THE AMERICAN APIGULTURIST. 



227 



For the American Jpiculturist . 



PRICE OF HONEY. 



A. Norton. 



The question of selling honey, 

 like all questions vital to industrial 

 or political economy, is a hard one 

 to agree about. And, in the dis- 

 cussion of this question, we find all 

 kinds of ideas coraing before us 

 and many tlieories urged as cer- 

 tainties, wlien, in reality, they are 

 only fancies. One of these is the 

 belief that producers can combine, 

 witlihold the supply and increase 

 the price. It cannot be questioned 

 that all business is governed by 

 natural laws. 



Method shapes so completely 

 every, channel of our modern busi- 

 ness and social fabric that any ar- 

 tificial obstacle thrown in to stem 

 the current will soon be swept 

 away. And this plan to increase 

 the price of honey by lessening the 

 sale is an artificial one. ' It is 

 founded simply upon a conception 

 of one side of the subject of sup- 

 ply and demand. 



If the supply fall short, and the 

 demand remain the same, the price 

 will advance. Thus far it looks 

 well ; but, if the supply is large, 

 and offerings are withheld, let us see 

 what follows. An artificial condi- 

 tion parallel to that of short supply 

 is temporarily produced and prices 

 may rise. But there exist the 

 same crop, the same total reserve 

 supply to be sold. The slower 

 rate of ott'erings and sales to keep 

 up high prices involve a longer 

 time that the reserve holds out. 

 If this time extends over a year, 

 then a new crop comes in and the 

 reserve accumulates. 



This condition evidently cannot 

 last. We therefore have but two 

 ways to choose between : 1. To 

 offer the whole reserve before the 

 new crop. 2. To produce so little 

 for new crop — about as much as 



has been sold — as to leave the re- 

 serve no larger than at the outset. 



The first method will bring down 

 the prices after all. For it makes 

 no difference whether a hundred 

 men throw each his little or one 

 man his great mass upon the mar- 

 ket ; increased offerings make lower 

 prices. 



The reserve might be sold out 

 evenl}', one-twellth of it every 

 month, so to speak ; and thus the 

 price for the year might always be 

 kept at the average. But this 

 average would only be higher than 

 the lowest and lower than highest 

 prices that would prevail in the 

 natural order of things. 



The second method means idle 

 colonies and retiring from the busi- 

 ness. 



It would be a suspension of the 

 workshops to produce an artifi- 

 cially short supply, and would in- 

 volve (]uestions about each indi- 

 vidual share of the shortage in 

 production which it would be a con- 

 stant vexation to adjust. Again, if 

 the sales are to be gradual, that 

 prices may keep up, whose honey 

 is to be sold first? Either an 

 immense reserve capital must be 

 raised to buy the crop directly of 

 the producer whenever he wants re- 

 turns, or another troublesome ques- 

 tion comes up almost incapable of 

 settlement. For a pro rata ol sell- 

 ing whereby each one sold his little 

 fraction and received his little drib- 

 let — a given proportion of his crop 

 each day, or week, or month — 

 could not be made practicable at 

 all. The former method would 

 take it from the hands of the pro- 

 ducers and transfer it to those of 

 speculators, thus destroying the 

 original plan at once. Space will 

 not admit of my enlarging upon 

 this subject. Much of the talk 

 about it is based upon the farmers' 

 ideas of the dishonesty of com- 

 mission houses. Let me say that 

 commission houses have their ideas 



