rHE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



469 



(£joxxzsponticnu. 



This mark © indicates that tlie apiarist is 

 located near the center of the state named ; 

 J north of the center; 9 south; O east; 

 ♦O west; and this (4 northeast: ~o northwest: 

 o» southeast; and ? southwest of the center 

 of the State mentioned. 



For the American Eee JoumaL 



"m Bees are Swaraing. 



!) 



BUGEXE SECOR. 



When the loud, clear notes of the dinner-horn 

 Are heard by the farmer while plowing corn. 

 With the day just betruii on a tine June morn, 



To him it is warning 



That the bees are swarming. 

 And the interest is equal to anew baby born. 



Old *' Doll " is left standing alone in the row. 



In the spot where the dinner-horn prompted the 



" whoa," 

 And ofl'to the house in a sweat he must go; 



For where beea go a-frolicki ng. 



L.ike bobolinks roHickinp. 

 No time must be lost in delay, you know. 



See them gamboling high in the air ! 

 Circling, and crossing, and meeting up there 

 Like the dizzying maze of the dance, when fair 



Young maidens go whirlinf.', 



And young men twirling. 

 Vainly seeking a "queen " in the ball-room's glare. 



With horn, and tin-pan. and old brass-kettle. 

 The children are thundering with all their mettle, 

 The sole aim an I object of this racket to settle 



The frisky young swarm. 



In the ancient form 

 Of drowning a noise by making more rattle. 



While Charlie is gone to the woods for thyme. 

 Slyly watching the red squirrel nimbly climb, 

 Or listening to the mountain brook's sweet rhyme, 



(Sung none the leas sweet 



For the bov's grimy feet.) 

 The dutiful bees are " charmed " in time. 



Clustered at last in that old cherry-tree. 

 But naught of the " hiving" or bees do Isee, 

 For thoughts of the time come back to me. 

 When 1 climbed in its branches. 

 And plucked its ripe bunches. 

 Careless, and thoughtless, and happy and free. 



How old-time memories come trooping to mind ! 

 Dearer and sweeter when looking IJehind. 

 And the thread of our life we seek to unwind. 



While the playful bees. 



In their swarming sprees. 

 Bring back the June days that were once so kind. 



The leafy woods I see once more. 

 The robin and thrush I hear as of yore— 

 I smell the new hay as it falls by the mower ; 

 In the cluver the woodchuck, 

 By his hole near the big rock- 

 All these come back to me while the bees " roar." 



Gently put the new swarm in their nice new home, 

 And disturb not the musings that unbidden come 

 Of the loved scenes and places from which we now 

 roam : 



For thoughts of life's June. 

 When the heart is in tune. 

 Are "sweeter than honey and the honey-comb." 

 Forest City, Iowa. 



For the American Bee JoumaL 



SelliDE Honey in Home Markets. 



REV. M. MAHIN, D.D. 



It is easy in a good season to pro- 

 duce a large quantity of honey either 

 comb or " sincere." (It is said that 

 "sincere" means, etymologically, 

 " without wax " — from sine without, 

 and cera wax, and was orignally used 

 to signify pure honey ; and if the 

 etymology were generally understood 

 it would be just the word we are look- 

 ing for.) I3ut the problem that con- 

 fronts the honey-producer is, how to 

 convert the honey into cash. 



I am fully persuaded that the best 



Elan is for the producer to create a 

 ome market. This can be more 



easily done than many imagine. In 

 three places where I have lived, I 

 have created a demand for " sincere " 

 honey where none existed before. At 

 New Castle, lud., when I began bee- 

 keeping, extracted honey was un- 

 known in that locality. As I did not 

 produce largely at first, I found a de- 

 mand for all I could produce at from 

 20 to 30 cents per pound— the latter 

 for extra basswood ; and as the pro- 

 duction increased, so did the demand. 

 From 1877 to 18S0 I was stationed in 

 Logansport. When I went there, 

 there was no market for honey of any 

 kind, and extracted honey was en- 

 tirely unknown. By putting the lat- 

 ter up in glass jars, and getting some 

 of the grocery men to handle it for me, 

 T soon built up a trade that took all I 

 could produce— about 1,500 pounds 

 per year. In Huntington, where I 

 spent the next three years, the same 

 things happened. Each package had 

 on it a neat label, with my name, and 

 a guaranty of the purity of the honey. 

 All this was done without interfering 

 with my pastoral duties. I did not 

 then produce any comb honey. 



