ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



141 



December 12, 1914. 

 Mr. Louis Dadant, Hamilton, 111. 



Dear Mr. Dadant: 



I am just back at my desk after about 

 ten days' absence. You can imagine 

 that the work is piled up pretty high 

 and that I must push things to get it 

 all cleaned up before I have to go out 

 again. Really I have no inspiration to 

 write a paper for you on the subject 

 you suggested. Bee men should take 

 every opportunity to place their product 

 before the public and the high price of 

 sugar is one such opportunity. You 

 know I am somewhat of an enthusiast 

 about honey and bees. I don't believe 

 that it would be possible to produce 

 more honey than the public can be edu- 

 cated to buy if the bee-keepers are 

 awake. With half a cent per pound of 

 our annual production used in intelli- 

 gent publicity it would be possible to 

 double the demand for honey and then 

 what would we do? The scarcity of 

 honey to supply the market demand 

 would rapidly increase the price. I 

 would very much like to be with you 

 at the convention and meet again some 

 of my friends who will be there and 

 make new acquaintances. However, I 

 have been on the wing much of the 

 time this winter, already, and must 

 keep on going to fill my engagements; 

 I am away so much that it is getting to 

 be a treat to spend a few days by my 

 own fireside. 



"With best wishes for a successful 

 meeting, I am, 



Very truly yours, 



FRANK C. PELLETT. 



Mr. Dadant — As you probably know, 

 Mr. Pellett is State Inspector for Iowa 

 and he is a very busy man, and for 

 that reason not able to be here. 



Pres. Kannenberg — The High Price 

 of Sugar and The Honey Market — Is 

 there anything to be said on that? 



Mr. Roehrs — I think if our public was 

 educated on the value of honey there 

 would not be this great difference in 

 the price of sugar and honey. We all 

 know the value of honey. There would 

 not be this great difference be- 

 cause honey cannot be compared with 

 sugar. Honey is a predigested food but 

 our public as a rule are not educated. 

 They do not know it and therefore we 

 find that there is an enormous amount of 

 sugar consumed in the United States 

 and a small amount of honey in com- 

 parison. There is no one else to be 



blamed for this than the bee-keepers. 

 We ought to educate the people as to 

 the true value of honey, and as long as 

 we do not do that our prices will al- 

 ways be as low as they are. 



Mr. Dadant — I think it was Mr. Wood- 

 man last night who talked to me about 

 the prediction that Mr. DeMuth had 

 made about the low price of amber 

 honey and what it is going to do in 

 the future; I wish Mr. Woodman would 

 tell this. 



Mr. Woodman — Mr. DeMuth made 

 the statement, relative to the low 

 prices at the present time of honey, 

 and he tought it would result to the 

 great benefit of bee-keepers in the 

 near future, for the simple reason that 

 more uses would be found for honey 

 and people would get to use larger 

 quantities of it, so that when the 

 market did get squared around again 

 the result would be better prices. 



Mr. Dadant — I do not know how 

 many bee-keepers know of, or have 

 watched the market on amber honey, 

 especially amber honey from Colorado. 

 Honey ordinarily used for baking has 

 been bringing good prices, five and six 

 cents a pound; that is good price for 

 that class of honey. 



At present I think Mr. Woodman said 

 that he had been offered amber honey 

 for 3 and 4 cents a pound; so you see, 

 for the baker who uses honey in 

 preference to sugar, it will answer 

 their purpose, 



Mr. Wheeler — I want to ask Mr. 

 Dadant if he thinks that the bakeries 

 are using as much honey as they do 

 other things. 



Mr. Dadant — I don't know about it 

 because we do not handle that class of 

 honey. 



Mr. Wheeler — I was told by the 

 Manager of the National Biscuit Com- 

 pany that they were not using nearly 

 as much honey; that they had found a 

 substitute for it. 



Now, I do not know whether any of 

 you people heard of it or not. I could 

 not find out what the substitute was. 

 He did not tell me, and that is their own 

 affair. He said to show you the differ- 

 ence in the amount of honey we are 

 using this year compared with las±. In 

 round numbers I remember he said 

 they used 125 carloads last year and 

 about 15 this year. That shows you 

 the proportion, about, as to what they 

 were using last year and the amount 

 used this year in comparison. : 



