THE AMERICAJS BEE JOQRNAi.. 



791 



have done lieretofore. See if it does 

 not. I was l)oin in England, and I 

 know wliat I am saying— or 1 tliink 

 I do. 



If Mr. Ileddon is riglit, then tliis 

 organization of Uritisli beekeepers 

 will affect the sales of American 

 honey (pure or adulterated) very little; 

 if 1 am right, it will cut them down. 

 Let the event settle it. I know tliat 

 England cannot produce as much 

 honey as she uses, but whereas the 

 English have been using much honey 

 produced here, they will now get car- 

 goes from Australia and Xew Zea- 

 land, and, perhaps, from Canada, or 

 from some British colony. 



This is what the " sharp Alec's '' in 

 the shape of American adulterators 

 have done for us. For instance, take 

 myself ; I was very seriously contem- 

 plating sending my honey to" England 

 — hoiifV whicli I will warrant and 

 swear to be pure honey without the 

 least shadow of adulteration near it ; 

 but now I shall wait, and like Rip 

 Van Winkle, when he was asked what 

 he would now do if his wife tumbled 

 into the river, he replied : '• Stop and 

 think about it awhile.'' I believe it 

 would work the same here. Mr. Hed- 

 don does not give us any reasons why 

 he makes his prediction, and I only 

 can infer that they are because of liis 

 ideas on specialty, and that we have 

 had altogether too much outcry as to 

 adulteration. 



Xow, [ believe in Mr. Ileddon's 

 ideas on making the business thor- 

 oughly a specialty, and heartily con- 

 cur in his remarks as to the mistake 

 made by so many supply dealers in 

 trying to induce everybody and his 

 wife to go into the business ; but Mr. 

 Heddon must remember that the 

 adulteration cry is not made so much 

 by bee-papers as it is by the thous- 

 ands of outside periodicals which re- 

 port cases. 



If bee-papers, by talking about 

 adulteration, cause their readers and 

 honey-producers to adulterate by giv- 

 ing them the wrinkle, then. Mr. Hed- 

 don, we are a bad lot — and no mis- 

 take. No, it is not the honey-pro- 

 ducers who do the adulterating, it is 

 the middlemen and merchants who 

 buy honey in bulk from the apiarists 

 and then bottle and can it. 



Why, a friend of mine who was 

 employed in one of these very 

 houses, and who did not know a 

 queen from a drone, told me how it 

 was done, and gave me the propor- 

 tions of honey to glucose, etc. ; if I 

 remember rightly, it was about 30 per 

 cent, of honey. Yet this same stuff 

 was and is sold as pure honey. It is 

 these fellows that we have to tight, 

 and we have lo fight them not around 

 our own homes in the country so 

 much as in cities ; and in the cities 

 the people do not know who Heddon 

 or Doolittle is. and if they did, Hed- 

 don and Doolittle could not begin to 

 supply those who want honey, so their 

 private labels are lost in the crowd. 

 The fact is. honest though every one 

 of us may be, we are too isolated to 

 be felt. Let us unite, have a common 

 label, organize, and then we can 

 strike effectively at those who are in- 



juring us and taking the bread out of 

 our mouths. 



Personally I am not hurt yet, and 

 more, I do not propose to be ; but I 

 will say this : If one thing more 

 than another would make me give up 

 producing honey, it would be just this 

 refusal or lack of "git up" on the 

 part of bee-keepers to take advantage 

 of one of the first lessons their colo- 

 nies teach them— unity of purpose for 

 the common benelit— a lesson which 

 every trades' union in the land em- 

 phasizes, and a lesson which is one of 

 the tirst taught us in our childhood by 

 the story of the Tvomau father and his 

 sons and the example of the bundle 

 of rods. 



In i'orkshire where I was born, cer- 

 tain judicious men were described as 

 being men " who save through the 

 vent hole, but let their money go out 

 by the bung hole " — and this is a very 

 expressive way of putting the policy 

 which we bee-keepers are now carry- 

 ing out. We strive hard and rack our 

 brains to get in an extra pound of 

 honey, but when we let the big, city 

 honey-houses manipulate and retail it, 

 we are surely letting our money go 

 out at the bung hole of our honey 

 barrel with a vengeance. They will 

 soon not be satisfied with the "bung 

 liole," but will knock in the barrel 

 head itself. 



