1898. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



581 



All are faced with superior fruit, which is no indication of 

 what lies beneath. 



A few days afterward I was in San Diego, and took pains 

 to examine the berries at the fruit stands. I found all paclit 

 as my friend had stated — the best to the/ro7i(. 



One of the hucksters that comes to our door to sell fruit 

 here at Claremont, has the same theory. His boxes always 

 wear a smiling face, but he who digs beneath finds a different 

 aspect. Mrs. Cook only patronizes him when our necessities 

 or convenience would otherwise be ill served, or not served 

 at all. 



I know of several fruit-growers that have stemmed this 

 temptation to deception and pretense, who always pack evenly 

 and honestly. These men have that "peace within that 

 passeth all earthly dignities, a clear and quiet conscience." 

 These men sleep well of nights ; they may stand by and see 

 their boxes emptied with no sense of shame and no disquiet. 

 And tho the best, this is not all their gain ; they are trusted, 

 their fruit is purchast at the top figures, and always taken 

 without question. Their practice has earned them a reputa- 

 tion which is as excellent as theirfruit — as good as their pack. 



I believe the same holds true of honey. Facing with 

 white or better-filled sections may deceive once, and secure a 

 little more of " that which we may grasp thus," but soon our 

 habit will be understood, our business methods will be ques- 

 tioned, distrust will dog our footsteps, sales will be slow and 

 labored, and, worst of all, the best fun of it will be lost to us — 

 the fun of doing a genuine, square, honest business. 



The fact that a fine appearance always attracts attention 

 and wins favor, places a tremendous temptation in the way of 

 the ambitious man. But the true Christian course, and in the 

 end the politic, business course, will push aside all thought of 

 such action, and make things just what they seem. The wisest 

 honey-producer will so pack his honey that the outside tier of 

 sections will truly label the whole case. 



HOLD FOR HIGH PRICES. 



I was askt a few days since, by a gentleman who has 

 secured a good crop of honey even in this season of general 

 scarcity, whether I would advise him to hold on to his honey. 

 So far as I can determine, the crop throughout the country 

 this season is light. Very few localities have a full crop, 

 while in most sections, like Southern California, the crop is 

 very light indeed. Altho honey is not so much a staple article 

 as to be governed in price by the law of supply and demand, 

 as are many of our agricultural productions, yet it does fol- 

 low the law in some degree, enough so so that all should hold 

 for a reasonable price. 



Had I first-class extracted honey, here in Southern Cali- 

 fornia, I should hold it for 6 cents, and an equal grade of 

 comb honey should command at least 10 cents. 



Los Angeles Co., Calif. 



Houey-Dew, What is It?— An English View. 



{All FiVttorial in Bi'lilah Utr Juuriutl.) 



It is more than probable that 1898 will be set down in 

 bee-history as a record-year for the production of what is 

 known as "honey-dew." Anyway, with over 'SO years of 

 active bee-experience behind us — and an intimate knowledge 

 of current bee-literature during 25 of those years — we ven- 

 ture to say that nothing so remarkable in the way of honey- 

 seasons, so far as the extent of the areacovered by the plague, 

 has occurred within living memory. Honey-dew has, no 

 doubt, been abundant enough in bygone years, at rare inter- 

 vals and in scattered district? wide apart, quite enough to 

 spoil or seriously damage the crop of many a bee-keeper; but 

 none will remember when the mischief was so generally preva- 

 lent as this year. From all parts of the kingdom we have re- 

 ports, accompanied by scores of "samples" wherewith to 

 verify the same, declaring that the like of it has never been 

 seen before; a proposition with which we entirely agree. Since 

 we briefly referred to the matter last week, it has been dem- 

 onstrated, to our satisfaction at least, that honey-dew has 

 " fallen " not in equal abundance everywhere, but quite plen- 

 tiful enough to cause a serious monetary loss in the value of 

 their crop of honey to a large number of our readers. 



The varying nature of the complaints just received as to 

 the extent of the evil, and the numerous enquiries regarding 

 the nature and real cause of it, render it incumbent on us to 

 say a word or two on the broad question, What is "honey- 

 dew?" so-called from its being supposed by the ancients to 

 descend from above, as does the "dew" known to us all. 

 That it is not "sent from heaven like the manna in the wilder- 

 ness," most bee-keepers will agree; but, let us add, neither is 

 it quite so bad as to warrant its connection with the "other 



place," dominated by " Beelzebub, the lord of flies," as is, 

 again jocosely, added by a reverend friend. That is to say, 

 not in the exact sense in which some regard thejsimile ; and 

 especially those who claim the title of bee-experts. 



