1905 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



539 



out of the habit of using it, sometimes for 

 years. 



If we fail to give people a good article it 

 will be time thrown away to try to convince 

 them they should buy more of it. Producers 

 of honey should be free from commercial 

 selfishness to the extent that they should 

 seek quality before quantity. We will ven- 

 ture the opinion that, if the honey to be 

 gathered in 1905 be allowed to ripen in the 

 hives before being offered for sale, the con- 

 sumption of honey will be greatly enhanced; 

 and that, if that is kept up without varia- 

 tion for the next five years, the amount 

 consumed will be double what it has been in 

 the past five years. It seems to us the rem- 

 edy is very simple, from the fact that it lies 

 wholly in the producer's hands. 



In conclusion we will say this: Beginning 

 with the crop of this season, any unripe 

 honey that comes to us will not be offered 

 for sale, but held subject to the owner's or- 

 ders. It might be that a unanimous under- 

 standing to this effect among honey-dealers 

 would be a most effective means of stopping 

 the unwarrantable greed of the producer 

 who endeavors to market a product that 

 will bring him money at the expense of all 

 intelligent and honorable producers. 



Chicago, 111., April 22. 



[The writer of the above, Mr. R. A. Bur- 

 nett, is the head of one of the largest com- 

 mission houses in Chicago— one that makes 

 a specialty of buying honey. What he has 

 to say is only too true, as we know from an 

 extended correspondence. There is no ex- 

 cuse at all for any bee-keeper who is able to 

 produce a crop of honey for sending that 

 honey in an unripe condition to market. 



There are hundreds of other instances 

 exactly like this given by Mr. Burnett. I 

 remember in particular a case where a large 

 commission house had bought a carload of 

 honey of one of the most extensive produc- 

 ers in the United States. He bought by 

 sarhple, and some of the packages were like 

 the sample, and some were not. Well, the 

 head of the commission house took a large 

 buyer (who happened to be in evening dress 

 to attend a party) to look at some of this 

 fine honey. Both of them stood over the 

 bung of a barrel of the honey, while the 

 seller, with a hatchet, was leisurely knock- 

 ing the bung out, when there was a loud 

 pop and a blow like a safety-valve blowing 

 off. Fermented honey shot all over both of 

 the men, up against the ceiling, and all 

 around the room. The seller was disgusted, 

 and the buyer went off mad. What hap- 

 pened ? The seller never bought any more 

 honey from that bee-keeper, and the buyer 

 never came into the store. 



There have been some fearful jangles be- 

 tween bee-keepers and honey-buyers. The 

 former are not dishonest but simply care- 

 less or ignorant, or both, and then complain 

 of the diflficulty of selling their honey. I 

 know of some bee-keepers who grade their 

 extracted honey so carefully that the buyer 

 always knows without a sample what he is 



getting. Their crops are often disposed of, 

 even before the bees gather them, and why ? 

 Because the buyer knows, without any per- 

 adventure, that the honey will be thick and 

 ripe, and that the uncapping-knife will have 

 passed over every inch of the comb before 

 it is extracted. 



It is a well-known fact that a strictly 

 fancy article of comb honey always sells, 

 and sells quickly. The same rule applies to 

 a strictly fancy article of extracted honey 

 providing it is sent to a market where the 

 consumer is familiar with the source or fla- 

 vor of it. 



Mr. W. A. Selser, of Philadelphia, buys 

 thousands of pounds of extracted honey for 

 bottling purposes; but he will buy only a 

 fancy, and only that honey (clover) with 

 which his trade is familiar. 



I wish our bee-keeping friends would read 

 over Mr. Burnett's article very carefully, 

 and then act accordingly. 



But you say, "What are we going to do 

 with the off grades?" Ship them to the 

 manufacturer, i. e.. the baker or confec- 

 tioner; but do not blend them with a lot of 

 good honey and spoil the whole. —Ed.] 



PICKLED BROOD. 



A Disease that Resembles it and yet is Like 

 Foul Brood ; Italians Suffer Less. 



BY E. F. ATWATER. 



The articles on pickled brood, in recent 

 numbers of Gleajstings, prompt me to tell 

 of my experience with it. 



In South Dakota, where hybrid bees were 

 the rule, the Italians were almost immune, 

 while blacks or hybrids were liable to be 

 seriously weakened. The introduction of 

 vigorous Italian queens stopped the disease 

 in every case with which I am famihar— not 

 that the Italians were entirely free from it, 

 but seemed to suffer far less, and to clean 

 out the cells containing the dead larvge far 

 more readily than the blacks or hybrids. 



Some think it is a starvation disease; and, 

 while it is usually less apparent in a good 

 flow, yet I have known a strong new swarm 

 of hybrids to be ruined, for honey prospects, 

 by the disease, during a fair flow. The ex- 

 perience of Mr. Thomas Chantry, then of 

 Meckling, S. D. (where he had at that time 

 several hundred colonies) , was that the in- 

 troduction of Italian blood was the best rem- 

 edy. I call on Mr. Chantry to give us the 

 result of his extensive experience with pick- 

 le. Here in Idaho, with Italians, almost all 

 of pure blood, I have seen considerable pick- 

 le, but no colony apparently seriously dam- 

 aged. 



As yet I have not found it necessary to 

 treat the disease in any way. We also have 

 another condition which is exceedingly puz- 

 zling. When a new swarm (or even occa- 

 sionally an old colony) becomes queenless, 

 and develops laying workers, or has a drone- 

 laying queen, some of this drone brood, 



