THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



43 



from being- published. But let us have 

 ii report every year, good or bad, and 

 from our old beekeepers, and then yvv 

 may be better able to judge of the gaii. 

 and loss of beekeeping. The result 

 of giving these wonderful reports is 

 to get lazy and shiftless fellows to try 

 their hand at beekeeping, and the nat- 

 ural result is they make a failure of it 

 and soon sell out at less than cost. A 

 successful beekeeper must be a hard- 

 working and studious man. Both 

 go together. Wisdom culls out the 

 nuggets from the books, then puts them 

 in the crucible of experience and we 

 get the pure gold. But you see there 

 are work and progress to go through 

 after reading our papers. 



1 remember years ago, of a farmer 

 and a very successful one he was too. 

 He took an agricultural paper. On(; 

 day, reading of a certain preparation 

 to make corn grow, which was of 

 great benefit to it in i^lanting, he got 

 the material and tried the experiment. 

 The result Avas, that not a kernel of 

 the corn ever came up or grew. We 

 often lind out by experience that which 

 we cannot learn in any other way. 

 Now, let me say again, the beekeepers' 

 money is 'well earned by hard work. Our 

 friend Doolittle makes his report every 

 year, good or bad, and claims, I be- 

 lieve, that his yearly income is about 

 one thousand dollars from fifty or sixtj' 

 stocks, spring count. I venture to 

 say that he is one in fifty; where you 

 find one Doolittle, you will find fifty 

 who do not get one-half the above 

 amount. Now, it would hardly be fair 

 to take Mr. Doolitile's report as a 

 standard whereby to judge of the 

 profits of beekeeping. If beekeeping 

 is so profitable alcove all other pur- 

 suits, wiiy is it that all of our members 

 are not millionnaires? I will let the 

 convention answer this question. 



I do not say there is no money in 

 beekeeping, or that no one gets rich 

 out of it, but I do say that it requii-es 

 hard work antl good financial ability 

 just as much as in other trades. Now 

 the great question for our fraternity 

 to-day is how to dispose of their prod- 

 ucts so that they may receive a good 

 fair profit for their work. The past 

 season was not one of the best for 

 honey. Some sections produced well, 

 others poorly, so that we cannot call 

 it a first-class one; yet we find honey 

 a drug in most of our markets and 

 are so quoted by our bee papers. N()^. 

 I ask what would have been the markt 

 quotation of honey to-day, if we should 

 have harvested a large crop of honey 



all over the states? We think our 

 markets would be glutted and our 

 irices very low. There are some who 

 LOld difl'f -'Mit views from this. They 

 may be ht, I may be wrong, but 

 time will hhow. We shall be disap- 

 pointed if it does not bear us out in 

 our convictions. 



It will ;■ • well for us to do all we 

 can to kee;' up the prices of our prod- 

 ucts. We think that there are some 

 improvements that we may make in the 

 line of selling our honey. One is to 

 work up a good, healthy home trade 

 and market. To do this, we must sell 

 our honey at I'easonable prices, buy up 

 the honey that is produced by our 

 farmers who keep a few bees and throw 

 their hom-y on the markets early in 

 the season, take truck for pay and ac- 

 cept just what the grocer may give 

 them, thereby establishing the prices 

 (which are very low) inour home mar- 

 kets early in the season, for after the 

 grocer buys one lot at a low price it is 

 iiard for him to raise the price, es- 

 pecially if he wants the cash for his 

 honey. 



I think this question of sufficient 

 importance to demand a little of the 

 time of this convention. Then, again, 

 I think that our papers (some of them) 

 injure our markets to a certain extent. 

 They begin early in the season to pre- 

 dict a prosperous outlook as to a large 

 yield of honey. Every sign foretells 

 a wonderful crop. It is done with the 

 best of motives, no doubt. The bee- 

 keeper is warned in time to lay in a 

 large stock of supplies, and renew his 

 subscriptions for another year, while 

 the grocer and commission merchant 

 entertain the idea that the country will 

 be flooded with honey and prices must 

 of necessity rule low. Now, I would 

 not complain of our bee papers. They 

 aie established to make money, just as 

 you and I run our apiaries for the same 

 purpose. I do not take any stock in 

 the idea that the bee journals are pub- 

 lished exclusively in the interest of the 

 beekeeper, or that we run our apiaries 

 for the interest of our bee journals, 

 but self-interest takes the lead of all 

 others. We work for the interest of 

 others just so far as it helps us. This 

 is human nature, and it is hard for us 

 to rise above it. Now I candidly be- 

 lieve that the publication of such won- 

 derful reports, and the idea given to 

 the public that it cost merel^^nothing 

 to raise honey are at least misleading, 

 if nothing more. It was hard work 

 this fall to sell honey early in the 

 season. Those men tiiat kept a few 



