134 HONEY EXTRACTORS. 



glass boxes, that every one will know is just what 

 it purports to be, and which will sell readily for 

 seventy dollars or more. In removing the combs 

 for extraction, great care is required, or the queen 

 will be lost, the brood damaged, combs broken in 

 handling, and robbing incited. It is an established 

 fact in bee keeping, that if bees are frequently dis- 

 turbed in the honey season, they will work but lit- 

 tle, but will remain idle about the hive, to protect 

 themselves, rather than fly abroad to collect honey ; 

 and if this one point is admitted, it ought to be 

 sufficient to drive the honey extractor out of use. 



I am aware that we have very large yields of ex- 

 tracted honey reported^ but let us accept such re- 

 ports with caution, remembering that extracted 

 honey is easily counterfeited, and dishonesty is 

 abroad in the land. 



Now, if the objections which I oflier to the use ot 

 the extractor are real (and I maintain that they are, 

 together with many others not mentioned,) are 

 they not sufficient to banish the extractor from, the 

 apiary of every one who wishes to keep bees for 

 pleasure and profit? 



But to go a little farther and compare prices — for 

 the past two or thi-ee years, extracted honey has sold 

 for six, eight and ten cents per pound, rarely for 

 twelve ; and slow, hard sale all the way along ; 

 while comb honey in nice glass boxes (such as are 

 used in the Controllable Hive) has sold readily 

 for from twenty-five to thirty-five cents per pound, 

 and frequently as high as forty cents. Some may 

 not see clearly why there is this difference in price. 



