1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



73:5 



With all this use of printer's ink must go 

 the house-to-honse work, the demonstra- 

 tions in stores, and the education of the 

 wholesaler and retailer concerning the na- 

 ture, usefulness in many ways, and care of 

 honey. The dealer must know all about 

 the poods; and when this is reinforced by a 

 knowledge of the value of honey by the 

 housewife we shall have a combination that 

 will make for greater consumption. 



As to whether a campaign of this kind 

 could be carried on without an incorporated 

 company to do the work and make the 

 profit would depend on whether an organi- 

 zation like the National Association could 

 raise the money and conduct a cami)aign 

 similar to the campaign of the liice Associ- 

 ation, the prune-growers, and the canners. 

 Mr. F. J. Root tells me that these people 

 were satisfied with the results they secured. 

 It seems to me that, if we could get the 

 money for the work, some such cami)aign 

 would be a good thing to take up prior to 

 the organization of a large honey-bottling 

 and distributing association to operate in 

 every city of any size in the United States. 

 There is this difference, though, that the 

 people who advertised rice, prunes, canned 

 goods, etc., were mainly companies who 

 banded together, and each had a well-put-up 

 article, and could fill the demand at once; 

 while with the majority of the bee-keepers 

 improvement in methods of grading and 

 packing, and the building of a selling plan, 

 would have to be done. Wholesalers and 

 jobbers want their credit and regular dis- 

 counts, delivered price, etc., while the most 

 of the bee-keepers want their money before 

 shipi)ing the goods, and never figure on 

 giving a discount for cash. Special deals 

 also are wanted, such as a free case with ev- 

 ery order for ten-case lots. Then the whole- 

 saler wants the goods to be obtainable in 

 uniform grades and packages the year 

 round. One of the things we bee-keepers 

 would run up against would be the. failure 

 to supply the kind and grade of honey de- 

 sired when the jobber or wholesaler wanted 

 it; then some corn syrup would be substi- 

 tuted, and some valuable honey trade would 

 vanish. We shall have to be on deck with 

 the goods the year round. 



It may seem like being hard on the bee- 

 keeping fraternity to say that care should 

 be used in selecting the members of the fra- 

 ternity who are to share in the benefits of 

 this plan by having their honey sold through 

 the advertising done; but if the National 

 Association, we will say, spends money for 

 advertising honey, the Association must be 

 sure that the members furnish a rich, ripe, 

 clean honey of Hne quality. From what I 

 know of associations it would be necessary 

 to know the record and character of the man 

 who wishes to participate in the benefits. 

 Some bee-keepers' honey would hurt the 

 cause of increased consumption more than 

 it would help. Of course, much of this 

 honey is injuring the greater consum]>tion 

 of honey right now, but the damage would 

 be more if it were pushed out into wider 



markets through the advertising of the 

 National As-sociation. 



If the cam]iaign were to be merely gen- 

 eral and not specific there would hardly 

 need be any scrutiny of the bee-man's rec- 

 ord, for the housewife would ask the grocer 

 for honey (no special brand), and the gro- 

 cer would ask his jobber, or buy some honey 

 of a local bee-keeper. In this case the As- 

 sociation would take no responsibility, and 

 the non-contributor to the advertising fund 

 would profit the same as the one who had 

 paid into the fund. 



It may seem like a big proposition to 

 raise, say, $50,000 for advertising; but if we 

 realize the possibilities, and work for it, we 

 should find that the money would soon be 

 back in our jx'ckets with interest. There 

 are some bee-keepers who would pay more 

 than a dollar a ton on their crop into a fund. 

 This sum was suggested by Mr. F. .1. Root, 

 and would have to be made larger, for there 

 would be many who would not "come 

 over" with the money. 



Boulder, Col. 



BEET SUGAR FED ON A LARGE SCALE, 

 WITH NO BAD RESULTS. 



BY M. A. GILL. 



In an editorial on feeding, Oct. 15, you 

 advise cane sugar, and I want to ask why 

 you specify cane sugar when both the law 

 and custom require the same per cent of 

 purity and sweetness in beet sugar as in cane 

 sugar. I supposed, that the prejudice against 

 beet sugar had disapjjeared when the facts 

 had been made known; and isn't it a fact 

 that the two sugars are chemically the same? 

 I saw a case last year where a man who had 

 spent his life as an exjiert sugar-boiler of 

 both cane and beet sugar was unable to tell 

 one from the other from samples from his 

 own sample-case when the labels were re- 

 moved. 



I have fed both kinds for years for winter 

 stores for bees, both in mild and severe cli- 

 mates, and could never see any difference; 

 but I hav^e used the highest grade when us- 

 ing either kind. I have just finished feed- 

 ing 14,000 lbs. of sugar syrup to my bees, as 

 we had a total failure here this season on ac- 

 count of drouih and a scourge of grasshop- 

 pers. Of course I fed the very highest grade 

 of sugar made into syrup; but most of the 

 bee-men here used an unrefined and cheap- 

 er grade; and if we have a long cold winter 

 that keeps the bees confined for a long time 

 I look for th m to have trouble w-ith dysen- 

 tery, while they will be all right with mild 

 weather when the bees can fly often. 



A sugar-factory here is making over two 

 thousand tons of sugar per day that I believe 

 is equal to any sugar made on earth for any 

 purpose. 



Longmont, Colo. 



[We are glad to have this report, showing 

 that refined beet sugar is perfectly safe for 

 bees. This ought to silence forever all re- 



