THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER. 



17: 



cialists and bee-keepers going to do if 

 a well-regulated home apiary is placed 

 on all the best conducted farms, and 

 bees become as common as poultry? 



Let us look beyond ourselves and 

 see what the bee brings with it, as it 

 buds its place on nearly every farm. 

 It will make farms more home-like, 

 and cement home ties. It will throw 

 another gleam of light across the hard 

 beaten path of drudgery, it willgive fire- 

 side entertainment, it will place one 

 of the rarest deliacies on the farm 

 table to take the place of that glucose 

 article that should find no other place 

 than in Willie Watson's soup for his 

 Doddies. 



We are aware of the fact that the 

 extensive popularity of the honey-bee 

 is, from his standpoint, viewed with 

 alarm by the specialist And it is 

 alarming to him to see his favorite 

 pursuit thrown into the hands of so 

 many, and in so short a time. I am of 

 the opinion that no specialist or bee- 

 keeper need be alarmed — it will only 

 be a blessing to the farmers, and 

 eventually be a boon to bee-keepers. 



It never hurts a buiness or pursuit 

 or commodity to popularize it. Popu- 

 larizing a commodity can, but docs 

 not, always lead to overproduction. 

 If honey is popularized in the same 

 ratio as there is an increase in bee- 

 keeping, the consumption will be 

 greater, and there will be in no meas- 

 ure enough of the product for the 

 demand, unless it be a chance year 

 now and then. 



But if this is the case, the product 

 is of such a character as will admit of 

 its being kept for a long while. A 

 honey crop is as uncertain as a potato 

 crop, but in years of plenty and over- 

 production, it is as good as old wheat, 



and is as safe as that old staple to get 

 money advanced on. Another object- 

 ion is, that these cheap producers 

 will bear down the market by trading 

 out their cheap honey at the stores, 

 and this will destroy the honey mar- 

 ket. 



This is not so formidable as it might 

 seem on the surface. Cheap honey 

 means large consumption, and when 

 the price gets very low, it is bartered, 

 between farmers at a low price and 

 the low prevailing price in the mar- 

 kets has popularized the product, and 

 if the specialist has had wisdom 

 enough to hold back his crop, he can 

 than get a good price for a good arti- 

 cle. If the appetite has been sharp- 

 ened by a poor article, the public will • 

 give a good price for a good article 

 rather than do without it. I have 

 made a study of this market question 

 in the sale of fruits, aud know welfc 

 how it works, and the question of 

 overproduction is a more serious one 

 in horticulture products than in your 

 line of work. 



In one town of less than 2,000 in 

 habitants, six years ago, we found less 

 than 30 bushels of small fruits, and 

 the present season the amount con- 

 sumed was over 400 pushels. This 

 does not include the grapes, of which 

 there will be between 8 and 10 

 ions consumed, if the prevailing price 

 is 2i to 3 cents per pound. The con- 

 sumption was less than half a ton (r> 

 years ago. 



This increase has occnred in the 

 face of a decreasing population. 

 The growers find that the extensive 

 use of fruit in towns is populariz- 

 ing it in the country, and that a 

 rapidilv increasing country trade re- 

 quires more extensive planting. It 



