isys. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOLRNAL. 



483 



friends within 50 miles of the home apiary, let us not forget 

 to start right. First, decide upon your package for your 

 family trade, for I am proceeding on the supposition that 

 catering to private families means the most in permanent re- 

 sults to the producers of honey. 



By all means, adopt a sizeof package that sells for $1.0(1, 

 $1.50, or .$2.00, and, if possible, have only one size of pack- 

 age, for that will greatly reduce your work and simplify your 

 delivering. If any one desires more than your package, sell 

 them two ; and any person short of money, or for any reason 

 wanting less, sell them half of your standard package, and 

 this will be within reach of every one. 



Be sure you know the exact net weight in pound.s and 

 ounces; also the capacity in pints and quarts, and when askt 

 the weight or size answer freely, with no attempt to conceal 

 or deceive. I want to bear down heavy on this point. Be ab- 

 solutely open with your customers, for it is the best policy, 

 and leads to the most lasting success — in fact, auy other 

 course leads to certain failure. 



It seems to be a fact that the majority of men in trade in 

 our great centers of business are not entirely candid with 

 their trade. This causes an earnest seeking on the part of 

 the customers for those whose word can be absolutely relied 

 upon always, in quantity, quality and price; whose goods are 

 always "all wool and a yard wide." 



I feel sure that one of the greatest causes of the almost 

 wholesale failures in business has been business dishonesty. 

 There is no use trying to dodge the issue^it is dishonest to 

 have on your shelves for sale to your customers, " pure black 

 pepper," when you know, in fact were told by the drummer 

 who sold it to you, that " it is half ground cocoanut-shells, so 

 as to make the price more reasonable, and meet competition." 

 In practice you will readily see the application — avoid even 

 the appearance of evil. 



There never was a time when dishonesty was more con- 

 demned than now, and fair dealing better or more liberally 

 rewarded. 



(Continued next week.) 



Divider and Wedges in Honey- Production. 



BY G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



On page 401, I see Mr. Pettit has put a "coat" on that 

 was not intended for him at all, and I am not even going to 

 throw at him the old adage, " If the coat fits let him wear it," 

 for when I wrote what I did on page 321, I did not have Mr. 

 Pettit or his system in mind at all, for there are still scores of 

 people who keep bees, some of whom live within 10 miles of 

 me, who will believe nothing else, except that every bee which 

 comes in from the field deposits her load of nectar directly in- 

 to the cells, and unless forced in some way to go Into the sur- 

 plus apartment, they will deposit their loads in the brood- 

 chamber. Therefore, Mr. Pettit will see that he failed to use 

 the " charity which covereth a multitude of sins," when be 

 said, regarding a sentence in my former article, "That asser- 

 tion Is based upon nothing at all." 



No, Mr. P., that article was not intended for you at all ; 

 but since you call my attention to the matter I have something 

 to tell you and the readers of the American Bee Journal, 

 which I will try to make so plain that you will not call it even 

 theory. 



I took your case right out to the bees to decide. During 

 the winter of 1S96 I used my machinery in getting out some 

 wedges according to your description of them, for the large 

 entrance you were recommending at that time struck me very 

 favorably. During 1897 there seemed no need for them, so 

 they were allowed to remain stored away. But this season 

 we have had extreme heat during the past three weeks, so the 

 wedges were brought into effective use, under 25 hives. 



Now I wish to say that you are just right in saying that 

 where the bees hung out the day before the wedges were put 

 under, after they were under they did not so hang out, even 

 tho the next day was warmer than the first. But when tak- 

 ing the matter to the bees for settlement, and lying down right 

 in front of the hives thus fixt, so I could ask them all about it, 

 they thankt me for raising their hive up from the bottom- 

 board, for said they, "It is much more pleasant to cluster in 

 the shade than out in the sun, as we had to do before you 

 raised our hive." 



Yes, I found about the same amount of bees hanging be- 

 low the frames that there was clustered out on the hive the 

 day before It was raised ; and while thus looking at them and 

 talking with them about Mr. Pettit's system, those from tho 

 field kept coming in right over my head. So I watcht to see 

 them pass up at the " sides and rear end of the hive," as all 



good bees should do when this system is used, but four-fifths 

 of them did nothing of the kind. Just what they did do was 

 to fly and alight right on the cluster hanging below the frames, 

 or drop short of this cluster, when they would run till they 

 reacht it, then climb up and into it, while only the few that 

 happened to come close to the sides of the hive would run 

 along there till they reacht the cluster. In no case did a sin- 

 gle bee reach the " rear end " of the hive, for she could not do 

 this except to crowd her way through 16 to 18 inches of 

 clustered bees. 



