tt Journal 



DEVOTED TO THE INTERESTS OF THE PRODUCERS. OF HONEY. 



VOL. XX. 



CHICAGO, ILL., AUGUST 6, 1884 



No. 32. 



Published every Wednesday, by 



THOMAS fi. NEWMAN, 



EDITOF jiXD Pkoprietor, 



The Honey Crop. 



The honey crop of the present year 

 is not up to the standard either in 

 quantity or quality. In some locali- 

 ties the so-called "honey-dew" has 

 been so abundant as even to kill the 

 leaves of the trees where it was de- 

 posited, and, of course, the bees 

 gathered it in large quantities, and 

 deposited it in the hives, but it is 

 unworthy of the name of honey, not 

 being of the nature of that article at 

 all. A communication by Prof. Cook, 

 in last week's Bee .Journal, describes 

 very minutely the insects that deposit 

 it ; and also gives the remedies for 

 preserving the trees from injury. 



But now comes a worse trouble, 

 and it is of a two-fold nature~we 

 refer to the uses to which this so- 

 called " honey-dew " secretion is put, 

 when gathered by the bees. To sell 

 it for honey will be as damaging to 

 the sale of pure honey as to put glu- 

 cose upon the market and sell it for 

 honey, and it should not be done un- 

 der any circumstances. A one-pound 

 section well-filled with this stuff was 

 placed on our desk a few days ago, 

 with the question, "What is it?" It 

 neither has the smell nor taste of 

 honey, and is the poorest kind of a 

 substitute for it. To all, then, the 

 Bee .Journal would say ; " Do not 

 undertake to sell it for honey ; no 

 matter what the amount may be 

 which the bees have deposited in their 

 surplus honey sections." 



The other point of the " caution " 

 which we would give, is this : If the 

 fall crop of honey should be a poor 

 one, the bees may have nothing upon 

 which to subsist during the coming 

 winter, except this secretion of the 



aphidw, misnamed honey-dew, and 

 the result of such a state of affairs 

 may be very detrimental— spreading 

 disease and death all around. 



Should there be a bountifnl honey 

 crop this fall, it will be indeed " a 

 God-send " to the poor bees— saving 

 the lives of millions. Let us hope 

 that it may be so, especially as the 

 basswood has failed in many places, 

 and the early harvest has been, gen- 

 erally, but a very slight one. 



In case the fall-harvest is also a 

 failure, there should be a close inspec- 

 tion of the contents of the hives, a 

 general cleaning-out of the apbidfe 

 secretion by the use of the extractor, 

 and a systematic feeding of the bees 

 with sugar-syrup, or good honey, for 

 winter stores. 



We give this word of warning thus 

 early, so that no one may have an ex- 

 cuse for neglecting the matter until 

 it is too late and thus entail a severe 

 loss of bees during the next winter. 



^^ We have received from Mr. C. 

 B. Schmidt, Commissioner of Immi- 

 gration, Topeka, Kansas, a copy of a 

 little pamphlet published by him, 

 which presents in very Ingenious and 

 striking form the facts about Kansas 

 as an agricultural and stock-growing 

 State. The statements made are illus- 

 trated by colored diagrams ; compari- 

 sons are instituted between Kansas 

 and other States, and different years 

 of Kansas history are compared with 

 each other to show the progress made. 



Local Convention Directory. 



1884. Time and place oj Meeting. 



Aug. 6 — Ijorain Cf).. O.. at Elyria. O. 



O. J. Terrell, Sec, North RidKeyllle, O. 



Aug. 2.— Gibson Co., Tenn., at Trenton. Tenn. 



T.J. Happen, Sec. 



Aug. l:i.— Northeastern Ky., at Covington, Ky. 



G. W. Cree. Sec. 



Aug. I H.— Decatur, a) Greensburg, Ind. 



Henry Carter. 



Aug. lO.-N.W. ni. &S.W. Wis. atL. Hlghbarger'8. 

 J. Stewart, Sec, Rock City, III. 



Oct. II. li— Northern Mich., at Alma, Mich. 

 F. A. Palmer, Sec .vtcBride, Mic 



Oct. t.'j, 16.— Northwestern, at Chicago, III. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec. 



Nov. 2.J.— Western Mich., at Fremont, Mich. 



Geo. B. Hilton, Seo. 



Dec. 3.— Southeastern Mich., at Adrian, Mich. 



A. M. Gander, Sec. 



Dec. 10, 11. — Michigan State, atliansing. 



H. D. Cutting, Sec, Clinton, Mich. 



13?" In order to have this table complete, Secre- 

 taries are requested to forward full particulars of 

 time and place of future meetings.— ED. 



1^" We have received the Premium 

 List of the Upper Mississippi Inter- 

 State Fair, to be held from Aug, 29 to 

 Sept. 5, at Dubuque. Iowa ; but it 

 does not contain any premiums for 

 bees and honey. 



1^ The next meeting of the Bee- 

 Keepers' Association of Boone and 

 Hendricks counties will be held at H. 

 Coxe's apiary, 1J4 miles east of Fay- 

 ette, Boone County, Ind., on Satur- 

 day, Aug. in, 1S84. O. Knowlton. 



Grading, Crating & Shipping Honey. 



In the American Agriculturist for 

 August, we find the following very 

 good hints on marketing honey : 



The first grade should consist of 

 only perfect, white combs, and it is 

 the writer's opinion that, in many 

 instances, there should be only this 

 one grade of comb- honey. Some bee- 

 keepers make a second grade of unfin- 

 ished sections, but if the apiary is 

 rightly managed, there will be but 

 few of these at the close of the sea- 

 son, and it is better to extract the 

 honey from them, and keep the combs 

 until another season. Honey that is 

 too dark for the first grade, should 

 not, as a general thing, be stored in 

 sections, as it is usually more profit- 

 able to extract it. Before crating, 

 sections should be scraped clean of 

 propolis. A small crate is preferable ; 

 it is more easily handled, and less lia- 

 ble to be "dumped," while it some- 

 times enables the retailer to sell a 

 whole crate of honey at once. Sec- 

 tions should be placed only one tier 

 high in shipping-crates;because if any 

 combs of the upuer tier become injur- 

 ed, the honey drips down and soils 

 those of the lower tier. Some bee- 

 keepers make a shallow "dish" of 

 heavy manilla paper, and place it in 

 the bottom of the crate, theti if combs 

 are injured, the "dish" catches the 

 honey, and prevents the soiling of 

 other crates. All honey-crates should 

 have glass on at least one of the sides. 



