E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



EDITORIAL 



WIIENEVEE COMMON granulated sugar 

 is scarce or hard to get, the price of honey 

 begins to take an 

 A Million-ton upward trend. This 



Shortage was strikingly ex- 



of Sugar. eniplified when re- 



strictions were 

 placed upon the jiurchase and sale of sugar 

 during the last two years of the Great War. 

 When manufacturers and the housewife can 

 not get all the sugar they want they natural- 

 l^' turn to honey, as it is the only sweet out- 

 side of cheap molasses that has sufficient 

 strength to serve their purpose. The glucose 

 syrups have too little actual sweetening 

 power and too much of the gums to be of 

 much use as a substitute for sugar. 



Within the last few weeks there have been 

 various rumors to the effect that there was 

 going to be another scarcity of sugar. A 

 late report going the rounds of the newspa- 

 pers asserts there will be in the aggregate 

 a million-ton shortage of the world's sugar 

 supply, on top of the fact that prohibition 

 is going to make an enormous demand for 

 the product in this country and Canada. Be- 

 sides this, Europe is crying for sugar. Their 

 beet fields have either been destroyed or 

 used for the growing of grains. 



Over against this, another statement is 

 made in the western papers concerning beet- 

 sugar production in the West, to the effect 

 that not only has the acreage of beets been 

 increased by 11,000 over last year, but that 

 the reserve supply is 6,000,000 bags this 

 year as against 3,000,000 for the same period 

 last year; but remember this is for beet 

 sugar only. In spite of this increase there 

 has been a falling off over last year of all 

 sugars of over a million tons according to 

 high authority. 



Said one of the leading officials' of the so- 

 called sugar trust to the Editor of Glean- 

 ings, who thought it proper to go to the 

 fountain head for his information, "The re- 

 ports from our domestic and insular pos- 

 sessions show that, in spite of the increased 

 supply of beet sugar, there will still be a 

 shortage of sugar over last year of over a 

 million tons. The newspaper reports are 

 substantially correct." 



When asked the probable effect of prohi- 

 bition in stimulating a demand for sugar 

 he said, "There is no question but that the 

 cutting off of liquor in its various forms 

 will make an increase in the demand for 



sugar, which is a real stimulant, not an arti- 

 ficial one"; and then he added, "We have 

 always noticed in and around our mills 

 where prohibition went into effect, that the 

 former drinkers would buy large quantities 

 of candies, soft drinks, and icecream, when 

 before thev never bought anything of this 

 kind. ' ' 



When asked whether sugar would go up 

 or down during or after the period of re- 

 construction, he said, "Congress has guar- 

 anteed to the beet-sugar interests in this 

 country that the price of their sugar shall 

 not go down before September next. It is 

 not likely," he continued, "that, in view 

 of present shortage and demand, sugar will 

 go down for the present. What the effect 

 of open competition will be later on I can 

 n.ot tell. ' ' Our informant preferred not to 

 have his nanie given, but that he knew 

 what he was talking about was very clear. 



As pointed out in our last issue, the effect 

 of sugar shortage and prohibition must nec- 

 essa-i-y stimulate a demand for honey. 

 "But," some one says, "the President has 

 requested Congress to remove the war-time 

 ban on beei' and wine." A canvass of the 

 Senate and House shows that Congress is 

 m.'erwhelmingly against making any change. 

 Thirty-two States have adopted state-wide 

 prohibition, no matter what Congress may 

 or may not do; and forty-five States have 

 ratified the national amendment. Our law- 

 makers will not dare face their constituents 

 and vote to remove war-time prohibition. 

 But suppose they did; it would not affect 

 the thirty-two States dry by legislative en- 

 actment nor a large part of the territory of 

 the remainder. Beekeepers all over the land, 

 if they will consult the interests of their 

 boys and girls and their pocketbooks, will 

 write to their senators and representatives 

 in Congress protesting against any change 

 in war-time iirohibition. 



We are sorry that our great President — 

 great for some of the big things he has ac- 

 complished in making the world safer and 

 saner — should have seen fit to take this 

 stand. It is far more important to save for 

 starving Europe the grain that would other- 

 wise go into beer, and to save the boys and 

 girls of our land, than it is to save the 

 wine and beer interests who have had a 

 year 's warning to get under cover. The 

 greater part of the wine vineyards of Cali- 

 fon.ia ha e already been grafted to produce 



