1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



563 



wrong ; for the interest on the value of the 

 above colony is not an item to be paid in cash, 

 neither is the labor of the apiarist; so, after all, 

 the only actual cash expenses are 



Cost of case and can — 70 



Freight 45 



Commission IS 



Total : $1 33 instead of S3 05. 



This makes an actual cost, so far as cash ex- 

 penses are concerned, of nearly 3 cts. per 

 pound; and if the 20,000 pounds of honey are 

 sold at 5 cts., there will be $600.00 left to the 

 apiarist to buy " a pair of overalls and a year's 

 grub for the wife and babies." 



This is not all. The above calculation is 

 based on a supposition of an annual yield per 

 colony of 70 pounds and a total yield of 20,000 

 pounds. This gives 2S5 colonies only; but an 

 active man ought to be able to take care of 

 three or four times that number. 



Further on, Mr. Clayton states that the hon- 

 ey sold by the bee-keepers for 4 or 5 cts. is re- 

 tailed out for 8 or 10 cts. per pound, and sug- 

 gests that the dit!erence is too great. Perhaps 

 it is; yet we must remember that the grocer 

 who sells your honey has a great many expenses 

 to meet — license, clerk's salary, store rent, de- 

 livery-wagon, book-keeping, collecting, etc., 

 and, what is worse yet, losses from people who 

 fail to pay for what they buy. If, before reach- 

 ing the retailer, your honey has to pass through 

 the hands of two or three commission or whole- 

 sale merchants, the discrepancy between the 

 price paid by the consumer, and the price re- 

 ceived by the bee-keeper, will necessarily be con- 

 siderable. 



As to the best method of selling, sell as much 

 as possible in your home market. Peddling 

 will do if only a small crop is to be disposed of, 

 and if the apiarist has nothing better to do. 

 As a rule, it takes too much time in proportion 

 to the amount sold. P^or my part, I should pre- 

 fer to keep more bees, and work in the apiary, 

 instead of spending most of my time in peddling 

 out a smaller crop. 



To avoid unnecessary expenses, sell directly 

 to the grocers of your nearest cities. Do not 

 sell too much to any one until you find out 

 whether he is reliable, unless, of course, it be a 

 cash sale. In the beginning you will have, in 

 most cases, to begin by leaving a few pounds 

 to be sold on trial, and returned to you if not 

 found satisfactory. After a line of customers 

 is established, it will be as easy to dispose of a 

 large crop that way as it would be to send it to 

 a commission merchant; and you will not only 

 save the commission, but probably get a little 

 above the market price, provided, of course, 

 your honey is not too bad or badly put up. 



WHY THE PRICE OF HONEY IS NEARLY IN- 

 FLEXIBLE. 



The question has been asked lately why the 

 price of honey is now almost invariable, no 



matter whether the crop is large or small. The 

 answer is not hard to give. Glucose (or, rather, 

 corn syrups) are now produced in enormous 

 quantities, and sold at a close margin. As they 

 can be produced in unlimited quantities, their 

 price can not vary, even if the demand should 

 Increase. The result is, that the price of honey 

 is governed by the price of the corresponding 

 quality of the corn syrup. I say " correspond- 

 ing quality," because there are different quali- 

 ties of corn syrup as well as different qualities 

 of honey. As the honey is decidedly superior 

 it will always sell a little above the corn syrup, 

 but not much; for if the difference were too 

 great, people would rather buy the somewhat 

 inferior substitute. On the other hand, should 

 the production of honey increase considerably 

 it would not decrease the price materially, but 

 simply displace a corresponding quantity of 

 syrup, from the fact that at equal or even 

 slightly superior prices, people will take honey 

 in preference. 

 Knoxville, Tenn. 



[Your criticisms on Mr. Clayton's method of 

 figuring out the cost are well taken from a 

 business standpoint. Mr. C. also, as I have 

 previously pointed out, placed too large a value 

 on drawn combs; namely, "75 cts. for purpose 

 of income." He should put down only their 

 market value, or what they can be replaced 

 for.— Ed.] 



IS THE CALIFORNIA HONEY CROP A FAILURES 



THE HONEY EXCHANGE AND ADULTERATION. 



By W. A. H. Oilstmp. 



" The honey season in California, we are told, 

 is practically a failure all along the line. East- 

 ern honey will have little if any competition 

 from the Pacific coast." 



So reads an editorial in Gleanings for July 

 1st. This mistake is pardonable in an Eastern 

 editor when a California writer (Rambler) says 

 on page 487, Am. Bee Journal, 1895, that Cali- 

 fornia honey is produced before the Eastern 

 markets are established. 



To enlighten the above, let me say that we 

 have a place in the Golden State that we call 

 the San Wau-/ice?i Valley (spelled, or, rather, 

 misspelled, "San Joaquin." This part of the 

 State is not considered in the above, and yet we 

 produce honey every year. The king of honey- 

 producers in this valley is Mr. Daugherty, of 

 Bakersfield, with only 1400 colonies. I am told. 

 I know perhaps 20 men who produced over 8 

 tons each last year. Bees are now fairly start- 

 ed on storing surplus, which was not true one 

 year ago. What I mean by " fairly started " is 

 for all stocks to be at work and surplus being 

 removed from the stronger ones. The season 

 closes anywhere from Aug. 30 to Oct. 5, depend- 

 ing on season and locality. Perhaps you will 

 see from 20 to 40 cars of our honey beyond the 

 Rockies later in the season, which would keep 



