568 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



if he has more than his own family 

 needs he takes it to the nearest town 

 and offers it, either at a grocery, or to 

 a friend, for sale. When the question 

 is asked, "How much do you want 

 for your honey i"' he replies, in a care- 

 less way, " I don't know anything 

 about the price of honey ; give me 

 whatever you think it is worth ! Is 10 

 cents per lb. too much V Suit your- 

 self about the price ; I'm not at all 

 particular." So the bargain closes. 



Persons who depend entirely upon 

 the product of bees for a living, have 

 reason to dislike this class of bee- 

 keepers. If a farmer has an animal 

 for sale, a fat steer or pig, he will de- 

 mand the highest price, even to the 

 fraction of a mill, and the same way 

 if it is hay, corn, or oats ; but if these 

 lords of the soil have honey, butter, 

 or a chicken for sale, feel that they 

 are in little business, hurry through 

 it as quickly as possible, and get out 

 of sight. 



We have known bee-keepers to come 

 to this city with a wagon load of 

 honey, try to sell it at one grocery, 

 telling, by the way, that they were in 

 a great hurry to be back at home. 

 After trying several groceries they 

 came totlie conclusion that honey 

 was poor sale. These grocerymen un- 

 derstand their business. They make 

 their living, as the Dutchman says, 

 " by buying slieaj} and selling dear." 

 In a short time, with the help of the 

 telephone, all the dealers are informed 

 that there is a big load of honey in 

 town, and that by holding off, it can 

 be purchased at a low figure. We 

 once inquired of a groceryman how 

 much he paid for his honey. He said, 

 " O, there was a fellow who came to 

 town with a big wagon load, and some 

 more of us bought him all out, at 6 

 cents per pound all round." If these 

 persons had come to town and stored 

 their honey in a safe place the first 

 thing, and then taken samples of it- 

 white, yellow, dark, and extracted, as 

 the case may have been — and dropped 

 in at different places, where they 

 wished to purchase their own sup- 

 plies, looking at the goods, inquiring 

 tlie prices, and remarking, " I must 

 purchase before I go home, but I have 

 something to sell," they would have 

 realized double for their honey. If it 

 was at a harness sliop, and he needed 

 a new whip, bridle, or anything in 

 tliat line, the dealer, who is always 

 anxious to trade, will probably say to 

 his hands, " Boys, how many of "you 

 want some of this honey ; this man 

 wants to exchange for our goods." 

 The trade is soon completed, and he 

 leaves, perhaps, for a shoe store, and 

 buys, in the same way, all his sup- 

 plies, sometimes paying out some 

 money, and again liave some paid to 

 him. Wliile buying his supplies he 

 will meet with cash customers, and 

 when his honey is disposed of he will 

 return home, laden with comforts for 

 his family, and with more money than 

 he would have had had it been sold 

 for cash only. 



Peoria, 111. 



[A liberal distribution of " Honey as 

 Food and Medicine," will also help in 

 establishing a home market.— Ed.] 





Wild Camomile Honey.— We have 

 had a si)lendid season for increase 

 and for honey. I increased from IS 

 colonies to 50 by natural swarming, 

 but now the bitter honey comes again 

 to ruin the fall crop. In'iSTS I at- 

 tributed it to horehound, but now I 

 know it comes from wild camomile. 

 I can do nothing with it except for 

 feed in case it is needed, and bring 

 my bees out in the spring strong and 

 tine. It is beautiful, thick, golden 

 honey, and I would like to have your 

 idea, and the suggestions of bee-keep- 

 ers generally, as to what to do with it. 

 E. P. Massey. 



Waco, Tex., Aug. 25, 1882. 



[We have never seen a sample of 

 the honey, and hardly know what it is 

 like. It might possibly be \i.sed in 

 some branches of manufacture, espe- 

 cially by brewers, but we fear it would 

 be impossible to neutralize its bitter- 

 ness, so as to make it an article of 

 general commerce. — Ed.] 



Gathering a Surplus Every Week.— 



My bees are "just booming,'' having 

 had less than a week at a time since 

 fruit blossoms in which they were not 

 gathering a surplus. My last swarm 

 was Aug. 24th| but should have had 

 more each day had not the rain for the 

 past three days kept them back. 

