VOL. VII. 



NOVEMBER, 1897. 



NO. II. 



The Honey Market, 



BY B. J. H. 



Harry Lathrop, quite a prominent 

 bee-keeper of Wisconsin, in a recent 

 issue of Gleanings sa^'s: "The honey 

 market is smashed. It looks to ine as 

 though the business has fallen by its 

 own weight, and foul brood and bad 

 seasons have been friends instead of 

 enemies." 



It is a blessed good thing for the 

 future of beekeeping that Mr. Lath- 

 rop will, more than likely, be per- 

 mitted to monopolize his optimistic 

 view. 



The business will fall by its own 

 weight when after honey has been 

 systematically introduced into the 

 homes of the people, and the masses 

 have been educated to its use, not 

 alone as a table delicacy but its many 

 culinary uses, and a surplus "weight" 

 has accumulated, and not until then. 

 It may fall from other causes, but 

 surely not from its own weight, when 

 probably not one person in a thousand 

 has been informed as to its excellence 

 as an article of food, its medicinal 

 properties and diversified household 

 uses. It may fall as a natural result 

 of negligence upon the part of pro- 

 da Jir s to unite in elevating it to its 



rightful place among the staple ar- 

 ticles of commerce. 



Contrast Mr. Lathrop's view with 

 that of R. C. Akin, a progressive 

 specialist of Colorado, who, in a most 

 excellent contribution to the same 

 journal upon the subject of marketing, 

 suggests the organization of compan- 

 ies or associations to establish packing 

 houses in producing districts, to put 

 all honey according to a standard 

 grading system, in uniform retail 

 packages of convenient size, under 

 the association guarantee and a regis- 

 tered trade mark, distributing it 

 throughout the country, in proportion 

 to the actual demand existing, or that 

 may be created by the educational ef- 

 forts which would necessarily consti- 

 tute a part of the work of such an 

 organization. 



Now, note the concluding remarks 

 of this specialist regarding the 

 "weight" of our infantile industry, 

 which Mr. Lathrop sees thus perma- 

 turely crushed to earth by its own 

 weight, even before it has risen to 

 recognition as a legitimate vocation. 

 "Let me here repeat what I said in 

 the previous part of this discussion, 

 that there is not honey enough on the 

 market to make it an object for peo- 

 ple to invest in honey depots or pack- 

 ing houses, or to get the product prop- 

 erly before the public." 



