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THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 23, 



face or mix his honey ? Would any man with common sense 

 think for one moment that he would Rain by such a practice, 

 whether he shipt his honey on commission or sold it? To the 

 contrary, it would be the height of folly, and we should con- 

 sider such a man mentally disarranged. He might just as 

 well face the crate with buckwheat combs and put the white 

 honey in the center of the crate, for the result would be the 

 same ; he would only realize the price of buckwheat, or, in 

 other words, the lowest merchantable value for all of it. 

 Pacing or irregular grading will depreciate the value of the 

 entire shipment. This not only applies to honey but other 

 products as well. Take California dried fruits for instance. 

 Carloads of raisins, prunes, apricots, and peaches are rejected 

 on account of irregular pack. 



At the New York State Bee-Keepers' Convention, held in 

 Albany in 1890, we read an article on " What Our Market 

 Demands." It was publisht in full afterwards in the Ameri- 

 can Bee Journal and Gleanings. We called particular atten- 

 tion to the grading of honey, and as facing and grading are 

 virtually the same, we desire to reproduce that part of the 

 article, as follows : 



"We would call your special attention to the grading 

 of honey, which is as important a question as 'any of the 

 former ones, and in which too much care cannot be taken. 

 Very often we receive honey which is not properly graded, 

 and where o3 grades are mixt in with the first grade and 

 markt No. 1 white honey. The outside combs will appear all 

 right, but inside of the crate will be hidden the poorer grades. 

 We cannot take the trouble to open and examine every crate 

 and comb, but have to rely on the shipper, and go by the mark 

 and appearance of the crate. We sell and ship the honey, 

 and the first thing we know the party to whom we shipt will 

 write a letter complaining of the hooey, and hold it subject to 

 our order. We either have to have the honey shipt back to 

 us, or make a liberal allowance, satisfactory to the buyer. 

 This is certainly not very pleasant ; it hurts our reputation, 

 and we are apt to lose that customer. Not alone this, but the 

 shipper is generally dissatisfied, too, claiming, that the honey 

 should have sold for more, and refusing to admit that the 

 honey was improperly graded." 



We also noticed Mr. A. Snyder's statement of facing. We 

 think he was too severe. It gives us pleasure to state that, as 

 a whole, we have had but very little fault to find of late years 

 in the grading of honey. Bee-keepers have learned that it is 

 to their interest to grade properly. Prominent bee-keepers, 

 i. c, large producers who have to rely on the city markets for 

 the disposal of their product, generally are careful in grading. 

 Yes, the vast majority of the smaller producers know how to 

 grade, and we hope to see the day when careful grading will 

 be universal. 



Of course, when such distinguisht and able writers like 

 Mr. Doolittle defend facing or improper grading, which, as we 

 said before, is essentially the same, we fear that day is in the 

 far future. While we have had no fault to find as a whole, 

 we admit that there are exceptions, but they are mostly 

 among the inexperienced bee-keepers or the beginners. They 

 will crate the honey as the combs may run into their hands. 

 Here is a case of it : 



Last fall we received quite a shipment of comb honey 

 from Pennsylvania. The different grades of white, the mixt 

 and the dark, all mixt together in all the crates. Some of the 

 crates were faced with fancy white, whi.le others with dark. 

 We attempted to sort it out, but soon gave it up. After we 

 carried the honey for a long time we sold it all for the price of 

 dark honey then ruling — 6 to 6J^ cents a pound. If this 

 honey had been properly graded, the No. 1 white would have 

 sold for at least 10 to 11 cents a pound, and the off grades 

 for S to 9 cents a pound. Was it to the interest of this bee- 

 keeper to face or mix his honey ? 



Strange to say, we never heard a word of complaint from 

 this shipper, which leads us to believe that he was a beginner. 

 We wonder if he ever read a bee-journal ? Every season we 

 receive numerous letters from new parties, asking us for in- 

 formation- -what shape, what size section to use, whether to 

 glass them or not, or put them \a cartons, how many to put 

 into a crate, how to ship, when to ship, and what we can 

 realize them for the honey. While we are always williug to 

 give all the information we can, it seems to us that if they 

 would spend a dollar a year they could learn more in one 

 week in a bee-journa! than we could explain to them in 

 a year. 



