"THif MMEKicjcpt mmm jo^umnmi^. 



371 



THOS.^fNEWMAN &SON, 



CHICAGO« tL.I'. 



EDITOR. 



mniY. Jnne6,1888, No. 23. 



Hope leads the child to plant the flower, 



The raan to sow the seed, 

 Nor leaves fulfillment to her lioui-. 



But prompts again to deed. 



Su{;ar from Honey.— The Apicul- 

 turist for June contains something on the 

 above subject. Mr. Alley quotes the follow- 

 ing suggestions from his periodical for Octo- 

 ber, 1886 : 



The National Convention, which meets at 

 Indianapolis this month, should take some 

 action reaardin^; the matter of disposing of 

 surplus honey. We suggest for the consid- 

 eration of the meeting, that the sura of 

 S.5,000 be collected from the bee-keepers 

 throughout the United States, and paid to 

 the person who will devise some method for 

 converting honpy into sugar, similar to gran- 

 ulated sugar. We believe it can and will be 

 done, provided a proppr inducement is held 

 out, and a sum sufficient is offered to com- 

 pensate for the time, trouble and expense 

 of conducting experiments. 



The above sum can be raised from the 

 bee-keepers of this country. Small pro- 

 ducers might pay SI, and larger ones as high 

 as 85 eacli. We respectfully submit the 

 above suggestions to the convention for its 

 consideration. 



Mr. Alley then makes these remarks : 



Those present at the convention well 

 know about how much notice was taken of 

 the above suggestion. Well, I have the 

 satisfaction ot knowing that the idea was 

 not so very " cranky " after all, as the fol- 

 lowing extract from a letter will .show. 



The " extract " referred to is from a letter 

 written by Allen F. Smith, of Plaquemine, 

 La., and is as follows : 



I am a practical sugar maker of the sugar 

 cane, and I am under the impression that I 

 can make a very good grade of sugar from 

 honey, which 1 have Deen contemplating 

 doing for some time, but have not the means 

 to give the experiment a fair test. Should 



the hee-keepers of the United States decide 

 to otfer a premium to the one who will put 

 the matter to a practical test, I shall be 

 glad to make the first experiments. I am 

 almost certain that I can succeed ; there is 

 nothing diflicult about it. We can make 

 sugar from beets and pumpkins, why not 

 from honey ? Give me the means to give it 

 a fair trial, and I will produce the sugar 

 from honey. 



Then Mr. Alley triumphantly asks : 

 "Well, friends, how is that? There is 

 nothing like being a little in advance of 

 some other people." 



If the " advance guard " is sought, we in- 

 vite friend Alley into our Museum, where 

 he may find a can of sugar made from 

 honey, which has been there for a dozen 

 years. It was made by Mr. T. S. Bull, of 

 Valparaiso, Ind., and by him placed in the 

 Museum. Hundreds upon hundreds have 

 examined it, and pronounced it " all right " 

 —and excellent sugar. 



The only thing to discourage the manu- 

 facture of sugar froiu honey is the fact that 

 it does not pay, and never can be made to 

 pay ! It costs too much, to place it in com- 

 petition with cane sugar. 



It is, therefore, quite useless to throw 

 away $5,000 to obtain a method for making 

 it. That idea is not an advance ! It is 

 away behind ; and so far in the rear as to 

 be " out of sight," and apparently forgotten ! 



The I>ark Side.— Mr. S. B. Ryder, of 

 Brandon, Vt., on May 34, 1888, writes us as 

 follows concerning the dark side of apicul- 

 ture : 



The New York Independent having 

 printed within a year past several articles 

 tending to show the lavorable side of bee- 

 keeping. Another correspondent lays his 

 pen to the task of bringing out the other 

 side. I enclose a slip containing the gist of 

 his matter as printeil in the Springfield Re- 

 publican. It is a curiosity. 



I was surprised to read, in one of your 

 recent issues, the statement of a corres- 

 pondent in northern Illinois, that the Chap- 

 man honey-plant was liable to winter-kill. 

