THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



57 



When tliere has been a full crop, and 

 prices decline in consequence, it is a 

 little difficult to see the philosophy of 

 keeping" more bees, and I will frankly 

 admit that if ei'ery bee-keeper should 

 double his niunber of colonies, and 

 this should result in doubling" the crop, 

 with no extra efforts put forth in mar- 

 keting-, and the price should g^o down 

 one-half, there would be nothing" g"ain- 

 ed in '"keepini,'' more bees." But the 

 vn-Jil/aci is that not czrry bee-keeper 

 will keep more bees. It is only a. few 

 of them that will wake up to the oppor- 

 tunities in this direction, and, if this 

 enterprise among" a Jeiv bee-keepers 

 should help to depress prices, it will 

 only help to drive out of business those 

 who are not so enterprising". It is 

 always the man who produces at the 

 maximum pnjfit who succeeds, while 

 he who produces at the minimum profit 

 fails. Here is the real point of the 

 whole arg"ument: Where is the bee- 

 keeper wuth 100 colonies, who produced 

 10,000 pounds of extracted honey last 

 year, who would not be better off, 

 financially, if he had kept 200 cblonies, 

 and produced 20,000? As I have al- 

 ready said, // every bee-keeper in the 

 country had doubled his colonies, and 

 his crop, and this had reduced the 

 price one-half, there would be no g"ain 

 to bee-keepers, but this is supposinir 

 something" that will never happen. 



Even if the honey cr.jp should be 

 doubled, by the keeping of more bees, 

 there is no assurance that prices 

 would drop in proportion. As a com- 

 modity drops in price, it is used more 

 largely, which has a tendency to bring 

 prices back again. All things eventu- 

 ally find their level. 



Then here is another point: The 

 proper distribution of the crop in 

 marketing is something towards which 

 scarcely any organized effort has been 

 directed. It is expected that the 

 National Association will Uo some- 

 thing this ye-Av in the way of gather- 

 ing statistics in time to have them 



available -when marketing honey. 

 This question of m^irketing is really 

 the most important question before us. 

 and the Review expects to do its hard- 

 est work in that direction the coming 

 \'ear. When we ctnisider the number 

 of people in this country, and the 

 number of pounds of honey produced, 

 we are astonished at the small amount 

 per person. We should keep more bees, 

 and, at the same time, improve our 

 methods (jf marketing. Let no one 

 imag"ine for one moment that he can 

 increase the prosperity of the bee- 

 keepers by persuading them to keep 

 fewer bees in order to cut down the 

 amount produced, and thus raise the 

 price. That is beginning at the 

 wrong- end of the problem. Let us 

 keep more bees, produce more iioney, 

 reduce the cost of production, and im- 

 j">rove our methods of mai-keting. 



Just a word in closing, in regard to 

 how I would have bee-keepers keep 

 more bees. I would not do it by in- 

 creasing the number of bee-keepers, 

 but by increasing the number of colon- 

 ies now kept bj' those alreadj' in the 

 business. I am working to increase 

 tile prosperit}' of the existing bee- 

 keepers, instead of adding to their 

 numbers. If a man feels that bee- 

 keeping is his calling, he will be wel- 

 comed into our ranks, but I never be- 

 lieved in hurrahing in every Tom, 

 Dick and Harry. By so doing we 

 often do a wrong to jill concerned. 



TRAIN TOOK ITS OWN PHOTOGRAPH. 



A large, handsome engraving, iS x 28 

 inches, has been made of "The Burling- 

 ton's Number One" while going at 60 

 miles an hour between Chicago and Den- 

 v^er. It is the best picture of a train in 

 motion ever taken, and "the train took 

 the picture itself." This is explained in 

 a folder which will be sent free on ap- 

 plication. Price of large engraving. 20 

 cents. Postage stamps will do. Address 

 P. S. Eustis, General Pa.ssenger Agent, 

 C, B. & Q. Ry., 209 Adams Street, 

 Chicago. 



