266 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Abnormally High Prices Curtail Consumption and 

 Destroy the Demand. 



J. E. CRANE. 



T^DITOR Re- 



J-^ V i e w: — I 



H 'M have noticed of 



B - m^t^ '^^® ^^^^ ^°^ 



have been talk- 

 ing up the price 

 of honey, or 

 more correctly, 

 writing it up- 

 There are, per- 

 haps, few things 

 that would 

 please the rank and file of bee keepers 

 all over our land more than higher prices 

 for the products of their apiaries. It may 

 be very well today that the price is not 

 as high as it ought to be, that we have 

 reason to believe that it will be higher 

 presently, etc., but it seems to me unwise 

 to urge producers to ask higher prices at 

 present. 



1 believe that the price of honey, like 

 all other rural products, will depend very 

 much on the supply and demand; and 1 

 believe still farther, that too high a price 

 is not only a great disadvantage to the 

 dealer, but also to the producer. If the 

 price for honey should be so high that 

 much is carried over, it (comb honey) is 

 almost sure to deteriorate, and then be 

 sold, to the disgust of most persons who 

 attempt to use it. I am not sure but the 

 use of old, granulated comb honey has 

 done more to give the impression that it 

 was adulterated than anything else, and 

 thus prejudice people against the use of 

 it. I know of no way of judging of the 

 future, except by the past. We must 

 "be guided by the lamp of experience." 

 Let me give a few illustrations: 



HIGH PRICES CAUSED HONEY TO SELL SO 



SLOWLY THAT IT WAS CARRIED OVER, 



MUCH DETERIORATED. 



Some 20 years ago, there was a rather 

 light crop of honey in the country, and in 



the fall the price began to go up. "Hold 

 on to your honey," was the cry of 

 the American Bee Journal, "and you 

 are sure to get high prices." Every 

 week, nearly, the price was quoted still 

 higher. I made up a small carload and 

 shipped it to Chicago, where prices were 

 the highest. It reached its destination 

 while prices were yet high, but it sold 

 very slowly. While prices remained very 

 high through the winter, very little was 

 sold; and much of my honey was carried 

 over till the next season and sold at a 

 low figure. 



I dropped the American Bee Journal, 

 every number of which I had taken, and 

 have never taken it since. It was no 

 longer the "old reliable" for me, but a 

 false prophet instead. 



Some eight or nine years ago I sent my 

 honey to Chicago; this time selling out- 

 right to Mr. Burnett. It was a fancy lot 

 of honey, and he asked a fancy price for 

 it; but it sold slowly. Early the next 

 spring I received a letter from an un- 

 known friend, asking if Mr. Burnett was 

 selling this lot of honey on commission, 

 saying that he did not believe Burnett 

 would be able to close it out at the prices 

 he asked. 1 replied, thanking him for his 

 interest, but told him that Mr. Burnett 

 had an undoubted right to ask what he 

 liked, as I had sold outright, and had no 

 interest in it farther than that I hoped 

 Mr. Burnett would do well with it. 

 Well, he did fail to sell it out in season, 

 and, I believe shipped a part of it to our 

 eastern markets to get it off his hands. 



ATTEMPTING TO "CORNER" THE MARKET 

 LED TO LOSS. 



But let no one think that Chicago has 

 a monopoly of this sort of thing. Seven 

 years ago, I think it was, a Boston dealer 

 wanted to control the market on Ver- 

 mont honey, and bought up a large por- 



