252 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



both in town and country, and, when 

 their own supply fails, to take orders 

 for some reliable friend, or firm, as 

 through the Union, it will justify its 

 existence. 



CURTAILING PRODUCTION. 



This plan has been put forward as 

 a means of solving the difficulty. 

 Now, if we live by beekeeping, two 

 elements are necessary to the suc- 

 cess of the business : the amount 

 and the price of the product. A 

 large amount strikes directly at the 

 price, and vica versa, a large price 

 encourages the larger production. 

 Of the two the larger price would be 

 far preferable were it not for the fatal 

 fact that it inevitably breeds a new 

 lot of beekeepers and thus defeats 

 itself. 



Again, it has been urged that the 

 extractor be done away with. As to 

 this it is conceded that the beekeepers 

 cannot be induced to do it. I, for 

 one, do not deem it desirable if they 

 could. Here in the west, and I sup- 

 pose also in the east, our market is 

 overstocked with comb honey now 

 ( /. e., has been) as well as extracted. 

 Add to this the equivalent of the ex- 

 tracted honey crop and who can fail 

 to foresee a ruined comb honey 

 market? Why ! prices have already 

 rated at about what extracted honey 

 ought to bring during the last year. 

 Prices for comb honey, a fair article 

 too, have ranged at large, in country 

 towns, as low as ten cents per lb. 

 But, here in the west in particular, 

 the extracted honey does not enter 

 into competition to a greater extent, 

 if as great, as sugars. No one here- 

 abouts ever says "I can buy extracted 

 honey so and so," they rather say 

 "sugar is cheaper." 



Working up the home market is 

 one of the things to be done. Do it 

 thoroughly. If you have to peddle, 

 then peddle ; it will pay. Besides, I 

 have found honey one of the best 

 things to peddle I ever handled. It 

 sells itself. But we must not only 



work up the home market to sell our 

 own honey, but must keep it worked 

 all the year round, in order to relieve 

 the strain on the general market. 

 But when we have done all we can 

 in this line, we shall still see a large 

 surplus of honey accumulate to run 

 down prices. Now, how can we 

 prevent this is the main question of 

 which I designed to write. 



CONVERTING THE HONEY CROP. 



There is yet one resource. We 

 must turn manufactui-ei's of such 

 products as can be made of honey. 

 We want, not less extracted honey, 

 but more honey vinegar instead of 

 some of the unwholesome acids now 

 so general on the market. 



Fellow beekeepers, let us now turn 

 our attention to what can be inanu- 

 factured from honey and hozv it is 

 done; let receipts for honey cakes 

 and every kind of product be the or- 

 der of the day. We need not so 

 much to produce less or to give up 

 extracting as we do ways and meth- 

 ods and energy to work up our crops 

 within ourselves into products which 

 command paying prices. But we 

 must work up our honey ourselves 

 or take low prices. 



Custer Park^ III. 



For the American Apicultiirist. 



IN-BREEDING OF BEES. 



Dr. G. L. Tinkee. 



The liability to in-breeding is the 

 most serious drawback to the im- 

 provement of the honey bee by the 

 ordinary methods of haphazard mat- 

 ing. Nature's remedy for it is run- 

 away swarms, but now man catches 

 the swarms and all are kept in one 

 apiary so that one often has the most 

 objectionable forms of in-breeding. 

 Were it not for the extensive traffic 

 in queen bees and the numerous 



