828 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



son a greater tendency on the part of producers to 

 hold their honey than 'is usually the case. We think 

 this is in part caused by the fact that, during the hon- 

 ey-flow, it came in very rapidly ; but as the flow was 

 shorter than usual, this gave the impression to those 

 hiving a surplus that they were about the only ones 

 who had secure I any thing in the way of surplus. As 

 much of this was gathered in the early part of the 

 clover season, and stopped suddenly, and in a geod 

 many places, they had no more houey until the asters 

 begin to bio .im. Inasmuch as this has been a favora- 

 ble season for them, a great dfal of late honey is be- 

 ing gathered and has been gathered, so that the early- 

 grtthered honey can be marketed, and is beginning to 

 come forward more freely, now that winter stores are 

 no longer a que>tion. 



The cry that has gone out of a large crop through 

 the newspapers, to our minds, is a great advantage to 

 the houf y-producer, inasmuch as it gives the general 

 public an idea that ho: ey is pleniiful, good, and 

 cheap. This will make them fetl inclined to buy it ; 

 thus the cons.imption of honey will be very largely 

 incrertsed, and it is the otje thing that will sustain 

 present pi ices, and make it possible for the crop of 

 1901 to be consumed before another one is ready. 

 Very truly yours, 



R. A. Burnett & Co. 



Chicago, 111., Sept. 26. 



Our experience regarding offers on honey 

 does not coincide with that of the Burnett 

 Co. It is true there has been more honey 

 produced in the East this year, but that is 

 mainly extracted. On this point there is 

 and has been no diversity of opinion. In- 

 deed, I have already stated in the several 

 reports that I have put forth in these col- 

 iimns that the crop of hone}' in the East 

 was larger than for several years back, but 

 only in extracted. The ainount of comb, 

 for some reason or other, seems to be very 

 light. Last year we were able to get a fair 

 supply, but this year we are not even able 

 to supply our trade, although we can get 

 all the extracted we need. In discussing 

 the honey crop, don't let us get confused on 

 these points. 



Of course, it is understood b}^ all of us 

 that accounts in newspiipers are not to be 

 taken in any degree as authority: but the 

 dear public, the consumers, are the ones 

 that are misled. Some unscrupulous buy- 

 ers who are not misled, seeing the opportu- 

 nity to depress the luarket, make all the 

 handle of it they can. 



But I can not see the force of the state- 

 ment that the report of a large crop of hon- 

 ey "is an advantage to the honej'-produc- 

 er," if it is untrue. It is the buyers, or 

 middlemen, when these accounts are being 

 floated, who depress the market. It is not 

 the consumers, in my judgment. But the 

 main thing that I was striking at was these 

 exaggerated reports carrying the impres- 

 sion that 2000 or even 500 cars of honey had 

 been produced in California. It is such 

 statements that keep the extracted-honey 

 market in a state of uncertainty. 



The other letter to which I referred is one 

 froiu C. H. Clayton, as above stated. Con- 

 cerning the recent editorials in our columns, 

 he says: 



Mr. Root : — I note several editorials in recent issues 

 of Gleanivgs regarding prices on California honey. 

 I am a producer as well «s a buyer and shipper of hon- 

 ey, and the present low prices are to be deplored. We 

 ar^ all wholesalers, compelled to be such from our lo- 

 cation, and at the mercy of the Eastern buyer, who 

 has other sources than ours from which to draw his 

 stock. At no time this season has it been easy for us 



to find buyers, even at present prices. When New 

 York and Chicago will pay but 5 to 6 cents delivered, 

 we can expect but 3^ to 45^ cents for honey here, the 

 freight being about a cent per pound from our termi- 

 nals to pjiuts named 



I do not care to euter into an argument as to wheth- 

 er buyers have overestimated or whether producers 

 have underestimated the crop. It is quite likely that 

 a few of both buyers and producers are not on the 

 best of terms with the truth I fail to see, however, 

 where either buyer or seller can possibly benefit by 

 misrepresentation. 



I have fouad, after years of experience, that the so- 

 called 'estimates " of ptoducers and others scattered 

 over the c.;'untry are not to be relied upon. This year 

 I base my knowledge of the amount of extracted hon- 

 ey produced upon the number of cases and cans made 

 and sold, which I think is a safe criterion, since it is 

 not liktlv producers are buying and storing them for 

 use another year. So far as my experience in the 

 sale of them went this season, and I .sold several thou- 

 sand, they bought only when and what they needed 

 from time to time. About the time Ernest Root was 

 on the coast I had a customer for thirty cases. He 

 said he thought he would not need to exceed sixty 

 at the most, and would buy in small lots as needed. 

 Well, that man has 500 cases — 30 tons — of houey. The 

 others bought just a-i- carefully, though they did not 

 all have the phenomenal yield that this man had. 



In j'our tditoria- of Sept. 16 you name Ventura as 

 "one of the best if not the best," and credit the county 

 with 215 tons. I think I could name four producers in 

 that Ci.;unty whose aggregate production v^ould reach 

 almost that figure. There are more than 75 in the 

 county who prodiice for market, and whose produc- 

 tion is from one to twenty or more tons each. I have 

 samples of houey in my oflice, from producers in 

 Orange Countj' (the smallest county gtographically), 

 representing about 250 tons yet unsold, and which I 

 have personallj' examined (the tons as well as the 

 samples). 



I have sampled only part of the honey over there, 

 and I know there has been considerable honey ship- 

 ped from the couuty. The counties probably range 

 in production this year in the following order: L,os 

 Angeles, Orange, River.'-ide, Ventura, Santa Barbaia, 

 San Diego, and Sau Bernardino. There have been 

 about 100 carloads .shipped to date from these counties, 

 and no one will claim that more than one third of the 

 crop has been shipped, if, indeed, there has been as 

 much as one third. 



It is quite true that the loss of bees during the three 

 dry j'ears was enormous, but that loss has been large- 

 ly repaired, and the bees are differently distiibuted. 

 Old pro jucers who have dropped out have been re- 

 placed bj- new ones in new localities, as I have learned 

 in my travels during the season. 



I have not advised selling at present prices, neither 

 have I advistd holding, except in one instance, for 

 higher prices. I have unformly given what informa- 

 tion I had that was reliable a.t to production, and left 

 the matter to the judgment of the producer. Know- 

 ing what I positively do as to the amount produced, I 

 hesitate to advise holding for higher viices, and with 

 that same knowledge in mind I do not advi.^e a whole- 

 sale rush to sell. The market will absorb the honey 

 only about .'o fast, and a rush would be disastrous. 

 The market is extremely tender. A half-dozen cars 

 thrown at once into either New York or Chicago will 

 appa- ently glut the market, and prices at once go off 

 5 3 to J{ cent which represents the difference between 

 a raorlerate profit and an absolute loss on the honey. 



Lang, C.\l., Sept 23 C. H. Clayton. 



You say that "no time this season has it 

 been easy for us to find buyers." It seems 

 to me the reason is perfectly plain. The 

 exaggerated reports that are and have been 

 going forth from titne to time, of the big- 

 ness of the California crop, has a decided 

 tendency to unsettle the m:irket and to luake 

 the buyers hold off. The Root Company, 

 as well as a nuinber of others whom we 

 know, hardly dared to make an offering 

 earlier in the season on a car of honey un- 

 til we knew the facts. No one of us would 

 risk the chance of a high offer with a pos- 

 sibility of that offer being far above the 

 market later on, providing the crop should 

 prove to be as large as has been stated. 



