March 18, 1886. ] 
JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
221 
greatest possible use to the bee-keeper the honey must not be 
left in the comb until sealed or the loss of time would be 
great, so these apiarians who advocate the taking of pure 
honey only extract it in a partially unripe state, when it is of 
very poor quality and quite unfit for sale. Whether this is 
recognised here or not it is certainly well known in America, 
and the evils of this method of increasing the honey flow are 
acknowledged by great authorities, as may b9 seen from the 
President’s address delivered to the North American Bee¬ 
keepers’ Society, which met on the 8th of December last. The 
following passage will give some idea of the drift of the essay:— 
When is honey ripe ? With the system of extracting when 
the honey is unsealed there is no uncapping, and bees have 
plenty of store room, but the quality is inferior; and right 
here a friend would step in with his ripening can. But we 
have made no light mistake, for in the past our honey has 
been handled too much as if it could lose nothing by having 
it come in contact with the air. What imparts that peculiar 
aroma to honey and gives each kind of honey a distinct 
flavour ? Is it not largely a volatile oil ? ... . and in 
evaporating and otherwise coming in contact with the air we 
lose this.” 
Possibly the States apiarians can form quite as good an 
idea of the extractor as any English apiarian; certainly 
more honey passes through their hands each season. If run 
honey thrown from the combs before ripening is so inferior 
in quality, losing flavour and its rich aroma, the producer is 
damaging the market; if, again, the honey is allowed to 
remain in the cells until they are all completely sealed the 
extractor may be used with advantage to save the combs, 
but all the other advantages appertaining to its use are gone. 
I had always been under the impression that the less honey 
was exposed to the action of the air the better the quality, 
and yet if the extractor and ripener are brought into use a 
process of evaporation must take place which i* essentially 
damaging to the honey, and in addition giving increased 
trouble to the bee-keeper. To quote again from the same 
source:—“ Many find that to extract honey when one-third 
capped answers well, the honey to be put into deep tanks 
holding about 600 lbs. each, and left for a week. This causes 
the light thin honey to rise to the top; generally it is not 
10 per cent.” Now, possibly the great bee farmers of America 
may profit by this spurious ripening of honey, but it is very 
questionable, and, in fact, the idea seems already to be taking 
root that such a clumsy method is practically worthless. 
The objection to leaving the comb3 until completely 
capped is the loss of time entailed, and this in the honey 
flow is great, but better far to get a less quantity of extra 
quality than a superabundance of sugary syrup lacking the 
flavour and good keeping properties of honey, resembling it 
only in that if it had had time to do so it would have become 
the real genuine product. Would it not be better to sacrifice 
the extra quantity ? Is it feasible to spend time in extracting 
every few days, and money in buying extractors, when the 
result is inferior produce if the thin honey is not separated 
from the thick and ripe, and if such a separation is made 
then loss of flavour and loss of weight, with the result that 
the finest quality only brings the same price as the honey 
taken from the combs on the old-fashioned plan—that the 
poorer quality is, when the market is glutted, unsaleable, and 
at any time only realises a very low price, and from this 
price deduction must be made to pay for the apparatus and 
the time and trouble expended upon its use ? For those who 
use the extractor to blame the cottager for the inferior quality 
of his honey is presumption; to them, perhaps, the old adage 
will occur. Better far take honey from old combs containing 
brood and pollen rather than take it unripe and thin and 
watery from combs free from contamination. Honey of very 
fine quality can indeed be taken from old combs if only care 
is exercised not to indiscriminately break up the combs and 
all their contents together. If all the better parts of the 
comb are run into one pan, and the inferior and pollen-con¬ 
taminated portion into another, the result is that the former 
will be of a really fine quality, far superior to the sugar-and- 
water liquid sold to those who are yet unable to detect when 
honey has been treated in a manner tending to deprive it of 
its exquisite flavour, and to reduce it to a flavourless com¬ 
pound which is totally different to the honest production of 
the bee gathered in the natural way, stored in due time, 
sealed when ripe, and extracted in a proper manner, taking 
due care to exclude all extraneous matter, and to expose it 
to the action of the air for as short a time as possible. By 
all means let us increase the yield of our stocks if we can, 
but not at the expense of quality. If we cannot get good 
quality honey in greater quantity we must be content to wait, 
and may feel sure that if we desire to damage bee-keepers 
nothing more surely will effect the purpose than teaching them 
to palm off upon the public in the name of honey a spurious 
liquid which in due time would have become honey, but 
which the impetuous haste of the bee-keeper has turned into 
a tasteless syrup. —Felix. 
