1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



409 



tiOD, and making a superb drawn foundation with natural 

 bases. This product differs from the old in two quite impor- 

 tant respects. First, it has the natural bases already referred 

 to, and, second, the cells are only 't inch deep. I suppose we 

 could make them deeper; but a few of our friends, fearing 

 that deep walls will either give rise to the comb-honey canard, 

 or else make thick cell-walls in comb honey, we refrain. With 

 the cell-walls only ij inch deep, it will run almost as many 

 feet to the pound as the ordinary super foundation. It is 

 nothing more nor less than a beautiful transparent foundation 

 having bases as thin as the bees make them, with cell-walls 

 about twice as thick as we find them in nature. Indeed, it 

 looks very much like common foundation, except that the 

 walls are nicely started for the bees, and the bases are much 

 thinner. 



Mr. Weed is very conBdent that they will not remodel the 

 bases, nor will they stick in an accumulation of wax as they 

 did do with the old flat-base drawn foundation. From the 

 tests he has made in the hive, it appears the bees have a de- 

 cided preference for it. Samples of ordinary foundation and 

 the natural-base drawn foundation were placed side by side. 

 The bees immediately accepted the onetdeep-cell) and Ignored 

 the other; that is to say, I have myself seen the drawn-foun- 

 dation piece thickly covered over with bees while the ordinary 

 article had not a bee on It. 



I make no predictions as to what the new product will 

 accomplish ; but I feel reasonably confident that It will give 

 rise to no thick midrib in honey-comb as did the old-fashioned 

 flat-bottom drawn foundation; and as the cell-walls are only 

 }4 inch deep, there should be no occasion for fearing that it 

 will give rise to canards about manufactured comb honey. 



A moment ago I said the cell-walls of the new drawn foun- 

 dation were twice as thick as we And them in nature. It 

 would be possible to make them just as thin as the bees con- 

 struct them ; but Mr. Weed is satisfied that the bees will thin 

 the walls when they will do little or nothing with the bases. 

 The extensive experiments we have made in the past satisfy 

 us that this is correct. 



Universal testimony (with, perhaps, one or two excep- 

 tions) went to show that drawn foundation, imperfect as it 

 was last season, was readily accepted by the bees ; but owing 

 to the fact that the base was flat, they did not seem to like it 

 after they had further acquaintance with it; and in some 

 cases, at least, comb honey was not completed from it any 

 sooner, if as soon, as from common foundation. But now 

 that we have given the bees the same article with a natural 

 base, we expect different results. But if. however, the bees 

 make from It a " gobby'' article of comb honey, no one will be 

 quicker to drop it than the Root Co. The fact that we aban- 

 doned the flat-base foundation last season because of this de- 

 fect is pretty good evidence that we will do as we agree. But 

 neither Mr. Weed nor ourselves would have put a lot more 

 money into the new. dies if we had not felt reasonably sure 

 that the article we are now offering to the public would be 

 free from the objections found against that which we put out 

 last season. 



We have received a sample of this new drawn foundation 

 to experiment with, and it is beautiful Indeed. We shall give 

 it a trial, and hope to furnish a favorable report later on. 



Sellingf Extracted Honey.— In a recent issue of 

 the Northwestern Agriculturist, Mr. Ernest E. Conner, of St. 

 Croix Co., Wis., gives his experience as follows in working up 

 a market for extracted honey : 



When I first began to extract honey I had to literally 

 give it away. People told me it was half sugar, or that 

 " strained honey " wasn't fit to eat. I then had to explain the 

 difference between extracted and strained honey, and by fol- 

 lowing it up, by always putting the pure article before my 

 customers, I have, to-day, a demand that always exceeds the 

 supply, for my extracted as well as ray comb honey. 



Every bee-keeper should make it a point to build up a 

 permanent trade, whether it be private or wholesale. 



Put your honey up in an attractive manner so that it will 

 be pleasing to the eye, and it is then half sold. Have some 

 labels printed, and on each package, whether large or small, 

 have your name and address and the kind of honey the pack- 

 age contains. Distribute small samples, so markt, among 

 people who like honey, and are willing to pay for a first-class 

 article. 



You may think this is throwing honey away, but you will 

 make it up in the end by increast demand; at least I have 

 found it so. 



If your honey is very fine, put your name on it and sell it. 



If it is dark and will grade second or third, put your name on 

 it and sell it for just what it is, and make the price to match. 

 There are plenty of people who will buy a cheap article if 

 they know it Is pure and clean. 



As the time will very soon be at hand when bee-keepers 

 will have honey to sell, we will be glad to have any of our 

 readers who have been successful in retail marketing tell how 

 they did it. It may help some one as you have been helpt by 

 reading the methods of others. We all should be as willing 

 to give out information as to receive It. 



" Profitable Bee-Keeping, with Hints to Be- 

 ginners "—the nine articles by Mr. C. N. White, of England, 

 will begin next week in the Bee Journal, as we have received 

 the first two of the nine. See page 410 of this number for 

 further information concerning these articles, and also the 

 premium offers for getting new subscribers for the last six 

 months of 1898. 



We would like to have all our readers, if possible, get and 

 send In the subscriptions of their neighbor bee-keepers. The 

 way to get rid of slipshod, old-fogy bee-keepers is to place 

 under them the jack-screw of good bee-literature and raise 

 them up to the level of those who are striving to keep bees in 

 the modern and proper way. By so doing all will be helpt. 



Many of our subscribers have already sent in new sub- 

 scribers on the offers made on page 410, but there is room 

 for many more. Before Aug. 1 we hope to add 1,000 new 

 subscribers to our list. It can be done if every one will do 

 only half as well as some others have already done. 



Send for free sample copies to work with, or send us the 

 names of non-subscribers, and we will mail the sample copies 

 to them. 



Me. Cheslet Pbesswood, of Bradley Co., Tenn., wrote 

 us June IS : "My bees are doing splendidly .so far this year." 



Mrs. Effie Brown, of Eiu Claire Co., Wis., writing us 

 .Tune 12, said : 



" Bees here are unusually forward this year. I CH,n take 

 off some comb and begin extracting June 15." 



Mr H. H. Page, of the Page & Lyon Mfg. Co., died May 

 23, aged SO years. So reports Gleanings and al^o the Pro- 

 gressive Bee-Keeper. We have not learned any of the par- 

 ticulars, but understand that the firm will go right on in their 

 large lumber business and as manufacturers of bee-keepers' 

 supplies. Their advertisement appears regularly in these 

 columns. 



Mr. G. Stout, of Hennepin Co., Minn., sent us a picture 

 showing a disk section-cleaner on the Golden plan, attacht to 

 a grindstone axis. He says he has cleaned about .500 sections 

 with the disk, and it is good for half as many more without 

 renewing the sandpaper. Mr. Stout runs his grindstone with 

 a treadle, so he can sit down and clean sections or grind the 

 butcher-knife. Of course he's a very " Stout " man. 



Mr. Edgar B. Whipple, of Hillsboro Co., N. H., wrote 

 us as follows, June 20 : 



"Friend York :— No. 23 of the 'Old Reliable' failed to 

 reach me — the first copy I ever mist in all the years I have 

 been a subscriber. Please send ine No. 23, and oblige. 



'• I have borne a great deal from the ' Old Reliable,' and 

 never kickt. Gave up the old editor (Newman), and learned 

 to love the new. Gave up with regret the neat, little booklike 

 pages, and learned to look for the long wrapper and broad 

 leaves. Endured the horrid spelling, and learned to like it. 



