292 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



the price of Southern honey? A druggist here told 

 me a short time since that the smell of a whisky- 

 barrel would taint honey, and I am fully prepared 

 to accept it as truth. My average price for honey 

 the past year, above freight, etc., was 4'4 cts. per 

 pound; ll'i barrels were white clover, and 9'4 dark. 

 That seems to me a very poor price for honey. 

 My reason for it is, that the whisky-barrels ruined 

 the quality of the honey. If this is true, it will be 

 in keeping with the fact that whisky ruins the 

 quality of about every thing it comes in contact 

 with, especially the human kind. I am done ship- 

 ping white-clover honey in stinking whisky-barrels, 

 which cost 75 cents, while T can get brand-new cy- 

 press molasses-barrels for $1.10, or second-hand 

 molasses-barrels in good order, free on board, for 7.5 

 cents. I have no doubt that much of the honey 

 that helps to injure the market is caused by such 

 doings as mine last year— shipping fine honey in 

 stinking barrels that are fit for nothing but fire- 

 wood. . I venture to say, that a whisky-barrel will 

 taint honey enough to depreciate its value at least 

 one cent per pound; and if so, that would be a mon- 

 ey loss of about $5.00 a barrel. If this be so, is not 

 a whisky-barrel, which seems cheap at 75 cents, 

 but which causes a loss of over $+.00 a barrel, be- 

 sides causing slow sales, the very costliest barrel 

 possible to find? I have just laid in ten cypress 

 (second-hand) molasses-barrels re-coopered, in fine 

 order, for 75 cents apiece, and I shall henceforth 

 have no further use for whisky-barrels for honey. 



This matter cost me a great deal this past season 

 to learn about, and I wish you would give your 

 ideas concerning packing honey in hard-wood sec- 

 ond-hand whisky-barrels. This whole Mississippi- 

 River country is a great honey country and saloon 

 country, and whisky-barrels are used because pre- 

 sumably cheap. Please help to put that kind of 

 package under condemnation. C. M. Higgins. 



Hahnville, La., Mar. 4, 1886. 



Many thanks, friend II., for your very 

 valuable, practical article. Some years ago 

 we put up some honey in whisky-barrels ; 

 and although they were not waxed we never 

 had any complaint on that score, that I 

 know of. Now, are you not afraid that yoit 

 will have your honey tainted more or less 

 by barrels of any kind ? I should be very 

 much afraid of the second-hand molasses- 

 barrels you speak of, unless they are very 

 thoroughly washed, and then waxed; and I 

 luxve a sort of notion that wood may taint 

 honey, even in spite of waxing; that is, I 

 have been better pleased with the flavor 

 of white-clover honey that was run right in- 

 to iron-jacket cans, tin sap-pails, or tin stor- 

 age caiis, than when put into any kind of 

 wooden receptacle. The package illustrated 

 on page 274 of last issue, it seems to me, is 

 going to be pretty nearly what is wanted, 

 when we settle down to a regular package 

 for honey. — In regard to the flavor of white- 

 clover lioney that comes from the South, I 

 confess I have never seen any samples of 

 Southern honey that didn't have a peculiar 

 flavor, a little different from the white- 

 clover honey of. say, Ohio, York State, 

 Michigan, and Wisconsin. I have some- 

 times thought there might be some particu- 

 lar honey-bearing plant in the South that 

 blooms about the time of white-clover, and 

 that it was so prevalent that the honey par- 



took of the flavor, more or less. I believe 

 friend Muth considers, as a rule. Southern 

 honey not quite as desirable as that from 

 the North ; that is, there are more people 

 who prefer the peculiar flavor of the honey 

 from the Northern States than any other 

 kind that has been put on the market. Even 

 the finest specimens of basswood honey now 

 begin to be quoted at one cent lower than 

 clover. 



HEDDON'S INVENTION. 



SOME CORRECTIONS. 



tRO. ROOT:— I accept your offer of a "wee" 

 space to correct the false impression made 

 by the use of several columns and cuts illus- 

 trating my invention. I inclose you a copy 

 of Mr. Kretchmer's patent, cited in his arti- 

 cle on p. 211. Now, you see that Mr. K. is deceiving 

 your readers, for there is not one feature in the con- 

 struction or purpose of his old hive that anticipates 

 any feature or function of mine — ?iot one. The 

 brood -chamber is not in two divisible parts; it can 

 not be divided, alternated, nor inverted; neither can 

 the surplus- apartment be inverted. The purpose 

 of his invention, as set forth in his four declarations, 

 is entirely foreign to mine. Why do our brothers 

 wish to wrong me in this way ? I call your atten- 

 tion to the fact, that, in the last issue of the A. B. 

 J., page 200, Dr. Tinker concedes the hive he de- 

 scribed in your paper, pages 203, '4, '5, as coming 

 under my invention. James Heddon. 



Dowagiac, Mich. 



We notice, in comparing friend Kretch- 

 mer's article on page 211 with his patent- 

 claim, the last clause is not to be found 

 anywhere in said claim. We have written 

 to him for an explanation. 



KIND "WORDS FROM PROF. COOK ; HED- 

 DON'S NEW HIVE, ETC. 



"RENDER UNTO C^SAR THE THINGS THAT ARE 

 CESAR'S." 



If\ EAR MR. EDITOR:— I need not tell you how 

 nl highly I appreciate Gl eanings, and of the 

 >i pleasure which it has ever given me to note 

 ^ the progress which you have made in build- 

 ing up a journal which has taken fast hold of 

 the affections of our bee-keeping public. Glean- 

 ings deserves to be what it is -a tremendous force 

 in the country. It has reached out in everyway 

 that it could to promote the welfare of its patrons, 

 and has certainly greatly aided its readers in the 

 hard mattei-s of busy, practical, every-day life, and, 

 better still, helped them on to nobler, better lives. 

 Hence you will not wonder that I am grieved when 

 I see it taking what looks to me to be a backward 

 step, aiding wrong, and abetting that spirit— too rife 

 among us— of dishonesty where it is safe. It seems 

 to me that stealing melons is no less a sin because 

 community will condone it. Genuine honesty will 

 not cheat in a horse-trade because it is reputed 

 common. 



Now, my friend, we have all known you too long 

 to even dream that you are intentionally doing 

 wrong or injustice; so if, as I fear, you are in this 

 one case aiding injustice and helping to make men 

 less fscrupulous of others' rights, you would, when 



