THE AMERICAN APICULTUEIST. 



29 



have all brood hatched by Oct. ist," 

 and says "I prefer bees for successful 

 wintering that hatched in August to 

 those hatched in October. Could I 

 have my own way, I would not at- 

 tempt to winter a single bee hatched 

 after Sept. ist." 



I suspect that even the most expe- 

 rienced will be interested to read 

 more than once this fine collection 

 of essays. 



Afarenc^o, III. 



For the American AmcuUurist. 



LOW PRICES AND THE 

 CAUSE. 



3. W. PORTEK. 



From every market comes the re- 

 port of lower prices for honej' than 

 were ever known before. 



Nor is this report confined to our 

 special product. 



All of the great staples, produc- 

 tions of industry, share in the gen- 

 eral decline till prices are for many 

 of these so low as to fail to cover 

 the actual cost of production. Take 

 wheat and corn, for instance. Last 

 July a carload of corn, 550 bushels, 

 was sold in Chicago which netted 

 the shipper, a Nebraska farmer, 

 $28.50, say five cents per bushel ! 



Whatever prices may be exacted 

 of the consumer by rapacious middle 

 men, and through the combinations 

 of speculators in farm products, the 

 fact remains, that never before were 

 our farmers receiving so small a re- 

 ward for their industry, and vast num- 

 bers of them are running behind 

 actual expenses. 



Favored as we are by a vast home 

 demand, due alone to the expansion 

 of our manufacturing and mining 

 industries fostered by a protective 

 tariff, we, much as we suffer, have 

 greatly the advantage over British 

 and European farmers. The decline 



in prosperity is world-Avide and has 

 engaged the attention of many pub- 

 licists, and volumes have been writ- 

 ten on the subject, but no relief 

 comes. Some adequate cause exists 

 for such a strange condition of af- 

 fairs. 



This ought to be the most glorious 

 epoch in the history of the world 

 and one of unbounded prosperity. 

 Peace reigns everywhere. We have 

 plenty of all that conduces to public 

 or private welfare of material things. 

 Freedom from pestilence and ac- 

 tual faraiae unknown upon the earth. 

 We have control of such forces of 

 nature and have applied them to 

 labor-saving production, till our 

 wealth-creating power is multiplied 

 beyond even the dreams of the most 

 ardent, living a half-century ago. 



With avenues of employments 

 opened up for milHons, in channels 

 new, many of them, to men of our 

 own day ; with ages of experiences 

 to guide us into wise and safe fiscal 

 management ; we, inz\merica at least, 

 have a sound banking system and a 

 good currency. 



Why then, this anxiety and doubt, 

 that everywhere (except among the 

 army of beneficiaries which such a 

 condition of affairs directly benefits) 

 prevails instead of buoyant pros- 

 perity. 



The cause — a sufficient one as can 

 be shown — lies in the . unholy war 

 upon silver. Its demonetization, by 

 England alone more than a half- cen- 

 tury ago, was not felt ; but when Ger- 

 many and America in 1873 by law 

 adopted the sole gold standard, 

 and Germany to strike again her 

 fallen foe, after demanding her 

 $1,000,000,000 in gold indemnity, 

 America by some unknown hand in- 

 corporating the act into the revised 

 statutes of our, country. Unknown 

 even to our President, unknown to 

 our people, was this great country 

 committed to the policy of England. 

 The French, with the financial fore- 

 sight ever characteristic of that great 