If one has a horse and spring wagon 

 it is an excellent plan to take honey 

 to the homes of the people. Many 

 will buy it at their own doors, of one 

 they know, who would not buy any- 

 where else. And it wiU pay to have 

 small packages of both kinds to give 

 to such as are not disposed to buy. 

 Only this must not be done too often. 

 "VV hen people get a taste of a really 

 good thing, they will be pretty sure 

 to want more of it, and those to whom 

 a little is given to-day, will be likely 

 to buy next time. Years ago, when I 

 had the help of a son, a young man, I 

 found the plan of carrying honey to 

 the homes of the people a great suc- 

 cess. 



The greatest foe to the honey mar- 

 ket, not excepting even the " Wiley 

 lie," is not over production, but the 

 demoralization of the market by small 

 producers. They have a little honey 

 to sell, and not knowing what the 

 price ought to be, or having so little 

 that it is not worth the trouble of 

 marketing, they sell it for less than it 

 is worth. And of course those who 

 learn of these sales will not give more 

 than the price at which these 

 small, and, perhaps, inferior lots,were 

 sold for. 



I am fully persuaded that more 

 honey would be bought and used if 

 the price could be steadily maintained 

 at figures that would give the apiarist 

 a fair living profit, than is bought 

 and used at the present low and irreg- 

 ular prices. When prices are fluctuat- 

 ing, many will not buy at all, unless 

 they are sure that they are paying the 

 lowest market price. 



It is very important that the purity 

 of the honey offered for sale, whether 

 in the comb or out of it, shall be 

 above suspicion. Every body ought 

 to know that adulterated comb honey 

 produced by feeding the bees sugar 

 syrup, or some other liquid sweet — 

 the only way in which it can be 

 adulterated— cannot be produced at a 

 profit ; and if it could be, it is to the 

 interest of every bee-keeper to offer 

 none but what is absolutely pure. 



As to extracted honey : I am not 

 aware that a pound that was not pure 

 has ever been offered for sale by the 

 producer. The adulteration has taken 

 place in the hands of dealers, who 

 were not producers. But everybody 

 does not know this. 



A honey-producer should have a 

 reputation for honesty that will place 

 him above suspicion, and be a guar- 

 anty that none but pure honey will go 

 out of his hands. If he sells extracted 

 honey, it will help his market to in- 

 vite the public to witness the process 

 of extracting. Let the people see the 

 combs taken out of the hives, the 

 honey thrown out, and the combs put 

 back again. Witnessing these opera- 

 tions will be more convincing than 

 any amount of testimony and argu- 

 ment. And it would not be a bad 

 plan to invite the editors of the local 

 papers to witness the process of ex- 

 tracting, etc., and to make them pres- 

 ents of enough honey to put them, 

 and their wives and children in an 

 excellent humor. 



As to price, the question is not 

 easily settled. First-class comb honey 

 ought to retail at not less than 25 

 cents per pound, and first-class " sin- 

 cere " at not less than 15 cents. But 

 what ought to be and what is, are 

 often quite different things. A pound 

 of the best comb honey is worth as 

 much as a pound of the best creamery 

 butter ; and the latter cannot be had 

 for less than 28 cents. A pound of 

 good, fresh extracted honey is worth 

 as much as a pound of comb honey. 

 For my own use I would prefer it. 

 But as it can be produced so much 

 more abundantly and cheaply, we can 

 afford to sell it for less. 



I think that the use of comb foun- 

 dation in the sections has had some 

 adverse influence on the honey mar- 

 ket, and I have ceased to use more 

 than good starters. When I first be- 

 gan to use it, I filled the sections as 

 full as possible ; but I found it diffi- 

 cult to prevent the foundation from 

 warping and making crooked combs. 

 With only starters I get straighter 

 combs, and avoid the hard septum 



that is generally 

 sheets are used, 

 arators. 

 Bluffton,<5 Ind. 



found when 

 I do not use 



full 

 sep- 



For the American Bee Journal. 



Successfnl Wintering of Bees, 



W. J. CULLINAN. 



Without any egotism or attempt at 

 self-aggrandizement, I presume I may 

 ask to be placed upon the somewhat 

 limited list of those who have suc- 

 ceeded in wintering their bees with- 

 out loss. 



As some may remember who read 

 my article last fall, I was preparing 

 my bees for out-door wintering, and 

 the first step taken in that direction 

 was to place tlie bees upon from four 

 to six Langstroth frames, closing 

 them up with a padded division- 

 board. Over the tops of the frames 

 and near the centre were placed three 

 or four little sticks about }4 an inch 



