Nov. 23 190^ 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



807 



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 Special (XvticUs 



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Prices of Honey Then and Now -Why the 

 Difference ? 



BY G. M DOOLITTLK 



IX the latter '70's a bee-keeper called on me, and soon our 

 conversation turned on the price of honey, as the month 

 of the year was August, and both he and myself had taken 

 off quite a crop of white comb honey. I asked him what he 

 thought the price would be that year, and without he.-^ilation 

 he said 25 cents a pound. 



As I had counted on no', more than 20 to 22 cents, I asked 

 him on what he based his ideas of prices. His reply was as 

 prompt again, "On the prices which butter is bringing in 

 market." 



I said, " What makes you compare prices of honey with 

 butter ?" His reply was that he had " been in the bee-busi- 

 ness longer than I had,'" and that "he had noted for the past 

 20 years that the prices of honey and butter had not varied 

 more than a cent or two in all that time." 



He then told me of corresponding prices before the war, 

 and cited me to what I knew of the high prices of the latter 

 '60's and early '70's, when both butter and honey sold from 30 

 to SO cents per pound, which I of course could not dispute. 

 And, sure enough, I sold my honey that year at 25 cents. 

 But with the '80's came a change, and the price of butter out- 

 ran that of honey by 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 cents, while the difference 

 in price has been widening ever since. 



A few days ago a neighbor of mine took his crop of 

 honey to the "city where he had sold it a few days before by 

 sample at lOK cents on an average, he having a crop of over 

 1200 pounds. And this honey was fully as good on the aver- 

 age as was my crop in 1875, when 1 was paid 28}.^' cents per 

 pound for my whole crop. Nor is my neighbor a poorer sales- 

 man than myself. 



Well, what about the price of butter to-day as compared 

 with the price of 1875 ?— 20 to 22 cents now with 28 to 30 in 

 1875. 



Then in 1875, when I was drawing my honey to the city 

 at 28)^ cents per pound, I would stop on my way home and 

 put on a load of coal for our winter's fuel, and the price was 

 $3.50 a ton. Now with 10,'2-cent honey I have to pay $6.45. 

 And I can do no bettor with these matters, try as hard as I can. 

 Again, in 1875 I was trustee in our school district, and 

 with honey at 28X cents per pound I hired a teacher for our 

 school at $3.50 a week, she to teach on every other Saturday, 

 or 5>2 days to the week. To-day, with honey at lOM cents a 

 pound we have to pay the teacher for this same district $9.00 

 a week, and she leaches only 5 days for a week, and a short 6 

 hours for each day. 



Hut I hear some one saying, " Why don't you sell your 

 honey at home, peddling it out at better prices ?" I have sold 

 some in this way at 12}^ cents, but an entirely country place 

 will take only a small part of the honey produced by 3 or 4 

 apiarists residing within 5 miles of each other. Then I must 

 pay $2.00 a day for any help I must hire to do work while I 

 am peddling, and this would require an average daily sale of 

 100 pounds to meet the wages of hired help, while this help 

 would not work to nearly as good advantage as I could, so 

 that as far as linance is concerned, it is just as profitable for 

 me to sell at lOJ^, and draw my whole crop off in a day, as it 

 IS to peddle it out at \2\i with a daily average sale of 100 

 pounds. 



But why talk about peddling? In the '70's buyers came 

 to my door seeking the whole crop. Now I am compelled to 

 peddle, and strain every nerve possible to get less than one- 

 half for my crop what I could in the '70's in bulk, while, on 

 the other hand, I still continue to go after my butter, coal and 

 school-teacher, with the butter but little lower, and the coal 

 and teacher costing more than double what they did in the 

 '70's. It costs me 2 pounds of honey to get 1 of butter to-day, 

 while in the '70's it was pound for pound. In 1875, 100 pounds 

 of honey would buy 8 tons of coal. To-day it will take nearly 

 500 pounds of honey to buy the same. And when it comes to 

 hiring the district school-teacher a still larger proportion of 

 my crop of honey must go. In fact, I do not know of a single 

 item along the line of those I must have to give me a comfort- 



able living that is as low in proportion as is the price of comb 

 honey, at the present time. Sugar comes the nearest to it, 

 nd in rummaging the ground all over I know of nothing that 

 will account for the difference unless it is this matter of 

 sugar. At wholesale for the two, 2 pounds of granulated 

 sugar can be gotten for 1 pound of honey, and this is about 

 the same as could be done in the '70's. 



