548 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



Septemicr 1, 



would be hard to find one now who would " favour " the old 

 spelling. And so we may as well give up first as last and 

 write " workt." It maybe a little roughen our prejudices 

 for a time, but it will be a fine thing for the coming generation. 



McHenry Co., III. 



L*We believe that the whole of three subscribers have or- 

 dered their copies of the American Bee Journal discontinued 

 on account of our effort to help bring about a sensible and 

 much-needed reform in spelling. As to our subscription list, 

 we can say It has increast very much since we began to use 

 "t" in certain words ending in "ed" and pronounced " t." 

 But of course we do not attribute the increase to the stand we 

 have taken in the spel'ing reform. 



There are many things that we can't understand, and, 

 one of them is, that any really Intelligent man would stop his 

 paper just because it did not spell one word in 50 or so to suit 

 fiirn.— Editor] 



Pollen iu Sections and the «' Golden " Method. 



BT J. A. GOLDEN. 



After reading S. A. Deacon's criticism on page iSi, I 

 could not help thinking he is quite a little inconsistent, after 

 contrasting his preliminary reflections. It is an old saying, 

 yet true, that the wise practice what they preach. Mr. Dea- 

 con starts out by saying : 



"It goes without saying that altho an abundance of nec- 

 tar secreting flowers and strong colonies are the main re- 

 quisites for securing a good honey harvest, unless this be sup- 

 plemented by intelligent manipulation we cannot expect to 

 get the best results." 



Such reasoning as this is both intelligent and wise, and is 

 the result of practical information. Then further on, in the 

 same paragraph, he says: 



" A few apparently very insignlBcant 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 any suggestions calculated 

 to work to the desired end and the older and more ex- 

 perienced the propounder of any new suggestion, the more 

 ready we should be to receive it with respect, and analyze, etc." 



This also Is practicable and commendable, and ought to 

 be recognized to the very letter in the life of all mankind, 

 and more especially by the noble and good. 



But it seems that Mr. Deacon, after reading of my method 

 of producing comb honey, back in 1896, did not recognize my 

 practical observations, as I found them, with the least shadow 

 of respect, more than to consider it complex and fussy, until 

 he read Mr. tiarizell's article in 1S97, which seems to have 

 waked him up from his unimproved hours of practical slum- 

 ber, and then he reviews the whole formula, theoretically, 

 and concludes that for his life he can't see that I have ad- 

 duced the least proof that my method was any better than 

 other methods. Let this be as it may, I canpot see how I 

 could give a more explicit explanation of the method in detail 

 from beginning to end than I did in the various articles in the 

 several bee-papers ; and if Mr. Deacon has not read them I 

 can't help it, and ought not to be censured as being reserved. 



In presenting my method to the bee-keeping fraternity, I 

 endeavored honestly and truthfully to present every feature 

 of the system In as clear and distinct a manner as It was pos- 

 sible from a practical knowledge, giving accurate results by 

 the two methods, for the reason that the majority of apiarists 

 hold that more honey can be produced by the non-swarming 

 colonies. Mr. Harlzell also gave a statement of practical 

 evidence in manipulating bees by my method — that he found 

 it more advisable than any other method, which ought to be 

 proof enough for the apiarist to test the method with one col- 

 ony, at least, as recommended in former articles, and not 

 theoretically assail a system which has proved satisfactory in 

 practice. 



But as the years roll on, and apiarists are reaping profit 

 by manipulating my hiving-baek method, Mr. Deacon says he 

 never tried Mr. Gulden's plan — and why ? for the reason that 

 he is thoroughly convince J (theoretically) that he would get as 

 much pollen as honey in the sections. He says he is sure he 

 could not keep it (the pollen) out, and breathes forth a little 

 prayer, saying, " What about the pollen ?" after previously 

 stating that it was beyond those new and peculiar traits of his 

 thinking qualities that he speaks of, how I manage to keep 

 pollen out of the sections. This seems to be a sticker. 



