AMONG THE HONEY DEALERS OF CHICAGO.
I do not think that the largest honey dealer in Chicago is doing the fair thing by his patrons—that is, if he wishes to do a permanent business and retain his best customers. He would rather buy honey in large boxes and frames, and then cut it into three or four small strips, put it in glass jars, and fill up the jars with inferior strained or Cuba honey. At the same time he discourages the bee-keepers from taking their honey from the combs with the melextractor, for the simple reason, I suppose, that he can make more money by straining the honey himself, as I was told he had a nice steam apparatus for fixing over strained honey.
As to the commission men, there are not many of them to be trusted, as it is seldom that honey is handled with the care it ought to receive; and when it gets to leaking, they sell it for any price they can get, in order to be rid of it.
There is a great fault, too, in the manner of shipping it, to have it go through in good shape, as the railroad men do not handle things very carefully. To get the best price from honest dealers, the box honey must be put up in neat, small boxes, weighing not over seven pounds gross; and to get a market established for extracted honey, it should be shipped to some reliable man; and the jars must be labelled with the quality of the honey and the name of the producer. Then the agent can recommend it to his customers, and warrant it pure; and all you have should be shipped exclusively to him. When properly put up, I do not think there is much to be feared from adulteration.
X.
Fulton, Ill., Sept. 5, 1870.
A good swarm of bees, put in a diminutive hive, in a good season, may be compared to a powerful team of horses harnessed to a baby wagon, or a noble fall of water wasted in turning a petty water-wheel.—Langstroth.
Narrow minds think nothing right that is above their own capacity.
[For the American Bee Journal.]