i'UM. HKJL-KJt.El'EUS REVIEW. 



257 



His conclusion is that cultivating con- 

 sumption is the main hope of the case. 



Friend Meudelsoii follows in behalf of 

 smaller packages atul more neatness. 



" W'ill have to take our medicine with the 

 rest of folks till more prosperous times 

 come," is what Rambler's correspondent, 

 D. A. Wheeler, concludes. Still Rambler 

 thinks there is not enough honey produced 

 in the U. S. to go round if the markets were 

 even passably covered over. Probably he is 

 right. 



Friend Mellen's burden is also clean and 

 tiny package, and general putting things in 

 the best of style. And a section that has 

 had brood raised in it he would have incon- 

 tinently melted up. Hard to deny, but 

 harder still perhaps to secure obedience. 

 The editor adds his idea of grading, which 

 is very simple and level headed — just three 

 grades, the first for white honey in nearly 

 perfect form, the second for darker colors 

 in nearly perfect form, and the third to in- 

 clude all fit for the general market which 

 will not go higher. ( )ur friends as above 

 are drumming a good pan, but possibly they 

 are in some danger of forgetting that when 

 potatoes come down to ten cents a bushel 

 uo tidiness of style will boost 'em very many 

 cents— but then, our condition is not quite 

 so bad as ten cent potatoes. 



Then follows Prof. Cook on the Honey 

 Exchange, in an article which has also ap- 

 peared in Gleanings. He notices, as most 

 of us have dimly noted, that the honey mar- 

 ket is peculiar, and that, notably, the law 

 of demand and supply does not seem to 

 work. 



I have not talked on the Honey Exchange. 

 Don't know about such things. But as the 

 fellow who knows nothing about a matter is 

 just the one to tell all about it, I can tell 'em 

 they'll bust up sure if they go to making ad- 

 vances on honey before it is sold. Fore- 

 handed folks wont wait for the honey of 

 three-handed folks (two ordinary hands, 

 and a little behind hand) to be sold. Nev- 

 er, sir. And that's what the system of ad- 

 vances to needy persons will come to mean 

 very quickly. 



An editorial brands it as a mistake to re- 

 tail comb honey at ten cents and extracted 

 at six. It seems that some in California 

 have been doing that. Strikes me that if 

 they tolerate the. wliolesale prices of seven 

 and four cents respectively the retail jirices 

 named simply show a determination to ac- 



cept the situation as it is, and wiggle 

 through. 



Norton notes in the second number that a 

 man who has his living and can get some- 

 thing out of honey in addition is in shape to 

 endure the present depression. 



Mellen tells us that the pepper tree and 

 turkey mullen ruin many excellent localities 

 in California. So large a proportion of the 

 honey is not eatable that apiculture is sim- 

 ply squelched. But when he says he has had 

 tive supers on a hive at once, all the sections 

 well begun but scarcely one capped over — 

 well perhaps that will do for the Pacific 

 coast, but over here I guess we shall have to 

 call it heresy. Surely something wrong 

 when the capping of honey is very long de- 

 layed. Delayed capping means delayed 

 ripening ; and delayed ripening means par- 

 tial souring, and an inferior product, as 

 compared with what a more correct manipu- 

 lation might have secured. 



Mrs. J. E. Pleasants pertinently wonders 

 if the Exchange will raise honey prices 

 enough to pay its expenses and yield a net 

 surplus. 



And Skylark open„ out in the second num- 

 ber with a novelette which for pure non- 

 sense, not unmixed with readable qualities, 

 promises to take the cake. Rambler will 

 have to summon up all his Christian spirit 

 if he would escape the green-eyed Apollyon 

 of jealousy. 



A long and very well written article on the 

 Italian and Carniolan races of bees by Prof. 

 Cook is given in No. 2 also. Friend C. is an 

 enthusiast on Italians, and possibly lays it 

 on too thick at times ; but that I guess we 

 can pardon. He gives a high place to the 

 Carniolan — combination of the good qual- 

 ities, and none of the bad. of both Italian 

 aud German. But its only particular bad 

 (juality, excessive swarming, is a trying one 

 indeed. Considering the weight Prof. Cook's 

 name carries with it we may diligently heed 

 his decision about yellow Carniolans — en- 

 tirely without yellow bands, except as taint- 

 ed with Italian blood. This will be furious- 

 ly denied in some quarters — and let the 

 truth win. 



If Catalina island has no previous bees, 

 and is to be used for pure breeding, I should 

 call it a shame to put two races on it as pro- 

 posed, one at each end. By the time the 

 trade in simon-pure queens gets fairly es- 

 tablished swarms will have traveled all over 

 the island, and found lodgment in rocks, 



