19,02 



THE AMKRICAN BEE-KEEPER 



171 



product, that will see to it that Ameri- 

 can producers profit by every advan- 

 tage afforded in the world's markets. 

 As it appears to The American Bee- 

 Keeper, such a course must necessarily 

 precede any substantial condition of 

 apiculture. We must see, first, to the 

 outlet, systemize our marketing opera- 

 tions, and lay our plans sufficiently 

 broad to accommodate and facilitate a 

 work of this magnitude. 



Whatever may be said of Yankee in- 

 genuity and progress in other lines. 

 when restricted to the bee-keeping fra- 

 ternity^and applied to the marketing of 

 his product, he must plead guilty of 

 being decidedly a back number. He 

 can look to and learn something along 

 this line from any one of the British 

 colonies- Ireland can give him point- 

 ers; Australia has her board of ex- 

 ports; Canada had, and we think, still 

 has* a government aporopriation espec- 

 ially for this work; Jamaica sends her 

 honey representative to England to 

 look after the bee-keepers' interests; 

 but the proverbial Yankee contents 

 himself with methods of his ancestors 

 — though accepting one-third to a half 

 less for his goods — and attributes the 

 dullness of trade to overproduction. 



How long is such a condition of af- 

 fairs to continue? The answer is not 

 difficult: Just so long as bee-keepers 

 maintain their present indifference. It 

 may be terminated at any time- Is the 

 reader taking any hand in the upbuild- 

 ing of the industry? 



FROM OLD IRELAND. 



"Bee-Keeper" seems to be a favorite 

 name with apicultural publications. The 

 latest acquisition to the list is the Bee- 

 Keeper of Ireland, published at No- 20 

 Temple Bar, Dublin. Ten of its six- 

 teen pages are devoted to -advertise- 

 ments, while the remaining space ear- 

 nestly discusses the interests of apicul- 

 ture in the Emerald Isle. The following 



is extracted from its leading editorial in 

 the July number: 



If Ireland does not "buck up" in the 

 bee business before long, some Ameri- 

 can will come over and "exploit" the 

 Emerald Isle in the production of honey 

 and beeswax. It is absolutely disgrace- 

 ful that in a country so near London, 

 the orincipal market of the world, in 

 a country with a flora probably unequal- 

 led in the temperate zones, there are 

 not three apiaries of over 100 hives 

 and that Ireland markets a miserable 

 100,000 pounds of honey per annum. 

 The poverty-stricken inhabitants eat 

 the other 600,000 pounds produced. If 

 there be not soon a rustle among the 

 dry bones, the aforesaid American, 

 when he comes, will make his "pile.'' 

 He will turn out from each of his sta- 

 tions nearly as much honey as is now 

 obtained from the whole country. Ire- 

 land is, without question, able to sup- 

 port 200,000 stocks, capable of yielding 

 200 pounds each, or 40,000,000 of 

 pounds, and until it turns out that quan- 

 tity the business will not be attended 

 to properly. At 6d. per pound (the 

 price of sections in America, with its 

 hundreds of tons of production has nev 

 er fallen so low as sixpence, but take 

 it at that) there is nectar worth a mil- 

 lion of m'oney going to waste. 



VERILY, IT "DO MOVE." 



Our enterprising contemporary, 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture, has discover- 

 ed a bee-keeper in Nebraska, a Doctor 

 J. L. Gandy, who sows catnip for his 

 bees — acres of catnip, and sweet clover. 

 This gentleman has cut a bee-tree in 

 his vicinity which gave 517 oounds of 

 honey. He secures annual averages per 

 colony of 400 pounds, and he has thou- 

 sands of colonies. As a result of his 

 bee work (and catnip), since 1884, he 

 has paid off $25,000 indebtedness and 

 now has twenty thousand acres of 

 choice farm lands, valued at more than 

 a million dollars, to say nothing of con- 

 siderable city property. Last year the 

 doctor bought $40,000 worth of land, 

 and of this amount $15,000 was the re- 

 ceipts of his honey sales. Next year — 

 or the year after — it will be in order 

 for some enterprising queen breeder to 

 discover in his yard a strain of bees 

 possessing remarkable wing-power, 

 "warranted to work on Candy's catnip." 



