THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



565 



For the American Bee Journal. 



The Widlli of Sections, etc. 



C. H. DEANE. 



I inustsiiy that I agree with Messrs. 

 Heddon and Towiiseiid on the width 

 of sections without separators, for I 

 have e.xperiniented with some only H 

 inches wide tliis season, and with 

 honey (lowing very slowly, when it 

 did come, they averaged I of a lb. to 

 the section, and they are not well tilled 

 out either. 1 therefore conclude that 

 li inches is about the right width. 

 We may get a little more than a lb. in 

 this width, at times, but then it will 

 help to ease our conscience when we 

 sell it for 2oc. per lb., as I did my nice 

 white section honey taken by the 

 Deane system this season. 



It may be that the Deane system 

 was not the cause of the honey being 

 nice and white, but it is a fact, that 

 the sections came off easily, white, dry 

 and smooth, and without separators. 

 I have never been a comb honey pro- 

 ducer to any extent, for I liave had a 

 freat deal of trouble in getting the 

 ees to go to work in those 2 story 

 arrangements so extensively used, also 

 no little annoyance in prying the sec- 

 tions out of the propolis after they 

 were filled ; but the " solid " cash 

 brought in by those few little sections, 

 together with ease of manipulation of 

 the Deane system, has quite won me 

 over. 



But to the etc. of this article, I want 

 to say to Mr. Ileddon, and others who 

 may wish to try the Deane system, 

 that I have greatly improved it this 

 season, and that there is now no dan- 

 ger of its ever shrinking away from 

 the ends of cases ; no danger of the 

 bottom bar sagging. VVhyV Because 

 — 1st. I now clamp the cases together 

 witli 8-16 iron rods having a screw and 

 thumb nut on one end, and bent at 

 right-angles at the other. By this 

 method you can make the cases as 

 tight as you can make a keg with 

 hoops. 2(1. I now make the clamps of 

 4 pieces, with a ]Jxl4 inch observing 

 glass in the»center, and they cannot 

 warp. The clamps are m;ide about i 

 longer than they were formerly, with 

 a notch in each end for the rod to drop 

 into. One little turn of the nut 

 loosens the rods, and in a second's 

 time all is open before you. Md. The 

 bottom-bars will not sag, because the 

 clamps hold the weight, and not the 

 bottom-bars. 4th. We must have 

 cases to send the honey to market, 

 and instead of the brown paper and 

 strips, as formerly spoken of. we will 

 use the following, as the cost is about 

 the same, and it is much more ser- 

 viceable. 



After taking the honey from the 

 hives, remove the cases and clamp the 

 sections together with the rods, 24 in 

 number ; but before clamping them 

 tight, put 4 strips ixix4| inches be- 



tween two rows of sections, so the 

 grocer can pull them out when they 

 get to market, and thus loosen the 

 sections ; now while all is moderately 

 tight, so the sections cannot shake 

 about ill transit, screw on the top Ixlli 

 xl8i Indies, rabbeted 1x4 inch on 

 the edges, so the i will come down 

 close to the tops of the sections ; now 

 turn the case over and nail in the ends 

 ix4|xl0f inches ; and the case with 

 observing ghiss on the sides is ready 

 to be given away witli the honey, as it 

 is cheap, solid and neat. I believe 

 something has been said about the 

 Deane system surpassing anything of 

 the kind, for section storing, in the 

 Langstroth hive, either is the top 

 story or in the body of the hive. Mr. 

 Bingham, I think, being one of the 

 testiliers. I cannot say why Quinby's 

 and Bingliain's style of frame does not 

 supersede the Langstroth, unless it is 

 that the bee-keepers think the Langs- 

 troth frame the best, or that, like 

 Mr. Heddon, they take a great deal of 

 "solid comfort" in their own "tixin's." 

