(118 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



from candying', then I know that lie docs not know 

 what he is talking: about. I don't believe there is a 

 possibility of keeping- your linden honey from can- 

 dying-, and dozens of other kinds are just as liable 

 to cand3'. Now, my experience has simply taught 

 nic that, if I go afid buy one kind ot honey it will 

 candy quickly; and if 1 buy anothci- kind it will re- 

 main much longer in the liquid state; but as for 

 preventing the granulation in the winter season, I 

 am as ignorant as the day I was born. I have also 

 learned that honey placed in a glass, with a small 

 piece of candied honey put in it will granulate in 

 the month of July, the candied portion Avorking like 

 leaven, until the whole glass'is in the same condi- 

 tion. 



Some one in Gleanings lately made the state- 

 ment, that when honey granulated shows grains, it 

 is an evidence of purity ; and that when it is 

 smooth it is an evidence of adulteration. Now, I 

 think he is mistaken. I go to a commission house to 

 buy California extracted^ I open one can, and find 

 it is gi-ained nicely— that is all I want to see. I don't 

 need to taste it— it will suit me. T o])en another can 

 in the same lot in the original package, and I have 

 no doubt of its purity. I find it is candied, but 

 smooth; a little darker than lard, but otherwise ex- 

 actly like it in the smoothness of its appearance. I 

 don't want it; the flavor is not gooil; yet I have no 

 doubt of the purity of the honey. You beekeepers 

 laugh at people's ignorance when they say they 

 don't want candied honey; but that does not help 

 the matter. You and I have not a sulHcient lease 

 of life to hope to see the day when the masses in 

 our cities will be educated to buy honey in the c;in- 

 died state; and it is the masses in our manufactur- 

 ing' cities who must be depended on to use up the 

 great yields of honey which seem to be increasing 

 every year. What is the remedy then'/ I think it 

 is the wisest course to recognize the existing preju- 

 dice ag-ainst candied honey, and do the best you can 

 to give them the honey in a shai)e that they will 

 buy. It seems to me that it would be quite within 

 the province of the bee-journal to experiment, and 

 learn the kinds of honey that will remain the long- 

 est in a liquid condition; and the intelligent apiarist 

 would then know that it would be to his advantage 

 to market that which candies quickly in the comb, 

 for we all know that honey, being slightly candied 

 in the comb, will not interfere with its sale. It 

 seems to me that, if no extracted honey were sold 

 that was inferior in quality, o5 that would canHy 

 quickly, it would help the sale of honey wonderfully. 



There; is an evil.in the business which I wish to 

 speak of , and then I am done. It is the putting of 

 two thick pieces of glass and a stout frame, all to 

 hold one little piece of comb honey in its place. 

 When I see a man give value lor mo)iey, and at the 

 same time jirosper, F bid him (Jodspeed; but when 

 a man owes his pi-osperity to his sharpness in being 

 able to induce customers to buy two big pieces of 

 glass, with the little piece of honey and all to be 

 weighed as honey, I feel like asking him if he is 

 running his apiary in full accord with the golden 

 rule. M. H. Tweed. 



Allegheny, Pa., July 5, 1886. 



Friend T., I have read your article care- 

 fully all the way through, to see if you 

 touched on the plan laid down in the A B C 

 book, of sealing up the honey while hot, to 

 prevent candying. I have never had proof 

 that this will not keep it perfectly limpid. 



providing the honey is sealed up exactly as 

 we seal up fruit. Of course, it must not be 

 heated to the boiling-point, as this will in- 

 jure the honey. You speak of putting the 

 lioney in half-pint glasses, but you don't 

 say whether they were hermetically sealed, 

 and sealed up while hot. I am very well 

 aware that tliere is a great difference in 

 honey of different kinds. Some will never 

 candy, and I gave up trying to make them 

 candy. Ilorsemint honey, I believe, has 

 never candied with us ; and the pure white- 

 sage honey of California — at least some 

 specimens of it— we have kept year after 

 year, winter and summer, without candy- 

 ing. — Now, I want to protest a little against 

 what you say in your concluding paragraph. 

 Putting up honey in the way you mention, 

 and asking the same prices for it that you 

 do for honey without tlie glass, might not 

 be exactly the thing ; still, if the purchaser 

 wanted it in that way, I do not see why it 

 would not be all right. Friend Doolittle 

 has for years put his honey in glassed sec- 

 tions, and he lias a class of customers who 

 will not touch it in any other shape. 

 Whether he still puts it up in this way or 

 not, we can not say. We have had quite a 

 quantity of this kind of honey ; and when 

 we lirst put it on our wagon, a good many 

 took right hold of it^ because itJ,'could be 

 seen and handled without any danger of 

 daubing. We sell it, glass and all, however, 

 for 12 cts. per lb., while our nicest honey 

 in light Simplicity sections brings 18 cts. 

 per lb. When glassed comb honey^brought 

 from LT) to ;j() cts., there was a chance to 

 make money in selling it glass and all; but 

 when it brings only 12 cts., I am not sure 

 that the bee-keeper would come out very 

 much ahead, after paying for his glass. 



^~ 



OUR BEES AND NEIGHBORS. 



WHAT CAN WE DO TO PRESERVE PEACEFUL RE- 

 LATIONS BETWEEN THE TWO? 



flUEND KOOT:— Please read the inclosed, and 

 then consider the following: I should like it, 

 or something better, printed in a neat, tasty 

 form for (jratuitims distrilmtvm among my 

 neighbors. I should want only 300 or 400, but 

 if you were to get up something to enlighten and 

 mollify one's neighbors, I think you could sell 

 them by the thousand, thus enabling you to print 

 them cheaply. They might include some plain 

 facts about bees, and a picture of the queen, 

 worker, and drone. The people who are not bee- 

 keepers are very ignorant, as a rule, about bees. 

 Something about honey, and how to keep it, might 

 be added. In short, if you think well of the plan, 

 you can add or omit any thing you wish. I only 

 send this as a sample of ahout what I want. 



Now that Ithitik of it, an item specially directed 

 to storekeepers or grocers would be in place. They 

 often complain. They leave sugar and molasses 

 open to flies and dirt; and when the bees come 

 around there is trouble. Town authorities some- 

 times know so little that they prohibit the bees. 

 If you take kindly toward this, and. will get up a 

 neat, showy tract, or even one page, and send out 

 a sample with Gleanings, I think you will have 

 plenty of order.s. One c.in't go around and tell 



