April 12, 19C6 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



325 



well and good, but if we wish to give each one a chan 

 develop to the best advantage, and equal, or excel, either 

 parent, we must nourish this young opportunity to thi 

 of our ability, and in so doing we shall make a distim I I 

 in tins branch of our pursuit. We must solicit Dame 

 ture's help, for we must first of all follow her line, o 



is shipwrecked before we are out of the harbor. And 

 by so doing we shall have the bee of the future. 



Hartford, Conn. 



m 



Price of "Quality" Honey Not High Enough 



BY GRANT STANLEY. 



ON page 67 appears a very interesting letter from the pen 

 of M. A. Gill, of Colorado, on the price of honey. He 

 seems inclined to the belief that present prices are high 

 enough. I believe if Mr. Gill will study the question thorough- 

 ly on all sides he will take entirely different views of the 

 matter. One very important question in regard to the pro- 

 duction of honey "he has entirely overlooked, or has failed to 

 mention — a question which adjusts the price of every com- 

 modity produced in this country, or in fact any other — and 

 that is the amount of thought and effort placed in its produc- 

 tion necessary to put it upon the market above every manner 

 of reproach. 



We have been clamoring for honey of higher quality, and 

 rightly so, as only by this means will we ever be able to in- 

 crease its consumption. It must, indeed, be of such high 

 quality that when bought even as Mr. Gill says, as a mere 

 luxury, that future purchases will be made a matter of neces- 

 sity. But to do this certainly costs considerable thought and 

 effort on the part of the bee-keeper, and the honey must be 

 sold at a higher price or the producer is at a loss. 



Ts it not true that the producers of every known com- 

 modity are continually exhausting every effort in the matter 

 of quality and attractiveness in order to increase the sales of 

 their product, and consequently enhance the price? I believe 

 this is an inflexible rule among honest producers of all kinds, 

 and if honey is to be brought before the public as it rightly 

 deserves, the producers must do the same. I am afraid that if 

 we should be content with present prices, and made no effort 

 to better them or our product, it would not he long until 

 honey would he a glut on the market; one thing is almost 

 certain, it would furnish a good loop-hole for the bee-keeper 

 who produces honey simply to sell, with no thought of neat- 

 ness or quality, to dispose of his honey at the same price as 

 the producer who has catered to the wants of the consumer. 



It is about time for the bee-keeper to place on the market 

 that which it demands, and stop talking about educating the 

 public to the use of honey. It is well to remember that it 

 is all wrong to try to educate the public in the use of an in- 

 ferior article. Place your product on the market in the most 

 attractive way. combined with as high a degree of quality as 

 is possible to obtain, and sales will rapidly increase and the 

 price advance, 



Mr. Gill rightly says. "What the honey market needs' is 

 an increased consumption of the pure article upon the tables 

 of the masses." What hinders it from being as in the days 

 of the old patriarchs, a staple article of the world? Solomon 

 tells us. "Eat thou honey because it is good." There is no 

 one to blame hut the bee-keepers themselves; if we can put a 

 little quality into the producer we will get it back in the 

 product. 



We read in the papers of bee-keepers having sale for their 

 honey as soon as off the hives, and in many insi . 

 prices considerably above the market. Why is this? Of 

 course many will put up the old cry. "Locality." hut if you 

 will investigate it you will find that it is only conditions « 

 the bee-keeper himself has brought about, and can with a 

 little energy be brought about in a great many places. 



No, sir; the present prices of honey as listed are not 

 high enough ; we must place honey on the market of high 

 lality, or it will not meet with ready sale, and an article of 

 oi quality cannot be offered for sale without an increa 

 price. The selling price of any commodity is always accord- 

 ing to the quality. Let us remember that quality is an im- 



pro\ i I i and improvement costs something. I have n 



heard of any market being overstocked with a strictly first- 

 class .article at any price. Nisbet, Pa. 



-he Premiums we offer are all well wor.h working for. 

 Look at them in this copy of the American Be. Journal. 