TRADE CATALOGUES RECEIVED. 
Webb & Son, Wordsley, Stourbridge .—Catalogue of Special Manures. 
* J All correspondence should be directed either to “ The Editor ” 
or to “ The Publisher.” Letters addressed to Dr. Hogg or 
members of the staff often remain unopened unavoidably. We 
request that no one will write privately to any of our correspon¬ 
dents, as doing so subjects them to unjustifiable trouble and 
expense. 
Correspondents should not mix up on the same sheet questions relat¬ 
ing to Gardening and those on Bee subjects, and should never 
send more than two or three questions at once. All articles in¬ 
tended for insertion should be written on one side of the paper 
only. We cannot reply to questions through the post, and we 
do not undertake to return rejected communications. 
Vines not Starting Freely (IF. IF.).—This might be due to over¬ 
cropping last year and imperfectly ripened wood, or perhaps the atmosphere 
of the house has not been kept sufficiently moist. Damp the paths, stages, or 
border, and on fine bright mornings syringe the rods with soft tepid water. 
A little weak liquid manure may be sprinkled about on the floors and paths, 
the ammonia arising from which will assist the starting. 
Insects in Soil Injuring Ferns (G. C.). —The best plan will be to repot 
the Ferns, carefully removing as much of the old peat as possible, and 
employ fresh, shading the plants for a week or two until they recover from 
the potting. Remove the old soil, and exercise as much care as possible to 
prevent any being mixed with the fresh material. Take some distance 
away or burn it, and on no account employ it again for the plants. 
Bones and Bonemeal ( F . (?.).—The sample of “ turnings from bone 
buttons ” would be excellent for mixing with soil for potting most kinds of 
plants. Being so finely divided its virtues will be the more readily.available, 
and at the same time will be yielded for a considerable period. The 
crushed bones would be of service for mixing with the soil for Vines, also 
fruit trees and Roses in pots or borders, also for plants generally that have 
to remain in pots for a considerable time. It would improve the mechanical 
condition of soil, and act as a steady fertiliser over a long period. Its dark 
colour is quite immaterial for the purpose in question. A mixture of the 
two kinds would be good for Chrysanthemums. 
Kennedya and Lasiandra ( Borderer .).—We do not know a Ivennedya 
bearing the name exactly as you give it, but it is probably a misrendering 
of K. inophylla floribunda, which you will find in the catalogues of the 
leading nurserymen. Lasiandra macrantha is much more straggling and 
loose in growth than the variety floribunda, which should be grown for pots 
where bushy plants are required. The other is more fitted for training 
against a wall or pillar, but by shortening the stems and pinching the 
growths early in the season the plants can be rendered more compact. If, 
however, you wish to cultivate plants in pots procure the variety named, 
and you will experience little difficulty with it. 
Raising Seedlings ( Hackneyarian ).—A box 2 feet deep will be suitable 
for raising Stocks and similar plants in. As manure cannot be had, 1 foot 
in depth of any kind of rubbish may be put in, spreading on this about 
8 inches of free soil, fertile garden soil, with leaf mould and sand, answer-, 
ing well, the upper 2 inches to be sifted. The seed may be sown in April 
the seed kept moist, and the box covered with glass. The Sweet Peas and 
Mignonette seed will germinate in due time if the soil is kept moist. 
