AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



315 



There is something perplexing about 

 atmospheric causes, as pertains to the 

 flow, as well as to the quality of honey. 

 In the Summer of 1883, known here as 

 the "rainy, cold Summer," nearly all 

 the honey stored by the bees was effected 

 with ferment, and had a disagreeable, 

 twangy taste. Most people pronounced 

 it "sour." The season of 1884 was 

 warm and showery, the nectar " flowed 

 like a river," and there never was better 

 and more enduring honey than was pro- 

 duced that season. I still have a sam- 

 ple jar of that honey; and it is as fine in 

 flavor and color to-day as when it run 

 from the extractor. 



In 1886 we were scorched to a crust 

 with drouth, and the bee-pasturage had 

 the smell of fire about it, and that sea- 

 son my small crop of honey was damaged 

 by fermentation. 



Last season was rainy, attended by 

 both extremes of cold and heat, and the 

 bees gathered nectar rapidly, and the 

 bulk of my honey crop was first-class in 

 every respect. 



It will be seen, from the facts given 

 above, that no uniform condition of the 

 weather, so far as common observation 

 can discern, is attended with uniform 

 results as to the quality of the honey 

 produced. 



The theory is that any abnormality in 

 the weather, that either produces abnor- 

 mal growth or premature decay in veg- 

 etation, is likely to effect the quality of 

 the nectar, and make it susceptible of 

 excessive fermentation. 



When we take into consideration the 

 fact that all good honey must receive, 

 from the atmosphere sufficient of the 

 leaven of ferment to rahtoe the raw cane 

 sugar, as we see it in good honey, w(! 

 may well be surprised that honey is not 

 injured more frequently than it is by 

 excessive fermentation. 



An interesting exi)eriment, made last 

 Summer with some honey that showed 

 the presence of ferment, both by the 

 bead-like bubbles, when the uncapping 

 knife had laid bare the opened cells, and 

 by its twangy taste, throws some light 

 on the subject, to my mind. When feed- 

 ing, to have unfinished sections com- 

 pleted, I took occasion to have some of 

 the fermented honey rehandled by the 

 bees, to learn, in a practical way, what 

 change, if any, honey undergoes by pass- 

 ing to and from the honey sacs of bees. 



I fed back almost 50 pounds of the 

 fermented honey, and had two cases of 

 sections completed. The sections looked 

 as nice as any, but the quality of the 

 honey was not altered in the least. The 

 "twang" was as strong as ever, and 



when a bit of the capping was cut away, 

 the little bead-like bubbles appeared 

 from the cells just like they did when 

 extracting honey. This experiment leads 

 me to believe that the nectar sours in 

 some cases before the bees gather it. 



THE PROPOSED " TKADE-MARK." 



From what I have written above, it 

 will be seen that all the honey produced 

 by the members of the Bee-Keepers' 

 Union will never be of the same quality, 

 and tills fact alone puts the matter of a 

 " trade-mark," as pertains to the quality 

 of honey, entirely out of the question. 

 Trade-marks are procured to protect 

 peculiar forms of packages, and thus the 

 purity of the article is made sure to the 

 purchaser. But no staple article of 

 commerce, itself, is patentable by trade- 

 mark. The Bee-Keepers' Union, by be- 

 coming a corporation under State law, 

 might adopt certain packages for honey, 

 and protect them by trade-mark, but 

 unless every package and its contents 

 was inspected by a general manager of 

 the corporation, the doings of the cor- 

 poration would smell to the heavens 

 before a single year expired. 



Honey is not a manufactured article ; 

 it is a natural product, and no trade- 

 mark — which, in fact, has the effect of a 

 patent — would be worth the paper it was 

 printed on, if the department was fool- 

 ish enough to grant it. 



I insist that no trade-mark can be 

 made available to bee-keepers, except to 

 protect honey in certain packages, and 

 the packages must be such as is not in 

 coTumon use at the time the trade-mark 

 is applied for. Of course, I speak of 

 availability, not of law. If it was prac- 

 ticable for such a corporation, through 

 its board of diroctors, to handle all the 

 honey produced by the stockholders of 

 the concern, it would give the corpora- 

 tion a chance to protect its good name, 

 and save itself from dissolution. But 

 the idea of a (-(U-poration doing business 

 through all of its members, as individ- 

 uals, in the name of the corporation, is 

 as wild and visionary as is the proposi- 

 tion to procure a trade-mark on a nat- 

 ural product like honey. In my opinion 

 the whole scheme is no better than a 

 rope of sand. 



Christiansburg. Ky. 



Infliana Slate Bee-Keejers' Convention, 



The 1 1th annual Convention of the In- 

 diana bee-keepers met in Indianapolis on 

 Jan. 16, and was called to order at 1 

 p.m. by President E. H. Collins. 



