December, 1909. 



407 



with honey, are even better after a year 

 old. If tliey had used sugar instead of 

 honey in these sarpe goods, they would 

 have dried up and spoiled in a week. 



So I have concluded. Dan, that as 

 long as I produce honey for table use I 

 will try to get it in the very best pos- 

 sible shape I know how, then if circum- 

 stances should change — /. <•., should I 

 ever have bees in a location where the 

 honey was not fit for table use^hen it 

 would be time to experiment with arti- 

 ficial ways of curing honey. 



Then you mentioned. Dan, that you 

 would save the expense of more upper 

 stories, etc., by this one upper-story 

 system ; don't you know that to fix up 

 a suitable place to cure honey artificially 

 it will cost you much more than the few 

 extra upper stories you will need, to 

 hold your whole crop of honey? 



You will need a special building, and 

 it ought to be one story and painted 

 black; this to draw all the sun-heat 

 possible. Then, to be on the safe side, 

 you ought to have a good heating stove 

 to be used during damp or rainy 

 weather; then a system of ventilators 

 so arranged that they can be opened in 

 good weather and closed nights and 

 damp spells. The fact is, this matter of 

 evaporating the water out of honey 

 must be attended to constantly; and 

 the expense of the lart;e, wide-surface 

 tanks, fuel, extra labor, etc., will more 

 than offset the cost of a few more upper 

 stories to hold the crop. Then, after 

 you have gone to all this expense and 

 iabor, and worked your bees on this 

 system one season, mark my word, you 

 will draw a long breath and think the 

 bees could have done it cheaper. Then 

 another thought that is very appro- 

 priate right here ; that is, that the advo- 

 cates of artificially cured honey never 

 claim for their production an article 

 that is superior to that cured on the 

 hive by the bees. Isn't it the case with 

 every imitation, the product is claimed 

 to he jusf as ^ooc/ as the genuine, hut 

 is Ni'irr claimed to be superior? Bet- 

 ter produce the genuine. 



In this conversation Mr. Green had 

 little to say; one could see there was 

 something on his mind ; he was not 

 quite satisfied ; the enemy had put up a 

 strong talk; he could imagine with 

 what ease and comfort it would be to 

 extract without a single comb to uncap. 

 Then twice as much honey kept cours- 

 ing through his mind ; no stings — this 

 was a good point, he never could relish 

 the idea of being stung; the bees 

 would handle like kittens. 



Spring came in due time and found 

 Mr. Ripe with all his new upper stories 

 nailed up and painted, and the frames 

 filled full of foundation ; in fact, he had 

 bought an extra number this year, as 

 the prospects were very flattering for a 

 bumper crop of honey, and he did not 

 want to be caught without plenty of 

 upper stories to hold all the surplus 

 honey the bees might carry in an extra- 

 good season, for he was heard to say 

 that the upper stories would keep if 

 they were not used this year. 



Mr. Green was not very talkative this 

 winter and spring; the fact is, you 

 would hardly have known he had any 

 bees, his time being wholly taken up 

 on the farm, for why should he worry 

 about the bees? Didn't he have all the 

 supplies he would need? There was 



American T^ee JournaTI 



even more than one upper story to the 

 colony since those .5 colonies became 

 queenless and had to be united ; for 

 couldn't he use those ."> sets of combs 

 to extract from? He hadn't even made 

 any provisions for extra tank-room, 

 thinking he could pick up enough stor- 

 age around the house, and of course he 

 would have the two barrel tanks that 

 he had always used to separate the 

 scum from the honey in previous years. 

 Neither had there been any special 

 evaporating house built, for w'asn't the 

 extracting house he had always used 

 hot enough to evaporate honey in? 

 One would have thought so had he 

 been in there one of those hot days 

 when the extracting was going on. But 

 he reasoned wrongly, for a non-venti- 

 lated house, although warm, would not 

 be the place to evaporate the water out 

 of honey, for you would have to have a 

 circulation of dry air to carry off the 

 damp-laden air of the room before 

 much evaporating would be accom- 

 plished. 



Then the specially constructed venti- 

 lators that would be necessary would 

 have to be "handled;" that is, they 

 would have to be closed during nights 

 and rainy weather, and opened during 

 dry. clear weather ; then some provision 

 for artificial heating should be provided 

 to be used during this damp weather, 

 as I have mentioned before. All these 

 things were left undone — a condition 

 we should expect with the average bee- 

 keeper were he to undertake to produce 

 honey on this plan. 



It was June 22d ; the bees had been 

 carrying in clover honey at a "pretty 

 good hickory" for about 10 days. 



It was supper time at Ripe's. Mr. 