 Mortonsville, Ky. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Sale of Comb Honey — No. 2. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Having tried to sell our honey at 

 home and failed, or having a larger 

 crop than could be disposed of to ad- 

 vantage in our neighboring towns, 

 our next step is to find a market for it 

 in some of our large cities. As selling 

 outright is preferred by all to .selling 

 on commission, let us see what can be 

 done in that direction first, leaving 

 the shipping on commission as a 

 dernier resort. In selling to parties in 

 distant cities, the hrst thing present- 

 ing itself is the getting of the address 

 of responsible persons who are dealing 

 in honey, or who might be interested 

 enough to buy our production. As a 

 rule, nearly all wholesale grocers buy 

 and sell more or less honey, and to 

 these we apply. "Yes," says one, 

 "but how shall we get their names 

 and know their standing, whether re- 

 sponsible or not V " Well, I will tell 

 you how an enterprising friend did 

 last year and made a very successful 

 sale of his honey, his crop being about 

 .5,000 lbs. Through my suggestion as 

 to how I got tlie names of commission 

 merchants in large cities, he went to 

 an acquaintance of his who had access 

 to Bradstreet's Commercial Reporter, 

 this friend securing the same for him 

 to look at for an hour or two. Dunn 

 & Co. publish a similar report to 

 Bradstreet's, and all large business 

 firms have one or the other of these 

 commercial reporters, so as to enable 

 them to transact business with reliable 

 parties. By tliis means my friend 

 secured the address of several wliole- 

 sale grocers in ]5oston,New York. and 

 elsewhere, who were quoted as being 

 worth S100,000aiid upwards, with un- 

 limited credit. To these he applied, 

 enclosing a stamp for their reply, tell- 

 ing them what he had and desiring to 

 send them samples of his honey if 

 they thought they could handle it at 

 the price named, which he believed to 



be the true value thereof. The result 

 was that after sending samples he 

 sold his whole crop to one house in 

 Boston at the prices named, and all 

 parties were well pleased. He now 

 says he feels easy about the disposition 

 of his crop for future years. 



Next we come to selling through 

 commission mercliants, which has 

 lieeii my practice for several years, as 

 I could not make a satisfactory sale of 

 my honey outright. At first I con- 

 signed my whole crop to one house, 

 next to two houses, and finally to 

 three, finding that the more I divided 

 my product the sooner sales were made, 

 and at a more remunerative figure. 

 Last year I thought to divide my pro- 

 duct still more, and so sent it in from 

 300 to r)00 lb. lots to ten different com- 

 mission merchants, whose names and 

 standing I obtained as above. Prompt 

 returns was the result, at a satisfactory 

 price, and in some cases exceeding 

 market quotations two cents per lb., 

 thus proving to me that if we ship on 

 commission, the scattering of our pro- 

 duct into several cities, and among 

 several commission houses, will, as a 

 rule, bring the best results. 



Now, there is another way of selling 

 on commission often overlooked by 

 the large producer, which is practical 

 for one who produces a small amount, 

 say from 100 up to 1,000 lbs. In most 

 all of our small towns more or less 

 lioney is consumed, yet not enough to 

 establish a market for the same, and 

 in all such towns, if the right amount 

 is left (not enough to over-stock the 

 market), remunerative prices may be 

 obtained. In a small town about 4 

 miles distant from where I write, 

 lives a bee-keeper who produces from 

 200 to 400 lbs. of honey annually. This 

 honey he takes to the two stores sell- 

 ing general merchandise in said town, 

 and leaves it to be sold on commission, 

 placing the selling price high enough 

 to give him the real value of his honey 

 after deducting the storekeepers' 

 commissions, and in this way his whole 

 crop is usually disposed of at the true 

 value thereof, in accordance with the 

 prices it would bring if shipped to a 

 distant city. Thus I have given five 

 practical ways of disposing of our crop, 

 all of which have come under my ob- 

 servation, if not actually practiced by 

 me. 



All that is necessary is to try till you 

 find the one most adapted to your 

 wants. In all cases the putting up of 

 your crop in a tidy, attractive shape, 

 and having a knowledge of the value 

 thereof, will be the method by which 

 we can get the true value of our pro- 

 duction according to the markets of 

 the world. 



Sometimes it happens that the mar- 

 ket quotations at the time we wisli to 

 luepare for sellinir our crop will be 

 only nominal. In such cases I find it 

 a good plan to write to some of those 

 Viarties handling honey, for their opin- 

 ion as to prices in the near future, and 

 this, coupled together with what we 

 know regarding the production of 

 tioiiey in the country, will help us to 

 arrive at about what the real value of 

 our product is. One thing I have 

 noticed, however, and that is that 

 generally prices rule higher for honey 



