December, 1909. 



409 



Amc>rican Hee Joarnal j 



to describe just how he did feel; it is 

 sufficient to say that he formed resolu- 

 tions in his mind not to be caught in 

 such a predicament again, even though 

 his favorite journal did publish "such 

 trash," as he called it, when in later 

 years he had reason to refer to this 

 "' miserable experience," as he termed 

 it, for, to tell the truth, he was anxious 

 to confess his mistake to Mr. Ripe at 

 this stage of his experience, and did, 

 later on, as you shall see. He would 

 often be heard to say that " there would 

 be some excuse for a beginner, without 

 experience, ignorant of the principles 

 involved in the production of honey, to 

 extract before the honey was thor- 

 oughly cured by the bees, but for me — 

 an old fogy like me — to be caught in 

 such a trap is ridiculous, to say the 

 least." 



Mr. Green was human, like the rest 

 of us, and it was now time to think 

 about turning his honey into cash. He 

 realized that it was early yet, but his 

 honey crop was ready, if it was ever to 

 be ; so when he went to town he called 

 on the groceryman and got some pint 

 jars and jelly tumblers to be filled with 

 honey. In going to town he had to 

 drive by Mr. Ripe's place, and he no- 

 ticed that Mr. Ripe had not done a 

 thing toward his extracting yet, al- 

 though it was nearly August now. 

 More troubled thought came through 

 his mind as he remembered how, in 

 former years, his hives used to be 

 tiered up 3 or 4 stories high, filled with 

 the very finest sweet mortal ever tasted. 

 His thoughts were anything but pleas- 

 ant. 



The balance of the 58-pound can of 

 honey was put up for the groceryman ; 

 he finished putting up the jars of honey, 

 he glanced out of the window — could 

 he believe his own eyes? The Brown 

 boy was going right by with a pail ! He 

 would watch. Yes, there he goes to 

 Ripe's; he is swinging his pail; it's 

 empty. In a moment the boy came out ; 

 there was no doubt the pail was still 

 empty. Mr. Ripe had no honey for 

 sale — 'twas still on his hives. Green 

 knew he had lost his best customer. 



This was only the commencement, 

 for one by one his customers left him 

 and went to Mr. Ripe for their honey, 

 for if they paid their good money for 

 honey they wanted the best, and as Mr. 

 Kipe had the best, and charged the 

 .same price for it, he would naturally 

 get the trade. 



It was the same at the stores. The 

 groceryman was having trouble with 

 the Green honey; some of his custo- 

 mers would bring a part-full tumbler 

 back and ask him to taste the stuff. 

 Was that the same kind of honey they 

 had been buying of him in previous 

 years? " I guess not," they would say ; 

 and when the groceryman would count 

 them back the money they had paid for 

 the stuff, they were heard to order a 

 pail ot " Karo." "'Twas as good as 

 honey for less money!" 



One lady customer in carrying a bot- 

 tle of Green's honey home with her 

 other purchases, was horrified when 

 the cork blew out of the bottle of 

 honey and smeared all her other par- 

 cels, and some even grjt on her "best 

 dress." Fermentation had set in, and 

 the agitation caused by carrying the 

 honey had caused it to blow out the 



cork, with the results as mentioned. Do 

 you think that groceryman was in any 

 way anxious to meet this customer, 

 knowing the experience she had had 

 with the goods he had sold her? and 

 would he be likely to buy any more 

 goods that caused customers to leave 

 his store when he knew where he could 

 buy good goods at not much, if any 

 more, cost than this poor stuff? 



After these experiences, is it any 

 wonder that Green had trouble in dis- 

 posing of his crop of honey? 



And who could estimate the damage 

 to the fraternity by the dumping of this 

 ton and a half of poor honey on the 

 market? A thousand honey-eaters 

 sickened of honey for the season, and 

 a lingering suspicion of honey, in gen- 

 eral, that might last for the balance of 

 their lives! For, what I have said of 



()0-pound can setting on top the right 

 distance from the gate, so that the 

 honey would run in to the best advan- 

 tage. This distance they found by ex- 

 perience was about 2 inches, so if the 

 platform of your scales is 4 inches 

 above the floor, your can 15 inches tall, 

 it would make 19 inches; then the 2 

 inches to the gate would make 21 

 inches from the floor to the gate. This 

 would be the right height for the tank. 

 When both tanks are full, should they 

 want to extract more that day, the first 

 tank filled would be skimmed, and 

 enough drawn out so the extracting 

 could be kept up. But tliey knew that 

 if it could be allowed to stand over 

 night before drawing off, the honey 

 would be as clear as crystal. Of course 

 they would ScOp drawing at the first 

 signs of scum coming through the gate. 



ML.\n;EKs Ut Till:. CANTEKBUKV BEK-KeEI-EKs' A.sbOlT.VTlON. 



Who attended the second annual KieldDay of that Association, held at the apiary of Mr. 

 Ambrose Johnstone, at St. Martins. Clirist Cliurch. Canterbury. New Zealand. 



this 08-pound can of Green's honey 

 could have been said of his whole crop, 

 for it was all the same. 



It was said of Green that before he 

 disposed of his entire crop of 3001) 

 pounds of honey, he drove to all the 

 adjoining towns for at least 25 miles 

 around ; and who knows, by so doing, 

 how many bee-keepers were harmed by 

 this poor honey being sold in the ter- 

 ritory of others, where some bee-keeper 

 had been working lor years, educating 

 the public as to the use of extracted 

 honey.' 



Let us go back to our old friend Ripe. 

 It was July 31st that Green looked up 

 on hearing the approach of a team, and 

 saw it was Mr. Ripe. He had come 

 after the extractor, and remarked that 

 lie thought he would do his extracting 

 tomorrow and the next day. Yes, Green 

 would help him as usual, and Green re- 

 marked that he would have asked Ripe 

 to help /i/m, only he did his extracting 

 so little at a time that it wouldn't have 

 paid to have him over for so little work. 



As was expected, Mr. Ripe's honey 

 was extracted in two days, and part of 

 it put into {jO-pound cans. They both 

 had the same arrangement for hand- 

 ling their honey, which consisted of 

 two alcohol barrels with one head re- 

 moved, and a Ij^-inch gate near the 

 bottom, then elevated to such a height 

 as would allow a set of scales, with a 



They found out by this way of handling 

 that it was not necessary to strain the 

 honey, and as there was nothing to 

 settle to the bottom of the tank, they 

 put the gate clear to the bottom. Ar- 

 ranged this way the honey could nearly 

 all fie drawn from the tank before the 

 scum would begin to come through the 

 gate. 



It was a noticable fact that Mr. 

 Green would often taste the honey 

 while extracting, and the honey re- 

 ceived many a complimentary remark 

 from him on its fine flavor and heavy 

 body; and once, had you been listen- 

 ing, you could have heard him add 

 " bouquet," as if the ordinary language 

 he was accustomed to use didn't quite 

 fit the case. 



And such a thought as, " I wish I had 

 one of these 60-pound cans of delicious 

 honey at home for my own use," 

 would flit through his mind, but, of 

 course, it would be unnecessary for me 

 to say he never breathed this thought 

 to a mortal soul. 



Holidays came. Mr. Ripe had long 

 been sold out of honey. Green's honey 

 was selling so slowly, and Mr. Ripe's 

 honey being so well ripened and of 

 such good quality, both together, 

 caused Ripe's honey to go "like hot 

 cakes." The fact was, his honey had 

 never been sold with so little trouble 

 as this year. 