When we think of it, it seems very much more comfort- 

 able to the bees with these large entrances, but when we come 

 to tbe practical part of the matter. It looks much as if we had 

 the trouble and material for the wedges, for our thoughts and 

 visions, with not a pound more honey. 



The dividers I believe to be a good thing, that is, unless 

 a few partly-filled sections, for " bait " sections the next year, 

 are really of more value to us than to have all fully com- 

 pleted, as we are inclined to think is for "our best and 

 highest good." Onondaga Co., N. Y. 



The Golden Method of Producing Comb Honey. 



BY S. A. DEACON. 



It goes without saying that altho an abundance of nectar- 

 secreting flowers and strong colonies are the main requisites 

 for securing a good honey harvest, unless these be supple- 

 mented by intellisent manipulation we can hardly expect to 

 get the best results. And as we all know that (even as " trifles 

 make the sum of human bliss") a few apparently very insig- 

 nificant matters of detail in the management of colonies may 

 favorably affect the "sum tottle" at the cessation of the flow, 

 so we are not justified in lightly or contemptuously ignoring 

 (my suggestions calculated to work to the desired end which 

 may, from time to time, be presented to our notice through 

 the medium of these, or other bee-papers' columns ; and the 

 older and more experienced the propounder of any new sug- 

 gestion, the more ready we should be to receive it with re- 

 spect, and, analyzing it, endeavor to ascertain whether there 

 may not perchance be something in it, or whether it be only 

 fit to be past over with the laconic, and perhaps too frequently 

 deserved comment — " only another fad !" 



The aforegoing rigmarole about represents the train of 

 reflection that flitted through my cerebrum after reading 

 {page 712, 1897) Mr. Hartzell's article on "Managing 

 Swarms," in which he speaks very approvingly of the Golden 

 method of producing comb honey, as set forth by Mr. Golden 

 on pages 481 and 883 of 1896. I had read these articles 

 cursorily at the time they appeared, but deeming the plan 

 rather complex and fussy — incommensurately so with the 

 probable extra gain — I past them out of mind ; but Mr. Hart- 

 zell's commendatory statements thereanent have caused me to 

 go carefully over them again, with the result that, I cannot 

 for the life of me see wherein Mr. Golden adduces the least 

 proof of his system of management having any particular pull 

 over the method or methods hitherto commonly adopted of 

 returning swarms. Either Mr. Golden's style is not sufficiently 

 explicit, or the obtuseness of my intellect makes me inaccessi- 

 ble to the obvious; and so, like the woman mentioned by Dr. 

 Brown, who preferred the old-time process of getting babies 

 to any new-fangled plan, Mr. Golden will need to adduce far 

 more perspicuous proof of the superiority of his method ere I, 

 with my limited intelligence, can see my way to admitting a 

 preference for it over the old style of doing things. 



Neither he nor Mr. Hartzell, as far as I can see, make any 

 comparison between swarms treated on the Golden plan and 

 by any of the older or ordinary methods ; they only contrast 

 the results of the swarmed colonies treated by Mr. Golden's 

 method with such as did not swarm. All they have seemingly 

 attempted to prove, and of which every bee-keeper is well 

 aware, is, that a swarmed colony, intelligently managed, can 

 be made to produce more honey than a colony which has not 

 swarmed ; but nothing which either of these gentlemen have 

 stated tends to prove that Mr. Goldeu's method of manipula- 

 tion is superior to that generally in use under the same condi- 

 tion of things. Perhaps a further article from Mr. Golden's, 

 or from Mr. Hartzell's, pen on this decidedly interesting mat- 

 ter may help to dispel the fog, and " make me sensible," as 

 Paddy says, and enable me to see that there's more in it than 

 I have so far been able to discover. c;n 



The way the matter presents itself to my sensorlum is as 

 follows : Mr. Golden claims that by hiving a swarm on his 

 system, viz.: In a super of sections placed under the brood- 

 chamber, he gets these sections rapidly filled with honey, and 

 which would, he asserts, under the old order of management, 

 " have gone into the brood-combs." Surely not, if tho swarm 



