THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



567 



that are of a uniform price all over the 

 country, and are handled for a small 

 margin of profit by store keepers. Honey 

 as now handled ranges all the way in 

 price from less than cost of production, 

 to more than consumers ought to pay, in 

 view of the price of other sweets. Sugar 

 is sold at a small margin of profit; the 

 price is nearly uniform in all localities, 

 and it needs no advertising. 



That is the way it should be with 

 honey, and people should buy honey as 

 regularly as they buy other groceries. 

 Some men go to the producer and buy 

 his honey at a low price, much lower 

 than he should receive, and then peddle 

 it out to families at a profit of 100 to 

 200 per cent. This will never create 

 the kmd of market we want. People 

 who buy a little honey of a peddler, pay- 

 ing about twice as much as they should 

 pay, will consider it an expensive luxury 

 and will use it as a medicine. How much 

 better it would be to make the price to 

 consumers such that they could afford to 

 use it right along, the same as they do 

 other things, such as butter, bacon, eggs, 

 sugar and syrups. 



There has been no agreement or ar- 

 rangement among producers and dealers 

 in regard to this matter, and each in- 

 dividual has gone ahead without much 

 thought of trying to work in harmony 

 with others in the same field. True, in 

 some neighborhoods, there has been an 

 agreement among the local honey pro- 

 ducers, whereby they were to maintain 

 certain prices, but what we want is an 

 agreement that will take in the whole 

 country. I hesitate to state what I con- 

 sider should be a fair wholesale price to 

 producers of extracted honey, and what 

 consumers should pay at retail. There 

 may be a difference of opinion on this 

 point, but 1 am certain that an agree- 

 ment should be reached. I believe it is 

 to our interest to make the price to con- 

 sumers as low as possible, in order to 

 create a ready and reliable demand for 

 all the honey we may produce. Regular 

 dealers should be found who would be 

 willing to handle the crop, put up in 



suitable packages, at a margin of about 

 one cent per pound. I would rather 

 make a regular customer of a house- 

 keeper by furnishing him honey m one to 

 five gallon lots at ten cents per pound, 

 than to succeed in selling him a small 

 bottle that would net me at the rate of 

 20 cents per pound, as some have boasted 

 they have done. I do not consider it is 

 any credit to a man to make such sales 

 of an article of food. He might better 

 sell pills, or some other medicine, since 

 his success in making such sales de- 

 pends on his smartness or hypnotic 

 powers. Honey comes into competitiori 

 with sugars, with maple syrup and 

 molasses of different sorts, as well as 

 with a cheap grade of syrup, made from 

 glucose and flavored with a little cane 

 syrup. We ought to be able to figure 

 out just about what honey is actually- 

 worth, in comparison with these other 

 sweets and the price should be made 

 accordingly. We can not force the de- 

 mand or price to any point we wish, 

 because the people will use these sub- 

 stitutes rather than pay more for honey 

 than it is worth. It is all right for fancy 

 comb honey to bring a fancy price, and 

 for that which is broken, mussy, and 

 more or less mixed with bee bread, to 

 sell for any thing it will bring. It is not 

 a uniform product. 



The production of a real fancy article 

 requires skill. It is preferred to ex- 

 tracted honey many t'mes, on account of 

 its appearance, and for special occasions. 

 Extracted honey, if thoroughly ripe 

 before it is extracted, contains all the 

 food elements of noney, and is destined 

 to be the form in which honey will be 

 used as a staple article of diet. Comb 

 honey prices will take care of themselves, 

 if we can place extracted honey on a 

 firm and paying basis. 



TAKE A BROAD VIEW OF THE MATTER. 



In the above I have taken abroad view 

 of the question. That which is the best 

 for all is, or ultimately will be, the best 

 for each. In the absence of a regular 

 market for honey, each individual pro- 



