AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



253 



$1.07 per day, 18 cents less than the 

 average hod carrier receives.) "The 

 dealer who pays 8 cents per pound for 

 our extracted-honey, tells us that he 

 cannot aflford to sell it for less than 10 

 cents per pound, which gives him a 

 profit of 25 per cent. ; yet the bee- 

 keeper must furnisli brains, interest on 

 capital invested, rent of land and build- 

 ings, pay taxes on bees, pay for trans- 

 porting his honey to market, perform 

 one year's hard physical labor — all this 

 for four-fifths of the selling price. There 

 is a wrong somewhere, and the sooner 

 we realize it the better. 



"After carefully looking over the 

 ground, I believe that 45 pounds of 

 comb-honey per colony is, as a rule, an 

 average crop. Allowing that a man can 

 manage 100 colonies of bees, he will get 

 4,500 pounds of comb-honey as the 

 result of a year's labor. But this is not 

 clear gain, there is interest on bees, 

 $36 ; taxes, $4 ; sections, $25 ; foun- 

 dation, $30 ; shipping crates, $40 ; 

 double interest on $200 invested in 

 hives, $24, which would be necessary to 

 keep them in repair, crating honey to 

 the railroad, $11 — all of which makes a 

 cash outlay each year of $200. 



"Now, suppose we meekly take the 

 wages of a hod-carrier, $1.25 per day, 

 or $391.25 for the 313 working days 

 of the year; to this add the cash outlay 

 of $200, and we have $591.25 as the 

 actual cost of 4,500 pounds of comb- 

 honey ; a trifle over 13 cents per pound. 

 Whoever sells his honey for less than 

 these figures, works for less than $1.25 

 per day. — G. M. Doolittle." 



Right under this essay it reads : "The 

 discussion of the subject was as follows : 

 R. L. Taylor — In the cost of honey there 

 are many points to be considered, and 

 Mr. Doolittle has not mentioned all of 

 them ; for instance, the losses in Winter 

 and from disease. I think the prices 

 given are too low." 



All of the others who discussf d the 

 subject, except Mr. F. Wilcox, thought 

 the same as did Mr. Taylor, that I put 

 the price too low, which proves that the 

 assertion which I made in the start is 

 fully endorsed by Mr. Taylor himself, or 

 was only four years ago. 



Let him put the price of labor up to 

 where it belongs, and he will never again 

 put a showing of oijly 5 cents per pound 

 as the cost of comb-honey. Does Mr. T., 

 as a lawyer, work at his trade at only 

 $1.07 a day? When he went to the 

 Legislature, what an insult he would 

 have considered it, if the State had 

 called him worth only $1.07 a day in 



that capacity. Mr. T. is worth as much 

 as a bee-keeper, as he is in any other 

 calling in life, and when he gave those 

 figures of $45 for "one man six weeks 

 during the honey harvest" as the worth 

 of an apiarist, it was an open insult to 

 every bee-keeper in the land. 



It is reported that William Astor's in- 

 come is $23,593 daily; $983 hourly, 

 or $10.38 for each minute ; but accord- 

 ing to Mr. Taylor, Capt. Hetherington, 

 P. H. Elwood, Dr. Miller, James Hed- 

 don, and a host of others equally intelli- 

 gent apiarists should consider them- 

 selves lucky if they could receive the 

 same amount for 15 days hard work 

 that Mr. Astor receives each minute. 

 Shame on such reasoning. 



If I can so apply myself that I can 

 succeed in accomplishing the same re- 

 sults in 42 days that I formerly accom- 

 plished in 313 days, I am entitled to the 

 same pay for the former that I pre- 

 viously received for the latter,and if Mr. 

 T. can do all the necessary work in an 

 apiary of 150 colonies, producing 10,- 

 500 pounds of comb-honey in the time 

 he has allowed to do it in, 42 days, he 

 is capable of commanding wages just in 

 proportion to what he does, and he 

 knows he would be mad were I to try to 

 hire him to do that work for $45. 



Let us stop trying to belittle our pur- 

 suit in this way. Rather let us arise to the 

 stature of God's freemen, and command 

 the wages and respect which one of the 

 most delightful pursuits under Heaven 

 permits us to enjoy. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Me Blact or Gernian Bees. 



JOHN H. BLANKEN. 



I must give Mr. Ellingwood much 

 credit for his article regarding black or 

 German bees, on page 192. All bee- 

 keepers know that the black race of 

 bees is a very valuable one, as they are 

 tough, and can stand the cold weather 

 better than any other race ; need no 

 double-walled hives, or cellar wintering ; 

 will gather more surplus honey, are 

 busier, and are not as cross as the other 

 races. 



Some bee-keepers think that black 

 bees are more troubled with moths than 

 other races, but this is not true. Keep 

 the colonies strong, give them the same 

 care as others, and there will be no 

 trouble. We all know that more than 

 two-thirds of the bee-keepers of America 

 have black bees, and extensive bee- 



