OCTOBEB, 1921 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Tl 



C 



ur 



• HE silver 

 1 n 1 n g ap- 

 pears," says 



t h e editor of 



Gleanings, page 



550 of the Sep- 

 tember issue. 



Let us all be 



very thankful 



that honey is so 



plentiful and the price so low that the poor 

 as well as the rich may enjoy it and have 

 an abundance. Our pocketbooks may be 

 thinner, but our hearts will be enlarged 

 and we the richer in the end. To feed the 

 hungry and give drink to the thirsty are 

 little virtues that pass at their full value 

 in the next world, I have heard. 



One cannot read E. E. Eoot 's account of 

 the Hubam sweet clover in September 

 Gleanings without his pulse being quick- 

 ened and life seeming more desirable, the 

 possibilities and value of this clover ap- 

 pearing to be so great for the production 

 of human food, as well as food for domestic 

 animals and for enriching the soil. This 

 plant is certainly great, and its discovery 

 should mark a new epoch in American agri- 

 culture. Great as this discovery is, it thrills 

 one even more to find such an unselfish 

 whole-souled man as Professor Hughes in 

 this self-seeking age. 



SIFTINGS 



J. E. Crane 



1 



TU 



633 



followed, should 

 dispose of hun- 

 drens of thou- 

 sands of pounds 

 of honey in the 

 home market. I 

 haven't room to 

 review all the 

 good things 

 said. Every one 

 who has a large amount of honey to sell, or 

 a small amount, cannot fail to receive bene- 

 fit. Robinson Newcomb says on page 557, 

 "It takes time for a motorist to make up 

 his mind he wants to buy;" hence the 

 signs should be in letters large enough to 

 be read 400 feet away. "The sign can be 

 read farther away if the letters themselves 

 are dark; and it can be read later in the 

 evening. 



On page 559 he says: ' ' Clear glass jars show 

 up light-colored honey best. Slightly green 

 jars inay be used advantageously for honey 

 that is very yellow, since the green glass 

 makes yellow honey appear white." I won- 

 der if this is quite straight. He does not 

 approve of Sunday selling. Thinks it doesn 't 

 pay, altho he thinks more sales may be made 

 on that day than on any other. '"'Roadside 

 selling," he says, "is a big advertising 

 work. Our signs remind passing motorists 

 of honey day after day, bringing many to 

 buy honey who would not otherwise have 

 thought of it." 



H. F. Wilson makes some nice points in 

 his article commencing on page 555. He 

 would not do away with the middleman. 

 "Brokers, jobbers, wholesale merchants, 

 and retailers must be paid for their efforts, 

 and they must have a small profit in order 

 to do business. These agencies arc ab- 

 solutely necessary to get distribution, and 

 can not be eliminated under our present 

 marketing system." He is right. Let us 

 not forget it, nor undersell them. He would 

 have a standard tin package and would 

 prefer two and five pound tins. We are 

 using three and five pound tins and find 

 them to work very well, altho the three- 

 pound quart tins are a little small and dif- 

 ficult to seal when hot. On page 556 he 

 says these tins can be easily sent by parcel 

 post. He is right if we first put them in 

 corrugated cartons and seal them. We sell 

 lots of them in this way. He cautions 

 against selling in large quantities at one 

 time to new customers. Good advice. "Sell 

 a new customer who is not accustomed to 

 honey a sixty-pound can and be prepared 

 never to sell to that customer again." It 

 is better to sell si.xty pounds in small lots 

 as needed than a large amount at one time. 



That is a right good article by D. L. 

 Woodward on underground cellars. I wish 

 I had one that would work as well. There 

 seems to be some question whether an un- 

 derground cellar will prove a success or 

 otherwise. So far as I am able to learn, 

 when such cellars are built in dry, gravelly, 

 or sandy soil they prove a success, and 

 when built on clay soils they are apt to 

 prove unsatisfactory. I wonder if the soil 

 makes the difference. I was in a winter 

 repository a few weeks ago in the east part 

 of our State where bees wintered perfectly. 

 A good deal of the cellar was above ground 

 but banked heavily, and the floor above 

 was covered with sawdust. 



Under the title page, "From the Field 

 of Experience," is an article by my friend, 

 A. C. Miller, that will give us beekeepers 

 something to think about, but on reading 

 it, it seemed to me that he was writing from 

 the field of speculation rather than experi- 

 ence. 



E. G. Miller says, on page 580, * ' The best 

 There are four long articles in September advertisement is the honey itself." He, 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture on marketing too, cautious against selling for family ugg 

 honey, which, if read and the advice given in liirge amounts, 