I answer that, as a rule, bees deposit pollen in as close 



proximity to the brood, lar\<e or eggs, as it is possible, and as 

 my method has neither where the caged queen remains for the 

 five days, neither does she deposit eggs during confinement, 

 the bees take the side passage and deposit their pollen in the 

 brood-combs, or that has been my observation, at least. How- 

 ever, there are exceptions to all rules — some apiarists have 

 found pollen deposits in sections, but I have never as yet dis- 

 covered one cell, in all of my experience. If sections of drawn 

 or partly drawn comb were placed in the supers, be^s might 

 deposit a few cells during a brisk gathering of pollen, for it is 

 a fact that bees at such a time do deposit occasional cells of 

 pollen above the brood in section honey. 



Again, sometimes loaded bees with pollen are frequently 

 caught in a swarm when issuing, and they may deposit their 

 load at their first opportunity after hiving under the excite- 

 ment of the swarming-fever. I don't know that such is the 

 case, and the most convincing evidence that I can suggest to 

 Mr. Deacon is for him to practically test the method by ma- 

 nipulating one colony, at least, as recommended, for I don't 

 know how I could state facts any more convincing than I have 

 in previous articles. 



In his closing paragraph Mr. Deacon thinks it is time we 

 old boys gave our inventive faculties a rest, etc. Altho I am 

 four years his senior, I shall not agree to his proposition, but 

 so long as I have the power to think, reason and work, I'll 

 improve the allotted time God has given me, to the good of 

 my fellow creature, man, and the little honey-bee. I hope that 

 Mr. Deacon will not become doty, and refuse to supply the 

 wants of his South African bees. Morgan Co., Ohio. 



No. 5.— The A B C of Marketing Honey. 



BY HERMAN F. MOORE. 

 [Continued from page 532 1 



I filled Tiffin full of honey in short order, and departed 

 for pastures new In Fostoria, a near-by town of 5,000. Trade 

 was not good there, owing to abundant honey crop in the 

 near-by townships. Farmers brought in their honey and sold 

 it for anything to get tobacco money. 



From there, after a short rest at home, and some recrea- 

 tion with the bees, I went to Toledo, the third in size in the 

 State. I took a young cousin with me, and together we 

 drummed the capital of Lucas county from one end to the 

 other. Here we were in a city, and as expenses were heavier 

 we raised our price on honey to 18 cents a pound, and pack- 

 ages extra. We had been selling pints or quarts, as desired, 

 and a large percent of our sales were pints. This was a los- 

 ing business, as the expense of handling so small a sale to a 

 family ate up the gain. We stumbled outo this fact wholly by 

 accident — that people buy, as a rule, whatever you offer them. 



There were five of us drumming up one territory, and 

 most of the boys were using pint Mason jars for samples, as 

 they were small and convenient. One day one of the boys 

 (salesmen) had no pint, and of necessity took a quart Mason 

 Instead. He made a good day's sales, and all quarts. That 

 settled me ; everybody used quart samples after that, and we 

 quit selling pints entirely. We sold half a quart jar as a last 

 resort, but no mure pints. This was a considerable saving in 

 expense, for we had only one size of package to keep in stock. 



In getting our trade we made a clean sweep of residences, 

 business houses, depots, elevators. In those days calling at 

 houses did not seem to be so overdone as now. Nearly every- 

 one gave us a pleasant reception at their homes. We had 

 good honey to sell, and most of us were clean, wholesome 

 young fellows. 



But there are plenty of towns and cities nowadays where 

 an attempt to solicit from house to house will cause certain 

 failure. To any one meeting this condition let me say, "There 

 are more ways of killing a cat than by choking him with but- 

 ter," as grandpa used to say. 



You will observe that honey is somewhat different from 

 other family supplies. It is not used with any degree of reg- 

 ularity, like potatoes or butter, consequently, the father of 

 the family can, and will, buy honey as readily as the lady of 

 the house, and, what is more to the point, is more liberal in 

 buying. He has the pocket-book, as a rule, and feels a nat- 

 ural pride In making a liberal provision. The lady too fre- 

 quently Is limited to just .so many dollars a week to feed the 

 family, and can't spare any for honey. So when such condi- 

 tions arise, go to the offices and business houses, ask the men 

 for their orders, and when they say " see my wife," explain to 

 them why you don't call at the houses, and they will think all 

 the more of you for It, and will usually give you kind atten- 

 tion and liberal patronage. 



We made quite a little profit on beeswax. We moulded 