 My experience with it is limited, but I do 

 not think that I ever lost a plant from that 

 cause, and surely the winters in Vermont 

 are as severe, or more so, than in northern 

 Illinois. The plant makes an early start in 

 the spring, and has every appearance of 

 being a hardy as well as a thrifty thistle. 



Here is the selection mentioned in the 

 above letter: 



Bee-Keeping not a Profitable Rec- 

 reation.— Bee-keeping is usually represents 

 ed in the papers as a very fascinating and 

 profitable occupation, one well designed for 

 women and amateurs who would gain a liv- 

 ing in a truly idyllic way. A veteran api- 

 arist punctures the bubble in this fashion: 

 As near as I have been able to ascertain, 

 extracted honey has sold in California the 

 past few years at 3 and 4 cents a pound ; in 

 other parts of the United States from 5 to 8 

 cents a pound. The tendency of prices is 

 steadily downward. The honey crop of the 

 past year being one of almost universal 

 failure, prices have raised temporarily. 



I know of but one way to get a fair price 

 for any considerable quantity of honey, and 

 that is to peddle it personally from house to 

 house. The reader can decide as to whether 

 or not he would like peddling. To send the 

 honey to the commission men of the cities 

 is, generally to throw away the season's 

 work. 



As to bees, they are, doubtless, the most 

 unsalable stock known. Put up at a forced 

 sale, I do not think they would bring tl.dO 

 a hive. I believe that practical bee-men, 

 who have been through the mill, are pretty 

 well agreed that bee-keeping, from begin- 

 ning to end, requires hard work, business 

 ability, and a patience made of irridum to 

 withstand the Josses, ruinous prices, and 

 the many other petty discouragements pecu- 

 liar to bee-keeping. 



The many painful experiences (I refer to 

 stings) of which I have known among those 

 who ignorantly attempted to handle bees, 

 have led me to decide that if I had the law 

 in my hands, I should prohibit all persons 

 from touching bees who had not had suffi- 

 cient enlightment to enable them to handle . 

 bees with comparative safety. 



We are very often accused of publishing 

 only the bright side— of presenting only the 

 pleasant things about the business of keep- 

 ing bees. In the above, certainly a glimpse 

 of the other side is given, enough to satisfy 

 any one that it is not all sunshine in the 

 pursuit of apiculture. 



There are many who should never attempt 

 to keep bees— the shiftless, the lazy, the one 

 who will not read and study the necessities 

 of the business, those who are afraid of 

 stings, those who are nervous and irritable, 

 and those who have no time to attend to the 

 care of the bees. All such should never 

 attempt to keep bees. 



Failures come in every avocation. Of no 

 occupation can it be said that it never fails. 

 Bee-keeping is no e.xception to the general 

 rule— but it is not more liable to failure 

 than others. The manufacturer, the banker 

 and the merchant often have to grapple with 

 financial distress and commercial panics— 

 but, do they forsake the counter, the desk, 

 and the factory, and look for some other 

 business wherein loss and trouble never 

 come ? No ! indeed, such reverses but 

 stimulate progressive men to further dili- 

 gence and more dauntless courage ! 



When the bankers,merchants and farmers 

 set the example, it will be time enough for 

 apiarists to become discouraged and give up 

 the business— but not till then ! 



'I'lie Apienltiirist for June is out ; 



came to our desk on the morning of the 1st 

 —on time, as usual. It is filled with good 

 reading matter, and by the use of smaller 

 type and wider columns it is much im- 

 proved, and will be more economically pub- 

 lished than heretofore. We wish it abun- 

 dant success. 



Tlie Statistical BIank.s were sent 

 to the United States Statistician some 

 months ago with a long letter of suggestions 

 by Prof. Cook, but nothing has ever been 

 heard from the matter since. This we men- 

 tion because there have been quite a num- 

 ber of inquiries concerning it, asking what 

 has been done, etc. There is so much " red 

 tape " about everything connected with the 

 Government, that we could expect nothing 

 else. Probably by next year they may get 

 things to running, and may grind out a 

 bateh of statistics for us. We shall see. 



