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fHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Marketing Honey. 



Mr. .Jerome Tvvicliell, of Kansas 

 City, Mo., has sent us a circular, en- 

 titled "Some Light on the Subject of 

 Manufacturing and Adulterating 

 Honey", which we give below. This 

 shows what can be done by one per- 

 son, to benetit honey-producers, by 

 refuting the falsehoods circulated 

 concerning comb honey : 



There is a class of people who seem 

 to delight in trying to establish the 

 moral depravity of man, and wlio 

 would make everytliing and every- 

 body out as bad till proven otherwise. 

 This comes partly from ignorance and 

 partly from that general distrust 

 whicli is engendered in a great meas- 

 ure by the very weakness in one's 

 self tliat he would impute to others. 

 This world is not nearly so bad as 

 some would like to make it ; and if a 

 person be honest and truthful himself, 

 he will investigate very closely before 

 accusing others. How ridiculous, too, 

 some people will make themselves 

 before others who know better, by 

 their gratuitous lies cohcerniug the 

 wonderful production of imitations 

 that far exceed the original in beauty 

 and general perfection. I would 

 speak now only of comb honey. I 

 have heard persons assert in the most 

 positive way that they knew that 

 comb honey could be, and is manu- 

 factured ; that they had seen tlie 

 honey, and had also seen the person 

 who had seen it made. But 1 have 

 never yet been able to trace up the 

 other fellow who had himself seen the 



Srocess, nor do I think I ever will. 

 fo : this much slandered article is as 

 yet beyond the baleful influence of 

 fraudulent imitations, and I defy any 

 one to prove the contrary. 



To a sensibly reasoning and think- 

 ing person who has ever examined a 

 piece of comb honey, the impossibili- 

 ty of manufacturing the comb, filling 

 it up and sealing it over and preserv- 

 ing the natural appearance of all, will 

 at once appear, at least so far as mak- 

 ing it cheaper than can be done by 

 the bees. And what other motive 

 can there be for imitating an article 

 of merchandise, than for the greater 

 gain V There may be, and no doubt 

 are, some honest, faii'-minded people 

 who really do believe it is done, and 

 the impression is probably gained from 

 what they have seen, heard or read of 

 comb foundation, I think it likely 

 that tills comb foundation is what 

 tirst gave the idea of such a thing as 

 manufactured comb honey, and the 

 story has become mutilated and mul- 

 tiplied, till we have the very name 

 and address of the manufacturer. 

 But somehow never a reply has come 

 to the numerous letters addressed to 

 him. 



Now, this comb foundation which 

 has probably been the innocent cause 

 of so much lying, is simply a sheet of 

 beeswax roiled out thin, with the 

 shape of the honey-cells at the bottom 

 impressed in it, and corresponds with 

 the center division of the comb. This 

 is cut into little strips and placed in 



tlie boxes in which the bees are to 

 build their comb, for a guide, and by 

 this means the comb is built in the 

 middle of the little box. Then be- 

 tween each of these boxes is usually 

 placed a sheet of tin, called a separa 

 tor, so that the comb can be built out 

 just so thick as to leave only working 

 room between it and the separator, 

 and thereby making the smooth, even 

 surface which some people take to be 

 a sure indication of the manufactured 

 article. 



Scientific bee-culture has been 

 reduced to such a tine point that few 

 can realize what perfect control the 

 master has over the iittle workers. 

 They are made to form the letters of 

 the alphabet and all kinds of fancy 

 designs, by the construction of the 

 boxes, and they do their work, under 

 proper management, cheaper and 

 better, I think, than ever man can, 

 by hand or machinery. 



This much, however, must be ad- 

 mitted, that the bees will store honey 

 from anything from which they can 

 gather it, whether the orange blos- 

 som, mangrove or palmetto of riori- 

 da, the while sage of California, the 

 white clover, linn and other flowers 

 of the North, or from the old sugar 

 and glucose barrels around a grocery 

 store in town. It all becomes honey, 

 however, when gathered and deposit- 

 ed in the comb liy the bees, and eacli 

 kind has to go through the same pro- 

 cess of piiritication. The flavor, 

 though is unchanged, and hence we 

 And such a vast difference in the taste 

 of honey. Honey gathered from hon- 

 ey-dew, which is found in great 

 abundance on the leaves of trees at 

 certain times, is very dark, and tastes 

 not unlike New Orleans molasses. 

