596 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



I hardly know whose honey to men- 

 tion first, some one miffht feel slighted 

 because I did not mention his display 

 first. I think the way I can get out of 

 the charge of showing partiality in sing- 

 ling out one man over another for first 

 place, is to give the name of the honey 

 oldest in age first mention. And in doing 

 this I will be honoring the ancient honey 

 while at the same time praising that of 

 more recent years, for we have often 

 heard it said, especially by nice young 

 ladies, that age should have precedence 

 before beauty. 



Therefore, the exhibit of J. Archer, of 

 New Jerusalem, Ventura county, must 

 be looked at first. Some of this exhibit 

 did duty at the Columbian Exposition at 

 Chicago last year. So you see that it is 

 somewhat of a veteran exhibit, and the 

 honey is not new by any means. There 

 is the same hive with its store of honey, 

 a la mode apis mellifica. And the honey 

 in the pumpkin shell ! that should not 

 be forgotten, though it is not a very in- 

 teresting sight to behold. I notice that 

 the bees that were enclosed in the case 

 holding this "natural" bee-hive, were 

 as industriously struggling to get out of 

 their place of confinement as was the In- 

 dustrial Army when it was making some 

 of its movements recently under forced 

 difificulties. I pittied these poor black 

 bees, and felt disposed to let them out 

 and enjoy the freedom of the great Hor- 

 ticultural Hall. I feared, though, that 

 the visitors in the place would not thank 

 me for the humane kindness I displayed 

 toward the incarcerated little insects. 



While wondering why these bees were 

 thus pent up, my vision fell upon a scrap 

 of brown paper upon the floor, and I 

 picked the paper up, as there seemed to 

 be some writing upon it. These were 

 the lines that I read, and I felt like say- 

 ing " Amen " to them : 



" How doth the busy bee 

 Improve each shining hour. 



Thumping: its little head 

 Against this glassy bower ?" 



" If 'twere in my power, 



I should set you free. 

 That you might soar about 



The great big Fair to see." 



Mr. Archer's comb honey was for the 

 most part pretty fair, still it was not as 

 nice as it might be for exhibition pur- 

 poses. I think that some of it was bean- 

 honey, though there was nothing to so 

 designate it. I have heard that his 

 bean-honey is something fine. 



Mr. J. F. Mclntyre, of Fillmore, in 

 the same county, has several jars of nice 

 looking honey here, but as it was in 



rather large-sized jars, it did not show 

 off to that advantage that it otherwise 

 should. Mr. A. G. Edmondson, of Ven- 

 tura, has some amber-colored honey that 

 appears well, but it, too, was not in as 

 presentable appearance as it might be. 

 I have no doubt but much of the ex- 

 tracted honey throughout the buildings 

 would have looked one hundred per 

 cent, better if it had been placed in the 

 right sort of exhibition jars. Mr. Ed- 

 mondson has a bee-brush made of the 

 fiber of the well-known California 

 " soap-root " that equals anything of the 

 kind I ever saw. The only fault I no- 

 ticed about it is that it is rather too 

 heavy. Perhaps this is owing to the 

 way it was made, instead of any defect 

 in the fiber. 



The finest lot of honey in this general 

 honey exhibit is that shown by M. H. 

 Mendleson, also of Ventura. It is worthy 

 of remark that all the bee-keepers mak- 

 ing a display in this department are 

 Ventura county apiarists. Mr. M. has 

 honey in the comb and extracted honey 

 in various sized bottles and jars. As he 

 has used a number of exhibition bottles 

 — tall thin bottles such as oil is shown in 

 in an oil-store — his beautiful sage and 

 bean honey shows off admirably. It is 

 almost as clear as water. In truth it is 

 the finest honey I ever saw. The credit 

 of getting this honey in such nice shape 

 is due to Mr. Mendleson and his agent 

 in San Francisco, Mr. Pallias. 



Leaving the honey "section," and not 

 far away in the same gallery, in the 

 Kern county exhibit, I found some honey 

 that appeared white and nice, but it was 

 set up by some one who knew nothing 

 of how such things should be attended 

 to. Some of the sections were set on 

 the wrong edge, consequently some of the 

 honey commenced to ooze through the 

 cappings. The name of this exhibitor 

 was not given — a neglect that I noticed 

 was apparent in nearly all the county 

 exhibits of honey. 



There are several very creditable lots 

 of comb honey in the San Bernardino 

 county exhibit. Those of Mr. J. C. Hall, 

 of Redlands, and Mrs. M. M. Fisher, of 

 Beaumont, were the most notable. The 

 comb was white and clear, and well filled 

 out. 



I was disappointed in not finding con- 

 siderable honey in the Los Angeles sec- 

 tion ; there were some jars of various 

 amber-colored honeys that looked at- 

 tractive. 



The honey from San Diego was mixed 

 up among the jellies in that county's ex- 

 hibit. This was done to give greater 

 artistic effect to the display ; that the 



