Vol. XVIII. 



NOV. K 1890. 



No. 21. 



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HONEY STATISTICS. 



OUR INDUSTRY GROSSLY MISREPRESENTED BY 

 MISLEADING AND INCORRECT REPORTS. 



We take the following from the Ayncrlcan 

 Bee Jouriinl of Oct. 18. page fi08: 



The following is from the "Report of the Statisti- 

 •cian," ill the report of tlie Secretary of Agriculture 

 for 1889, page25L T should like to call attention to 

 the last paragraiih. Will not this be taken as con- 

 flrmation of the Wiley lie. which is the hasis of so 

 many newspaper reports derogatory to our pursuit ? 

 Please ventilate the matter. H. G. Burnet. 



Alva, Fla. 



Here is the Statistical Report which Mr. Bur- 

 net refers to: 



BEE-KEEPING. 



Among the minor branches of rui-al industry, bee- 

 keeping is one of the most important, though its im- 

 portance is not generall.y recogiiized, from the fact 

 that it is almost everywhere cariied on as an incident 

 of general agriculture, and but rarely as a leading 

 rural occupation. 



Every State and Territory reports bees and more 

 or less honey, usually a hive or a few colonies for 

 each farmer rather than extensive apiaries and large 

 production. In some localities, as in portions of 

 New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and ("iilifornia, where 

 existing conditions are particularly favorable, api- 

 culture is more prominent, dominating other indus- 

 tries in a neighborhood, though very rarely the lead- 

 ing In'anch of agriculture over any considerable 

 area. 



The value of the annual product of honey and wax 

 is not generally realized. They are produced more 

 or less extensively in every section of the country, 

 and the aggregate value is lai'ge— mucli larger than 

 that of other crops of which mo.e notice is usually 

 taken. It almost equals the total value of the rice or 

 the hop crop, falls but little short of the buckwheat 

 product, exceeds the value of our cane molasses, and 

 of both maple syrup and sugar. It largely exceeds 

 the aggregate value of our vegetable fibers excepting 

 cotton, and in 1879 was half as large as the wine pro- 

 duct of the year. 



The latest official record of i)r()duction by States 

 is the return of the national census for the year 1879. 



It made the honey pi'oduction 25,743,308 pound.s, and 

 wax 1,1(^,689 pounds. After careful study of all 

 available data of local values and market prices, the 

 average farm \alue of the honey was estimated at 23 

 cents per pound, and the wax at 33 cents, making the 

 aggregate value of apiarian products at the place of 

 production 16,028,383, The product of the principal 

 States in that year was as follows: 



STATES. HONEY. WAX. 



lbs. lbs. 



Tennessee 3.130,689 86,431 



New York 2,088,84.5 79.756 



Ohio 1,^36,847 56,333 



North Carolina 1,591,690 126,286 



Kentucky 1,500,565 46,912 



Pennsylvania 1,41.5,093 46,610 



Illinois 1,310,806 4.5,640 



Iowa 1,310,138 39,565 



Virginia 1,090,451 53,200 



All other 11,678,184 524,984 



Total 35,743,308 1,105,689 



Under the head of "all other," in the above state- 

 ment, there is grouped the pioduction of 36 States 

 and Territories, ranging from 1,056,034 pounds of 

 honey in Georgia to .50 pounds in Idaho. 



The census of 1870 was defective in its returns of 

 product for many crops, and its record of honey and 

 wax ill 1869 is undoubtedly much too low. It made 

 the honey product only 14,703,815 pounds. t<x) low In 

 the aggregate, though the falling off in all States in- 

 dicates that it was a year of short production. Illi- 

 nois was the leading State, with a crop of 1,500,000 

 pounds, while North Carolina stood second. 



The returns in 1860 were more satisfactory, and 

 thev show that the product of 1859 was but slightly 

 exceeded by the crop of 1879, after 20 years of growth. 

 The production of wax was actully greater. Many 

 States show a product greater than that of 1879, and 

 the aggregates of 2;i,'!(i(),:i")7 pounds of honey and 

 1,322.7S7 ixiunds of wax indieate that thei'O has been 

 a comparativi' decline of the industry, the increase 

 of population being taken into consideration. 



The nine States given in the i>receding table as 

 those of principal pioduction in 1879, produced 14,000,- 

 000 pounds. The same States 2d years earlier had a 

 record of 13,9t»),000 pounds. With our rapid annual 

 increase of population, to .stand still in aggregate 

 pioduction is to retrograde. A more striking way of 

 showing the decline in the industry is by a study of 



