lod 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mak. 1. 



with that of the largest honey-merchanls. The 

 fact that it is accepted in the East, and been 

 practically in vogue all these tifteen years, is 

 much in its favor. We feel compelled to ac- 

 knowledge that any system of grading that 

 calls for a large variety of classes will fail of 

 adoption. It must be something simple and 

 [jractical. 



Buckwheat honey is not called an inferior 

 article in the East. As we have before stated, 

 we reiterate again— there are thousands of con- 

 sumers who consider this the only nice honey. 

 Our travels and sojourns in the East among the 

 consumers and bee-keepei's. and our conversa- 

 tions with boarders at hotels, pi'ove this beyond 

 question. It is a mistake to place other dark 

 lioneys along with buckwheat; and any at- 

 tempt to do this will be rejected by bee-keepei;s, 

 honey-mei'chants, and consumers in the East. 



In the West there are several tine grades of 

 honey, such as heart's-ease and fireweed (or 

 epilobium) that have a cream color of capping, 

 but are regarded as first-class honey. All fine 

 honeys of the East are either white or the color 

 of buckwheat; and considering th(>se two dif- 

 ferences in localities, it begins to seem to us 

 now that it would be impossible to adopt one 

 system of grading that would be accepted by 

 the bee-keepers of both East and West, and 

 therefore two systems will be the natural result. 

 There is nothing impracticable in this; for 

 when bee-keepers wish to ?end honey to a dis- 

 tant market, they can say that their honey is 

 gi'aded either by the Eastern or Westei'n sched- 

 ule and the b,uyer can consult either schedule, 

 to see what he Is buying, or about to buy, and 

 be governed accordingly. We know that rail- 

 loads make a distinction as to locality, and 

 they have therefore what they call their Eastern 

 and Western classification in freight, and why 

 not two schedules for honey ? 



As this is to be a sort of symposium on grad- 

 ing we have thought best to reprint the sched- 

 ule of grading recommended by J. A. Green, as 

 it is referred to several times by Di'. IMiller in 

 the article immediately following.] 



EXTRA SELECT. 



LiKlit - colored lioiiey, of good flavor; combs 

 straight, well built out, of even thickness, and near- 

 ly uniform weight, attached to tlie section on all 

 sides; hU cells sealed, with white cappings, and 

 with both comb and sections uusoiled by travel- 

 stain or otherwise. 



" A " GRADE. 



lyight - colored honey, of good flavor; combs 

 straight and well built out, with caiipiiigs wliite. or 

 liut sHglitly unilier-eolored; one face of cacli comb 

 perffct in appearance, fully sealed, e.\i-ept the line 

 of cells toucliiiig the wood. The other side shall lie 

 I)erfect in color and sealing, or nearly so, and sec- 

 tion not badly soiled. 



"C" GRADE. 



Honey of good quality. In this grade shall be 

 placed all irregular c-ombs, or those cimtaining pol- 

 len, and all in which the capping is dark or consid- 

 erably soiled. Sections must be nearly flUed, with 

 few or no unsealed cells. 



"m" grade. 



la this grade shall be placed all lioiiey of inferior 

 quality, all combs containing much pollen, or liadly 

 travel-stained, or otherwise objectionable. Section's 

 must 1)6 at least three-fourths full, with one side 

 well sealed. 



GRADING HONEY. 



DR. MILLEK DISCl'SSKS THE DIFFEKENT Gli.\l)ES. 



When the subject of grading honey came up 

 at Chicago I felt we had struck a topic of live 

 interest; and although the system there adopt- 

 ed did not seem to me one likely to go into gen- 

 eral use, still it was a start: and. a start once 



made, the matter was not likely to rest until it 

 grew into what was good and practicable, if 

 such a conclusion is possible; for it can not well 

 be denied that there are real difficulties to over- 

 come on account of the great diversity in honey 

 in difterenl parts of the country; In proof of 

 the difficulty of arriving at any system that 

 shall be satisfactory to all. it is only necessary 

 to recall the action at Chicago: and. indeed, I 

 think, from the report, that much the same 

 thing was repeated at Albany. At Chicago an 

 intelligent and honest committee utteiiy failed 

 to come to any satisfactory agreement, although 

 continued from session to session. Then in 

 general session an agreement was reached only 

 by each one being willing to yield much, with 

 the feeling that any thing was better than not 

 to make a start at all. 



I suspect that any thing like a satisfactory 

 system will be reached, if reached at all. only 

 by a great deal of discussion: and it will be 

 well that such discussion go on now without 

 waiting for any convention to meet next fall or 

 winter. So far, I think good has been done. 

 We have now the Chicago system, the .Albany 

 system, and that of J. A. Green, each one im- 

 proving, at least in some respects, on what had 

 gone before. 



Now, I suppose you will be asking tue what 

 my system is. Frankly, I haven't any. Dr. 

 Mason reported at Chicago that no two of the 

 committee could agree. 1 believe that it was 

 admitted that one meiuber of the committee 

 had no difficulty in coming to an agreement but 

 for the stubbornness of the other five. Well, 

 Tm worse than the Chicago committee, for I 

 can't even agree with myself. But it may do 

 some good to examine somewhat the merits and 

 demerits of the two later systems. You know it 

 is a good deal easier to talk about what others 

 have done than to say what ought to be done 

 yourself. 



Flavor is not mentioned in the Albany grad- 

 ing; but Mr. Green requires good flavor in his 

 two highest grades. I suppose, although I do 

 not know, that the same is required in the third 

 (or C) grade, as it says, " Honey of good quali- 

 ty." Indeed, if there is any difference Mr. 

 Green's C grade must be better in quality than 

 the previous grades, for we can hardly have 

 "good quality"" without "good flavor." al- 

 though we might have good flavor without 

 good quality if the honey were too thin. 



Friend Green says, "It is undesirable* that the 

 selling value of comb honey depends more upon 

 its appearance than any other one quality.""' 

 Entirely right. Almost any bee-keeper, for his 

 own eating, would prefer a honey of best flavor, 

 and rich in texture, even if the cappings were 

 qtiite dark, to one of poorer flavor. Years ago 

 I undertook the education of a grocer in Chica- 

 go. He said his customers wanted very white 

 combs. I told hiiu that honey was better to be 

 left in the hives till the bees had thoroughly 

 ripened it. and the darker shadt- of the comb 

 was only a proof that tho honey inside was bet- 

 ter. I continued for some time to leave the 

 combs on the hive, to be more fully ripened, 

 determined that his customers should have 

 what I knew was the best, and he continued to 

 buy of somebody else. I have concluded that 

 education in that line is a matter of very slow 

 growth, and that it must be left prettv much to 

 itself. 



Sometimes we must deal with what l-s, rather 

 than with what (intjht Ui he. However undesir- 

 able it may be "that the selling value of comb 

 honey depend more upon its appearance than 

 upon any other quality," I think the simple 



*Mr. Green wrote indigputnble. " undesirable " be- 

 ing a typographical error. See last issue. — Ed. 



