THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
183 
Well at first I bought honey at Is. a pound, and 
the bees prospered, but as that became ex- 
pensive I then bought sugar at 6d. and 5d. a 
pound, and then the bees got pitifully s ck, and 
1 lost several stocks altogether, after spending 
money and labour ; but I had learned a lesson. 
Next year and henceforth I increased only 
moderately, and lo ! the bees remained healthy. 
I need not feed and lost none. Others besides 
me have done likewise, and I am sure it is a 
good plan. 
I quite admit that feeding on syrup to keep 
the bees alive does not mean feeding to give 
them a surplus, but it is possible nevertheless, 
and suspicions were brought under my notice at 
different times of such trickery ; but I have not 
taken the trouble to aseeriain the truth or 
otherwise of such information, and I still 
believe that it is safer not to feed syrup than to 
risk the reputation, as honey is very cheap in 
Australia. 
W. ABEAM, 
Italian Bee Farm. 
Parramatta (N.S.W.) Oct. 21, 1889. 
HONEY PRODUCING TREES OF G1PPS- 
LAND. 
The chief honey plants and trees are the 
gums, wattles, sassafras, blackwood and wild 
willow. The white gum is the best honey pro- 
ducing tree here ; it flowers nearly every year, 
and nearly all the year round, and secretes iarge 
quantities of honey. The messmate comes next 
to the gum ; it flowers ill the months of J anuary 
and February, and has a large white blossom 
which grows well above the foliage. The honey 
from it is not so good as the gum ; it is of a 
darker colour, and has not the nice flavour of 
the white gum. The ironbark also produces 
large quantities of honey. Some years it comes 
into flower in November. The honey from this 
tree is very dark, but very good. There is also 
a large amount of peppermint gum here, which 
comes into flower about Christmas, and some 
years flowers very heavily. The honey from 
this tree is of excellent quality, it being fine 
and clear and of splendid flavour. The sassafras 
also secretes a fair amount of honey ; being in 
flower now, it is just a nice time for brood 
rearing, which is now in full swing. I find that 
the wattle and wild willow yield a small 
amount of honey, but a good amount of pollen. 
There are also a large amount of other shrubs 
that the bees work on. The Christmas tree is 
the best of the shrubs ; it comes in flower in 
December, and yields a fair amount of honey. 
I started with Langstroth hives, but. I found 
them too large, so I am now using my hives two 
inches shorter, with the entrance at the side. I 
find that this size is the best, as the bottom box 
is always filled with brood in the breeding 
season, and they are kept warmer in winter, 
and you have no need of extracting from the 
brood combs. Robert Hastings. 
Glen Hastings, Ruin Buln, Sept. 2, 1889. 
MODERN BEEKEEPING. 
A HANDBOOK FOR COTTAGERS. 
(. Continued from Page 156'.) 
XI. — Marketing Honey. 
A glance at the grocers’ shops, filled as they 
now "are with the various preserved foods, 
will show at once how important it is that every- 
thing offered for sale should have an attractive 
appearance. Many have complained that they 
could not dispose of their honey, but their diffi- 
culty commonly arises from the uninviting form 
which their surplus presents to the eye. Neat 
white glass jars to hold 1 lb. of honey may be 
obtained at from 15s. per gross, and larger ones 
in proportion. 
Full honeycomb in the ordinary, old-fashioned 
supers suffers another disadvantage which often 
hinders the producer from finding a purchaser. 
It cannot be sent about safely by railway or 
carriers, but the filled section-boxes of the last 
chapter, when packed in crates, will bear 
uninjured all the dangers of a long journey, if 
only ordinary care be exercised. It is easy, then, 
for us to send our sections to the different honey 
fairs so frequently held; but, even at these, if 
we would find purchasers, neatness must be 
attended to. All wax and propolis found on the 
edges and bottoms of the sections must be care- 
fully scraped off, taking care not to bruise the 
comb in so doing. The best sections should be 
placed in crates by themselves, and a full price 
demanded for them, the discoloured ones and 
those not quite sealed over being sold at a lower 
price. The demand for honey is rapidly increas- 
ing, and at the various shows that which pre- 
sents the neatest appearance generally finds a 
ready sale. The Association uses its best 
endeavours to find for its members a market for 
their honey. 
Inferior qualities should not be offered for 
sale, but rather given back to the bees. Inferior 
honey, however, will not trouble tbe worker 
with frame-hives ; as if he take honey from 
combs in which brood has been raised, it will be 
done by the extractor, and it will be quite free 
from contamination. The step or box it is that 
so mingles brood and store as to make much 
honey useless that would otherwise be market- 
able ; but besides this, much of the honey taken 
irom straw skeps and boxes is spoiled by the 
manner of taking it, even when the bee-keeper 
has grown wise enough to see the waste of kill- 
ing tiis bees, and tainting his honey with 
sulphur, the common habit, being to cut and crush 
all the comb together, straining and even wring- 
iug the enclosed mass through a cloth, defiling 
the honey with all the impurities of the hive. 
The combs being cut from the hive should be 
carefully sorted, all having brood being laid 
aside. If the owner has a stock in a frame-hive, 
these pieces may be lilted into a frame, and 
given to it, that this brood may be preserved 
and hatched out (see Transferring), or they may 
