April 25, 1907 



American ^ae Journal 



this and the other saying — that nurses 

 would be worried less carryinjf un- 

 called for larval food — there need be no 

 clash. 



But we decidedly need to remember 

 that what proves the practise does not 

 necessarily prove the theory. Practise 

 may succeed from some other cause 

 not discovered. The practise is taking 

 away the lower half of a sectional 

 brood-chamber just at the proper time. 

 Taking away half the frames of an or- 

 dinary brood-chamber obviously might 

 not do so well. Perhaps even that 

 would be worth trying by those of us 

 who have no sectional hives. Page 197. 



HoNBY AND Sugar for Consumptives. 



Remarkable if consumptive patients 

 can take with profit 17'i: ounces of 

 sugar per day. As suggested, it's worth 

 trying if with honey they could not 

 take still more, or rather, more of them 

 take the large amounts. My additional 

 suggestion is that half sugar and half 

 honey may prove better than wholly of 

 either. Try just a little of some 

 strongly nitrogenous food, some milk, 

 and all the rest sugar and honey. 

 Should sugar and honey become the 

 standard treatment for consumptives 

 it would make quite a difference in the 

 honey market. The advertisement and 

 fame which honey would get would 



count more than what the patients 

 would consume. I'm pretty well quali- 

 fied at this point to be an experimen- 

 ter myself. Have had for some 60 

 years a sort of chronic bronchitis — 

 mild, only manifest by a little abnor- 

 mal " ahemming," but always there. 

 Liable to change to the worse disease 

 some time, one might fear. And also 

 for years I have dosed myself heavily 

 with sweets. Have rung the changes 

 pretty thoroughly on honey, dates, 

 raisins, candy, and sugar. Simple 

 granulated sugar seemed to argue 

 itself into victory in the long run. But 

 just now I'm back on honey again — 

 mainly because the sugar I happen to 

 have does not please me as to flavor 

 and smell. There's a sort of " six o' 

 one, half a dozen o' tother " in the 

 shortcomings of honey and sugar, 

 medically considered. The naughty 

 sugar-men put in things invalids 

 would better net eat, to color and con- 

 dition their product. The naughty 

 bees mix in aphis secretions. Also the 

 naughty foundation-man puts in soap 

 in tastable quantities — doubtless a seri- 

 ous bar to the eating of large quanti- 

 ties when the appetite is skittish, as 

 invalid appetites are pretty sure to be. 

 'Pears like I could easily tell what 

 would be the best curative sweet for 

 invalid use — or, at least, for my use ; 

 but I will forbear to say. The dyna- 

 mite might go off. Page 20S. 



Dur 



'Bee -Keeping 



Conducted by Emma M. Wilson, Marengo, 111 



Shipping Extracted Honey 



I shouldn't wonder if many of the 

 sisters were not better equipped than 

 myself to treat us to some interesting 

 chat connected with their actual experi- 

 ence in shipping and selling honey. 

 Formerly we used barrels and sold to 

 commission houses. The excessive 

 weight of a barrel of honey constitutes 

 one of the main objections to their use. 

 When it conies to the loading of a 

 barrel of honey two or more men are 

 in demand, even when the use of skids, 

 levers, etc., is taken into consideration. 

 If not hunting for a blacksmith bill one 

 must ever be on the alert as to the con- 

 dition of every part of the wagon which 

 is being pressed into service. Say you 

 cheerfully pay a blacksmith bill — pos- 

 sibly mostly due to actual carelessness 

 of others than yourself; after a wagon 

 or two have been broken down, the 

 handling of your barreled honey seems 

 to have grown decidedly iinpot>ular 

 among teamsters, they taking no cogni- 

 zance of the prior condition of said 

 dilapidated wagons. 



It is barely possible the back-breaking 



lifting has more to do with their dis- 

 inclination to take hold, than wagon- 

 breakage. Self-respect is a most meri- 

 torious attribute, but when it begins to 

 meddle with a man or woman in the way 

 of turning an honest penny to enable 

 them to maintain an existence, it seems, 

 in these days, not particularly in need 

 of encouragement. 



