1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



•39 



QUANTITY OR QUALITY. 



A Strong Plea for a Better Article of Extracted Hon- 

 ey: Importance of Having All the Combs Seal° 

 ed, and Left on the Hives; some Excellent 

 Hints that will Bear Careful Reading. 



BY DAN WHITE. 



So far as saj'ing' any thing' through 

 Gleanings is concerned. I have been silent 

 a long time. Possibly I can not now^ say 

 any thing that vrill be of any benefit to bee- 

 keepers and readers; but you know we dif- 

 fer, and have notions of our own. I have 

 carefully noted from time to time theories, 

 notions, and practical ideas advanced by 

 the different writers. Valuable things 

 have been brought out through the different 

 writers, and we must admit advancement 

 on m^ny lines. So it may be well to let all 

 have their sa.y. Even if some of us are 

 cranks, may be we can find something g^ood 

 in what they have to say. 



Of course, I never thought honey covild be 

 put in paper packagfs; but that very thing 

 is being done, and it has been said right 

 out plain in print that the honey put in pa- 

 per must be well ripened. 



Now, if consumers will only catch on to 

 this (and I believe they will) it will be a 

 grand step in the way to educate the masses 

 that a high-grade honey only ca.n be put up 

 in paper, and the thin unripe stuff must be 

 put in glass or tin. What I want to see is 

 some way devisee) for extracted honey to 

 stand up and speak for itself the same as a 

 section of No. 1 comb honey shows up when 

 in the market. 



I will go back and say something about 

 my experience the two past seasons. All 

 the surplus honey of 1902 came in in nine 

 days, and in 1903 in about ten days. Now, 

 if quantity had been my aim I should cer- 

 tainly set the extractor in motion; but as 

 quality is my motto, first, last, and all the 

 time, this honey was left in the hives as usu- 

 al until Auguit or September; but as these 

 mrnths gave so few warm days suitable for 

 extracting heavy honey, the most of the 

 work was done in October. 



I hope no one will think I save labor by 

 leaving my honey in the hives in this way. 

 No, sir; I go through all sorts of trials and 

 inconveniei ces. Uncapping combs of thick 

 waxy horey, cross bees and robbers (espe- 

 cially the two past seasons), en the alert for 

 any move made about the apiary; but my 

 main dtsire was gratified to know my cus- 

 tomers as usual would get honey of the high- 

 est quality, or, in other words, as good as 



liquid honey can be. Now. then, had I set 

 the extractor in motion during this rapid 

 flow I could have increased my yield in 

 bulk and pounds. How easy this would 

 have been! no robbers, no uncapping, thin 

 honej', every thing- lovely. By extracting 

 late, as is my custom, I estimate a shrink- 

 ag-e of at least one third, principally by 

 evaporation. 



I have heard it advocated that even com'> 

 honey, by leaving it in the hives sever.'- 1 

 weeks, improves in quality, and I believe 

 it. I go back to December, 1902, page 1019, 

 and repeat the trials of a Wisconsin bee- 

 keeper who produces more honey than he 

 can sell. We note his experience with com- 

 mission men, how he works his home mar- 

 ket, and is at times sodisgusted and discour- 

 aged that he feels like throwing his crop 

 outdoors. He expects some one will endeav- 

 or to soothe him by advising and talking 

 about over-production. He claims a lack of 

 confidence in the purity of what we offer 

 for sale. He also notes a glimmer of light 

 begins to illuminate the future of the bee- 

 keepers, and that is the projected honey- 

 producers' association. 



Again, on same page, but by another bee- 

 keeper, he says wholesale marketing will 

 be the only real aid through organization, 

 or devoting our time to our home markets. 



We now note again some things said on 

 page 1017 at the Chicago and Northwestern 

 convention, and that is, co operation among 

 bee-keepers for the purpose of selling hon- 

 ey. All agree that, if comb honey is put 

 upon the market properly, there will never 

 be any trouble in selling it. Then, again, 

 ihey go so far as to say the world has never 

 seen the time when there was too much 

 fancy white comb honey; but it is the liquid 

 honey that is the drag, and it is this honey 

 that needs help in selling. Now, I feel like 

 rolling up my sleeves and taking the atti- 

 tude of a prizefighter. Don't you know if 

 liquid honey had always been put upon the 

 market properly there would never have 

 been any trouble in selling? Don't you 

 know this big world has never seen the time 

 when there wk^ enough Jine fancy white liq- 

 uid honey? Don't you know there are some 

 bee keepers scattered all through the coun- 

 try, putting h' ney on the market that is 

 just as far from the real thing as soup made 

 from a rooster's shadow is from the real 

 thing? Talk about educating the people! 

 You might as well try to educate a calf to 

 climb a telegraph-pole tail foremost as t*^ 

 keep on in the same old way with liquid 

 honey. There are many wrong ways and 

 only one right way to do almost any thing. 

 If I ever agree with co operative associa- 

 tions or individuals they must go at this 

 thing in earnest and look after quality in 

 liquid honey. They must say to every man 

 who extracts any thing and every thing 

 from the brood-nest during a rapid honey- 

 flow in order to stop swarming and give 

 bees room, " We will not help you sell such 

 stuff; but we will do every thing in our 

 power to prevent your selling it." 



