878 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



GRADING HONEY. 



" Mr. Doolittle, can you tell a beginner 

 something about grading honey ? To be sure, 

 I have very little this year, like all the rest in 

 Central New York, but I should like to know 

 how I can put it in the best shape for market." 



" Would Mr. Smith like to know how I first 

 put up my honey, and how I was led to grade 

 it as I do at the present time ? ' ' 



" Yes. Any thing which will shed light on 

 this subject will be very acceptable." 



"During the most of the seventies I sold 

 my honey in Syracuse, N. Y., selling every 

 year to the same man at from 25 to 28 cents 

 per pound." 



" Whew ! Did honey ever bring such prices 

 as those ? ' ' 



" Yes, and honey did not go below 20 cents 

 till well into the eighties, and we graded the 

 honey then as this man told me to do." 



" How was that? " 



" He instructed me to put about a like pro- 

 portion of the different grades of white honey 

 in each crate, and the same with dark, as that 

 was the way he preferred it, he saying, ' This 

 gives me the best results in the end.' " 



" And did you follow instructions ? " 



"Yes. And at that time we used crates 

 holding 100 lbs. and over, so that such grad- 

 ing answered better than it would had the 

 small crates of the present been then used, 

 holding from 20 to 25 pounds." 



' ' What changed you from that way of grad- 

 ing? " 



" This man died, and with his death Syra- 

 cuse became a poor market for honey ; so I 

 was obliged to seek a market elsewhere. I 

 tried peddling a little, but soon decided that 

 peddling was not my forte, so began to ship 

 my honey on commission, filling the cases or 

 crates as this Syracuse man had instructed. 

 The parties to whom I consigned the honey 

 soon began to write me, saying that they could 

 obtain more satisfactory prices if I would 

 make at least three grades of my white honey, 

 and the same for my buckwheat, or dark hon- 

 ey." 



" D:d you take the advice?" 



" Yes. The next year I tried the plan with 

 a part, and sent the rest as I had heretofore 

 done The result was, as I have been told, 

 the graded brought me quite an advance over 

 the other not so graded." 



" What did it bring you? " 



" As I now remember it. No. 1 sold at 22 

 cents per pound ; No. 2 at 20 cents, white No. 

 3 sold at 1 H cents, making an average of a lit- 

 tle over 19 cents per pound. That which was 

 not graded differently from my first instruc- 

 tions brought me only a little over 17 cents." 



" To what did you attribute the reason for 

 this difference? " 



" The reason for this seems to be that two 

 or three sections of poorer honey in a crate 



has a tendency to catch the eye so that one 

 can scarcely see the good honey at all ; while 

 if all are poor they do not expect to purchase 

 for less than % to % the price of good honey." 



"Do you think that covers the whole 

 ground ? ' ' 



" No. The contrast between good and poor 

 honey, both being in the same crate, is greater 

 than it is when in separate crates unless the 

 two are side by side, so that one can be com- 

 pared with the other." 



" How do you account for this? " 



"Human conception, taken in through the 

 eye, is faulty to a certain extent, unless the 

 things to be compared are so arranged that 

 the eye can take such things in as a collection, 

 at one glance. For instance, 1 have a grade 

 of all No. 1 honey in my honey-house, and all 

 No 2. in my house a few rods distant. A pur- 

 chaser comes along and st6ps at the house first. 

 I show him the No. 2 honey. He calls it fine, 

 and thinks it compares favorably with any 

 honey he has seen. I now take him to the 

 honey-house and show him the No. 1, and, 

 nine chances out of ten, he will say that he 

 sees very little difference in the two lots. I 

 now take some No. 2 and No. 1 and put them 

 side by side, and he has no difficulty in decid- 

 ing that the No. 1 is ' very much the better.' " 



" I think that is right ! " 



"Yes; and taking advantage of this fact, 

 and all of the lessons of the past, I now grade 

 my honey as follows : I pick out three sections 

 of honey, one to represent each grade, and 

 set them up before me as samples to compare 

 with. Every section which comes up to the 

 No. 1 selection is placed in crates as No. 1, the 

 same being marked with XXX in the hand- 

 hole of the crate. To be No. 1, or XXX hon- 

 ey, the comb must be smoothly and evenly 

 capped over throughout its entire surface, 

 with little or no discoloration of the comb 

 near the bottom of the section. The section 

 itself must look new and clean, while no cells 

 of bee-bread or pollen must be seen when 

 looking through the section toward the light." 



" It seems to me that is pretty close grading. 

 Can you find many sections like that? " 



" Yes. If the honey is taken from the hives 

 soon after it is finished, as it should be, from 

 one-third to two thirds will grade in this No. 

 1, according to the season." 



"What about No. 2? " 



" No. 2 will compare quite favorably with 

 No. 1 except by a side-by-side comparison. 

 In it I put all smoothly sealed sections which 

 are not too badly colored at the bottoms of the 

 combs, together with such sections as show a 

 few cells of pollen (covered with honey) when 

 held up to the light, and those which may 

 have only a few" unsealed cells near the bot- 

 tom of the section. The crates of No. 2 hon- 

 ey are marked with XX in the hand-holes of 

 the same." 



" Now tell me about No. 3." 



"In No. 3 grade I put all sections which 

 are not less than three fourths sealed, those 

 that by accident or by brace-combs have their 

 surface marred somewhat ; all such as have 

 considerable pollen in them, the same being 

 covered with honey, and sealed over, and all 



