1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



191 



available home and foreig-n market. 

 Gleanings, as the leading- American if not 

 world's bee journal, can become a power- 

 ful factor in the question. At present we 

 are too much like the cheese and butter 

 men when there was no system in produc- 

 ing these foods, and the best methods of 

 storing after production unknown. 

 Brantford, Canada. 



[This is a question that hing-es largely 

 on localit}'. In Medina, honey left exposed 

 in an open dish will evaporate till it be- 

 comes almost as thick as transparent wax; 

 and most delicious is it when it is of this 

 consistency. We are about 30 miles south 

 of Lake Erie, and you are about 25 north 

 X)f it; and I am at a loss to know why honey 

 in your locality should be stoppered at once 

 when it would not be necessary with us. 



I have always supposed the locality 

 around Medina was about as humid as any 

 place in the United States. I have seen 

 some government statement to the effect that 

 the region near the great lakes, especially 

 Lake Erie, was more subject to rainfall 

 and general dampness than anj'where else 

 in the United States outside of Oregon; and 

 3'et, almost without exception, our honej' 

 becomes thicker on exposure to the air. 

 Only rarely have I seen times when it 

 would apparently absorb moisture. 



I have looked the table over very careful- 

 ly, and I do not see that they bear out j'our 

 position very stronglj'. Table No. 1 relates 

 to honey stored in a cellar. If this is like 

 ordinary underground rooms, I should ex- 

 pect there would be some absorption of wa- 

 ter as a matter of course ; but still the 

 figures show only a very slight increase. 

 Even in table No. 2, where the honey was 

 tested above ground, the difference is not 

 very marked. In one case the unstoppered 

 honey became thicker. In table No. 3 the 

 result is no more than we should expect in 

 a "moist atmosphere." In most localities 

 extracted honey is improved by exposure to 

 the air. For the average locality, in the 

 summer time at least, I believe it would be 

 positively harmful to recommend sealing the 

 hone}', even in that portion of the country 

 known as the rain-belt. Your locality, 

 possibly and probabl}', is an exception. 



—En.] 



»»»«««■ ■ ■ ■ 



PAPER HONEY-PACKAGES. 



How the Bologna-Sausage Package is Stuffed and 

 Marketed. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



Mr. Editor: — I am one of those necessary 

 evils known as cranks. It is the crank 

 that gets motion. If it were not for the 

 crank stirring up things it is very little 

 progress we would ever see, for somehow s.o 

 manj" people are satisfied with just drift- 

 ing with the current as a helpless bark. 

 It seems to be the rule that those who do 

 the most for the world are the ones that get 

 the least out of it except in hatred and 



abuse; but when dead and gone, the world 

 rises up and calls these same cranks bless- 

 ed. Being one of the cranks I do not ex- 

 pect more than is customary with such; but 

 if you will give attention for a little time I 

 will tell you some more about that paper- 

 bag- scheme that has been dubbed by some 

 the " bolog-na sausage." I know that, in 

 due time, it will prove a blessing to very 

 many. It is better to be a Paul than a 

 Judas 



I need not go over the ground in detail 

 again that I have so often discussed, show- 

 ing that the returns coming to the producer 

 out of his product are all out of proportion 

 — that is patent, and known to all thinking 

 men. Under average circumstances The 

 Root Co., and other buyers, would pay me 

 about 6 cents for my extracted honey at 

 their place of business; and when freights 

 and packages are out, that leaves less than 

 4 cents to the producer. The middle man 

 usually wants well nigh that much for prof- 

 it; and he may buy and sell, turning his 

 money several times in a j'ear, while the 

 producer turns his but once, and has his 

 taxes and such out of it at that. I do not 

 need to enter into a lengthy discussion of 

 that question; we are already too familiar 

 with the subject. It is how to forget that 

 problem we want to know. Well, I am go- 

 ing to tell how I have been forgetting, just 

 the way I went about it, and the success 

 attained. I want to detail all I know about 

 it, so as to make it plain that others may 

 take the short cut to the goal. I have 

 always found that comb honey is a luxury 

 — that is, it was not regularly used, and 

 was much influenced in price and demand 

 by general trade conditions; and it is also 

 so perishable and subject to injury that it 

 can scarcely be sold except at a loss after 

 it is a year old. I have found, too, that ex- 

 tracted honey in glass practically amounts 

 to the same thing, especiallj^ when it is in- 

 clined to candy freely, as does all honey in 

 this part of the country. Reliquefying and 

 re-freshening a product after it gets a little 

 old is one of the many things that eat up 

 all profits. 



So, Mr. Editor, I began to hunt for some 

 very simple and cheap package that would 

 carry extracted honej' to the consumer with 

 the least possible expense. I thought of 

 very thin tin, of wooden boxes, of fiber pack- 

 ages, and probablj' a number of others. I 

 found at the factory a fiber package that 

 was not ver}' expensive, but it was construct- 

 ed with straight sides, and would not nest; 

 that is, packages of a given size would not 

 slip into each other; and while the weight 

 was but a trifle when packed for shipment, 

 yet they were very bulkv, and took a high 

 rate of freight — the charges on the empty 

 package being almost equal to the first cost 

 at facto^^^ At last I decided to trj' a sim- 

 ple paper bag. and so got a few of the com- 

 mon grocers" bags, such as are used to put 

 up sugar, rice, dried fruits, and such, and 

 filled them. These bags were, however, 

 not made to hold liquids, and there was no 



