THE AUSTRALIAN BEEKEEPERS’ JOURNAL. 
13 
from these we learn that your method of con- 
ducting them differs somewhat from ours. You 
have systematised the work to a degree, while 
the most marked feature of ours is their magni- 
tude. A pound of honey with you is represented 
by about a hundred pounds with us. We think 
it not matter for surprise for an exhibitor to 
display from one to three tons, your system may 
ensure fuller justice to the exhibitor, but is not 
as good a means of advertising as ours. You 
have formulated an elaborate scale of points by 
which honey is judged— we have no very arbi- 
trary rules to guide the judges to a decision. The 
basis upon which awards are mado at our shows 
is mainly confined to three points. For ex- 
tracted or run honey these are — flavour, colour, 
and consistency. For comb — finish, colour, and 
cleanliness. Some of the distinctions you make 
in run honey are so nice and delicate that I fear 
we would have difficulty in deciding upon, or 
even distinguishing between them. 1 find you 
embrace amongst these ‘consistency’ and 
1 density,’ also ‘ flavour ’ and ‘ aroma,’ 1 am not 
well qualified to be hypercritical. To my 
thinking, the relative density of honeys can only 
be correctly ascertained by instrumental tests, 
and l doubt if this is ever done at shows. Con- 
sistency is the meilium through which i i s density 
is determined. With us, at any rate, this is the 
case. When bottled its density changes but 
little, while a higher or a lower temperature will 
rapidly change its consisaeucy. Under like con- 
ditions, however, the consistency will remain 
relatively the same. In the scale of marks Mi- 
Gibbons gives aroma two and flavour one, while 
Mr Chenevix gives flavour five and aroma one. 
Aroma is pei haps the best test in determining 
the class of flowers from whence the honey was 
gathered, and therefore the best in classifying it, 
but flavour is more important in fixing its com- 
mercial value. Moreover, aroma is fleeting in 
its nature, while flavour remains a permanent 
quality. Therefore, I think flavour remains a 
permanent quality, and should be rated higher 
than aroma. I do not presume to fix a scale 
of points by which the product of the British 
bee-keeper shall be judged, but the subject is so 
interesting to me that the perusal of 2312 and 
2313 in the JJ.Ji.J. called up the foregoing 
thoughts. I fully endorse Mr Cbenevix s state- 
ment that ‘ atti active appearance is of extreme 
importance in making the commodity market- 
able.' Its foice must be felt in the pocket of 
every man who produces honey and puts it on the 
market. It is recognised by all classes of busi- 
ness men as essential to success that the goods 
they offer for sale be presentable in appearance 
and neat in their get-np.’ This brings me to the 
consideration of honey bottles, 1 am glad your 
correspondents aTe taking this matter up. We 
have not yet got just what we require and what 
we ought to have, viz. : bottles at otice pleasing 
in form, correct as to their capacity, and safe to 
strip to outside points when filled. You aie 
much ahead of us in their design and quality, 
but you have not yet an entirely satisfactory 
range of honey-glasses, 1 speak of them from 
cx| eriunce, for of late years I have used some 
thousands of your English honey-pots. Frobably 
there is not a style of honey-glass made or used 
in England I have not tried. I have used Eng- 
lish and French glass exclusively doing the last 
three years, and few, if any of them, fully ‘ fill 
the bill ’ in my trade. I ship most of my honey 
to distant points on this continent ; some of my 
regular customers live 1500 to 2000 milea apart, 
and I require glass pots at once neat, safe, and 
servicerble. Your pots are divided into two 
classes — screw-lops and tie-overs — both are de- 
fective in one or more particulars. The greatest 
defect in most of the screw-tops is not so much 
that they leak at the top when turned bottom 
up, but that the honey oozes through the glass 
itself, making the bottles unsightly and dis- 
agreeable to handle. 1 have found this defect 
greater in the French than in the English 
bottles. They appear to be too thin just where 
the body of the bottle sprii gs from its bottom. 
I have not found it to exist in the English tie- 
overs. The tin cover of the English screw-top 
is too coarte, and not well finished. The French 
bottle is much better in this respect. I think if 
thin rubber rings were substituted for cork wads 
in all screw-tops, it would effectually prevent 
leaking. I cannot make a satisfactery finish on 
tie-overs without using capsules, when these are 
employed together with corks and. parchment it 
increases the cost and the labour as well. With 
me all three are essentsal to a safe and satis- 
factory finish. — R. McKnhjbt, Owen Sound, 
Ontario, Oct. 
BEE : KEEPING IN SOUTH AFRICA. 
The method of bee-farming, as it is carried on 
here, says a correspondent to Gleanings, is as 
follows : 
A native cuts a circle in the bark of a tree, 
and about three feet above he cuts another. 
Then he cuts in a straight line from one circle 
to another, and strips off the entire bark as cut. 
While this is still green, he refolds it in the 
shape of the tree, and carefully sews up the 
centre seam, and after folding the two ends in a 
more or less square form, he sews them up, 
leaving an entrance for the bees. His thread is 
bark, and his needle is a thorn , and his punch is 
his spear. This is his bee-hive, and it seems to- 
do excellently for this class of bees. 
The forests all about are well provided with 
these hives, placed in the tree tops, and it seems 
that the greater number of these hives sooner or 
later become inhabited with bees. The bees 
here are not so large as the honey-bees of 
North America, nor are they much smaller. 
Swarms that have alighted about the house 
irom time to time are about the size of a half 
bushel. Honey here is in abundance and very 
cheap. Honey is 10 cents a bucketful (three 
gallons.) Comb honey we never see. The matter 
of extracting honey is simple with the African ; 
he simply cuts out the combs, and with his 
hands squeezes out the honey. The honey is of 
a richer quality, and much thicker than any 
I ever saw in America. Probably the climate is 
the chief agency in ripening the honey to so- 
fine a state. 
