“novice’s” gleanings in bee culture. 
1)4 
num 03' sent by mail unless letters were 
registered, etc. Now- can any one for an 
instant think so badly of our bee keep- 
ing friends as to believe that, there arc 
those among us who would send for 
queens th e fourth or fifth time alter they 
had received one in good order. Our ex- | 
nerience has been quite the contrary. 
Not a dollar has been lost so far as we 
can learn out of over $200 sent for 
queens. Our customers have been more 
patient and forbearing than we could ex- 
pect, and in a few cases when queens 
were lost directly, bv our own careless- 
ness, we really felt ashamed of ourselves 
on receipt of kind and courteous letters 
informing us of the mishaps, without im- 
plying in the least that we were expected 
to make good, losses occasioned by our 
blunders. It has been our impression for 
the last year, from the tone of letters re- | 
reived, that our people have been so 
abused, kumbngged and imposed upon, 
that when they do send money by mail, | 
they hardly expect to be treated as a 
fellow-being. The evidence against Mr. j 
K. (see A. B. J. for Get., page — ) is at 
present much stronger than any that he 
can bring against our friends who read 
the 1 See Journals. 
HOBBY COI.IMJT. 
"|j|[ HAVE 300 or 400 lbs. of nice llass- 
Z|j wood honey that I will deliver at the 
depot for 18c, and 100 lbs. of dark honey 
for 10c. Husky Palmer, Hart, Mich. 
Machine extracted honey has sold with 
me first-rate so far. I have sold since ! 
July between “000 and 8000 lbs. With the 
exception of about two bbls. it was all put 
up in 1 and 2 lb. jars and in .1 lb. jelly 
tumblers. Of the latter only a small 
quantity, of course. 1 have a first-rate jj 
retail trade for machine extracted honey 
and I am sure that in a short time the ex- 
tracted honey will be the only honey call- 
ed for. In a show window l have an as- 
sortment of different jars of honey all 
put up at the same time and from the 
same lot, hence the same honey : some of 
the honey has crystalizcd perfectly white, 
other jars next to those crystalizcd ones, 
or above or below them, are perfectly 
clear yet. "What is the reason for this 
difference. Remember tbe jars being 
closed in the same mariner, keeps them 
alike air-tight, of course. I wish to 
answer that question so ol'len asked, 
“Why does that jar of honey candy and 
the one next to it does not,” a little more 
satisfactorily than with my present “don't 
know.” I don’t remember of having seen 
the question of cryslalization discussed 
in a Bee Journal, and it will interest nil 
to let the knowing ones come out 011 that 
topic. ('. H. Mi th, Cincinnati, O. 
We at onetime found the candying pro- 
cess a great drawback to the sale of 
best honey. 'Tis true it is some trouble 
to get it out of barrels when in the solid 
stale, but wc manage to get our barrels 
into the cellar of our store, near tbe hot 
air furnace, before frosty nights, whore it 
never gets colder than about 50°. M e fill 
jars from fliese barrels with facility by 
means of a molasses gate, Idling several 
dozen at a time, as they may be needed. 
These jars of honey candy, of course, as 
soon as they are exposed to a temperature 
of 30 or 40 b ; but this we care little about 
for we can at any time restore it to its 
original appearance and flavor by melting 
it. The most convenient way of doing 
this in our own family, we have found, is 
10 place the jar for several hours on the 
reservoir of our Stewart stove, or if some 
honey be wanted in a hurry, the cap and 
rubber is removed from the jar which is 
then placed in the back oven ; should the 
honey be too thin and need “ripening’ it, 
can be brought to any desired consistency 
by continuing the process, and we must 
confess to a weakness for clover honey so 
thick that it requires to be handled with 
a knife in very cold weather. Our chil- 
dren make a very beautiful candy of honey 
in the same way, working it as they do 
molasses candy. As we can not give Mr. 
Muth a single idea as to why one jar ol 
honey candies sooner than another, we 11 
slop. 
I have about 400 pounds basswood honey, 
extracted and in good order, all stored in 
jars from 10 to 30 pounds. I should be 
very glad to sell it at 18 cents net cash. 
My’ honey is thick and 1 do not see bow 
anyone can have better. _ 
Jo.SKfii Dn'i’Ki.Kn, Wequiock, Wis. 
1.1,'CK IX IS EE KEEPING. 
\Vf- 0 \V. sir. J want to tell you there i« such 
j v a thing as luck in keeping bees: they 
— 4 mny be managed over so well nnd then 
bad luck comes in. J will tell you bow it. 
happened. I bail some of my best Italian 
storks close to my bouse nnd trented ns you 
gave in "Gleanings ’ for winter. The very 
best stork win stole right from under my 
window, last, Sunday night. I felt as bad 
about it as I should if ithnil been one of lny 
horses. Now, Mr. N., if your tea-kettle 
feeder is not patented 1 wish you would tell 
us how, and with what, you keep tile 
syrup from running too fast forthobecs to 
takeaway. M. Uicinunsox. 
l’ort Colborne, Canada. 
Wc ure really sorry fog our friend mill 
can oiler 110 lemedy unless il bo to make 
the high board fence around the Apiary, 
thief proof ns well ns wind proof. It 
1 1 Were possible to tell who were the un- 
principled depredators could not they be 
told kindly that we would give them tbe 
lioncy twice over rather than luive them 
destroy our choice Italians. Wefeelstlre 
their better feelings might be appealed to. 
Our friend has not tried the tea-kettle 
feeder we think. Atmospheric pressure 
keeps them from leaking, on the same 
principle that a small mouthed vial will 
