THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



135 



cts. per lb. To this we must add 

 cartage of our lione}^ to the near- 

 est city or railroad, costing me 

 $11.00, and the rent of a shop and 

 grounds for our apiary, costing $30 

 more, so that we have $700 as the 

 total cost of the working of our 

 apiary of 100 colonies of bees. If 

 we own the shop and land which 

 are required for our apiary, the cost 

 to us will be as great to pay the 

 interest and taxes, keeping it in 

 repair, etc., as the rent would be 

 were we to hire the same. Be- 

 cause a man owns a thing does 

 not make it cost him any the less, 

 even if it does make him feel more 

 independent. Many seem to sup- 

 pose that when they own a thing, 

 the use of it does not cost them 

 anything ; but often a few years 

 will prove that the use of it would 

 have cost them less had they 

 rented it. Thus we have $700 as 

 the actual cost of what honey our 

 100 colonies of bees may produce 

 us. The next thing is, to ascer- 

 tain how much honey we can ex- 

 pect year after year from them. 



As the honej'-production of our 

 country has been of great interest 

 to me, I have carefully noted all 

 convention reports, and also all 

 reports given by practical and suc- 

 cessful apiarists, and I find that 

 the average j'ield of honey, year 

 after year, reported by this class 

 of individuals, in the United States, 

 is not far from fifty lbs. of comb 

 honey. Into this estimate I have 

 not taken those who keep from 

 three to five colonies of bees, and 

 "gush over" with a report of from 

 200 to 300 lbs. of honey per col- 

 ony, nor, on the other hand, those 

 who have made an entire failure of 

 keeping the same number of colo- 

 nies. Such as these do not come 

 under the head of successful apia- 

 rists, capable of caring for 100 

 colonies of bees. Thus we have 

 5,000 lbs. of comb honey as the 

 equivalent of our $700, taking the 



years as they average throughout 

 the U. S. Now by dividing the 

 $700 by the 5,000 lbs., we shall 

 have the cost of one lb., which 

 proves to be 14 cts. ; so that, if the 

 comb honey of the U. S. nets the 

 producers less than 14 cts. per 

 lb., we are keeping bees at a loss ; 

 and if more, we are making our 

 avocation profitable. 



The same holds good regarding 

 extracted hone}'. The case is the 

 same, with the exception that, 

 perhaps, the packages both for 

 storing and shipping cost a little 

 less. From a careful account kept 

 with my own bees, and a summar- 

 izing of reports, I believe that 

 aboift one-half more extracted 

 honey can be obtained from the 

 same apiary than comb, which 

 gives us 7,500 lbs., as the product 

 of our 100 colonies. The cost 

 ($700) divided by this gives us 

 9i cts. as the cost of one pound of 

 extracted honey. By allowing the 

 ^ cent as saved on the cost of pack- 

 ages over comb honey, we have 9 

 cts. as the actual cost of 1 lb. of 

 extracted honey throughout the U. 

 S. In this, Mr. T. W. Fleming 

 (page 99) will find an answer to 

 his questions regarding the profi- 

 tableness of extracted honey com- 

 pared with comb honey. 



Now, having the above before 

 us, I wish to say to friend White, 

 that if, in order to have honey 

 "become the staple article we 

 wish," it must go lower thnn 9 cts. 

 l)er lb. for extracted, or 14 cts. 

 for comb, it is a very poor policy 

 for us to wish for a staple article ; 

 for of what object would a staple 

 article be, when we could not live 

 at the price paid for the production 

 of it? 



To friend Root I wish to say, 

 that I feel no ''degree of pleasure" 

 at having him sell a "product of 

 mine so low that he cannot afford 

 to pay me for the same what it 

 actually costs me. By page 212, 