Southern 

 * 23eebom * 



=j 



Conducted by Louis H. Scholu New Braunfels, Tex. 



Southern Bee-Keepers Awakening 



It is gratifying to know that our " bee-folks in the 

 South " are taking an interest in " Southern Beedom." I 

 learn this from the many kind and interesting letters re- 

 ceived lately. Many thanks to you, brethren, and I hope 

 you will write me such letters often, giving, as many of 

 them received, "something you know about bees," and 

 what you are doing. I would be glad to hear from all our 

 " Southern Beedom " readers. Several have sent some nice 

 suggestions and offered to co-operate in making this depart- 

 ment a good one. To these / wish very much to express 

 my feelings of gratitude, and hope that I may also be able 

 to help in return. __ _ __ 



Texas Horsemint for Georgia 



Mr. Louis H. Scholl:— On page 141, I notice that you invite 

 correspondence from all Southern bee-keepers. I am especially inter- 

 ested in what you have to say about sowing seeds of honey-producing 

 plants in waste places at the right time to keep the bee6 busy during 

 our summer dearths. In 1904, Prof. Wilmon Newell (State Ento- 

 mologist of Georgia at that time) came to this county (Tattnall) to a 

 Farmers' Institute. Knowing that he was vor had been) a bee-keeper 

 in Texa6, I attended the Institute especially to meet him. I asked 

 him how he thought Texas horsemint would do in this section. He 

 thought it ought to do well here, and he gave me your address and 

 told me to write to you to send me some of the seed. I was corres- 

 ponding with W. H. Laws a little later, and I asked him about the 

 horsemint seed. He replied that it was too late for him to save me 

 any that season (then July), and so I did not write to you then. 



Last spring (1905) I again wrote to Mr. Laws about the horsemint 

 seed. He replied that he would save me some, but I haven't heard 

 from him yet. I again wrote to him a few days ago. Do you have 

 any of the seed on hand now? If not, do you know who has? I 

 would very much like to try the horsemint here. I have tried other 

 "cultivated" honey-plants here, but with very, very poor success. 

 Bur and crimson clover do very well ; alfalfa and sweet clover yet to 

 be "heard " from. 



We need some honey-plant here that can " tough it out " with the 

 ragweed and other weeds in the fence " jams," ditch-banks, etc. Our 

 spring surplus honey-flow ends about May 15. I have often wished 

 that it began and ended a month later, then the colonies would have 

 more time to build up strong before the first of the flow. I think 

 horsemint would prolong the spring surplus flow if it would yield 

 honey and the bees worked on it here. But immediately after the 

 spring flow ends we generally have a " plague " of mosquito hawks 

 and some bee-paralysis to depopulate our hives, so if the flow were 

 prolonged it might not be of much benefit. The mosquito hawk 

 "plague" lasts about a month, when the " hawks" suddenly disap- 



pear 



H. C. Barnard. 



Glennville, Ga., March 8. 



Horsemint has not been as plentiful of late years in the 

 greater portion of our State as in former years. The dry- 

 ness of our fall seasons is accountable for this, as the plant 

 comes up in the fall and blooms next year in May. Hence, 

 it is not very easy to obtain seed, especially out of season, 

 as the plant soon dies down in summer. The seed would 

 have to be gathered before this time. I know of no place 

 where some of the seed could be obtained. As the seed 

 should be planted in the fall I would procure it this summer. 



I could not say whether horsemint would do well in 

 Georgia for the purpose mentioned. It will have to be 

 tried. To me, at least, it seems that sweet clover would be 

 better. But we should be glad to have you make the experi- 

 ment and report later. 



. — m m 



Prospects for the Season of 1906 



Our bees, in most of the Southern localities, have win- 

 tered well. The winter was a mild one with only occasional 

 blusters— a few cold spells coming quite late this spring, 

 but not doing any harm to bees south of Central Texas, and 

 no reports have at this writing been received from parts 

 further north. 



An abundance of bloom has prevailed. Mistletoe was 

 the beginning for the bees for both honey and pollen— a 



