82 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



down to zero ; it was several times at 

 3° and 5° above at daybreals, but at 

 noon it liad raised to 29°. It was, for 

 several weeks, at 10° and 12° above at 

 daybreak, and 30° and 40° at noon ; 

 and about every week or ten days the 

 bees liad a flight. 



Last winter, the thermometer did 

 not sink much below 25° above zero 

 at niglit, and at noon fiO° to 75°. 



Last Sunday, Jan. 21, was the cold- 

 est of the season ; at daybreak it was 

 at 9° above zero; and at noon 30°. 

 Yesterday it was uioderating ; at day- 

 break 16°; and at noon 45°. To-day 

 is pleasant.and bees fly if they want to. 



In cool, hard winters I put my bees 

 into a bee-house, or pack them with 

 leaves and straw, for about 6 weeks, 

 from Dec. 10 to the middle or last of 

 January, and it saves honey. There 

 is very little breeding at this date. 

 This is an indication that we will have 

 a late spring. 



Forest City, Ark., Jan. 23, 1883. 



For the American Bee Journal. 



How to Market Honey. 



Q. W. DEMARBE. 



Mr. James Heddon " publicly in- 

 vites " me to write an article on the 

 above subject. Of course he does not 

 expect to be benefited by it himself, 

 because he has already " got there." 

 It is presumable, however, that he 

 wishes to " prove me " as to whether 

 I know anything about practical mat- 

 ters pertaining to bee culture. I 

 write, then, in the hope of benefiting 

 those who have had trouble to es- 

 tablish a market for their honey. I 

 believe that there are many such, 

 judging from the private inquiries I 

 have received in the past. 



Before I take up the subject, how- 

 ever, I wish to say that the article of 

 Mr. Heddon, which contains the invi- 

 tation before mentioned, though pur- 

 porting to be a " clear " statement of 

 his " position," shows " confusion 

 worse confounded." His " second " 

 proposition which, in fact, is the text 

 of his discourse, is replete with error, 

 and is marvelously superficial, when 

 viewed from a historical and scientific 

 standpoint. Of our native bees, un- 

 contaminated with the blood of other 

 races, I have noticed at least four 

 varieties. Wliile, of the Italian, the 

 variety is " legion," hence, to con- 

 fine the "long" or "shorter-bodied " 

 specimens of the Italian to any im- 

 aginary variety of the race, is not 

 only an error, but is an egregious 

 blunder. The truth is, the long, 

 slender-bodied specimens of the Ital- 

 ian race are superior to the short, 

 thii^k -bodied specimens, no matter 

 whether they are " dark " or " light." 

 As far as my observation extends, 

 the length of the body is in no way 

 inlliu'uced by the color. 



Mr. II. has not attempted to con- 

 trovert a single important proposition 

 that I have laid down, exeei)t in the 

 way of argumentum ad ccu?)ie>! am— ar- 

 gument to tlie purse, "bread and 

 butter." Is life a great "tread 

 wheel," with its perpetual creaking 

 under an unceasing tread V Even 



though the inevitable trough be filled 

 with bread and butter, such a life is 

 the meanest bondage tliat ever bowed 

 the neck of man. If all of us should 

 write on " bread and butter," who 

 would be left to do the scientific 

 thinking and writing V 



In the " long ago " I kept some bees 

 to supply our table with honey ; and, 

 even then, when I knew but little 

 about bees, I loved to watch them as 

 they bore their precious loads of nec- 

 tar to their home—" sweet home." 

 After the modern system of bee-keep- 

 ing became a reality, I purchased 

 some Italian bees and began to study 

 their habits and natural history. 

 Time went on, and my bees multi- 

 plied under good management, and 

 soon we had honey for our own use 

 and plenty to spare, and of this, I 

 would send around to our neighbors, 

 each a nice package, every once in a 

 while. When a person wanted a 

 "bucket" of honey I .sold it to him. 



I bought an extractor and produced 

 both comb and extracted honey. I 

 felt some anxiety to introduce the ex- 

 tracted article, but the chances looked 

 bad at the start. My customers, wlien 

 they came for honey, would say, " I 

 want honey just like that I got from 

 you last." I would sliow them the one- 

 and-a-lialf-pound sections, and show 

 them the article of extracted, and ex- 

 plain it all to tliem. It was all " won- 

 derful and nice," but they must have 

 it just like that they got from me be- 

 fore. Very well, then, I would say, 

 just leave your buckets here and I 

 will fill them in a few days. To fill 

 these orders my nice section honey 

 was cut out and the buckets were 

 filled without bruising the combs 

 more than could be avoided, and then 

 the very best quality of extracted 

 honey was poured into the buckets 

 till every nook and corner was full. 

