SS2 



GLEA^'l^sGS l.N iiEE Cli/rL'iU:. 



Xov. 



The only way in which it is possible to put 

 a spurious article of comb honey on the 

 market would be V)y feeding the l)ees glixcose 

 or some other substitute for honey ; and 

 there would be a greater proliability of this 

 being done, because coml) honey usually 

 commands a lialf more in price than liquid 

 lioney, were it not for the fact that the bees 

 must consume a very large quantity of hon- 

 ey or other sweets to enable them to secrete 

 a very small quantity of white wax from 

 which the comb is made. This latter fact 

 has been so well proven by the experiments 

 of hundreds of bee-keepers, that the prac- 

 tice of feeding liquid honey, in order to make 

 the bees store comb honey, is now, I believe, 

 universally abandoned. As an illustration : 

 Wlien the honey season closes in tlie fall, 

 most bee-keepers find themselves in the pos- 

 session of more or less sections of nice, mar- 

 ketable comb honey, with cells not quite fin- 

 ished. A large apiarist frequently has a ton 

 or more of such unfinished sections. A little 

 feeding would enable him to finish these out, 

 put tliem on the market, and get his cash, 

 instead of waiting a whole year to have 

 them finished. On this account it would be 

 extremely convenient to feed enough pure 

 honey to get them finished. Well, sometimes 

 this will pay ; but we have all found out that 

 so largea ([uantity of honey must be given 

 to the bees to get just a little put back into 

 these unfinished combs, that even this has 

 been mostly abandoned. 



Our last point is in reply to the newspaper 

 statements that were so widespread a year 

 or two ago, to the effect that our comb 

 honey on the market was made by machin- 

 ery, and that neither comb nor contents ever 

 came from a bee - hive. So widespread 

 was this falsehood, that in our journal of 

 Nov. 1, 1885, page 7;-!8, 1 offered -it^lOOO to any- 

 body who would tell me where such spurious 

 comb honey was made. No one has ever 

 given the information, neither has one 

 ounce of manufactured comb honey ever 

 been forthcoming. It is a mechanical im- 

 possibility, and will, in my opinion, remain 

 so. Tt is "true, bee-keepers use largely what 

 we call "comb foundation;'' that is, sheets 

 of beeswax stamped with the impress of the 

 base of the lioney-comb. The bees use this, 

 draw out the cells, and fill them with honey; 

 but as tliese sheets are always pure beeswax 

 (in fact, a substitute that will answer even tol- 

 <n-ably has never yet been discovered) there 

 is nothing really spurious about it. 1 hard- 

 ly need add, that the above slanderous report 

 in regard to bogus comb honey was very 

 damaging to the bee-keeping industry. It 

 probably obtained wider credence because 

 one Prof. Wylie, some years ago, started it 

 l)y what he termed a " scientific pleasantry."' 



In regard to the artificial eggs, I believe 

 this will be a feat still more difficult to ac- 

 complish than making artilicial honey-comb, 

 especially if these artificial eggs are expected 

 to hatch. Some of the newspapers have jo- 

 cosely declared that such eggs would hatch, 

 but that the chickens did not have any 

 feathers on them, the invention not yet be- 

 ing sufficiently " perfected." etc. 



The adulteration of our food products 

 is indPMl ;i terrilili* w innti'. and T believe the 



bee-men are as much in earnest about it as 

 are the dairy-men ; and if tliere is any thing 

 we can do as a class toward putting these 

 thieves and Idacklegs l)ehind such strong 

 iron bars that they will Juive to be honest. we 

 stand ready to do it ; and thousands of us 

 are willing'to give our voices, our strength, 

 and our money toward helping to punish 

 the guilty. But let us have charity for each 

 other, and be slow about rushing to the con- 

 clusion that everybody is a rogue except— 

 Your humble servant. 



FIBST-CLASS EXTEACTED HONEY. 



CAN IT BK RIPENKLi BY AKTlFlCIAb MEANS SO AS 

 TO EQUAL THAT HirENEl) IN THE HIVES? 



JF it woif uot 11 question of tTcat iiiiportancL-, 

 and one wUb wliicli I have experimented u 

 great deal, 1 wouldn't occupy your valuable 

 space and my own limited time in controvert- 

 ing- what I believe to be one of the lew erro- 

 neous doctrines of our highly respected fi-iend 

 Muth. I refer to his tcaching-s, that first-class ex- 

 tracted honey can be obtained by taking- it from 

 the hive before being- capped, or " ripene<l," and 

 ripening it afterward by atmospheric action. 1 

 am aware that this is one of friend Mnth"s old, old 

 hobbies, but one which cither will not fit all loca- 

 tions, or else he is mistaken in regard to the charac- 

 ter of first-class extracted honey. 



Fifteen years ago I procured two tin tanks, with 

 gates at the bottom, holding 450 and 550 lbs. re- 

 spectively. My honey-house was arranged just 

 right for the atmospheric curing: process; and 

 while the ellect was to greatly improve the raw 

 honey, it did not, and I believe can not, i ipen it to 

 that sweet, oily flavor and consistency found in old 

 comb honey. Endeavoring to carry the same prin- 

 ciple further, I purchased 400 one-gallon stone jars 

 and stored my honey in them, piling them on top 

 of each other with sticks between, to give free 

 circulation of warm dry air over the comparatively 

 broad surface of these small receptacles. This 

 carried the principle to greater perfection, but by 

 no means to equal the extracted honey I am pro- 

 ducing at the present time. My IKSB crop of ex- 

 tracted, alone reaches about ;J0,0C0 lbs., nearly all 

 clover and basswood, as, owing to the drought, our 

 fall flowers yielded but little more than winter sup- 

 plies, and 1 am, as usual, jobbing it out to bee- 

 keepers and consumers in .50 and 100 lb. lots; and I 

 sincerely believe, that, should I begin filling orders 

 with honey ripened o la friend Muth, I would soon 

 hear a buzzing in my ears, and my rapidly growing 

 trade would as rapidly diminish. I believe I have 

 learned the fact, that extracted honey is depreci- 

 ated in price, as compared with comb honey, main- 

 ly because it is rarely found to be its equal in 

 quality. 



I have just been reading friend Blantou's wail, 

 on page 851 ; also your foot-notes, where you ask it 

 extracted honey at 5 cts. per lb. can not successful- 

 ly compete with cane sugar? I should like to 

 answer, by saying that 1 haven't the least idea that 

 it would compete with cane sugar at even 3U cts. 

 per lb. You will remember, that years ago I was 

 abused by some enthusiastic bee-keepers for 

 predicting this state of alfairs, which is confirming- 

 what I then declared: viz., that honey could not 

 be jirndiK-od at n price to over miikc it a success- 



