158 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1 



butter on the table or not I do not now re- 

 member; in fact, it is so long ago that I can 

 not recall all the particulars. But this mat- 

 ters not. It will bring out my points just 

 the same. 



Now let us visit these same families to-day 

 — that is, their children's and children's 

 children's families, for the old people, bless- 

 ed be their memories, have gathered at the 

 river long ago, and what do we find? Their 

 extension dining-table is set in up-to-date 

 style. China ware in its different lines is 

 complete; plates, cups, and saucers, vege- 

 table and sauce dishes, cup-plates, individu- 

 al butter-dishes, etc., are up with the times. 



In the line of silverware we also find a full 

 assortment: Knives and forks, soup and tea 

 spoons, butter-knife, sugar-spoon, and many 

 things which we might call superfluous. 

 Their daily diet is in harmony with the table 

 outfit. Fancy delicacies, pastries of all de- 

 scriptions, sauces too numerous to mention, 

 are served more or less at each meal. Look 

 where we may, every thing the house con- 

 tains gives striking testimony of progress 

 and refinement. And what has brought all 

 this change about? Simply education. 



As the old people prospered and their 

 financial circumstances allowed them to do so, 

 they sent their children to high or boarding 

 school. Here they came in contact with 

 people of more modern ways of living and 

 refinement; they soon forgot the primitive 

 customs of their childhood days; and when 

 they returned home, after they had finished 

 their schooling, these adopted ways of refine- 

 ment went with them. If we should advise 

 these people to go back to the practices of 

 the old home because it was a cheaper way 

 of living, would they be willing to do so? 

 The reader can draw his own conclusion. 



The difference between the use of chunk 

 and section honey is analogous to these two 

 styles of living. In the days of sulphur and 

 brimstone, when this old practice was the 

 usual means of obtaining honey for the table, 

 the demands of the people were easily com- 

 plied with. They considered honey in any 

 shape, cut out of a brimstoned hive, a dain- 

 ty morsel. But times have changed. Every 

 up-to-date household, where comb honey is 

 used at all, prefers it in small sections, be- 

 cause it is neat and attractive, and conven- 

 ient to handle. By the way, let me empha- 

 size right here that many more families 

 would use it if it were brought to their doors 

 and offered to them. 



On page 874 Mr. Bohrer says: "Chunk 

 honey in shallow frames can be put on the 

 market in almost as handsome shape as it is 

 in the section." I agree with him. He ad- 

 mits that it is in not quite as handsome shape 

 as sections. Any bee-keeper, who deserves 

 that name at all, can find ways and means 

 to get honey in perfect condition to market, 

 in whatever cumbersome shape it may be. 

 But what is the consumer going to do with 

 one of Mr. B's shallow frames after he has 

 bought it? How can it be taken home, and 

 what can be done with it after it is taken 

 home? If it is not bruised and made to leak 



on the way home it will certainly leak badly 

 after the first piece for the table is cut out. 

 To catch the drippings the frame has to be 

 put into a pan or a similar dish; and if the 

 frame is somewhere near our common brood- 

 frame in width, one end will rest on the rim 

 of the pan, and the contact will cause it to 

 leak here too. Then, to keep the honey 

 from running down on the outside, all has 

 to be cut out of the frame and placed in the 

 dish. After this cutting and slashing, what 

 appearance will the next piece present that 

 is fished out of this mixture and put on the 

 table? 



When we compare the convenience of neat- 

 ly done-up packages of one, two, or more 

 sections each, as I carry them, is it to be 

 wondered that customers, after buying sec- 

 tions a few times, would not be bothered 

 with chunk honey, even if they could buy it 

 at reduced rates? The expense par t receives, 

 as a rule, very little consideration. 



I hear the expression almost daily, espe- 

 cially when people inquire for comb honey, 

 and I try to persuade them to buy extracted 

 because it is cheaper: "We do not care for 

 the cost; we like comb honey better, and are 

 willing to pay for it." But when people do 

 object to the price of comb honey I general- 

 ly sell them extracted. 



The claim that more honey could be sold 

 in these large frames than in one- pound sec- 

 tions may hold good in some cases when sell- 

 ing to people in rural districts. Farmers, 

 for instance, who live in the more secluded 

 localities of backwoods sections, and who are 

 accustomed to lay in a year's supply of eat- 

 ables, may occasionally buy larger quantities. 

 But sales in the country are of too little im- 

 portance to affect the honey market. The 

 outlet of our honey is the cities, and it is to 

 the honey- producer's interest to cater to 

 the wants of the city people. Having the 

 privilege of calling at the store or market 

 any time they need any table supplies they 

 seldom buy more than a day's ration. Scarc- 

 ity of store room, convenience in buying, 

 and weekly pay, are probably the cause of 

 this. 



I have m.ary customers who call regularly 

 at my wagon every week or two for their 

 supplies. One lady in particular generally 

 comes with smiling face and says, "Well, 

 Mr. Greiner, I am after my Sunday-dinner 

 honey again." She has kept this up all 

 summer; and if we could induce every fami- 

 ly to use honey, even at this apparently 

 limited rate, and, as I said before, we could 

 take a long step in that direction by offering 

 it at their doors, what a tremendous impe- 

 tus it would give to the honey market! 'The 

 entire honey crop of the country would not 

 go half way around. 



To be continued. 



[Dr. Bohrer does not represent the feel- 

 ings of the bulk or chunk-honey producers, 

 I feel sure. That there is a demand for thi * 

 honey in certain sections of our country can 

 scarcely be doubted, and those who seek t"> 

 meet it are, many of them, producers of 

 section honey.— Ed.] 