 Sweet clover has been in blossom since 

 June, and gets more plentiful as the 

 season advances, and the same stalks 

 now have ripened seed and blossoms, 

 and lots more to come. Goldenrod is 

 just beginning to blossom. On page 

 •538 of the Bee Journal, the printer 

 makes me say, "93 rather weak col- 

 onies," I think I said 9, at any rate, I 

 should have so said. 



A. B. Mason. 

 Wagon Works, O., Aug. 28, 1882. 



Bee Matters in Kansas. — Bees are 



nearly a failure this season too. Ln 

 May they started off as though they 

 were going to do well, but the cold 

 wave put a stop to their work, and 

 they gathered no surplus until about 

 the 20th of July, and then the weather 

 became dry and hot, and hofiey came 

 in sparingly. Up to date some of my 

 best colonies have stored 25 to 35 lbs. 

 of comb honey, and others 45 to .50 lbs. 

 of extracted ; at the present the flow 

 continues, and w-ill, I think, last until 

 we have rain. I visited Leavenworth 

 city and vicinitv on the 10th to the 13th 

 of August, and found most of the bee- 

 keepers disheartened, but their bees 

 had done rather better than ours here, 

 for I helped to take the honey from 

 some of them and found the brood 

 chambers nearly full and very little 

 brood. Tliey are trying to keep up 

 with the times by using the lix-ii sec- 

 tions and Langstroth hives. Please 

 answer the following questions 

 through the Bee Journal and oblige: 



1. In sowing Bokhara clover for bee- 

 pasturage with timotliy, will it hurt 

 the honey flow to cut it when the 

 timothy is ready to cut for hay'? 2. 

 Will it yield hoiiey the coming season 

 if sown this fall 'f The questions may 

 have bee" answered before in the 

 Journal, but if so, I failed to see 

 them. VVe can readily see that we 

 will have to plant for honey. I have 3 

 kinds of hives— Langstroth, Quinby 

 and American— but I have made the 

 American hive lougf i-, and it now re- 

 sembles the Quinby, only it is longer 

 than that, and takes It frames 12x14. 

 3. Can I have one-piece sections made 

 to fit these for next season '? I am 

 using smaller ones now, filling up the 

 spaces with blocks of wood. 



H. J. Ward. 

 Farmington, Kan., Aug. 22, 1882. 



[1. It will retard the blooming a- 

 little, but make it more profuse. 



2. But very little. 



3. Yes ; you can have one-piece sec- 

 tions made any size you wish, but you 

 will have to give in advance the exact 

 dimensions of the sections you wish, 

 when they will be made just to your 

 order.— Ed.] 



After Honey-Dew.— The honey sea- 

 son here has been very peculiar. 

 White clover was abundant, but it did 

 not yield half a crop of honey. Bees 

 have been very thick on the maples 

 in the forest for several days— are 

 they after honey-dew 'f I never saw 

 the like liere before. There will not 

 be half a croj) of honey here in this 

 section, and not half the usual in- 

 crease. Our bees are working on 

 buckwheat now with a rush. I have 

 heard it said tliat sweet clover (Meli- 

 Intus alba) does not yield any honey. 

 I have a small quantity in the yard, 

 and the bees have covered it ever 

 since it blossomed. I have watched 

 sweet clover for the last five years, 

 and, taking the seasons all through, 

 after white clover has gone, nothing 

 excels it; any barren land will grow 

 it, if it is seeded. I notice with much 

 regret the death of my old friend, A. 

 F. Moon, with whom I was personally 

 acquainted for several years previous 

 to his going to Georgia. He was one 

 of our fioble souls. F. II. FiNcn. 



Sharon, O., Aug. 21,1882. J 



[The bees are undoubtedly gather- ■ 

 ing honey-dew, not only from the ma- 

 ples, but perhaps from other forest « 

 trees. Several references to the abun- 1 

 dance of honey-dew this season will 

 be found in the Bee Journal this 

 week.— Ed.] 



Enconragiug in Kentucky. — I will 

 be able to make a very good report 

 from my apiary, notwithstanding the 

 poor commencement this spring. Bees 

 are doing extremely well now on 

 buckberry,red clover,teasel and smart- 

 weed. The goldenrod has made a 

 rank growth, and will bloom profusely. 

 Altogether the outlook is encourag- 

 ing. John T. Connlet. 



Walnut Lick, Ky., Aug. 23, 1882. 



