Vol. XI. 



NOV. 1, 1883. 



No. 11. 



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NOTES FROni THE BANNER APIARV. 



No. 48. 



A CORRECTION. 



SN my report of the bee and honey exhibition at 

 the Michigan State Fair, I gave the amount 

 of Mr. M. H. Hunt's premiums as "over $50.00;" 

 I see, however, by the official report, that they 

 amount to $63.66. I presume that I also erred in 

 calling the exhibition the " largest " ever shown; 

 but at the time of writing I had seen no account of 

 the immense amount of honey on exhibition at 

 Toronto. You think it might be desirable to know 



WHAT I HEARD AT THE STATE FAIR. 



Tt certainly would be amusing; but as to the de- 

 sirability, 1 am not so sure. For instance, H. D. 

 Cutting had a show-case with a curved glass front, 

 and a tall upper apartment with shelves. This show- 

 case was to hold his exhibition of literature, which 

 had not yet been put in place. A bee-keeper, after 

 considerable conversation of a general charcater, 

 asked Mr. C. if he did not And such glass hives rather 

 expensive, pointing, as he spoke, to the show-case. 

 Mr. C. replied, "Yes, rather," and then followed a 

 string of questions as to the advantages and dis- 

 advantages of such a hive. For a wonder, he didn't 

 ask where was the entrance; if he had, Mr. C. said 

 he should have told him that he opened the door 

 when the bees wished to pass out or in. 



One evening, just about sunset, I had carried out 

 my own bees, and was giving them a "fly," when 

 one of them alighted upon the ear of a gentleman 

 standing near. For a wonder, the bee remained un- 



disturbed, and would probably have flown away un- 

 noticed, had not a boy in the crowd shouted, " Say, 

 mister, there's a bee on your ear; why don't you 

 brush him off?" Quick as wink another boy replied. 

 "Oh! I'll tell you, Jim, that bee is after wax." I 

 don't think there was any thing that I heard during 

 the fair that tickled me quite so much as this speech. 



And then a great many visitors, especially ladies, 

 would e.xclaim, upon seeing the bees in the observa- 

 tory-hives, "Oh! here are some bees. Oh, my! how 

 busy they are! I wonder what they are doing. Are 

 they making honey?" This last remark would be 

 addressed to me, and once again I would patiently 

 go through the oft-repeated explanation, and then 

 the visitor would pass on witha satisfied "Oh! that's 

 it." 



It is sometimes amusing to see how differently the 

 public will sometimes " take " things from what one 

 expects them to. For instance, quite a number 

 were in doubt as to whether the honey in my case, 

 labeled " Gilt Edge" honey, was genuine bees' hon- 

 ey, or whether it was some manufactured stuff. 

 That newspaper story, about manufactured honey, 

 that went the rounds two years ago, had so prepared 

 their minds that, when they saw the smooth white 

 sections filled with snowy combs that were as true 

 as so many blocks, and read the inscription upon 

 the case, it is not to be wondered at that I was fre- 

 quently called upon to " explain." 



But there is one thing that the people ore learning, 

 and that is the difference between strained and ex- 

 tracted honey. I heard a large number of people 

 say "Extracted honey." I took one reporter "to 

 do," because be called extracted houey strained 



