814 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. I 



the matter is that, while the section is called 

 a pound section, it seldom weighs a pound, 

 often falling short three or four ounces; yet 

 it sells in most cases at pound prices, not by 

 weight but by the piece; and this fact has 

 brought comb honey in this form into disre- 

 pute. I often hear people say they would buy 

 more honey, but these sections do not weigh a 

 pound; yet when we buy a section we pay 

 the price of a pound for it. This being the 

 case, I feel compelled to agree with Mr. 

 Weaver, in part at least, when he says he 

 thinks the section itself has done more dam- 

 age to the comb-honey market than all oth- 

 er agencies combined, and calls up the comb- 

 honey falsehood as having its origin in the 

 section. I do know that, as often as I have 

 been confronted with the artificial- comb 

 story, the section has been pointed to as the 

 chief support in favor of the falsehood. 

 But the statutes of the country, both State 

 and national, are also very largely at fault 

 for the dull sale of honey; for in many of 

 the States the law does not impose a penal- 

 ty upon persons for labeling glucose "pure 

 honey; " and thus many thousands of pounds 

 of that unwholesome product are sold annu- 

 ally under the name of honey, there can be 

 no reasonable doubt. In view of this fact, 

 let us yoke the two frauds up together, and 

 then dismiss them from the bee-keeping 

 profession. Glucose can be gotten rid of 

 only by stringent legislation. The section 

 can be called, when filled with honey, by its 

 true name— that is, an expensive luxury, 

 which it is, as it costs more labor and mon- 

 ey to produce it than it does to produce 

 comb honey in any other form, and extract- 

 ed honey costs altogether less than comb 

 honey in any form. Besides, it is much 

 more wholesome as food than comb honey, 

 for honey-comb is not at all digestible, but, 

 on the contrary, is an irritant. 



"But." says one, "comb honey in sec- 

 tions looks so much more beautiful and at- 

 tractive than in the comb cut out of boxes 

 or frames. " This is not a fact except as we 

 induce ourselves to think %o. Chunk honey 

 in shallow frames can be put on the market 

 in almost as handsome shape as it is in the 

 section; and if put up in buckets it need 

 not, if properly handled, present an unsight- 

 ly appearance; and it can be produced much 

 cheaper than section honey, and custom will 

 require it to be sold by weight, so that, when 

 the consumer buys a pound, he pays for a 

 pound only, instead of paying for a full 

 pound when he gets only a part of a pound. 

 If a few persons will persist in wanting sec- 

 tion honey, call it "dude" honey, and in a 

 brief period of time it will disappear from 

 the market; and if it is looks they want, sell 

 them a picture of section honey to hang on 

 the wall of the dining-room, where they can 

 look at it to their hearts' content. 



The expense and cheat there is in section 

 honey, and the glucose sold under the label 

 of "pure honey," are the two great stum- 

 blingblocks in the way of a much greater 

 demand and sale for honey. 



Lyons, Kan. 



[Friend B., you are, in my opinion, tak- 

 ing a very extreme view of this matter. It 

 was my privilege to give the one-pound sec- 

 tion to the world. At first there was quite 

 a hue and cry against it from some locali- 

 ties; but I think there are hundreds among 

 our readers who will bear me out when I say 

 that its advent gave the sale of honey a 

 great impetus all over the land, and I might 

 almost say all over the world. Thousands 

 purchased honey because of the novelty and 

 attractiveness of the new package. Be- 

 sides, it was cleaner and neater than any 

 thing before offered; in fact, it has boomed 

 the sale of honey and the business of bee- 

 keeping to such an extent all over the 

 world that my opinion is it would be a pret- 

 ty hard matter to get the public to go back 

 to honey in boxes or even to larger sections. 

 It is true, of course, that something differ- 

 ent may attract the attention of the great 

 honey-consuming public. This is true in al- 

 most every thing. When Captain Hether- 

 ington and Mr. Danzenbaker started the 

 tall section in place of the square one there 

 was quite a rush for it because it was some- 

 thing different. I suppose there are certain 

 people, and always will be, who want chunk 

 honey; and, of course, every enterprising 

 bee-keeper will be I'eady to let them have 

 it. By all means, give the people what they 

 want; and once in a while give them some- 

 thing different by way of variety. But I 

 think it will be a long while before chunk 

 honey can be sold by the carload at the 

 prices it now brings in one-pound sections. 

 If the buyer and seller insist on calling a 

 section a pound without weighing, they 

 should be made to average at least a pound, 

 and any thing else would be a fraud unless 

 the grocer explains to his customers that it 

 is so much a section without regard to 

 weight. See p. 824. -A. I. R.] 



MOVING BEES SHORT DISTANCES. 



How it is Done. 



BY O. R. BOSTOCK. 



During the past two or three years Glean- 

 ings has contained a large number of articles 

 on this subject, especially the last few 

 months. In all these letters I have not seen 

 one which mentions any of the principles I 

 have found to work very well indeed, and I 

 have moved several apiaries various dis- 

 tances, from a few yards to three miles. 



It is well known that, if we move a hive 

 of bees less than three miles, many of the 

 bees, when out at work, will recognize old 

 landmarks and return to the old location and 

 be lost. Where the winters are severe, and 

 the bees confined to their hives for several 

 months at a time, they could, of course, be 

 moved at the end of that time without loss, 

 as they take bearings afresh on the return 

 of warm weather; but here, where the bees 

 can fly all the year round, these conditions 

 do not exist. 



