394 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Judy, 1918 



honey bottlers' inquiries for contracts and 

 deliveries or quoting enormously advanced 

 prices without promise as to date of de- 

 livery The exact situation in 



tin cans is — acute shortage and uncertainty. ' ' 



The situation today is entirely changed. 

 The glass manufacturers are not only in po- 

 sition and willing to fill all orders coming 

 to them for glass containers, but they are 

 quite actively soliciting such orders. This 

 change in the glass situation undoubtedly 

 arises from a very much reduced demand for 

 bottles for the liquor trade (whisky being 

 practically knocked out) as well as the 

 greatly diminished demand for bottles for 

 soft drinks, the manufaciture of which has 

 been greatly restricted by the Food Ad- 

 ministration. 



The cost of honey as well as the cost of 

 glass has so greatly advanced as to make it 

 impracticable to bottle honey at a price at 

 which the public will buy. When a little 

 honey could be bought in a glass container 

 for ten cents it attracted the purchaser. But 

 when a little honey can not be bought for 

 less than twenty cents it does not attract 

 the purchaser. Accordingly, glass contain- 

 ers for honey are not in demand by the hon- 

 ey packers. 



The supply of tin can containers has also 

 improved, largely because of restriction to 

 strictly necessary uses for tin containers of 

 all kinds. 



Under these demand and production con- 

 ditions, it would seem that the manufactur- 

 ers of both glass and tin containers might 

 offer their products at a lower figure, to 

 stimulate demand. But this is not the case. 

 If, in these war times, any manufaoturer 

 anywhere is reducing the price of his prod- 

 uct to the jobber or wholesaler (and so to 

 the final user), we have not heard of it. 

 Manufacturers of glass and tin are holding 

 for the same high prices that prevailed 

 when users of glass and tin containers were 

 begging them as a favor to fill their orders. 



WHEN THE EDITOR was in Washington 

 recently. Dr. E. F. Phillips said he would 



r e c o m m end to the 

 Don't Extract Sugar Division of the 



too Closely. Government not to let 



beekeepers who have 

 extracted too closely have any sugar. Dr. 

 Phillips' recommendation has great weight, 

 and beekeepers everywhere should lay in a 

 lot of sealed stores in combs, and be ready 

 for a sugar shortage. 



There is grave danger, too, even if the 

 Sugar Divisions of the various States were 

 willing to disburse the sugar, that there 

 will be none available this fall. Eecent sub- 

 marine activities along the Atlantic coast 

 may prevent the carrying of sugar from the 

 West Indies to the United States; and, even 

 with the submarine under control, we are 

 advised that there will be a sugar shortage 

 this fall and winter. It becomes doubly 

 and trebly important, therefore, that bee- 



keepers should not extract too closely, and 

 that they go further and lay aside a set of 

 extracting-combs of sealed stores to give to 

 the bees next spring. While it is admitted 

 by our best beekeepers that bees, even dur- 

 ing a severe winter, will do better on sugar 

 stores, we had better not bank on getting a 

 supply of sugar this year. 



IT IS AN open secret of well-informed bee- 

 keepers that there was considerable specula- 

 tion in honey last 

 Speculation season. It is known 



In Honey and that large s h i p - 

 Other Foods. ments of honey 

 were made from 

 the West to the East, after the 1917 crop 

 was supposed to be exhausted, and it is said 

 that this was honey that had been held in 

 warehouses for double the purchase price 

 and more. This is history now and does not 

 concern us at this time — except as it may 

 teach a moral for future use. 



The man who speculates in food stuffs, 

 while the country is at war, is certainly not 

 acting with that patriotism which should 

 actuate every American citizen. Specula- 

 tion in honey is just as bad as speculation in 

 any other article of food. Honey is not on 

 the list of foods which the Government has 

 taken over for control, but this is not any 

 justification for the man who tries to specu- 

 late. He may for the present be safe legal- 

 ly, but he is not approved in the estimation 

 of his fellow countrymen. To buy honey 

 and hold it for double the price is morally a 

 crime. 



We suggest that the beekeepers of the 

 country may render a valuable service to 

 the country and to their fellow beekeepers 

 by accumulating information on this sort of 

 operation. Keep a careful record of the 

 price at which you sell your honey to* the 

 buyer. Then, if you get information as to 

 the prices at which this same honey is sold, 

 and if this price is too high in proportion 

 to what you received, report the transaction 

 to the Department of Justice, Washing^ton, 

 D. C. Whether this will do any good we 

 can not say; but it will helj} to prevent 

 speculation if the buyers know that there 

 are a lot of keen-eyed beekeepers interested 

 in the fact that only honest profits in honey 

 are expected. 



What is a fair profit? This is a little 

 hard to answer, for the profit must to some 

 extent be in proportion to the risk taken; 

 but it is safe to figure that any extensive 

 buyer, one who handles honey by the earlot, 

 is making too much if his profits exceed 10 

 per cent of the purchase price. Whether 

 this is too much or too little, beekeepers 

 may use this figure as approximately the 

 right one, and any cases of a profit of 20 

 per cent or more should be brought to the 

 attention of the Government authorities. 

 Of course, the dealer who has to pay for bot- 

 tles and the labor of bottling must receive 

 compensation for these expenses, as well as 