In the days of the barrel we were 

 frequently forceil to resort to the sec- 

 ond-hand ones, and oh, the cleaning of 

 them! There was much scraping, scour- 

 ing, rinsing, and finally draining, to 

 clear them of excessive moisture; then 

 they must not get too dry for fear of 

 shrinkage; and just about the time they 

 were filled, pop I would go a hoop, and 

 the chances were extremely good for 

 having to change to another — a shame- 

 ful waste of honey and time. Did the 

 barrel stand the test until on the road, 

 we saw it depart with a certain degree 

 of apprehension as to the slipping and 

 bursting of hoops because of inferior 

 cooperage or second-hand material. 

 .\fter exercising every known caution 

 to secure safe transportation we con- 

 sidered it good hid; if permitted to con- 



gratulate ourselves on the safe arrival 

 thereof. 



Of course we have some trouble with 

 any kind of honey put up in any form, 

 unless we except that which is carried 

 on a straw-bedded spring-wagon to a 

 near destination, and handled alone by 

 the producer. 



The dread of handling was not alone 

 responsible for my conversion to the 

 use of 6o-pound cans. Honey in barrel! 

 must be sold in a more wholesale way 

 than if in smaller packages, and it us- 

 ually landed in a commission house or 

 wholesale bakery establishment. One 

 commission firm held my honey, or 

 money, almost a year, leading me to 

 think that they would eventually get a 

 better price, and when the returns final- 

 ly came in, tlic selling price was the 

 same as could have been obtained on 

 its arrival — the wonder was that it was 

 not less. Other firms, to whom I sold 

 by sample, for a stated price, claimed, 

 after the honey was in their possession, 

 that it was not as good as the sample 

 and proposed to let the deal drop, un- 

 less I zvould take a reduced price. 



Again, in my rambles around a cer- 

 tain city, I stumbled on some honey be- 

 ing offered for sale and represented as 

 coming from my yards, which in no way 

 resembled my honey, and I postively 

 failed to recognize it as anything I had 

 ever handled. No comb honey from my 

 yards had been placed on that market 

 that season, yet here were nice glass 

 cans filled with a clear liquid in which 

 floated a nice, tempting piece of comb 

 honey, all purporting to have been of 

 my production! Had I not been sat- 

 isfied that it was a glucose mixture, pos- 

 ing for e.xtracted honey, it would have 

 been a fine advertisement, but, as it 

 was, I saw that if I sustained the repu- 

 tation of my honey, I was compelled 

 to get as close to the consumer as pos- 

 sible. Thus ended my barrel experi- 

 ence, and of all the packages since tried 

 the 6o-pound can comes nearer filling 

 the bill than any other. 



Gallon and half-gallon buckets are nice 

 for a home retail trade, but let them 

 be of the friction-top variety else there's 

 trouble ahead for one. 



Time was when I imagined it econ- 

 omy to use second-hand cans, but this 

 illusion was short-lived, dying in its in- 

 ception. One trip over the roads was 

 all that was probably expected of them, 

 by their makers, and the damage sus- 

 tained by them on their initial trip runs 

 all the way from a slight rupture to al- 

 most complete destruction, they some- 

 times being so battered as to bear very 

 slight semblance to a can. 



The crates are of light material and 

 should be bound by scrap sheet-iron, 

 or tin, at the corners, for most prob- 

 ably they will form the acquaintance of 

 the freight-smasher before they reach 

 the other end of the line, as their for- 

 lorn and battered appearance frequent- 

 ly tells the tale of a head-on collision 

 somewhere en route. Distance does not 

 always count, as we have had honey 

 packages damaged as badly in an 80- 

 mile transit, or perhaps more badly 

 damaged, than in an 800-mile trip. 



Nor are tlie railroad men altogether 

 to blame, the condition of the cans and 

 crates figuring largely in such mishaps. 



