THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



359 



Two persons are kept constantly busy 

 stirring the honey in the tank: otherwise 

 that next the outside would be ruined I e- 

 fore the honey in the center was hot 

 enough. It might be thought that the 

 immersing of bottles of hot honey in ice 

 water would crack the bottles; so it will 

 unless a certain ratio is preserved between 

 the temperature of the bottles and the ice 

 water. 



«<*«ir« »*»» 



Have tlie Honey Ripe, Let the Time of 

 Ripening Be What it May. 



Mr. Facey wrote me, sometime ago, as 

 follows: Regarding your foot note to rr.y 

 article in the July Review, 1 would say 

 that I most emphatically agree with you 

 in your cautions regarding the extracting 

 of green honey. The bee-keeper who ex- 

 tracts his honey in an unripe condition, 

 whether at the end of the season, or in 

 12, or any number of days, is not only 

 damaging the market at large, but is 

 surely ruining his own trade. The best 

 dealers do not care to handle such honey 

 at any price. 1 am glad that you laid 

 stress upon this point, as I believe the 

 article called for it. Whatever the time 

 of ripening may be, honey is not ready 

 for extracting until it is ripe, and there 

 are always some hives or frames, unfit 

 for extracting, which must be left. It is 

 much better to have a dark colored, ripe 

 honey, than white honey that is unripe. 

 I desire to emphasize this most emphati- 

 cally. 



•»«»».«»»»»*^ 



The National convention at Harrisburg 

 was quite well attended, considering that 

 it was held away to one side of the coun- 

 try. Something over 100 were present. 

 Everything passed . off very pleasantly, 

 but there was nothing of a startlingly 

 new nature brought out. This is not to 

 be wondered at in these days of bee 

 journalism— every nev« thing is exploited 

 in the journals about as scon as it comes 

 out. 



If there was any one thing that stood 

 cut more prominently than another in the 

 discussions, it was the continued and 



vehement denunciation of extracting un- 

 ripe honey. Let the honey be thoroughly 

 ripened in the hives was the watch word. 

 There was some adverse criticism over 

 the absence of a program. In the past 

 there has sometimes been criticism be- 

 cause there was "too much program," 

 and not sufiRcient time for the question 

 box. There is a golden mean in this 

 matter. One or two good papers at each 

 session furnish a foundation upon which 

 to build; and if these topics and the 

 writers are well chosen, the publication 

 of the program, in advance of the meeting, 

 is quite likely to add largely to the at- 

 tendance. 



■^^'^^^•••^li* 



Something About Renewals. 



I wish I could sit down by the side of 

 each subscriber and have a long talk with 

 him on this subject — answer all of his 

 questions, and perhaps ask him a few. 



Personally, 1 am in favor of stopping a 

 journal promptly upon the expiration of 

 the time paid for. This seems business- 

 like, and when I began publishing the Re- 

 view I supposed this plan would please 

 everybody, hence I adopted it. Two or 

 three years went by, and many sub- 

 scribers did not renew. I often wondered 

 why they had dropped out. Finally, I 

 decided to ask them; and, at an expense 

 of about S50.00, a circular was mailed 

 to some of the delinquents, asking that the 

 enclosed stamped and self-addressed en- 

 velope be used in letting me know why 

 the Review had been dropped. A large 

 proportion replied, many renewed, and all 

 who wrote "gave reasons," for their drop- 

 ping out. There was quite a variety of 

 excuses given, but the reply that opened 

 my eyes the widest was that the Review 

 had been stopped simply because / had 

 stopped sending it. Many had taken of- 

 fense because I had cut it off short. To 

 my surprise, I Ifearned that the majority 

 of my readers actually preferred to have 

 me keep on sending the journal, and allow 

 them to pay for it at their convenience. I 

 expect that the publishers of this country 