Mr. Ileddon may term this a 

 "lament" if he desires — I call it a 

 word in season. " Fore warned 

 should be fore armed," and I say to 

 you, fellow bee-keepers, you must 

 move in this matter, your vital inter- 

 ests demand it, and unless you do, 

 you will regret it. " Now is the ac- 

 cepted time, and now is the day of 

 salvation." 



Austin,© Texas. 



Country Gentleman. 



Timely Hints for the Apiary. 



J. SINGLETON. 



Winter is a time of comparative 

 leisure to the bee-keeper as well as to 

 the farmer, and should be improved 

 by both in laying plans for another 

 campaign when tlie season opens. 

 The question of primary importance 

 at the present season is : In what 

 sliape shall I have my lioney crop put 

 up, in order to realize the greatest 

 returns from it ? Those who have 

 had several years' experience in the 

 improved manner of beekeeping, and 

 have made a business of it, will by 

 tills time, no doubt, have solved the 

 question for themselves ; but; to a 

 majority of those who keep bees 

 merely as a secondary matter, and 

 who have but few colonies, it is still an 

 open question. Looking over the 

 files of the different bee-papers, we 

 find about as many advocates for pro- 

 ducing comb honey as we do for ex- 

 tracted, as a matter of profit. For a 

 few colonies, no doubt, in my mind, 

 comb honey will be as profitable, con- 

 sidering the less time and attention 

 needed to care for the crop and the 

 bees during the time of gathering; 

 but for an apiary of 75 to 200 colonies 

 or more, if one has abundant help, I 



consider that extracted honey will 

 bring the greatest returns. 



Now is the time for each apiarist 

 to decide for himself, taking into con- 

 sideration local variations in market. 

 In some parts little extracted honey 

 can be sold, and that at a low figure. 

 In such a case, comb honey W'ill, of 

 course, be found the most profitable. 

 Every honey-producer should culii- 

 vate his home market, and by sup- • 

 plying only pure honey, put up in 

 attractive, clean tin pails or glass jars 

 with labels, on which is printed the 

 name of the apiarist as a guaranty of 

 its purity, a fair local trade can 

 usually be worked up without paying 

 any profits to middlemen, or loss in 

 transit anti storage. I have usually 

 had no ilitficulty in selling all my 

 honey within a radios of a few miles 

 of home, long before the next year's 

 crop came in. 



If the decision be in favor of pro- 

 ducing comb honey, see to it that 

 there is enough wide frames for hold- 

 ing the sections, giving room for at 

 least 100 or l-JO pounds per colony, as 

 it is better to have more frames on 

 hand than we expect to need ; it often 

 saves a great deal of trouble hunting 

 ;ip and emptying frames of sections 

 not quite completed, from other colo- 

 nies. Ill producing comb honey the 

 question arises as to the size of sec- 

 tions, whether the }|-pounds, 1-pounds 

 or2-pounds. No douTjt a greater weight 

 of honey willbestored, under the same 

 circumstances, in the large sections 

 than in the small ones ; but in most 

 instances the large ones can only be 

 sold at a reduction of several cents 

 per pound, while the smaller ones are 

 always salable, and command the 

 highest price. 



If comb honey is to be the oViject, 

 a full supply of wide frames and sec- 

 tions should be on hand in good time, 

 also foundation tor starters, which I 

 prefer to use almost as large as the 

 sections, within I4 inch of sides and 

 bottoms. If the foundation is made 

 thin, 10 or 12 feet to a pound, the bees 

 will work it out so there will be no 

 " fish-bone " in the honey, and no 

 difference can be perceived between 

 that and comb made altogether by 

 the bees, while the use of full-sized 

 pieces of foundation will insure 

 straight combs and facilitate the 

 work of the bees, inducing tliem to 

 occupy the sections more readily than 

 the small bits used some years ago. 



If extracted honey is to be pro- 

 duced, have on hand a full supply of 

 clean frames with good straight 

 combs or foundation ready for im- 

 mediate use when the season opens. 

 Often it is not convenient in the busy 

 season to extract as quickly as combs 

 are taken off the hives, aiid a gi^od 

 supply of empty combs in reserve, or 

 frames and foundation is very con- 

 venient, as the full combs can be put 

 away for " a more convenient sea- 

 son," and good straight combs evenly 

 drawn out are a "handy thing to have 

 a good stock of " when well secured 

 from moths and other depredators. 

 Have ready, also, a good extractor of 

 right size to fit the frames in use in 

 the apiary. Also have an uncapping 

 knife and waxed barrels, or better 



