590 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1 



sent for. When he arrived he stupidly or- 

 dered the bandage removed at once, with 

 the result that the poison was carried al- 

 most immediately to the heart, causing- 

 death in a few minutes. Mj' friend told 

 me that this physician simply did not un- 

 derstand his business or else he would not 

 have given such blundering and fatal ad- 

 vice. The trouble was he ordered the band- 

 age removed ioo soon, before the poison 

 could be diluted locallj'. The girl was do- 

 ing nicely up to the time of the loosening of 

 the bandage. I understand that snake- 

 bites should, when possible, be treated by 

 cutting off the circulation to the heart by 

 means of a rope or handkerchief bound 

 tightly above the wound. The bitten por- 

 tion should be cut out, or when practicable 

 the poison should be sucked out by the 

 mouth. An old trapper once told me that 

 he was bitten at a point where he could not 

 strangle the circulation, so to speak, or 

 reach the wound with his mouth, and he 

 was alone. With his hunting-knife he cut 

 out the portion of flesh bitten by the snake, 

 for there was no time to lose. The part re- 

 moved turned perfectly green in a few min- 

 utes, but our old friend lived, without the 

 use of li(iuor or any other dose. Now, then, 

 to get back to our text, j'our treatment is a 

 good deal like the rational treatment ap- 

 plied in the case of snake-bites. But with 

 bee-stings it is not necessary (and perhaps 

 it may be impossible) to remove the virus, 

 because the opening through which the poi- 

 son is injected is very small indeed. If I 

 understand the philosophy of your treat- 

 ment, it is that the poison will be dissipat- 

 ed locally in the blood, and when the pain 

 disappears the blood with the poison great- 

 ly diluted can be allowed to circulate as 

 before. — Ed.] 



UNRIPE HONEY 



FOR THE CONFECTIONER AND 

 BAKER. 



How it May Injure the Sale of Good Honey ; a Vig- 

 orous Protest. 



BY R. A. BURNETT. 



In a recent number Mr. A. I. Root, in one 

 his Home articles, spoke of a bee-keeper in 

 Northern Michigan who sold her honey in 

 a perfectly raw state to a confectioner, and 

 that both the buyer and seller of said honey 

 seemed to be well pleased with their opera- 

 tions. "The producer sold a much larger 

 quantity of hone}' from each colony of bees 

 by taking it out of the combs before it was 

 sealed than if it had been sealed and allow- 

 ed to ripen before extracting." 



Now, if there is any one thing that is 

 more injurious than another to the sale of 

 extracted honey, it is unripe or improperly 

 cured honey. I do not know that I have 

 read any thing in a long time which anno}-- 

 ed me more than the publicity given to that 

 method of obtaining a large quantity of 

 hone}'. 



I have for many years sold honey to man- 



ufacturers; but where they got uncured hon- " 

 ey it had the effect of reducing their con- 

 sumption in the near future, as it did not 

 give satisfaction in the product of which it 

 was a component. 



I will take the liberty of citing a most 

 striking example of marketing honey in 

 a green state. Certain bee-keepers in 

 the main buckwheat sections of New 

 York, in recent j^ears, got immense returns 

 from their bees by taking off the combs be- 

 fore the honey had been sealed, or very soon 

 thereafter. Some of them were called 

 " Lightning Operators." Their honey was 

 sold on the reputation that buckwheat hon- 

 ey had made for itself, that of being a good 

 article for baking purposes; but after two 

 or three 5'ears of disappointment with buck- 

 wheat honey (that they occasionally got 

 hold of) these manufacturers finally deter- 

 mind that they would use no more buck- 

 wheat hone}', for of late it had been very 

 unsatisfactory in many instances. The re- 

 sult is, that for the past two or three years 

 these largest of consumers will not have 

 any thing to do with honey that has any 

 symptom of buckwheat about it; and as its 

 use for other purposes is very limited we 

 have great difficulty in disposing of it; and 

 when we do it is at a low price. 



I am firmly of the opinion that, had it 

 not been for the greed of these bee-keepers, 

 buckwheat honey to-day would be in as 

 great demand as it was ten and twenty 

 years ago; for at that time it was consider- 

 ed one of the best kinds of honey for bak- 

 ing purposes. 



Some mention has been made of late con- 

 cerning Cuban honey, or the honey of the 

 West Indies, which honey has also been 

 largely used for baking. If these tactics 

 of marketing the unripe product are followed 

 they will soon bring the product of that 

 section into such disrepute that honey from 

 the islands will be shunned just as buck- 

 wheat is in the United States at the pres- 

 ent writing. 



Chicago, June 6. 



[Mr. Burnett is entirely right, and we 

 (A. I. R. and myself) wish to endorse his 

 protest from beginning to end. Mr. Root 

 senior only meant to refer to what had been 

 done by one bee-keeper in Michigan; but it 

 is apparent the practice should be con- 

 demned just as vigorously as actual adul- 

 terating, for the one leads almost to as seri- 

 ous consequences as the other. It is well 

 known to the writer that some bee-keepers 

 in York State have been careless about put- 

 ting out unripe buckwheat honey; they 

 supposed that so long as it was used for 

 manufacturing purposes no harm would re- 

 sult; but if they could see some of the pro- 

 tests I have seen, they would let the honey 

 fully ripen in the combs before extracting. 

 It is true that the market for York State 

 buckwheat extracted has been injured al- 

 most beyond repair. In saying this I do 

 not mean to imply that all buckwheat from 

 that section has been unripe. — Ed.] 