 Honey produced by feeding the bees 

 glucose will be a white, flavorless 

 sweet, similar in all respects to the 

 original article, except in being 

 cleansed and purifled, and not at all 

 injurious, though undesirable to eat, 

 for want of flavor. But feeding bees 

 is done to sustain them when the 

 honey-flow fails in the flowers, and 

 not to inoduce honey for sale, as it 

 would then cost more than it comes 

 to. From a pound of sugar or glu- 

 cose they would deposit not more 

 than half a pound of honey in the 

 comb, so that it would cost from U) to 

 \o cents more to produce a pound of 

 honey this way than from the flowers. 

 So it will be seen that no fear need be 

 entertained on that score. 



WHY EXTRACTED HONEY CAN BE 

 SOLD CHEAPER THAN COMB-HONEY. 



There are many persons who, being 

 ignorant of the way extracted honey 

 is produced, will expand their faces 

 in a knowing smile when told the dif- 

 ference in price between it and comb 

 honey, as much as to say, "Oh, yes, I 

 see ; the glucose in the extracted 

 honey is what makes it cheaper." 

 This causes a great many to avoid 

 extracted honey as they would iiotel 

 hash. I will endeavor to explain the 

 difference in cost of producing and 

 marketing the two kinds, which will 

 readily account for the difference in 

 price. 



The apiarist, in preparing to pro- 

 duce extracted honey, constructs the 



frames in which the bees are to build 

 the combs, large and strong, with a 

 wire-and wax foundation in the cen- 

 tre. Upon this foundation the bees 

 build the honey-cells, and when well- 

 tilled, a single frame will contain some 

 20 or 25 pounds of honey. This then 

 is removed from the hive, and after 

 "uncapping" the cells on one side, by 

 shaving the surface of the comb witti 

 a sharp knife, is placed with several 

 other frames similarly prepared, into 

 the "Extractor" with the uncapped 

 cells facing outward. The Extractor 

 is a maciiine constructed upon the 

 centrifugal principal, with a revolving 

 cylinder, so arranged as to receive 

 and firmly hold the honey-frames. 

 The cylinder is then made to revolve 

 rapidly by means of a crank and gear- 

 ing, and the honey is thrown out of 

 the cells against the casing of the 

 machine and passes to the tank below. 

 The frames are then reversed in the 

 machine after uncapping the cells on 

 the other side, and the same process 

 repeated empties the combs entirely 

 of the honey. They are thus uninjur- 

 ed and can be used over and over 

 again, being placed back in the hives 

 and are filled in a short time, thereby, 

 saving the bees much time and labor 

 in building new combs. A colony of 

 bees will produce double the quantity 

 of honey in this way. The honey 

 thus extracted is put into barrels, 

 cans, or any other inexpensive pack- 

 age, and can be shipped at a low rate 

 or freiglit, with no risk of breakage, 

 etc. Comb honey, on the contrary, 

 must be produced in 1-pound and 2- 

 pound section-boxes, at a cost of % to 

 1 cent each, then put into crates of 20 

 to 25 pounds at a cost of 10 to 15 cents 

 each, and finally sent to market at 

 double first-class freight rates with 

 an average of 10 per cent, to 15 per 

 cent, damage in transit. Thus it is 

 not strange that extracted honey ciin 

 be sold 5 cents or (i cents cheaper than 

 comb honey. That much extracted 

 honey is adulterated, and sold for the 

 pure article, cannot be denied ; but 

 plenty can be had from reliable deal- 

 ers with a Guaranty of purity, and an 

 affidavit when called for. I furnish 

 an affidavit of purity with all the hon- 

 ey that I sell. 



i^ The Kentucky bee-keepers and 

 others are requested to note the fol- 

 lowing change in the place of meeting 

 of the State Convention : 



Please change the place of meeting 

 of the Kentucky State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association, as announced in the Bee 

 .JouRNAi., from the Exposition at 

 Louisville, to Eminence, Ky., on 

 Sept. 2 and 3. N. P. Allen, 



Sec. Ky. State B. K. Society. 



^" The fifth semi-annual meeting 

 of the Western Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion will be held at Independence, 

 Mo., on Sept. 17, 18 and 19, 1884. 



C. M. Crandall, Sec. 



^" The Southern Indiana Bee- 

 Keepers' Association will meet at 

 Madison, Ind., on Sept. 4, 1884, at the 

 Fair Grounds. Dr. Firth, Sec. 



