538 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 15 



rules there are easier, and favor the pro- 

 ducer. 



Now, there may, perhaps, be another way 

 of getting at this matter. Let us hear from 

 the large dealers in comb honey. Do they 

 accept and pay for, as "Fancy," sections 

 graded according to the rules as given in the 

 Revieiv? If they do, I shall certainly be the 

 gainer by it. If they do not, I shall not be 

 any worse off than before. But I have for 

 many years worked to establish a reputation 

 for conscientious grading; and if I can in- 

 crease my income without injuring my rep- 

 utation I do not see why I should deny my- 

 self that privilege. 



Independence, Cal., April 12. 



[I spent some little time in looking over 

 back numbers of Gleanings, but failed to 

 find the article or articles which criticise the 

 Washington grading as now given in the 

 Bee-keepers' Review, and urge a modifica- 

 tion which we adopted some five or six 

 vears ago and continued at the head of our 

 Honey Column. For the convenience of our 

 readers we reproduce the grading as given 

 in the Review, and also the grading that we 

 bia-ve adopted. The latter we will style 

 Gleanings grading, and the other the Wash- 

 ington grading. 



WASHINGTON GRADING. 



The following- rules for grading honey were adopted 

 by the North American Bee-keepers' Association, at 

 the Washington meeting, and, so far as possible, quota- 

 tions are made according to these rules: 



Fancy.— All sections to be well'filled; combs straight; 

 of even thickness, and firmly attached to all four sides; 

 both wood and comb unsoiled by travel-stain or other- 

 wise; ali the cells sealed except the row of cells next 

 the wood. 



No. 1.— All sections well filled, but combs uneven or 

 crooked, detached at the bottom, or with but few cells 

 unsealed; both wood and comb unsoiled by travel-stain 

 or otherwise. 



In addition to this the honey is to be classified ac- 

 cording to color, using the terms white, amber, and 

 dark. That is, there will be "fancy white," "No. 1 

 dark," etc. 



GLEANINGS GRADING. 



Fancy.— All sections to be well filled, combs straight, 

 firmly attached to all four sides, the cewnbs unsoiled 1 y 

 travel-stain or otherwise; all the cells sealed except an 

 occasional cell, the outside surface of the wood well 

 scraped of propolis. 



A No. 1.— All sections well filled except the row of 

 cells next to the wood; combs straight; one-eighth part 

 of comb surface soiled, or the entire surface slightly 

 soiled: the outside of the wood well scraped of propolis. 



No. 1. — All sections well filled except the row of cells 

 next to the wood; combs comparatively even; one- 

 eighth part of comb surface soiled, or the entire surface 

 slightly soiled. 



No. 2. — Three- fourths of the total surface must be 

 filled and sealed. 



No. 3.— Must weigh at least half as much as a full- 

 weight section. 



In addition to this the honey is to be classified accord- 

 ing to color, using the terms white, amber, and dark; 

 that is, there will be " Fancy white," No. 1 dark," etc. 



He will see that the Gleanings grading, 

 if we may call it by that name, specifies a 

 Fancy, A No. 1, Nos. 1, 2, and 3. The 

 Washington grading names only Fancy and 

 No. 1. Our A No. 1 provides for something 

 a little finer and better than the ordinary 

 No. 1, while our Fancy is strictly this and 



nothing else. As nearly as I can remember, 

 the criticism of the Washington grading 

 was that it did not provide for a lot of 

 honey that was one grading higher than the 

 Washington Fancy; that, furthermore, a 

 strict interpretation of the Washington 

 Fancy would allow a class of honey that 

 was practically only No. 1. There were 

 some producers at the time who were pro- 

 ducing some tall sections behind fences, 

 who were able to get nearly every cell filled 

 next to the wood. It was these who de- 

 manded a grading for themselves. Perhaps 

 it would have been better to leave the 

 Washington grading as in was, and then 

 have an "Extra Fancy." Since the grad- 

 ing-rules by the North American Bee-keep- 

 ers' Association in convention were adopted, 

 the science of better fiUing of sections has 

 progressed somewhat, necessitating a higher 

 grading. The grading-rules adopted by this 

 journal are not hard and fast, and can be 

 modified to fit existing conditions. — Ed.] 



THE FOLLY OF SENDING UNRIPE HONEY 

 TO MARKET. 



A Serious and Important Matter ; How Some 



Bee-keepers are Killing the Goose that 



Lays the Golden Egg. 



BY R. A. BURNETT. 



I have just read the article by Mr. E. D. 

 Townsend on the importance of having hon- 

 ey ripe when it is put upon the market. 

 iJast autumn we sold a barrel of honey to a 

 man who would use about 500 lbs. per week. 

 We had sampled one of the barrels of the 

 lot, and found it to be well-ripened honey; 

 but as the lot was from diff'erent producers, 

 having been consigned to us by a dealer, the 

 barrel which he got proved to be of a low 

 quality in flavor, wholly from the standpoint 

 of having been extracted when the honey 

 was not cured sufficiently to give it flavor or 

 prevent its separating, so that there was 

 about half a gallon of water in the barrel, 

 that had been exuded during the candying 

 process. This caused the man to return the 

 package and the so-called water in a can. 

 We endeavored to satisfy him by offering to 

 substitute another package for it, but he 

 felt that he could not afford to risk it, and 

 said he had great difficulty in getting honey 

 of one producer whom he knew always had 

 good honey. The result of it was, we lost a 

 customer for honey, and the man who sent 

 us this unripe honey missed the sale of sev- 

 eral hundred pounds of his product. 



It is our opinion (which we have voiced 

 for some years) that unripe honey has had 

 more to do with the curtailment of its use 

 by people generally than any other one 

 thing, if not more than all other causes put 

 together; for when a person gets a coarse- 

 grained flavorless extracted honey he does 

 not like to throw it away nor return it to the 

 vender, but keeps it around until everybody 

 in the family tires of seeing honey, and gets 