We admit that any bee-keeper has the right to crate his 

 honey, face or mix it just as he chooses ; but in the interest of 

 the bee-keepers themselves we earnestly hope that they will 

 ignore the statement (we will not say advice or suggestion) of 

 Mr. Doolittle, and instead of paying any attention to It what- 



ever, not face the honey, but have every case contain the same 

 quality as shown In the outside row. 



Yours very truly. 

 New York. Hildreth Bros. <fe Segelken. 



Editor American Bee Journal — 



Dear Sir : — Your favor regarding the facing of honey at 

 hand, and carefully noted. As large handlers of honey on 

 commission we have at all times tried to impress on our regu- 

 lar shippers the absolute necessity of grading their honey 

 HONESTLY. In this way, and this only, is it possible to secure 

 results satisfactory to the shipper, and give the purchaser 

 what he may desire, and what to our mind should be the aim 

 of every producer — the building up, by careful grading, of a 

 demand for a brand, because it is always what it is repre- 

 sented to be, and what it appears to be. 



While it might not be dishonest in the strict sense of the 

 word, to mix fancy. No. 1 and No. 2 comb honey in the same 

 case, provided it was so understood by the purchaser at the 

 time of the sale, yet the result would without doubt be disas- 

 trous to the shipper, for the reason that the purchaser would 

 at once decide that a large share of the honey was second 

 grade, and only buy at a very low price. 



Then, again, such a practice would most certainly destroy 

 confidence in brands, and as a result prices would not, and 

 could not, be such as to equal that realized from honey sold 

 strictly on its true grade value. 



Our opinion, after many years of experience, is to grade 

 very carefully, marking each case in such a way that we can 

 keep it separate ; placing your full name and brand on the 

 fancy and No. 1 grade, but only initials, or use a different 

 brand, on the No. 2 and dark. In this way you will be able to 

 keep your brand A 1 in every respect, where it should be, and 

 thus create a demand and reputation which will be your best 

 capital in the future. 



For this market we strongly advise the use of paper car- 

 tons on each comb. 



If these directions are carried out, we believe better re- 

 sults will follow in every case. Very truly yours, 



Boston. Blakb, Scott & Lee, 



History of the Honey-Bee ; Houey, and Its 

 Uses in Early Times. 



BY F. GREINEB. 



It is now an undisputed fact that bees were in existence 

 long before man. Petrified (or fossil) bees. Apis adamitica, 

 have been found in numerous instances', here in a stone- 

 quarry, there in the amber deposits, showing that bees are 

 not a late production of nature. We have also evidence that, 

 in prehistoric times, among people that must have been In ex- 

 istence then (judging from the remains of their work, tools, 

 etc., found, honey-strainers among other things), bee-keeping 

 was a branch of theirnndustry. What kind of bees these peo- 

 ple kept has, however, not been determined. The writers of 

 later ages, and of times long past, have not made quite the 

 distinctions between different races that we do to-day, altho 

 Virgil, Aristotle, and others mention bees of a dark and of a 

 light or yellow color. It seems to have been the principal aim 

 of the ancient Germans, and, in fact, of the people in general, 

 inhabiting North Europe, to produce honey for the purpose of 

 converting it into a drink, evidently intoxicating. This ten- 

 dency may be followed, like a red stripe in a carpet, from re- 

 mote times. In the German mythology this drink, met, is 

 mentioned a thousand times in the poetry of that time, altho 

 nothing is said about bees and bee-keeping. 



The German bee is common all over the northern part of 

 Europe. It is of a dark brown, or nearly black color. This 

 bee is not alike all over the territory named. Evolution has 

 brought about slight changes according to existing environ- 

 ments, and so we find a number of different strains. First, 

 the common brown bee, the same as we have here, the bee 

 that was imported into America by the immigrants. In the 

 heath sections of Germany we find the heath bee, resembling 

 the first-named exactly in outward appearance, but differing 

 from it in their great disposition to swarm. It may truly be 

 called a '• swarming bee.'' Vogel claims the heath bee, when 

 brought into different surroundings, will acclimate itself in a 

 few years and lose this swarming tendency. 



In the mountains of Carniola we find a gray bee with a 

 possibly slight admixture of yellow blood. It very nearly re- 

 sembles our common brown bee. This Carniolan bee has been 

 imported into America. 



Going southeast we have the Caucasian bee, so named 

 from the mountainous region, Caucasus, where it is found. It 