 Ripe was just sitting down at the table, 

 when Mrs. Ripe casually observed that 

 Mr. Green had called that afternoon 

 and got the extractor. Their eyes met, 

 and in that short space of time both 

 knew what the other was thinking 

 about; no words were necessary. 



.•\s Mr. Ripe was spreading his bread 

 with some of his well-ripened, heavy- 

 bodied, aromatic, " left on the hive all 

 summer " quality of honey, fit to set 

 before the President, but still a luxury 

 he was enjoying " as the fruit of his 

 own labor," he asked his wife if Dan 

 had anything to say in particular when 

 he called for the extractor. No, only 

 he " might want to extract some before 

 long." and as he had his team with him. 

 he would take the extractor along. 



The next day, /«"'■ --'«', as Mr. Green 

 was looking over his bees he found 

 some colonies that had their upper 

 stories nearly full, and had begun to 

 cap the first honey brought in. Wasn't 

 this the time to begin extracting? The 

 most advanced colonies would soon be 

 full and need more room, perhaps, for 

 all he knew; before another day the 

 hives would be full and need additional 

 room. Wasn't the extractor right in 

 the extracting house this very minute? 

 Yes, he would do it, just a couple of 

 upper stories — one fiO-pound can. It 

 did not take much smoke to subdue the 

 bees, and they did not seem to mind it 

 a bit when they were shaken from the 

 combs ; it seemed to Mr. Green that the 

 bees just fell off the combs, and, as 

 thev took wing, went directly to the 

 field for more honey. 



Then the upper stories were not so 



heavy to carry to the extracting house 

 as usual ! 



The slickest part of the whole busi- 

 ness was in uncapping and extracting, 

 for there was almost none to uncap, 

 and how easy it did extract — just two 

 or three turns and it was done; not 

 much like the long, hard turns Mr. 

 Green could well remember they had 

 to do to get tlie thick honey out of the 

 combs in years past. He felt almost 

 jubilant. No more of the old, laborious 

 wav for him. 



Then he bethought himself of the 

 fast age we were living in, how fortunes 

 were made in a day ; visions of watered 

 stock flashed through his mind, and he, 

 too, had doubled his "stock," for wasn't 

 it said that all one had to do to double 

 his crop of honey was to use one upper 

 story and extract before it was sealed? 

 Watered stock, watered stock, kept 

 surging through Mr. Green's mind till 

 it was said that his customers that fall 

 took up the cry, " Watered stock !" and 

 said of his honey that it contained the 

 real stuff ; others would say that Green's 

 " watered stock " was not on paper. 

 One said his honey would not have to 

 be boiled down much to make good 

 metheglin. 



About a week later Mr. Green exam- 

 ined his first extracting, for be it known 

 that he, from the first, extracted his 

 whole crop just as soon as the bees 

 began to cap in the foremost combs of 

 the one story he used. And what I say 

 of this one can, dated June 23d, I could 

 have said of his whole crop, for it was 

 all taken at the same stage of ripeness— 

 just as soon as the bees began capping 

 along the top-bar of the foremost 

 combs. 



I mentioned that Mr. Green exam- 

 ined his first extracting alter a week, 

 for surely it ought to be rich and ripe 

 by that time. Then he noticed that if 

 the honey should keep coming in at 

 the present rate, it would be but a day 

 or two before his open storage would 

 be full, and he would have to begin to 

 can some — to make room for more that 

 was now coming fast. This first ex- 

 tracting was given the most open ves- 

 sels to be found — those with a wide 

 open top — for this might be the greenest 

 to be extracted during the season, so 

 thought Mr. Green ; but it so happened 

 that there was no difference in this re- 

 spect, for it turned out to be a fair 

 average of the crop. 



The honey was now cold, and it did 

 appear thicker then when extracted. 

 Mr. Green tasted of it, and it was said 

 that he tasted several times as if not 

 quite satisfied with his own judgment. 

 Could it be— no, it mi/s/ be ripe by 

 this time. " Still, I cannot quite under- 

 stand that scratchy, raw sensation that 

 remains in my throat after tasting," he 

 mused; "but it must be all right. I'rn 

 not quite familiar as yet with this arti- 

 ficially cured honey; it will taste bet- 

 ter after I get used to it. Then there 

 are Brown and Smith that are coming 

 after honey tomorrow; I'll draw off 

 this (iO-pound can and take it over to 

 the shop so it will be ready." 



The scales were balanced on 62>^ 

 pounds, as usual, the 2^ pounds being 

 the tare or weight of can; and right 

 here Mr. Green got his first surprise, 

 for, what do you think? that pesky can 

 would hold but 08 pounds net, the best 



