liins 



GLEANJNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



149 



ONE OF L. E. .MKKGKK'S OUT-APIARIES IN CALIEOKNIA. 



All of Mr. Mercer's yards are arranged on the same general plan, which might be compared to a mammoth 

 wheel. The honey-house is the hub, and the rows of hives the spoltes. 



ness. He has, at present, 1800 colonies lo- 

 cated in out-apiaries near his home in Ven- 

 tura, California; and if such a term may be 

 used in an apicultural way, he might be call- 

 ed a professional bee-keeper — that is, he is 

 a man who makes bee-keeping his business — 

 his p7-off g.'iioyi — and not merely his pastime. 

 The opinions of such a man are likely to be 

 worth more, perhaps, than those of an ama- 

 teur, even though the amateur be an experi- 

 enced bee-keeper, for the opinions of the ex- 

 tensive producer are sure to be practical, be- 

 ing the outgrowth of hard study from the 

 standpoint of dollars and cents. 



When Mr. Mercer was at the "Home of the 

 Honey-bees" he had been traveling for six 

 weeks, and he said that, during this time, he 

 had seen almost no honey in the stores for 

 sale, nor could he see any evidence of any 

 advertising of honey. He believed that, if 

 the right kind of man were employed to trav- 

 el in the interests of the honey-business, there 

 would not be enough bee-keepers in the 

 country to supply the demand. The prices 

 would then become more nearly what the 

 prices of good honey ought to be. On being 

 asked if he did not think the pure-food law 

 would tend to raise the price of honey, he 

 replied he thought that it undoubtedly would, 

 but that some hustling would be necessary 

 also, to get the public to see that honey is 

 really more of a necessity than a luxury. 



Mr. Mercer is right. The number of fam- 

 ilies that buy honey regularly is lamentably 

 small. In order to make any great increase 



in the price of honey, the producers ought to 

 make an organized effort to make the con- 

 sumers recognize honey as a necessity instead 

 of a luxury. The Honey-producers* League 

 was a move in the right direction, but some 

 were suspicious. 



Our attitude in reference to manufacturers 

 as officers of bee-keepers' associations is 

 clearly defined, p. 1489, Dec. 1st Gleanings. 

 The control should be in the hands of the 

 producers, for whose direct benefit the move- 

 ment is carried on. 



Now that the National Association has the 

 funds of the Honey-producers' League, the 

 producers have a chance to do some profit- 

 able advertising. Whatever is done, it is 

 certain that honey must be systematically 

 advertised if the price is to be brought up to 

 the desired point. 



One simple and effective way of city adver- 

 tising which Mr. Mercer mentioned was the 

 use of cards in street-cars. Every one is fa- 

 miliar with the advertising cards thus dis- 

 played, and it is not surprising to find that 

 such a way of getting honey before the pub- 

 lic has also been found successful. 



AN INEXPENSIVE METHOD OF SELLING 

 LIQUID HONEY. 



Mr. Mercer told of one good way of selling 

 honey which one of his sons has made use of 

 in California. Various grocers in a city are 

 supplied with honey-tanks, small enough to 

 stand on a counter, "but large enough to hold 

 twenty or thirty gallons. These are gotten 



