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Entered at the Post-Offlce at Chicago as Second-Class iMail-Matter. 



aeOROe W. YORK, Editor 



CHICAGO, ILL, MAR. 3, 1904, 



Vol, XLIV— No, 9, 





Editorial Comments 





"No Money In Bees"— Why? 



About a month ago we received the following letter accompanied 

 with one dollar for subscription : 



(iBORGE W. York it Co. — La Salle Co., 111. 



Deaf Sirs : — There is no money in bees at this time. I have 165 

 colonies, and a ton of comb honey on hand. From S to 10 cents a 

 pound for honey does not pay with sections in the flat at $5.00 per 

 thousand. I am going out of the liee-business. 



Do not forget to stop the Bee Journal when this dollar is used up. 

 Yours truly, " Sdbscriber." 



It seems to us that something must be wrong with the bee-keeper 

 himself, or his management, when he can not succceed with a large 

 apiary, especially in as good a season as was that of last year. " Sub- 

 scriber " says he has still on hand a ton of comb honey, which ought 

 to bring in more money than would pay for all the time and work- 

 spent with his bees all last season. And if his honey is all right there 

 is no good reason why he should not ship it to some distant market, 

 and get more than 8 or 10 cents per pound for it. 



We are not personally acquainted with " Subscriber," but we dare 

 say he is hardly an up-to-date bee-l;eeper, or he has not profited by 

 what he has read in the American Bee Journal. Very likely he has 

 been too busy with other work, and neglected to open the copies of 

 the Bee Journal as they came to him from week to week. We have 

 known of just such cases. Undoubtedly, had he read carefully all 

 that has been pulilished as long as he has been taking it, he would 

 know just how to put up his comb honey, and market the same in a 

 way that would pay him as well as or better than any of his other busi- 

 ness. He is not so very far from the Chicago market, and had he sent 

 his honey here early last fall it probably would have netted him 13 or 

 14 cents per pound. 



It seems to us that if we were the owner of an apiary of 165 colo- 

 nies, in as good a locality as '' Subscriber '' lives, we would certainly 

 make it pay in dollars and ceuts unless, of course, the seasons were 

 against us. 



" Subscriber " says that comb honey does not pay at 8 to 10 cents 

 per pound when the sections used cost $5.00 per thousand. Of course, 

 he would not have said that had he given the matter any thought. A 

 thousand sections weigh about TO pounds, and they are usually sold at 

 the same price per pound as the honey which they contain. At 10 

 cents a pound he should get about .*7. 00 for his 1000 sections, which 

 cost him .?5. 00, making a clear profit on the sections alone of about 

 •*1.75 per thousand, after paying the freight charges on them. 



Of course, we shall not forget to stop sending " Subscriber " the 

 Bee Journal at the end of the time paid for. We fear he is one who 

 does not know how to get his money's worth out of a bee-paper, when 

 the fact is that there is scarcely any single copy of any bee-paper 

 published that is not worth the whole year's subscription price to any 

 bee-keeper who really desires to lie successful with bees. A person 

 who succeeds in any line must be determined to succeed. He must 

 bend his every energy to the work. He must put his whole heart 

 and life into it. He should read about what successful men have 

 done. It does not nay, in these days, to try to learn everything liy 



one's own e.\perience. Competition is all too strenuous for that. It 

 take^ too much time to travel over the long road that others have 

 gone, and it is not neces,sary, for by reading what they have written 

 one can save himself many an expensive experience by knowing in 

 advance just what the result will bo. 



There are many bee-keepers who are very successful with their 

 bees. They not only read all the bee-papers, but proHt by their read- 

 ing. Such persons can not afford to be without everything that is 

 published on the subject of bee-keeping. They want to know all the 

 short cut.'i to success. The only way to find them is to read about 

 them as they are published from time to time. 



Another very important matter (or every honey -producer is to 

 watch the nuirket reports on honey. Also, it would often pay them 

 to advertise in the bee-papers, telling just what they have on hand in 

 the line of honey. Most of the dealers in honey read the bee-papers, 

 and are constantly wanting to know where honey can be Ijought. 

 Those dealers that have spent years in building up a busines.s in honey 

 have many customers that are willing to pay a good price for the 

 right kind. But never ship very much honey at one time to a new 

 firm of honey-dealers. While they may be all right financially, they 

 have not had time enough to work up a paying trade in honey. In all 

 the Chicago market there are not more than three or four firms that 

 can do much in handling honey in a wholesale way. Several of them 

 have been in the business a great many years. We know of some in- 

 stances where commission men have received shipments of honey, 

 and in order to dispose of it have accepted just about what they were 

 oflered for it. Of course, they were only looking for their commis- 

 sion, and were not very particular whether they got a cent per pound 

 more or less for the honey; while that one cent per pound might 

 make quite a difference to the honey-producer. 



We were talking with one of these latter commission men the 

 other day. He said he had on hand about a ton of very nice comb 

 honey. He had sold about lOOO pounds of the lot to one of the 

 regular honey commission men for 11 cents per pound. No doubt the 

 dealer who bought it sold it for 13 or H cents per pound. Now, if 

 the producer of that honey had shipped it to a regular honey-dealer in 

 the first place he would, of course, have received that 2 or 3 cents per 

 pound more for his honey. 



It is like this: Suppose when we were in the honey business a 

 farmer had shipped us several hundred bushels of potatoes. We were 

 not in the potato-l>usines6, so, of course, we could scarcely handle a 

 shipment of potatoes at all. We would have no customers for potatoes 

 We were in the honey-business, and had, of course, a great many cus- 

 tomers for honey. Those who read the American Bee Journal regu- 

 larly will readily see the point that we are trying to make. It is 

 almost useless to ship honey to any dealer who does not make a spe- 

 ciality of honey. Honey is so different from any other article of gen- 

 eral trade. There are very few dealers outside of the regular honey- 

 dealers who know anything about honey. They would be sure to 

 store honey during the cold weather in the coldest room they could 

 find. They know no better. Just as there are thousands of house- 

 keepers who think they must keep in an ice-box or refrigerator the 

 little honey they buy at the grocery from time to time, until it is 

 used up. 



So lie careful to whom you ship honey. 



It seems we have gotten quite a distance from the text we started 

 out on, but we feel that what we have written will be helpful if it is 

 heeded. 



We hope before his subscription has expired, that " Subscriber " 



