THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



213 



farmers' prices for honey. I am vvrit- 

 ini,"- from experience; I ktiow whereof I 

 speak wlien I say that the g-eneral run 

 of farmers who keep a few hives will, 

 and do, sell, and, expect to sell, lower 

 than the rej^ular hee-l<eeper who makes 

 a business of bees There are reasons 

 why they must, or think they must, but 

 I will not take the space to enumerate 

 them here. 



There is perhaps no other business 

 than bee-keepinj,% in which those en- 

 gaged therein try to induce direct com- 

 petition. In real bee-keeping-, for the 

 production of honey, there is probably 

 not much of this, but, unfortunately, 

 the supply men, or some of them, and 

 the bee journal publishers, think it to 

 their interest to boom the business to 

 outsiders on all possible occasions. 



I wrote a few articles for Wallaces'; 

 they are fine people to deal with, but, 

 as I said above, I saw that the farmer 

 w(uild take in the information, but 

 when it comes to putting up his honey 

 indecent shape, and holding it for a 

 fair price, or rustling- up new custom- 

 ers for it, he simply 7von''t — he isn't 

 fixed to do it, and hasn't time. 



Did you notice, P>dwin Bevin's arti- 

 cle in last American Bee Journal ? 

 That is the fix a great many bee-keep- 

 ers find themselves in, I am afraid. 

 And your Hone}' Producers' League, 

 that he proposes joining, will not solve 

 the problem. There is a vast differ- 

 erence between the production of a 

 cheap article, like glucose, and 

 tlirough advertising and fancy pack- 

 ages, selling the same for the price, or 

 near the price, of a superior and costly 

 article, thus g^etting a large profit to 

 cover said advertising, etc., and the 

 production of a costly article like 

 honey, in which there is no large mar- 

 frin to cover such expenses. And, be- 

 sides, and this is t\-\Q great difference, 

 the manufacturer of the corn 

 syrup has only a limited number of 

 competitors, whose expenses are nearly 

 the same, and who cannot sell without 

 Kfrofit, whereas, the honey producer's 

 competitors are almost as "numberless 

 as the sands upon the sea shore;" and 

 many, especially our friends the farm- 

 mers, do sell without a profit; or on 

 such a small margin that one cannot 

 make a living-, unless mnking- some- 

 thing at some other occupation. Now, 

 I wouldn't say a word against helping- 

 the farmer on all possible occasions, if 

 he needed it, but he doesn't Nine- 

 tenths of the farmers who keep a few 

 bees have more than they can well do 



at the time that bees need the most at- 

 tention; I never knew one who could 

 not have made more attending- to his 

 Jarin; and they nearly all do' neglect 

 the bees to the extent that their honey 

 is in poor shape to market. 



If the article in Wallace's had been 

 signed Emerson Taylor Abbott I would 

 not have been so much surprised; I 

 confess I was surprised as I thought 

 you favored bee-keeping- for bee-keep- 

 ers. (My friend is surprised that I 

 would even contribute an article on 

 bee-keeping to a farm paper. — Ed. 

 RiiviKw. ) Of course, w«/- turn to be 

 surprised will come when I tell you 

 that / am a fanner too. But, like 

 Bevins, I have arrived at the point 

 where I would keep bees for revenue, 

 when lo — the revenue has disappeared ! 

 It is my belief, though, that bee-keep- 

 ing, as a business, will disappear, ex- 

 cept in a few isolated localities, for the 

 majority seems to be on the other side. 



You say the bee-keepers are too 

 docile; follow their leaders too easily; 

 surely you have been around enough to 

 know that this following is mostly on 

 paper. We can't help following, as far 

 as the papers are concerned. Don't 

 almost all bee-keepers know there is a 

 combine or understandings among- the 

 leading- manufacturers? And yet, in 

 what paper can it be denounced) Un- 

 less I am greatly mistaken there are 

 plenty who do not "follow," but it 

 could hardly he told by the journals. 

 And doubtless there are others who 

 would not follow were it safer to do 

 otherwise. 



»^»'».«^»»^it" 



Producing Good Extracted Honey. 

 What is it that g-ives to honey its 

 value ? It is not simply its sweetness, 

 which is of low power; but it is its fine 

 flavor and rich aroma. These are the 

 qualities which make honey what it is 

 — a luxury — and, if we wish its use 

 continued as a sweet sauce, we must 

 learn to produce and care for it in 

 such a manner as to preserve its 

 ambrosial, palate-tickling qualities. 

 Freshly g-athered nectar is one of the 

 most "silly" tasting and sickening- of 

 sweets. To be sure, it has the flavor 

 of the flowers from which it was gath- 

 ered; but that smooth, rich, oily, honey 

 taste, that lingers in the mouth, must 

 be furnished by the bees. Honey ex- 



