AMERICAN BEE oOURNAL. 



323 



unglassed honey. ' If some of the combs 

 in an upper tier leak, they will drip over 

 the bottom rows, and soil the whole 

 crate. 



For glassed or unglassed honey, we 

 advise the use of heavy paper in the bot- 

 tom of the crate, turned up about half 

 an inch on the sides. If some of the 

 combs should be broken down, this will 

 prevent the honey from leaking through 

 the crates. In addition, it is advisable 

 to lay strips of wood of about M inch in 

 thickress on the paper, from side to side, 

 for the combs to rest on. This will pre- 

 vent the honey dripping from the broken 

 combs from soiling the good combs. Of 

 course, it is not necessary to go to this 

 trouble when the honey is shipped in 

 paper boxes. 



" What part of the honey ^ould be 

 sent to market in paper boxes, glassed 

 or unglassed ?" Up to last year we have 

 said, about one-third of each kind, as the 

 demand was about equally divided. We 

 now use 50 per cent, glassed, 30 per 

 cent, paper boxes, and 20 per cent, un- 

 glassed, as near as we are able to 

 estimate. 



The reasons why glassed honey has 

 the preference seem to be these : The 

 retailer can take every comb from the 

 crate and make a handsome display of it 

 (this, of course, can be done with the 

 paper boxes, but the glass will show the 

 quality of every comb) ; the dust cannot 

 settle on the honey ; and the glass will 

 prevent inquisitive and curious custo- 

 mers from sticking their fingers in the 

 comb. 



Another item of great Importance, is 

 to have the sections weigh not over one 

 pound each, and less if possible. Our 

 market demands light weights at all 

 times, be the honey glassed, unglassed, 

 or in paper boxes. Heavy sections are 

 generally rejected, and we find it slow 

 work moving them off. 



We would call your special attention 

 to the grading of the honey, which is as 

 important a question as any of the 

 former, and in which too much care can- 

 not be taken. Very often we receive 

 honey which is not properly graded, and 

 . where off-grades are mixed in with the 

 first-grade, and marked No. 1 white 

 honey. The outside combs will appear 

 all right, but inside of the crate will be 

 the poorer grade. We cannot take the 

 trouble to open and examine every crate 

 and comb, but have to rely on the ship- 

 per, and go by the mark and the appear- 

 ance of the crate. We sell and ship the 

 honey, and the first thing we know, the 

 party who bought it will complain about 

 the quality, and hold the honey subject 



to our order, and we must either have 

 the honey shipped back to us, or make 

 an allowance satisfactory to the buyer. 

 This is certainly not very pleasant ; it 

 hurts our reputation, and we are apt to 

 lose that customer. Not alone this, but 

 the shipper is also dissatisfied, as gen- 

 erally he expects the highest market 

 prices, and often will not admit that the 

 honey was not properly graded, while no 

 one but himself is to blame. All this can 

 be avoided if the honey is properly 

 graded. 



Tw o grades of white honey are suffi- 

 cient for our markets. For "fancy 

 white," select only what is fancy white. 

 For second grade, or " fair white," take 

 combs that are stained, or a trifle off in 

 color, and combs scantily filled around 

 the edges. Any combs mixed with dark 

 or buckwheat honey should not be put 

 in with the second grade. Such honey 

 cannot be sold for white honey, and will 

 not sell for more than buckwheat. In 

 fact, a straight buckwheat finds better 

 sale than mixed honey. This should be 

 crated by itself and marked " mixed " or 

 " dark " honey. 



Our market demands a limited quan- 

 tity of two-pound sections. About 10 

 per cent, of the honey we receive is in 

 two-pound sections, which is sufficient 

 to supply the demand. They should be 

 glassed altogether, and put in crates 

 holding 12 or 15 sections. 



The shipping of comb-honey sliould be 

 by freight altogether. Some bee-keep- 

 ers still seem to think that it must be 

 sent by express only, believing it to carry 

 safer. This is entirely wrong. Honey is 

 carried just as safe, if not safer, by 

 freight — at least, this has been our ex- 

 perience. Owing to the short crop last 

 season, we received a large number of 

 small shipments, ranging from 10 to 50 

 crates each, by freight, and we had but 

 two or three lots which arrived some- 

 what broken down, and in one case the 

 shipper wrote us afterwards that the 

 honey had already leaked when he took 

 it to the depot. 



We re-ship in all-sized lots, often in 

 single crates, and very seldom have a 

 complaint. So far as the responsibility 

 is concerned, all carriers — railroads, 

 steamboats, and express companies — 

 will takecomb-honey only at owner's risk, 

 and will not listen to any claim if the 

 honey has been broken down while in 

 transit. Why, then, pay the express 

 company three times the rate of freight 

 lines ? W^e would advise shippers to 

 load the honey in the cars themselves, 

 properly protected. If this is done they 

 may feel sure that the honey will arrive 



