitney— On this matter of feeding bees for winter 

 stores, I have come to the conclusion that I would sooner pay 

 7 cents a pound for extracted honey than 5 cents a pound for 

 granulated sugar. I have had a little experience that has 

 satisfied me that honey is really cheaper at that price than 

 granulated sugar at 5 cents a pound to feed. And if we would 

 stop feeding sugar entirely, and feed a cheaper Iioney that we 

 can buy at wholesale at 7 cents a pound, we can get rid of 

 all this talk about feeding bees sugar to go into the sections. 



Mr. Moore— How about the dissemination of foul brood? 



Mr. Whitne) — Buy from a good, honest man that would 

 not sell foul brood. 



Member— Where would you find such a man ? 



Mr. Whitney — I would not need to go out of this room 

 to find honest men. 



-Mr. Johnson— At Galesburg, 111., we have been pretty 

 careful to look after the market, so that there is no adulterated 

 honey on the market. Years ago a good deal of it was shipped 

 in, before we had a pure food law. This year honey was 

 scarce, and some merchants thought they would bring in some 

 of it. As a result, two grocers were arrested for selling 

 adulterated honey, and fined $25 each. They would not have 

 gotten off as easily as that if they had not pleaded guilty, and 

 said they did not know it was adulterated honey. As I 

 understand it. there is very little adulterated honey sold in 

 this State. These fellows tried it by getting it from" traveling 

 salesmen from another State. 



Mr. Hutchinson— I think it is a good deal like asking 

 which has the most promising future, a man or a woman. I 

 think there is no difference in honey; both comb and extracted 

 have a place and will continue to have a place in the market. 



Mr. Muth— They both ha\e a place. In the cities, there 

 is a big demand for comb honey The demand for the con- 

 sumption of extracted honey is not as large as people have 

 an idea. However, there are other ways in which extracted 

 honey is used. In manufacturing lines the demand is growing 

 larger every year. However, fancy \ : o. 1 comb honey is easily- 

 sold. The more fancy hone} there is on the market, the 

 greater the consumption. When honey does not grade nice, 

 the bee-keepers soon notice a fall in honey. It decreases the 

 consumption of honey, because people buy it thinking it is 

 comb honey, and they do not want any more comb honey. 

 On the other hand, the consumption of extracted honey is 

 very much on the increase. You will notice in the far West 

 and the South they prefer to produce the extracted honey, 

 and a great many people produce carloads and carload- 

 where they do not produce any comb honey at all. It always 

 finds a market. It is just like wheat on the market, it has 

 a price. 



Dr. Bohrer — Is not the lack of uniformity in the weight 

 of the section affecting its sale among the people? For 

 instance, it is called "a pound section," sometimes weighing 

 12, 14, 15, but seldom over 16 ounces. If I am buying a 

 majority of sections that don't weigh a pound. I want to buy 



