THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



139 



about. As you say the honey ought to 

 be graded honestly, and " there ought to 

 be three grades; fancy, No. i, and culls. 

 Now let us suppose that the honey is 

 graded, and we are crating the fanc}-. 

 We take enough sections to fill a case. 

 Now I, at least you, "believe it is per- 

 fectly right, legitimate and honest, to 

 select from that case of sections, those 

 that are the best, and put them next the 

 glass — yes, and turn the best side out at 

 that. But to face No. i or culls, with 

 fancy is wrong." How can there be any 

 deception about' the twelve sections in 

 that case? They've all been inspected 

 and come within the requirements of the 

 grade. They're all fancy, the purchaser 

 of the case expects fancy and he gets 

 fancy; what can be wrong about it ? Let's 

 follow that case till it reaches the con- 

 sumer, the editor of a country weekh- 

 who has got hold of a honey leaflet and 

 thinks it would ])e nice to have a whole 

 case of such fine honey for his five grow- 

 ing hopefuls. The grocer told him he 

 could rely on that case as straight goods, 

 being put up by a thoroughly honest bee- 

 keeper. When he takes it home and 

 opens it, he finds that the nine sections 

 he didn't see are not as good as the three 

 he saw, and he feels he has been cheated. 

 Now I'll leave you to settle with him, 

 and explain matters so he'll know that's 

 exactly the right thing for an honest bee- 

 keeper to do, and if you please I'll crate 

 the rest of that fancy hone\\ There are 

 fifty cases of it, half of which you 

 have bought, and the other half goes 

 to another man. As I sit crating it, mem- 

 ories of the past come before me; and as I 

 think that I still have the watch I had 

 when I slept with you, a kindly feeling 

 conies over me and I want to make sure 

 that you are not wronged in the crating. 

 So I keep two cases always before me, put- 

 ting into one the best and into the other 

 the poorest. You get all the best and he 

 gets all the poorest. Do you suppose he'll 

 make any complaint when he sees his hon- 

 ey and sees what you got? I'll leave you 

 to explain to him that he was to get fancy 



honey and he's got fancy honey, so has 

 no cause for complaint. 



You believe in three grades. Some 

 have more than you, some less. Here's a 

 man who has only two grades. No. i and 

 culls, his No. I containing your No. i and 

 fancy. In each case he puts the best 

 next the glass. That must be all right, 

 for the whole case is No. i. But it 

 wouldn't be right iox you to sell a case of 

 honey like that, for parj; of it would be 

 No. I, and the facing fancy, according to 

 your grading. Now I'll leave you to set- 

 tle with the consumer just how it's right 

 for the other man to sell that honey and 

 wrong for you. 



I'm with you in putting the best side 

 of the section next the glass. That's like 

 I)utting a coat right side out, the consum- 

 er will put only one side up on the ta- 

 ble, and that's the side he cares for. But 

 just as it looks to me now, putting the 

 best section next the glass promises too 

 many chances for dissatisfaction. If the 

 public has reached that point where it al- 

 ways expects to be deceived, I believe in 

 deceiving it by giving it a case of honey 

 in which it shall see next the gla.ss a fair 

 average of the contents of the case. Now 

 how does it look to you ? 



M.\RENGO, 111. Feb. 25, 189S. 



[My dear doctor, I suppose that, accord- 

 ing to the rules of logic and debate, you 

 have beaten yourself . When you admit 

 that it is permissible to turn the best side 

 of a section out, you practically admit 

 that it is admissible to put the less perfect 

 sections in the center. The same line of 

 reasoning that would allow a man to turn 

 up])ermost the hand.somer side of a section 

 when placing it upon the table, would 

 allow him to keep the handsomer sections 

 for company and eat the others when 

 there was no one present except ' ' his own 

 folks." Then, again, in the lowergrades 

 of honey, it is often the case that many 

 .sections will be found in which one side 

 of each section will be nicely sealed, 

 while the opposite side is not more than 

 half capped over. With such sections 

 as these it would be an easy matter to put 



