The American Apiculturist. 



% Journal btbol^tr I0 ]pracftcal gctlui^pmg. 



EXTERED AT THE POST-OFFICE, WENHAM, AS SECOND-CLASS MATTER. 

 Published Monthly. Henrt Alley, Manager. 



VOL. V. 



WENHAM, MASS., MARCH i, 1887. 



No. 



We deal in lirst-clnss npiari- I Established in 1883. Terms: I Any yearly subscriber is en- 

 an supplies ofnll kinds, lowest | $1.00 per year, 50 cents per si.x | titled" to oneof our best queens 

 prices. Prompt delivery. I months, 2.5 cents per three I Mt any time between .June 1 and 



Workmanship unexcelled. | months. Cash in advance. | Oct. 1, by remitting .'jO cts. 



Address all communications, AMERICAN" APICULTURIST, "Wenliam, Mass 



F'or the American Apiculturist. 



CHEAP HONEY FOR ALL, 

 ETC. 



G. W. Demaree. 



I liave seen some words like tlie 

 caption of tliis article, in several of 

 the bee papers from time to time, 

 "Cheap honey for all j" yes, for the 

 laboring man, and for the little school 

 children whose fresh palates can ap- 

 preciate in the highest degree the de- 

 licious sweets of earth. How unselfish 

 that looks when viewed from the pro- 

 ducer's standpoint • but it is coming 

 to that, no matter how many organi- 

 zations may b*e effected to "pool" 

 the honey crop, and to "bull" and 

 "bear" the markets. The time is 

 coming when the rich and the poor 

 and the little ragamufifins, all are go- 

 ing to eat honey before a great while. 

 Nature has pro\ided enough for all, 

 when sufficient knowledge has been 

 gained on the part of apiarists to have 

 the secret storehouses of nature un- 

 locked and their precious contents 

 poured into the markets. Honey is 

 bound to be cheap, as well as other 

 good things of earth. It is no more 

 than justice to those who labored for 

 years and years to develop a system 

 whereby the production of honey 

 might be made easy and reasonably 

 sure, that they should reap large 

 profits from high prices for honey as 

 some compensation for their public 



spiritedness. But any person of or- 

 dinary perception and forethought 

 ought to see that high ox fancy prices, 

 as we say, must of necessity be tem- 

 porary, because if honey-producing 

 is to become a business occupation, 

 it must necessarily pass under the 

 laws which throw restrictions around 

 all like businesses. I mean that sup- 

 ply and demand will govern prices 

 of all produce. We are told that 

 honey is a luxury and therefore not 

 governed by the rules which control 

 the necessaries. I answer, it may be so, 

 and may be not. When an article 

 that is a lu.Kury is thrown on the 

 market in excess of the demand, the 

 very same thing occurs that we see 

 when the market is glutted with a 

 necessary of life, viz. : the price tum- 

 bles. 



The tobacco growing districts of 

 the country are now experiencing a 

 fair illustration of the position I have 

 taken. Tobacco is a "luxury" and 

 very many people believe an o/fec- 

 tionable luxury, and because of the 

 huge crops of the "weed" in the past 

 three years, the same article of leaf 

 tobacco, that sells dull at four cents 

 per pound now, would have brought 

 from twelve to sixteen cents per 

 pound four years ago. Supply and 

 demand govern the price of luxuries 

 as well as necessaries. High prices 

 for lioney is a thing of the past and 

 will remain a thing of the past unless 

 ihere is a failure to produce honey 

 (49) 



