THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



201 



making it can be found in nearly every 

 home where they are able to buy honey. 

 Again, there has been so much glucose 

 sold for honey that the people are sus- 

 picious when you go to peddling honey, 

 and if they buy at all the price must be 

 low. Then another phase of the ques- 

 tion comes up in this shape: Can you 

 afford to sell pure honey for the low 

 prices at which it is found upon the 

 market? The consumer has, at least, 

 some grounds for his doubts. And now, 

 let us "face the music" and say that we 

 must produce our honey and put it on 

 the market at a price that will compete 

 with the cheaper sweets, or we must go 

 out of the business. This seems to me 

 to be the whole story in a nutshell. 



Honey must be produced at a mini- 

 mum price and supplies must be bought 

 at the very lowest prices. Supply deal- 

 ers will kick, no doubt, on lowering 

 their prices, but it must be done or 

 honey cannot be produced and pui 

 within reach of the masses. 



Mannville, Fla. 



[It is net our purpose, generally, to 

 supplement the remarks of our contrib- 

 utors with editorial comment; but, as 

 in this instance, it seems sometimes 

 necessary to disregard preferences, for, 

 inasmuch as the subject is one of gen- 

 eral interest, expressions of opinion 

 have been invited and are, therefore, 

 given place in these columns. Mr. 

 Shepherd starts out to analyze the sub- 

 ject on broad lines, which would natur- 

 ally lead the reader to anticipate an ex- 

 haustive discussion of the matter with 

 proportionately radical measures to 

 overcome the evil. But, instead, he nar- 

 rows down to a recommendation that 

 the burden be transferred to the already- 

 laden shoulders of the supply manufac- 

 ture!, without even a suggestion as to 

 a possible means of securing better 

 prices. It is every man's privilege to 

 manufacture his own supplies if he so 

 desires. Bee-keepers have two things 

 in particular for which to be thankful: 

 First, that nothing really essential in 



the supply line is patented, and, sec- 

 ondly, that the manufacturers of bee- 

 keepers' supplies in the United States 

 have not followed the example set in 

 nearly every other branch of trade by 

 combining to extort unreasonable 

 prices from the consumer of their pro- 

 ducts. If any man feels that the pres- 

 ent prices charged by our larger manu- 

 facturers for the appliances he needs in 

 the apiary are too high, let him em- 

 phatically and forever disabuse his 

 mxind of the error by making his own 

 supplies one season. We have, like 

 many others, tried the experiment, and 

 the wonder now is that they are able to 

 provide us with such an excellent line 

 of goods at so low a price. If the bee- 

 keeper must have cheaper foundation it 

 will be necessary only for him to re- 

 duce the price of wax and the manu- 

 factured article will decline in propor- 

 tion. 1\ the existence of our industry 

 can be sustained only through a reduc- 

 tion in the price of supplies of the pres- 

 ent standard of excellence, its days are 

 numbered. — Ed.] 



The Season's Honey Flow. 



Written for the American bee- Keeper. 



BY M. F. REEVE, 



iT the first of the autumn meet- 

 yiJlic' ings of the Philadelphia Bee- 

 Keepers' association, held re- 

 cently at Mark Schofield's apiary, on 

 the outskirts of Philadelphia, the com- 

 mon story was of no early honey flow, 

 of bees starving in the late spring be 

 cause of bad weather, and the lack of 

 nectar in the clover and other bloom 

 when the weather became fair. All ad- 

 mitted that they had had to feed and 

 that it was the middle of July before 

 the bees began bringing in nectar. The 

 summer and autumn flow made up, 

 however, for the spring lack, and the 

 hives of all were said to be heavy, pro- 

 viding for the winter stores and yield- 

 ing surplus to the bee-keeper. 



One member who has over 100 colo- 

 nies had extracted over 1,000 pounds of 