To be very plain then, and to remove a false impression — 

 where such exists — in regard to honey-dew, let us say it is not 

 " the excreta of the aphis, or green-fly," as some suppose. 

 " Excreta " is the refuse, or waste matter from food which is, 

 perforce, discharged from the animal body after all the 

 nourishing material has been extracted. " Honey-dew," on 

 the contrary, is a saccharine substance, or sweet juice which 

 at times, and under certain atmospheric conditions, exudes 

 from the surface of the leaves of trees and plants. Conse- 

 quently, there is no real analogy between the two substances. 

 The connection of the aphidse with the matter no doubt arises 

 from the fact of bees visiting trees where the so-called honey- 

 dew abounds, and carrying off the saccharine substance to 

 their hives. Now, when we state that in some seasons (hap- 

 pily rare) — of which we may quote the present one as a model 

 for enforcing our argument — so abundant is honey-dew that 

 it is discharged by the aphidte in the form of a fine liquid 

 spray on to the surrounding leaves, and, after accumulating 

 there, it drops from the leaves in such quantity as to wet the 

 ground beneath. This being so, it will be readily understood 

 by readers what an amount of damage will thus be done so 

 far as the quality of honey already stored in the hives. 



But we must go still further in differentiating between 

 aphidian honey and the nectar gathered by bees from flowers, 

 in order to account for the very objectionable error regarding 

 the nature of honey-dew. It is generally known to bee-keep- 

 ers that the bee regurgitates the contents of its honey-sac 

 directly into the store cells by means of the long proboscis- 

 like tongue with which it gathers the nectar. On the other 

 hand, the sweet juice referred to above is ejected by the 

 aphidffi through two straight tubes, which project beyond the 

 body of the insect above the ordinary orifice. This fact, no 

 doubt, gave rise to the "excreta" notion, which is an entirely 

 erroneous one. It is bad enough to acknowledge the exis- 

 tence of aphidian honey as a veritable transformer of good 

 honey into bad, but there is no reason why we should make 

 bad worse by propagating errors of this kind. 



So much, then, for honey-dew, which it must be admitted 

 has spoiled a good part of the crop gathered during the past 

 month, and operated very adversely against the success of 

 honey shows so far held this season. It was hoped, however, 

 that Scotland and Ireland would have been spared from the 

 blight which has fallen on England, and, we fear, Wales ; 

 but, judging from reports to hand, our Scotch and Irish 

 friends have fared little better than our own northern coun- 

 ties of Yorkshire, Cumberland, and Durham, while the latest 

 news we have from Ireland refers to a honey show held at 

 Ennis, Clare county, where we learn that "the remarkably 

 large amount of honey-dew that showed itself In both comb 

 and extracted honey served to disqualify many otherwise fine 

 exhibits." 



The question then arises. Will honey of good quality have 

 already been secured, or is it likely to be got this year in sulB- 

 cient quantity to meet the demand for such ? We are led to 

 make this inquiry because of our having only two or three 

 days ago received a couple of samples which were to us a rev- 

 elation for honey of 1S98 : One of the two is simply perfect 

 in color ; good in consistency and aroma, and of capital 

 flavor; In fact, an excellent honey for any year. The second 

 is far behind on all points, but still a good honey compared 

 with what we expected to see, bearing in mind what had gone 

 before. If, however, there are even a few districts where bees 

 are kept in quantity and where honey such as we are refer- 

 ring to has been obtainable, tho inevitable conclusion follows 

 that the blight has not extended entirely over the three king- 

 doms. It is also just possible that the recent heavy rain 

 (which has gone along way towards exterminating the aphidaj 

 in our own district of the south) may be more helpful in sav- 

 ing the crop further northward. Therefore, as good honey 

 this year will doubtless fetch full value, those who are fortu- 

 nate enough to secure it should take the hint and act in ac- 

 cordance therewith in fixing prices. 



We fear, however, that the bulk of our readers will have 

 to consider a large proportion of the dark honey gathered this 

 season as food for bees only. 



Lang'strotli on tlie Honey-Bee, revised by 

 The Dadants, is a standard, reliable and thoroughly complete 

 work on bee-culture. It contains 520 pages, and is bound 

 elegantly. Every reader of the American Bee Journal should 

 have a copy of this book, as it answers hundreds of questions 

 that arise about bees. We mail it for $1.25, or club it with 

 the Bee Journal for a year — both together for only $2.00. 