 Put up in this way, a three gallon 

 bucket will hold 35 pounds of our best 

 white clover honey. Tiiese packages 

 gave perfect satisfaction, and when 

 these customers returned for more 

 honey, they were pressing in their re- 

 quests that the honey must be just 

 like what they had been getting 

 from me. 



On one occasion, a good customer 

 sent in 4 three-gallon buckets, and 

 ordered them filled with honey " like 

 he had been getting from me." At a 

 venture, I filled 3 of them in the 

 usual way, and the other I filled with 

 the very bestarticleof extracted white 

 clover, so thick that it would nearly 

 " stand alone." Being a pleasant fel- 

 low to deal with, he said nothing and 

 paid the bill— 20 odd dollars. The 

 next season, his buckets came back 

 with an order for 1 or 2 hundred 

 pounds of honey like" that one bucket 

 that had no wax in it." He had " put 

 that bucket full aside till winter, and 

 it was simply splendid, there were no 

 pieces of hard wax to get into his 

 teeth ;" others were induced to try it, 

 and it " took " every time. 



Well, by and by, my little honey 

 house became stored with more honey 

 than my good little home market de- 

 manded, and I began to look out for 

 a city market. I put some samples of 

 nice section in the " show case." in a 



fancy grocery, in Shelbyville, and 

 they stood there several weeks. They 

 were " very nice," but nobody seemed 

 to think that honey, in that shape, was 

 made to eat. I then corresponded 

 with a firm in Louisville, proposing 

 to send them some sample crates of 

 sections ; also some extracted honey ; 

 explaining the whole thing to them, 

 and setting a price on the honey, war- 

 ranting the honey to be just as I de- 

 scribed it, or they might return it, at 

 my expense. They wrote me to send 

 it on, and I sent them one crate of 32 

 sections and 2 sixty-pound kegs of ex- 

 tracted honey. In a few days I re- 

 ceived a check for the price of the 

 honey, and an order for more. I now 

 had an outlet for all the crop that was 

 not taken by the home market. 



It is unnecessary to pursue the sub- 

 ject further, all large things have 

 small beginnings. It takes skill and 

 patience to create a demand for honey, 

 in any locality, where the business Is 

 new. "but when once the trade is es- 

 tablished, it is as easy to sell honey as 

 any other product for consumption. 

 I insist that our local markets should 

 be cultivated to the fullest extent, for 

 we thereby lessen the competition in 

 the city markets. The subject, per- 

 taining to the " size of the packages," 

 is interesting ; but to create a demand 

 for honey as daily food in the stead of 

 the vile table syrups on the markets, 

 is a matter of more interest. 



Christiansburg. Ky. 



Nebraska State Convention. 



The Nebraska State Bee-Keepers' 

 Association met at the Court House 

 in Wahoo, and was called to order by 

 T. L. VoiiDoru, President, on Jan. 11, 

 1883. Quite a large number of the 

 members from various portions of the 

 State were present. 



Secretary Hawley read his annual 

 report, which on motion was recived 

 and placed on file. The treasurer, F. 

 F. Caldwell, made his annual report, 

 which on motion was referred to a 

 committee on finance, consisting of 

 Messrs. Trester, Rose and Jordan. 



The bill of the Allen Printing Co., 

 of Omaha, for 250 copies of the By- 

 laws of the Association, amounting 

 to $7.50, was allowed, and an order 

 drawn on the treasurer for the amount. 



Quite a number joined the Associa- 

 tion, and members paid their dues. 



The election of officers was post- 

 poned until 9 a. m. to-morrow. 



On motion, the president was in- 

 structed to appoint a committee of 

 one on statistics, and M. L. Trester, 

 of Lincoln, was appointed as such 

 committee. 



Mr. Corbett, of Plattsmouth, called 

 for a report from persons who had 

 cultivated forage for bees. This led 

 to a spirited and lively discussion re- 

 garding the successful growing of 

 clovers and tame grasses in Nebraska, 

 which was of great interest to farmers 

 and slock raisers, as well as apiarists. 



Mr. Stark, of Beatrice, said : I have 

 sowed about 40 acres of red clover and 

 it is doing well, and I have a good pas- 

 ture. I plowed the ground, harrowed 

 it until vvell pulverized, then sowed 



