134 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



The recent and still continuing" cool period is also very hard on 

 early queen-rearing. Our bees do most of their natural swarming 

 during orange bloom. That is the very best time to produce fine, 

 large cells with least effort. But if we were to wait, with cell- 

 getting, until bees were working on the orange trees, we should lose 

 much valuable time and golden opportunities. Made wise by ex- 

 perience, the alert queen-breeder will have his cells developed in 

 his first lot of queen-cells at least two weeks before the first buds 

 open on the orange groves; then his first virgins are ready to mate 

 early in the period of orange bloom a.nd under ideal conditions. There 

 will also be more time for subsequent lots of queens, for the period 

 of orange bloom (about four weeks at least) is short enough for suc- 

 cessful rearing of many queens. Orange bloom there corresponds 

 to clover bloom in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and the north generally, 

 for easy and profitable and sure queen-cell getting. — K. G. B. 



Two pleasant hours were spent with Mr. R. A. Burnett, the well- 

 known honey merchant of .South Water street, Chicago, on my return 

 from the National Convention in St. Louis. Mr. Burnett is the older 

 of those doing business in honey on South Water street, having been 

 actively engaged in the sale of honey for thirty-nine years. During 

 his "palmy days " of early bee-keeping, when honey was sold through 

 commission houses more than at present, his honey sales amounted 

 to as much as seventy cars annually. As time passed on, more and 

 more did the producer sell his honey and wax direct to the manu- 

 facturer and consumer, until at the present time the volume sold 

 through this method has greatly fallen off. It would be hardly fair 

 to give the producer all the credit for this long-headed move, for Mr. 

 Burnett let it be known that the manufacturer and bakers early saw 

 an advantage in buying direct from the producer; thus the consumer 

 and producer were both in mutual accord along these lines, and con- 

 sequently the change in methods of the disposal of the crop came 

 about by a natural condition. 



Mr. Burnett, having spent nearly a lifetime in the honey trade 

 on South Water street, is in an admirable position to render valuable 

 data relative to early bee-keeping conditions, and he has promised 

 the Review some articles occasionally along this line. We especially 

 in\ite Mr. Burnett to tell us in an article how the baker and tobacco 

 trade in honey was won and lost to the American bee-keeper, especi- 

 ally how the tobacco manufacturer was forced to use cheap molasses 

 in sweetening tobacco instead of honey, as they prefer; why the baker 

 prefers to buy Puerto Rican, Cuban or Southern honey instead of 

 Northern honey, etc. The subject is of vital importance, but we will 

 not forestall Mr. Burnett at this time by going further into the 

 subject. 



