358 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



June 4, 



evidence corroborative, that the production of honey, unlike 

 other produce, is not subject to the laws that govern supply 

 and demand. 



Some have claimed that because the production of honey 

 was not entirely In the hands of so-called specialists, the mar- 

 kets have been demoralized by small producers, who have sold 

 their product for what they could get, regardless of the large 

 producers. 



Much has been written about houey exchanges and unions 

 as a means to better prices. While many bee-keepers are 

 loud on the various trusts and combines in other avocations, 

 combines for the same purpose — namely, to secure better 

 profits, and freeze out small producers — no slur is ever cast 

 on any legal means of doing the same thing in the honey in- 

 dustry. 



The honey industry, while in many respects governed by 

 the immediate local conditions, is widely diffused, and there- 

 fore in a broad sense independent, comparatively, of other 

 than general and widespread results. Like the production of 

 eggs and butter, there does not at present appear any method 

 of producing honey so cheaply and surely as when produced 

 by those same small, widely-distributed methods. 



We read of the financial results of immense crops of honey 

 produced in localities where people prefer sour fruits to cheap 

 honey, even ; of no home market, and combines, etc. What 

 does it all mean ? Simply this, that honey, like other articles 

 of food, is governed by the laws of demand and supply. 



Should the time ever come (and it is striding that way, 

 when a few colonies of bees will be kept by all classes of peo- 

 ple, as hens and cats are now kept — not because there is much 

 money in them, but because they pay as well in money and 

 comfort as anything else on a small scale and in a limited way), 

 the consumption of honey will be greatly increased as its 

 price is reduced, and its supply augmented. 



It is not necessary that specialists should be consulted. 

 They have told over and over, and put it in different shapes 

 in different books, till they have no more to offer ; in fact, we 

 have had efforts made to increase competition, and reduce the 

 price of honey and books by petitioning the much-abused 

 paternalism of the Government for aid in the free distribution 

 of a very worthy and excellent manual of the apiary prepared 

 under the auspices of the Department of Agriculture. Such 

 petitions do not favor combines and honey exchanges. The 

 laws of nature— vanity or interest — stand ever ready to teach 

 school for a consideration. It may be a bee-convention, a 

 Sunday school, a missionary meeting, or Salvation Army. 



It is safe to say that until the arrival of the age 

 of miracles it will pay in direct, or indirect, ways to produce 

 honey and eggs and butter at rates at which they will be con- 

 sumed. T. P. Bingham. 



W. Z. Hutchinson — I fear that Mr. Bingham forgets that 

 honey is a luxury, and the price does not respond to the law 

 of supply and demand as it does in the case of staples. People 

 will pay .^1.00 a bushel for potatoes rather than do without 

 them, but as soon as the price of honey begins to go up, its 

 use is dropped by many. 



Next came a paper by Dr. L. C. Whiting, of Saginaw, en- 

 titled : 



Bee-Keepers must Follow the "Wild Flowers. 



The failure in the crop of honey produced in any part of 

 the country where the fields are all cultivated, must be met 

 by emigration to pastures new, where the plow cannot disturb 

 the wild flowers. 



When the timber has just been cleared from the land, 

 flowers spring up in variety and abundance. The ashes of 

 the clearing are hardly cooled before fireweed, boneset and 

 asters make their appearance. Raspberries and blackberries 

 soon folllow, and many other honey-producing plants cover 

 the land. The forest, if at hand, furnishes another abundant 



source of honey. White clover soon comes in, and the bees 

 and bee-keepers are happy in the abundance of the stores. 

 Should the land be so broken and rough that it cannot be cul- 

 tivated, this condition of affairs may last many years. 



As soon as the farmer puts his plow into the field, a large 

 portion of these blooms disappear, and little remains except 

 fruit-blossoms and white clover. The lumberman soon clears 

 the basswood from the forest, and the bee-keeper wonders 

 what is the matter with the honey season. What are we 

 going to do about it ? Sit down and see our bees die out, or 

 seek more favorable locations? 



This condition is facing many bee-keepers in Michigan 

 to-day. Some of our prominent honey-producers have already 

 taken this step, and are following the honey-flow into the new 

 clearings, and success has proved the wisdom of their course. 



There are many locations in the northern and western 

 parts of the State which furnish the right conditions for profit- 

 able bee-keeping, to suit the most capricious bee-keeper. 



Keep up your courage and follow the advice of Horace 

 Greeley, and— "Go west." L. C. Whiting. 



R. L. Taylor — How about Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, 

 Illinois and New York? These are old, cleared-up States, and 

 have been for years, yet they have had good crops of honey 

 since they were cleared and cultivated. 



Mr. Hunt — In my locality we had good crops of honey for 

 11 years in succession. Then there was a change. It was 

 abrupt. The floral conditions are the same in my locality 

 now that they were in those 11 years of plenty. 



Mr. Taylor — What we need is rain. 



Mr. Aspinwall — You are right ; and I believe that we will, 

 in a measure, have an old-fashioned season this coming sum- 

 mer. There was more rain and snow the past winter than we 

 have had in some time. 



W. Z. Hutchinson was appointed to look after the matter 

 of conferring with the State Board of Agriculture regarding 

 the continuance of the Apicultural Experiment Station. 



OfiScers were elected as follows : President, L. A. Aspin- 

 wall, of Jackson ; Vice-President, Geo. E. Hilton, of Fremont; 

 Secretary, W. Z. Hutchinson, of Flint; and Treasurer, M. H. 

 Hunt, of Bell Branch. 



The place for holding the next meeting was not definitely 

 decided upon, it being left with the officers, but the talk was 

 in favor of going more towards the northern part of the State. 

 No meeting has been held very far north, and in that part of 

 the State honey crops have been good the past year or two, 

 and a larger attendance may be secured by going to a portion 

 of the State where the bee-keepers have not had so many op- 

 portunities for attending a convention. Mt. Pleasant was 

 mentioned as the probable place for holding the meeting. 



W. Z. Hutchinson, Sec. 



"Samantlia at the "World's Fair."— We want 

 to make our present readers one of the best offers ever made. 

 All know the excellent books written by " Samantha, Josiah 

 Allen's Wife." Well, "Samantha at the World's Fair" is 

 probably her best, and we are enabled to offer this book and a 

 year's subscription to the New York "Voice" (the greatest 

 $1.00 weekly temperance paper published to-day), for sending 

 us only three new subscribers to the American Bee Journal 

 (with $3,00), provided you are not now a subscriber to the 

 ""Voice." Think of it— a grand book and a grand weekly 

 temperance newspaper given simply for saiding us three new 

 subscribers to the Bee Journal for a year 1 The Samantha 

 book is exactly the same as the $2.50 one, only the binding is 

 of heavy manilla instead of cloth. It is a special 100,000- 

 copy edition, and when they are all gone, the offer will be 

 withdrawn by the publishers. Of course, no premium will 

 also be given to the new subscribers — simply the American 

 Bee Journal for one year. 



