484 



I CAME after a 

 10-pound pail 



of hone y, ' ' 

 she said. ' ' Sorry, 

 but we haven 't 

 a pail left," was 

 the reply. ' ' You 

 don 't mean to 

 say you have 

 sold a 1 1 that 

 honey you had 

 here at the be- 

 ginning of the 

 Fair," she said. 

 "Yes, the last 

 pail went Friday 

 night. " 



She couldn 't 

 believe it. She 

 was in the first 

 day or two of 

 the Fair and 

 saw 10,000 

 pounds of honey 

 piled up in glass 

 and tin. She 

 was sure there 

 was enough in 

 that pile to sup- 

 ply all Detroit. 

 She thought she 



had plenty of time to buy all the honey she 

 wanted before the Fair was over. She was 

 not alone in her disappointment. Many 

 were the requests for honey the last few 

 days of the 1921 Michigan State Fair that 

 had to be refused. And this opens up an 

 interesting story of fair exhibits. 



A New Judge. 



In the spring of 1907, a carload of bees 

 and hives arrived at Caro, Mich.; that is, 

 the car contained nothing but the 50 hives 

 of bees and their equipment. As that kind 

 of freight was not arriving regularly, it 

 was the occasion of a write-up in the local 

 press. The bees and equipment belonged to 

 the writer. 



The year previous there was dissatisfac- 

 tion on the part of the largest exhibitor at 

 the Michigan State Fair in regard to the 

 judging. The superintendent of the bee 

 and honey department knew nothing about 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



STATE FAIR EXHIBITS 



The Dd'wning of a New Era in 



Honey Exhibits. The ^Michigan 



'^lan 



By E. B. Tyrrell 



[Instead of a number of small competitive ex- 

 hibits of honey scattered here and there among ex- 

 hibits of other products, let us suppose a state bee- 

 keepers' association putting up one large exhibit 

 on the cooperative plan, the honey being uniform 

 in quality (all the very best), and packed in uni- 

 form packages, each bearing the association label. 

 Suppose further that the honey is sold on the 

 grounds, the beekeepers who own it being sent a 

 check at the close of the fair instead of having the 

 honey returned to them, thus insuring a liberal sup- 

 ply for an exhibit which does justice to the indus- 

 try. Suppose, again, that experts in the art of ar- 

 ranging attractive displays have charge of the honey 

 exhibit and that these experts are furnished an en- 

 tire building in which to display the honey, the ex- 

 hibit being arranged in such a manner that visitors 

 as they enter the building are overwhelmed with 

 the magnitude of the display, which is a single large 

 unit instead of many small units, leaving the im- 

 pression of acres of honey. "What would be the ad- 

 vertising value of such an exhibit? In this article 

 Mr. Tyrell tells us what Michigan is doing along 

 these lines. Ohio has already adopted the Michigan 

 plan, and no doubt, other States will try a similar 

 plan this year. — Editor.] 



August, 1921 



1 ees. He also 

 lived in Caro. 

 When he read 

 that newspaper 

 item he i nter- 

 viewed the writ- 

 er, with the re- 

 sult that the bee 

 and honey ex- 

 hibit, the next 

 year at the State 

 Fair, had a new 

 judge. 



For five years 

 I continued 

 judging. I used 

 the comparison 

 method- — a 

 method, I after- 

 wards learned, 

 which seems to 

 be a standard 

 method used by 

 the best judges 

 in England. I 

 did not try to 

 determine points. 

 So f a r a s I 

 know, my judg- 

 ing satisfied the 

 exhibitors. Then 

 I was appointed assistant superintendent of 

 the bee and honey department, and served 

 as such for four years, or until 1916, and 

 since that time I have been superintendent. 

 System Was Wrong. 

 But there was something wrong with our 

 system. We couldn 't get the exhibitors. 

 We wrote letters. We pleaded at conven- 

 tions. At the suggestion of the beekeepers, 

 we increased the premiums. It was no use. 

 Only two or three exhibitors would show up, 

 and one year only one. The beekeepers said 

 it cost too much to take honey to the Fair, 

 and it didn't pay; or they had too much 

 work to do at that time. It got to the point 

 where the fair management threatened to 

 throw the whole bee department out. 



It was at that time that I proposed a mu- 

 tual exhibit. I recommended cutting out the 

 premium list entirely and making an ap- 

 Ijropriation to equal the premiums offered — 



i ft r n T r Ml ''^■i.m^--*^ "" 



Co-operative huney e.\lubit at the Michigan State Fair, 1919. The amount of honey was doubled in 1920. 



