1891 



GLEANJJ^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



23 



say now again, grade, assort, inspect, and 

 sample at o»re.rpeji.sT. sufficiently to give every 

 buyer as nearly what he buys and pays for as 

 human diligence can provide. 



In I'egard to extracted honey. 1 am free to say 

 that 1 believe no one of our shippers attempted 

 any fraud oi- sharp practice on anybody. Every 

 thing was left to the insi)ector to grade accord- 

 ing to his best judgment. One customer says 

 our inspector must have " an elastic conscience." 

 In defense of W. L. Osborn, 1 want to say that 

 those who best know him will, to a man, re- 

 sent this charge. I believe there is not a more 

 honestor conscientious man in Maricopa County. 

 He desires to do the square thing every time. 



Furthermore, we do not claim that the in- 

 spection was faultless. We admit its defects. 

 It is quite impossible to examine 500 cans of 

 honey fi'om 20difFereiit shippers, and pass upon 

 its merits as to color and flavor, critically; load 

 and invoice it in one day. the inspection to be 

 made by one man. Yet this is what we at- 

 tempted to do. Of course, there was force enough 

 at hand to do the nailing. Iiandling. and mark- 

 ing: but the rub comes in on the tdstUuj. to de- 

 termine flavor. 1 know of no way of determin- 

 ing flavor except by tasting. By the time a man 

 has tasted honey two or three hours his tongue 

 becomes so demoralized that all samples taste 

 alike. 



It is not necessary to go into details further as 

 to what might happen and possibly did happen 

 between the carelessness of the shipper on the 

 one hand and the exacting demands made upon 

 the inspector on the other. Suffice it to say, 

 that every can went from liere with the inspect- 

 or's certificate pasted upon it, which was su])- 

 posed to show what kind and grade of honey it 

 contained. Most of it went as first-class, some 

 second, some third. 



Now let us come to the real gist of this honey 

 trouble. We desire to know whether Bro. 

 Shelton really got that bad honey that he com- 

 plains of out of the first carload from Arizona. 

 If he ordered honey by sample, why did he not 

 get that which was as good as the sample? 

 Furthermore, we want to know whose honey 

 Mr. Shelton got, if it came out of our carload. 

 We want to know \\hose honey it was that 

 created advei'se criticism from oihey customers, 

 if any. This thing should be fathomed to the 

 bottom. If you kept track on your shipping- 

 book, of the marks on the cases as they were 

 sent out. you can. by comparing with the; in- 

 voice sent from here, determine the name of the 

 owner. We have a copy here which can be used 

 in an emergency. . Follow it up and report. 

 We desire it for two reasons. On(> is. to do 

 equity in case any one has been wronged to the 

 advantage of the shipper: secondly, to teach a 

 lesson to him who has erred, for the benefit of 

 his future work as a bee-keeper. 



And now as to the future. Our bee-keepers' 

 association has come to stay. We can not af- 

 ford to do without it. Owing to our situation 

 we are com])elled to market oiu' surplus product 

 in carload lots. Not many of us are large 

 enough producers to load a car alone: but by 

 combining we can ship out of this valley sever- 

 al carloads diu'ing the season. If there are de- 

 fects and objections in our i)lan. we i)i'opose to 

 go to work to overcome them so far as human 

 ingenuity can avail. In one letter some time 

 ago you said we could succeed best to market 

 our goods tlirough commission houses in large 

 cities, where the buyers could inspect person- 

 ally the goods they bought. While there may 

 be some force in this point, 1 will say that we 

 desire to encourage and foster that kind of 

 trade made by samples. We believe it can be 

 done to the satisfaction of both buye^- and sell- 

 er, in most cases. At our bee-keepers" meeting 



on Satui'day I said that our association had 

 now reached a critical point in its history. We 

 commenced shipping late this year, under some- 

 wliat difticult conditions. We did the best we 

 could, learned some lessons, struck some siuigs. 

 and are now getting the ebb from the first tide 

 of success. 1 made the point, that it would 

 prove to be wise to commence now and lay 

 plans for our work for the year 1891. The sub- 

 ject was referred to our boai'd of five directors, 

 to be assisted by an advisory committee of three 

 from stockholders. The committe(> will get to 

 work soon and do their level best to lay plans 

 for the benefit of our members, and for the con- 

 sumers of Arizona honey everywhere. 1 can 

 not suggest all that will be done, but will indi- 

 cate something which I believe* will be as fol- 

 lows: Require the universal use of new cans, 

 each can to have upon it the name of the ship- 

 per or producer: also the Inspector's certificate, 

 stating kind and grade: similar marking as to 

 kind of honey on the outside of the case: sten- 

 cils to be used for marking cases and crates: 

 comb honey to be marked with pi'oducer's 

 name, and probably graded as to color, etc. 

 Neatness of package, care in straining honey, 

 accuracy of weight of extracted honey, nota- 

 tion on crates of gross, tare, and net weight of 

 comb honey will be insisted on; also some plan 

 for promoting more thorough inspection. 



Any suggestions from A. I. Root will be glad- 

 ly received. J. H. Bkoomelu Coh. Sec. 



Phtenix. Arizona, Dec, 18TO. 



[Many thanks, dear friends, for your fair, 

 kind, and frank letters. There certainly can 

 be no trouble in adjusting every thing pleas- 

 antly where a disposition of this kind is shown. 

 We did have the name of the producer on the 

 label of those cans; but perhaps we have had 

 publicity enough so that all may see the lesson 

 that it so plainly teaches. Light-colored hon- 

 ey is almost always pleasant-flavored honey, 

 unless there is something so extraordinary as to 

 give it a bad taste; and I fear these rusty sec- 

 ond-hand oil-cans may have something to do 

 with it. The trouble is, somebody will let a can 

 go that has not been perfectly freed from the 

 taint of oil. Tliere is a difficulty, as we have 

 'found here, in tasting such a large number of 

 samples of honey: but I do not believe it is nec- 

 essary to taste it nil. If poured into a little 

 vial, or even into a saucer, the color and trans- 

 parency will show pretty plainly the quality: 

 and if the honey is nearly all good, when a 

 sample of bad taste shall present itself it will 

 be readily thrown out. The white-sage honey 

 from Califoi'uia is so perfectly alike all through 

 that there is no need of tasting or sampling. 

 You may take any can you choose, and it is ex- 

 actly like the rest of the carload. This is cer- 

 tainly a great advantage when such a state of 

 affairs can be secured, and I do not know why 

 alfalfa honey should not run as i-egular — that 

 is. if a locality can be found ^^ilere nothing 

 else is mixed with it. 



Hei'e is something further in regard to the 

 matter:] 



IS AI,FAI,FA HONEY EVER DAKK. 



Friend Root: — I notice that F. A. Salisbury, 

 page 89.5. speaks of having received some of 

 that dark extracted alfdlfa honey, and you 

 speak of it in your foot-notes in the same way. 

 Now. I wish to say that there is no dark ex- 

 tracted alfalfa honey. While it is possible for 

 it to become dark in appearance while in the 

 comb, if left on the hive too long, when extract- 

 ed, if gathered from alfalfa.it is bound to be 

 white. You might just as well say, '"dark 

 white-clover honey." AVe who are producing 

 alfalfa honey want to get it so understood, that. 