And the public mind has seemed to change along this 

 sugar-and-honey line, for, contrary to the '70's, I hear people 

 arguing now that with the lO.i., cents they must pay for 1 

 pound of honey they can get 2 pounds of sugar. Then to 

 1 his sugar they can add 1 pound of water, and thus have 3 

 pounds of sweet of about the consistency of honey, which 

 (especially where some of the nicer-tlavored C sugars are used) 

 they would just as lief have as the honey. And thus they 

 conclude that they can not afford honey, unless, perchance, it 

 is a little as a luxury to put on the table for company. .So in 

 this we are having an underconsumption of honey, which, in 

 effect, is the same as an overproduction, which always means 

 low pr ices. 



1 would like the opinion of others in this matter. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Luther Burbank and Better Honey Plants 

 and Bees 



BY riiOF. A. .1. COOK 



In the Popular Science Monthly for August is a very in- 

 teresting article on this great savant, by one of the most dis- 

 tinguished scientists of the world. Prof. De Fries, of Europe. 

 It will be wise for all to read it, as it Is full of valuable sug- 

 gestion. 



Burbank has originated more valuable varieties of plants 

 than any other man of the world. The traits which have 

 made Burbank so phenomenal in his line of e.xperimentation 

 are — 



1st. Vision. He has a quick eye to see valuable charac- 

 teristics in plant or flower. 



2d. He has a great range of experience, which assures 

 him that with enough labor and patience he can emphasize 

 any desirable trait and build up around it other traits which 

 can be introduced by discriminating crossings with other 

 closely allied varieties, or possibly species, and thus may hope 

 to originate almost any ideal, providing this ideal has a basis 

 of fact in existing varieties or species. 



3d. He has unlimited patience, and is quite willing to 

 work and to wait. He is said in one case to have destroyed a 

 half million plants, but secured one that he had wished for 

 and planned to secure. Often he destroys hundreds of thou- 

 sands. Burbank believes that heredity hangs upon all the 

 environments of all the ancestors. The more varied the an- 

 cestors the more diverse the environments ; the more probable 

 the extremes of variations the greater possibility of desirable 

 varieties. One who has vision to see what is valuable and 

 desirable, to note germs of such in existing individuals, and 

 possessed of infinite energy and patience, may hope and ex- 

 pect a success equal to anything tiiat Burbank has attained. 

 There are realms yet to conquer in these directions. 



Better Honey-Plants. 



To the bee-keeper this line of research possesses practi- 

 cal importance in two directions. We need better honey 

 plants and better bees. 



What a reputation Wisconsin and portions of New York 

 have attained for their excellence as honey-localities ! The 

 basswood that has given this enviable fame is rapidly going. 

 What is to take its place"? No doubt red clover is rich with 

 delicious nectar, but is for the most part too deep in the long 

 fiower-tubes to make this a good or desirable honey-plant. 

 Some Burbank will yet see some plant like figwort or poin- 

 settia rich with finest nectar, which he will build up into 

 plants excellent for forage. 



We must have plants equal to white clover, linden or sage, 

 for honey, and to red clover and alfalfa for hay or pasture. 

 Alfalfa is not perfect as a honey-plant, though it is very supe- 

 rior as a forage plant. No doubt a Burbank could secure a' 

 variety that would yield nectar in all places and under most 

 trying conditions of drouth and climate. 



A Superior lIoNEy-Br.E. 



A few days ago it was my great pleasure to examine the 

 bees on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture, with 

 Dr. Phillips, who has them in charge. I was specially inter- 

 ested in a Caucasian queen. She was Urge and fine in form 



