318 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



November 



low is permitted to ga ze upon cases 

 piled high, rows of ba rrels or stacks 

 of 'crates well filled with honey of 

 his own production, the enthusiasm 

 which prompts him to report his 

 good fortune to his brothers, is ex- 

 cusable; though there are many 

 who at once hasten to accuse him 

 of having committed an injustice 

 against the fraternity. It has 

 really seemed for some time that 

 nothing could more effectually 

 arouse a spirit of antagonism than 

 a statement from some happy mor- 

 tal who finds his bees calling for a 

 third or fourth super. To write to 

 one's favorite paper, "the best 

 season we've had in ten years," is 

 simply regarded as a crime by many 

 of those who profess, or infer, per- 

 sonal shrewdness in marketing. 

 Some, in an unguarded moment of 

 delightful enthusiasm have been so 

 unwise as to say, "my bees are just 

 tumbling over one another." From 

 that moment henceforth the indi- 

 vidual who has thus transgressed 

 the unwritten law which enjoins 

 upon him sacred secrecy, ■ has been 

 and shall be a nonentity in the ranks ; 

 obliteration is the reward of his 

 willful imprudence. No self 

 respecting producer could ever 

 afterward conscientiously recognize 

 a fellow-craftsman known to be 

 guilty of thus wantonly ruining the 

 nation's honey market. The duty 

 of recognition ends with a good, 

 sharp rebuke publicly administered. 



There is another class of offenders. 

 These make it their business to in- 

 form the local press of the immense 

 crop which will be harvested in the 

 State; and have even been known 

 to exaggerate the truth to the ex- 

 tent of a few hundred carloads. 

 Their doom, however, it would re- 

 quire a Poe to imagine or a Hag- 

 gard to depict. 



The prevailing supposition seems 

 to be that reports of success tend 



to depress the market — lower the 

 price. Such supposition is not en- 

 tertained by individuals only, but 

 by the bee keeping press, to a larj^e 

 extent. It is not our purpose to 

 run counter to a prevailing idea so 

 well established. To report a lar^e 

 crop, individual, State or National, 

 may have a detrimental influence 

 temporarily. Further than that we 

 cannot share the prevalent notion. 

 It is, certainly, unwise — not to 

 mention a graver offence — to exag- 

 gerate reports; but in all the dis- 

 cussions of the subject where it ap- 

 peared that truthful accounts were 

 rendered, our sympathies have 

 invariably been with the fortunate 

 producer unjustly rebuked. 



Another side of the proposition 

 is presented in a recent number of 

 the American Bee Journal by R. A. 

 Burnett & Co., whom that journal 

 regards as the largest wholesale 

 honey dealers in Chicago. Messrs. 

 Burnett & Co. argue that inflated 

 reports of the honey crop will re-act 

 to the advantage of the bee-keeper. 

 Such is, indeed, a radical departure 

 from accepted theories, yet it is not 

 wholly without tenability, by any 

 means. This theory is based upon 

 the assumption that man is so con- 

 stituted mentally' that, after read- 

 ing long columns in the newspapers 

 about the floods of honey with 

 which Texas and California are del- 

 uged; of the general bounteous har- 

 vest throughout the States and of 

 the shiploads from Honolulu and the 

 Philippines pouring into this coun- 

 try, though he may have fully sat- 

 isfied the inner man with all the good 

 things of the market, other than 

 this delicious honey, which has ap- 

 pealed again to his appetite, he will 

 kick off his slippers, hurry into his 

 shoes and rush for a car bound 

 down town to make sure of a box of 

 honey, in time for breakfast. His 

 heart is set on honey, and if it is 



