1898 



GIvEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



125 



given in the frontispiece of the January Rc- 

 Z'/Ver, and which, by the courtesy of the ed- 

 itor, we are able to reproduce in this issue. 

 Mr. Hutchinson says he has tried to be fair 

 in his collection of the two lots of sections; 

 and if he has been I do not think any thing I 

 have ever said will need to be pruned down; 

 for photography, in connection with half-tone 

 engraving, tells nc^uncertain tale. — Ed.] 



I didn't think for a minute, Mr. Editor, 

 that there was 10 lbs. weight on a T tin; but 

 one that sags '4 inch with 10 lbs. will sag 

 quite too much with the weight that 7c'iU come 

 on it. At least, I wouldn't sell such till I 

 knew by trial they wouldn't sag. [It is pos- 

 sible, doctor, that a ten-pound weight placed 

 in the center of the T tin might make it sag 

 % inch, when a two-pound weight might not 

 have any perceptible effect. Two pounds is 

 all I can really figure there would be on the 

 T tin at a time. I do not really see the ne- 

 cessity of making the tin any stronger than is 

 necessary. I have just been trying a two- 

 pound weight on one of those T tins, taking 

 one at random, and I can not see that it has 

 moved a particle from the true straight edge. 

 Ed.] 



"Mr. Snyder's arraignment of bee-keep- 

 ers seems a little severe," quoth ye editor, p. 

 84. I should say it was a bio; severe. Isn't 

 he speaking merelj' for his "locality"? So 

 far as my observation has gone, he's away off. 

 Bee-keepers in general are honest, and tl;e few 

 rogues should not be taken as fair specimens 

 of the whole. It's right to put the best side 

 of a section next the glass, just as it's rit^ht to 

 put the best side up on the table; but the man 

 who faces with good sections, and puts poor 

 stock in the middle, isn't smart. It'll come 

 back on his own head. [You have hit the 

 nail on the head, doctor; and if I could sub- 

 stitute what you say above in place of the foot- 

 note that I gave, I would "fake it." How- 

 ever, I will adopt it now. When I used the 

 two words ■ ' little severe ' ' I meant a his; severe. 

 For instance, I say that Mr. A was a "little 

 rough " on Mr. B, I politely intimate that he 

 was very much so. — Ed.] 



No-wall foundation is highly approved 

 by L. A. Aspinwall, in Revie-a'. He used ."J or 

 4 lbs., and the product was remarkably fine. 

 The only trouble ( the foundation being warped 

 to one side ) he thinks may be overcome by 

 fastening on three sides, possil)ly using split 

 sections for that purpose. [We can make 

 mills for this kind of foundation far easier 

 than we can make those that use walls; but 

 our experience seems to show that it is not 

 light jvalls or absence of zcalls, but, rather, 

 iliin bases, with a moderate wall, that is a de- 

 sideratum. If the no-wall foundation has 

 bases as thin as natural it will be too light to 

 resist sagging. If bees will thin walls down, 

 and not bases, would it not be better to have 

 a foundation with light walls, and yet with 

 bases as thin as the bees make them ? I may 

 be wrong, but this is the way it seems to me. 

 I hope that friends Aspinwall and Hutchin- 

 son will keep on with their experiments. — 

 Ed.] 



''?SS'*:S^ 



^§p0SEmm< 



EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Why it Does and Doesn't Sell ; the Farmer Bee- 

 keeper ; a Strong Plea for Well-ripened 

 Honey ; the Need of Grading Ex- 

 tracted Honey. 



BY DAN white. 



In my last article, Nov. 1st Gleanings, 

 page 7(37, on peddling made easy, I con- 

 fined myself to the marketing and sale of 

 extracted honey. I told about going to a 

 town of about 5000 people, the plan I adopted, 

 also my success, and that I expected this place 

 alone would call for at least 2()U0 lbs. of honey. 

 You know we sometimes allow our imagina- 

 tions to run too high ; but in this case my 

 estimate was too low by nearly- a half. So 

 vou see giving away a little honey and leaflets 

 is all right ; but if you are going to put too 

 jiiiich dependence upon this alone, I shall be 

 very sorry I ever told about it. It is certainly 

 a nice way to get a trade started. 



Now, then, if we will keep in mind the 

 most important fact, and back up our short 

 acquaintances with honey just as good as 

 honey eaii be, the first orders will be followed 

 by second and third orders, and a permanent 

 trade or demand is established. Let me tell 

 you what I want; and that is, for every bee- 

 keeper, especially those interested in extract- 

 ed honey, to join in this good work. Say we 

 trv it, and see if we can't create such a demand 

 that it will actually force an advance in the 

 price of honey. vSuppose we form a trust — 

 one of that kind of trusts that the people 

 will trust us. 1 will agree to form a combine, 

 providing w-e combine to be not only honest 

 ourselves, but see if we can't devise some plan 

 to get the people to combine in favor of ex- 

 tracted honey. 



The only thing that bothers me very much 

 in this honey business is to secure the crop of 

 good extracted honey. vSometimes the honey- 

 flow is lijiht, and I can not half supply my 

 customers. I have often read advertisements, 

 "Extracted Honey for Sale," and sometimes 

 I would almost feel like ordering some to 

 supply my good old customers ; but so far I 

 have Jiever ordered a pound simply because I 

 was afraid I should get honey several grades 

 below my standard. It looks to me as though 

 we have been going along all these years 

 without giving the grading of extracted honey 

 a thought. Every fellow has been extracting 

 and grading to his own notion, without saying 

 a word to the other fellows. I believe we 

 have just as good a right to agitate the grad- 

 ing of our product as have the comb-honey 

 producers. While they are pohshing and 

 sandpapering their sections, say we put such a 

 finish on our extracted honey that we can 

 draw a little attention. You see, they are try- 

 ing to attract the eve, and we will try to 



