18517 



GLKANINOvS IN BEIi CUI.TURI-: 



5'.:? 



Bv the way, I nolico you made a mistake in 

 statint; the price per pouiul I ofTerod in my 

 ail't \viiiel\ you were afraid to puhhsh. It was 

 only 'J") cts. ])er pound, and the offer referred 

 to the niles ado])ted at the Northwestern con- 

 venlion heUl at Chicaj^o, instead of to the 

 Washiuj^ton rules, the former being the more 

 strict in their wordint^. See the A'cz'icu', Vol. 

 v., paj:^e IS. Still, I have no doubt I should 

 have been perfectly safe in offering $'2'y instead 

 of "Jo cts. per pouml for the grade described. 



[Since the above was in ty])e the following 

 has come to hand. — Kd.] 



I find that, in my hurry to have my letter 

 on grading reach you last week, I have over- 

 looked several important points which I wish 

 to mention. As the rules are intended for use 

 in grading honey of all shades of color, it will 

 not answer to use the terms " light amber " or 

 ■•amber" as though they were describing de- 

 fects ; therefore the words, "next darker in 

 color," should be substituted wherever I have 

 used these terms. 



. Again, three terms are not enough to prop- 

 erly designate color in the aifferent grades. 

 There are at least half a dozen clearly defined 

 shades of color between white and dark, to be 

 frequently met with in handling a crop of fall 

 honey ; 'in fact, I have had occasion to distin- 

 guish nearly a dozen different shades of so- 

 called amber honey, in handling a single lot ; 

 and while I regard straw color, as applied to 

 that next darker than white, as the better 

 tenn, and think five shades not too many to 

 recognize, perhaps the terms " white," " light 

 amber," "amber," and "dark," will cover 

 the ground. 



Please add to the list of supplementary de- 

 fects, an empty or partly filled cell ; also that, 

 where a section would otherwise take rank in 

 the first grade, the presence of a pronounced 

 defect not already specified in this list shall 

 place it in the third grade ; or if it would 

 othenvise be placed in the second grade it 

 shall be graded as Xo. 2, or fourth grade. For 

 instance, a section whose only defect is a con- 

 siderable discoloration of the entire comb sur- 

 face, or a still greater soiling of half the sur- 

 face, or one with, say, half or two-thirds of 

 the surface unsealed' on one side ; one with 

 one-fourth part of the comb on one side half 

 filled ; or an eighth part having empty or 

 nearly empty cells ; one with a mar covering, 

 say, a square inch of comb surface ; or a 

 crack across the surface of the comb ; a sec- 

 tion badly discolored in the wood, or consider- 

 ably soiled by propolis ; or one containing 

 honey not uniform m color. Such combs are 

 good enough for the Xo. 1 grade ; and where 

 the soiling of comb surface is still greater, or 

 even half of the entire surface is unsealed, or 

 other defects al.so present that would throw 

 them into a second grade (fancy), they should 

 be placed in Xo. 2 grade. 



The fancy grade should be altered so as to 

 include as many half-filled cells as unsealed 

 ones ; also as many empty or nearly empty 

 ones as cells of bee-bread. Xo. 1 should in- 

 clude all combs firmly fastened to two sides ; 

 also as many partly filled and empty cells as 



are allowable of unsealed tells and cells of 

 bee-bread resjiectively. Xo. 2 grade — the 

 presence of all of the defects allowable in the 

 Xo. 1 grade, in any one .section, should not 

 debar it from the Xo. 2 grade. 

 Evart, Mich., Jidy 12. 



[Mr. Byron Walker is an extensive produc- 

 er and a honey-seller. When his own crop is 

 disposed of he buys largely from others, and 

 there is not a producer in'our land, if I am 

 correct, who comes anywhere near selling as 

 much honey in a year as does he. He is there- 

 fore eminently fitted to speak from the stand- 

 point of both the bee-keeper and honey-seller. 



Editorially 1 have referred to the sul)ject of 

 grading. The rules that I there propose were 

 drawn up before the article above came to 

 hand ; and while I believe Mr. Walker is as 

 competent as any man in our ranks to speak 

 on the subject of grading, I can not help feel- 

 that his rules are too complicated for the great 

 mass of bee-keepers. I should be glad to have 

 the conmiission houses express an opinion on 

 the merits of the various rules that have been 

 proposed — that is, which set, in their judg- 

 ment, would be the most practical and feasible 

 to apply in every -day practice. — Ed.] 



«>»«»■-. ^~ 



GRADING, AGAIN. 

 Only Two Grades Necessary. 



BV F. GREINER. 



I should consider it a mistake, if, in our 

 rules for grading. Dr. Miller's proposition to 

 establish more grades than two should be 

 adopted. Two grades are fully enough — as 

 many as dealers and producers want to bother 

 with, I believe. 



I have no particular objections to the Wash- 

 ington rules, and still would not want to 

 adhere to them to the letter. M}- idea is, that 

 fully half of all the comb honey produced by 

 the up-to-date bee-keeper should go into the 

 grade " Fancy;" the other half, or less, should 

 find place in " Xo. 1," which, however, is a 

 misnomer for that grade. Perfection is a rare 

 thing to be found, and I am satisfied that 

 these two grades should be much more flexible 

 than our Washington formulators would have 

 it. Let the new rules be so formulated as to 

 conform to the honey as it really exists, and 

 not to an imaginary product. Unless this is 

 done, the producer wnll be obliged to modify 

 them to fit his case. In my judgment, one or 

 two cells of bee-bread do not condemn an 

 otherwise perfect section of honey; nor would 

 a dozen unsealed cells, nor a slight bulge 

 caused by the knot-hole in a separator. This 

 is getting down too fine. 



When Mr. Hershiser demanded of us X^ew 

 York bee-keepers our product for the W'orld's 

 Exposition in the fall of 1892, I for one coidd 

 send him only what little I had left of my 

 crop — a somewhat imperfect lot. The next 

 year he wanted to replace the old honey with 

 new, which was all right, and he sent us his 

 specifications as to what the honey should be. 



