1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



689 



as greatly pleased with the treatment that 

 they had received. 



HONEY A LUXURY. 



Another spirited discussion arose over the 

 question whether honey was a luxury or not. 

 Mr. Selser thought it was. Others insisted 

 just as strenuously that it was not. Then 

 some one asked for the definition of the word 

 luxury. Mr. Hutchinson said it was what he 

 wanted but could get along without, and the 

 Standard Dictionary bears out this definition. 

 The general consensus of opinion seemed to 

 be that extracted honey is almost a necessity. 

 The human system craves sweets — needs them 

 and must have them ; and as all the best 

 authorities agree that honey is the most easily 

 assimilated of any of the sugars, therefore 

 extracted honey is not a luxury. It was ad- 

 mitted, however, that comb honey might be 

 and probably is, for it is bought for its beauty, 

 and because it seems like the honey of the 

 olden days. 



BEE-KEEPING IN CUBA, AND ITS ULTIMATE 

 EFFECTS ON AMERICAN MARKETS. 



This occupied largely the attention of one 

 session. Interesting papers were read by Fred 

 L. Craycraft, a government official in Cuba, 

 and from Mr. W. W. Somerford. The former 

 seemed to feel that Cuban honey would never 

 be a serious competitor to the American prod- 

 uct, and that bee-keepers on this side need 

 have no apprehensions. That there would be 

 a rapid growth of bee-keeping in the near 

 future there could be no question. Mr. Selser, 

 who, as our readers are aware, buys large 

 quantities of honey every season, paying cash 

 for it, dissented most decidedly from the opin- 

 ion that Cuban honey would not compete in 

 our market. It was preferred by manufactur- 

 ers and bakers to low grades of American 

 southern honey, and the Cuban article surely 

 would be a most serious competitor to our own 

 dark and off grades. This opinion seemed to 

 be shared by others. The duty now imposed 

 on Cuban honey is not enough to prevent its 

 importation into the United States. It was 

 shown that some bakers take anywhere from 

 ten to forty carloads of honey every year be- 

 cause there is no other sweet that will take its 

 place — not even glucose as cheap as it is. 

 Other forms of sweet require a certain amount 

 of glycerine; but honey requires no such adul- 

 terant, if we may so use the word. Dr. Mason 

 stated, on the floor of the convention, that 

 honey-jumbles that he had bought from Bro. 

 Root twelve years ago were still as moist and 

 nice as when he first got them. Some one 

 asked him why he kept them so long. ' ' Why, 

 to see how long they would keep," he re- 

 plied. 



Incidentally, between sessions I learned of 

 Mr. York that Mrs. Rohrer, the celebrated 

 writer on home cooking, when asked what 

 she thought of using honey in preference to 

 other sweets for cooking, ridiculed the idea 

 by saying, "Why, what do you want to do 

 that for? " And yet over against her opinion 

 there are large baking concerns, some of which 

 use as much as 30 carloads of extracted honey 

 per annum in the manufacture of certain 



classes of honey-jumbles, honey-cakes, and 

 other cakes of a like nature which it is desir- 

 able to keep for some considerable length of 

 time without molding or becoming so dry as 

 to be like a dry crust of bread. 



Mr. Poppleton also spoke of the fact that 

 not all Cuban honey is off in color or flavor. 

 Bellflower, for example, in the opinion of 

 many experts, would equal the best white 

 honey of the North, and that there was no 

 question but large quantities would be sold 

 somewhere. 



AMALGAMATION IN A FAIR WAY OF BEING 

 CONSUMMATED AT EAST. 



Secretary Mason has been having consider- 

 able correspondence with General Manager 

 Newman, of the National Bee-keepers' Union. 

 This correspondence was begun after it was 

 learned that Mr. Newman would not serve 

 again as Manager, owing to ill health and a 

 pressure of other duties. To make a long 

 story short, Secretary Mason submitted a form 

 of constitution which was approved by Mr. 

 Newman and the members of the convention 

 present. This new constitution provides for 

 the amalgamation of the two Unions, or, more 

 strictly speaking, what is now the Union and 

 the Association. The new organization will 

 be known as the "National Bee-keepers' As- 

 sociation." It will be seen, by comparing the 

 names of the two' old organizations, that the 

 name National is taken from the old Union, 

 and the name Association from the present 

 United States Bee keepers' Association. The 

 vote that was taken at Philadelphia simply 

 indorses the proposed changes ; and when the 

 matter is submitted to the members of both 

 organizations, there is every reason to believe 

 that amalgamation will be accomplished in 

 fact. There is now good feeling between the 

 two organizations, and the members of the 

 one are largely members of the other, and 

 there is no reason why the two should not 

 be married, and the wedding will no doubt 

 take place in the near future. 



GENERAL MANAGER SECOR'S REPORT. 



Mr. Secor gave a history of the work that 

 has been done by the Association during the 

 past year, telling how he and Secretary Mason 

 had arbitrated difficulties arising between com- 

 mission men and bee-keepers, and how prose- 

 cutions against adidterators in Chicago had 

 been carried on. A full history of the matter 

 was given in our issue for Sept. 1, and so I 

 will not go over the ground here ; and, more- 

 over, his full report will be submitted to each 

 member of the Association, later, when the 

 next election of officers occurs. 



There were many other things of value 

 brought before the Philadelphia convention, 

 but I have not space in this issue to set them 

 before our readers. The remaining topics that 

 occupied the time of the convention will be 

 brought up in our next and subsequent issues. 

 Indeed, I gathered so much of value that it is 

 doubtful whether I can cram it into one or 

 two issues, even if I try, so I propose to use it 

 as a sort of seasoning, sprinkling it in here 

 and there as we go along. 



