146 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 



INCREASING CONSUMPTION 



By E. S. Miller 

 Those who attend bee conventions 

 or who read the journals seem to be 

 divided into two camps. There are 

 the beekeepers whose desire is partly 

 for entertainment and partly to learn 

 of any new stunts in handling bees. 

 On the other hand, there are the 

 honey producers who are in the game 

 for business purposes, and whose 

 chief interest lies in marketing the 

 crop. It must be conceded that the 

 beekeepers are in the majority, but it 

 is the producers who deliver the 

 goods. However, there is no law to 

 prevent a fellow from belonging to 

 both parties. No good reason appears 

 why a beekeeper should not be a 

 business man as well. 



For many years the pages of our 

 bee journals have been devoted al- 

 most entirely to increased production 

 of honey. The efforts of supply nianu- 

 facturers and dealers and of govern- 

 ment officials have been toward the 

 same end until now, under prevailing 

 conditions, the supply exceeds the de- 

 mand. The present ne d is for in- 

 creased consumption, to be brought 

 about by more extensive and more 

 judicious advertising and by better 

 distribution. In my opinion this can 

 be done most eiiectively by organi- 

 zations of the producers themselves. 

 For advertising and for general di- 

 rection in the process of distribution, 

 the American Honey Producers' 

 League promises to be the most ef- 

 fective agency. I do not believe that 

 it is wise or practicable for this or- 

 ganization to undertake the sale of 

 honey, but it should encourage and 

 assist the producers' selling agencies 

 that are being established in various 

 parts of the country. Such organiza- 

 tions will tend to eliminate some of 

 the unnecessary costs between pro- 

 ducer and consumer. 



At the present time the honey bot- 

 tler seems to be having his innings. 

 But bottling is an expensive process 

 and nearly doubles the cost to the 

 consumer. It must be conceded that 

 honey put up in glass is more attrac- 

 tive, but people do not buy it in this 

 form for food, as a rule. They take 

 it in homeopathic doses as a •"medi- 

 cine." Of course, the consumer "de- 

 mands" the small package. He (or 

 rather she) would buy it in thimble- 

 fuls if possible, but the final result is 

 a much smaller consumption of honey. 

 I believe that our advertising should 

 call attention to the economy of pur- 

 chasing in larger packages. If the 

 consuming public can be indiiced to 

 buy honey granulated hard in S-pound 

 and 10 pound pails it is by all odds the 

 most practical and least expensive 

 way of handling it. 

 Indiana. 



The Missouri, as it sometimes has the 

 habit of doing, changed its course 

 somewhat and took away a good por- 

 tion of the farm. A succession of dry 

 seasons helped to put Mr. Snodderly 

 in bad financial circumstances. In the 

 spring of 1918 he was induced by a 

 sister to turn his attention to bees. At 

 that time he had 14 colonies in 

 boxes of various kinds. He joined the 

 County Honey Producers' Associa- 

 tion and began in earnest the study 

 of the bee business. 



In the spring of 1920 the apiary con- 

 sisted of 27 strong colonies in modern 

 hives. He increased to 46 colonies and 

 produced 3,000 pounds of honey during 

 the year. 



BEEKEEPERS AND ENTOMOL- 

 OGY 



By Henry W. Sanders 

 In the February number of the 

 American Bee Journal is the answer 

 to a question as to whether beekeep- 

 ers ought to study the vast and intri- 

 cate science of entomology, and 

 while the editor covered the matter 

 very fully, there is one aspect of the 

 case that has great practical import- 

 ance, yet is seldom mentioned in the 

 journals. The only textbook that we 

 know of that deals adequately with 

 the matter in question is Phillips 

 "Beekeeping." 



The matter referred to is the fre- 

 quent comparisons that are drawn be- 

 tween the life and behavior of bees, 

 and of human beings. This is ex- 

 ceptionally frequent in English books 

 on the subject, but our American ones 

 are by no means free from it. It is 

 something that easily provokes won- 

 der and amazement to point to the 

 works and actions of a hive of bees 



BEES AND FRUIT 



The accompanying photographs 

 were taken at the apiary of J. W. 

 Snodderly, near Omaha. 



Mr. Snodderly, some years ago, pur- 

 chased 30 acres of hilly and bottom 

 land near the Missouri River, with the 

 idea of raising small fruit and truck. 



Mr. Snoddcrly's n.lvi-rtisinR sign for atlinct- 

 ing tustumcrs (ruin passing lounsts. 



with the idea in one's mind that they 

 "think" just like we do, but even a 

 cursory study of entomology will re- 

 veal the absurdity of such compari- 

 sons. Therefore, if it is asked 

 whether beekeepers should study en- 

 tomology, the reply should be given 

 that studies of other individual orders, 

 species or varieties of insects (how- 

 ever interesting) will not aid them as 

 beekeepers, but that an understand- 

 ing of the structure and general place 

 in the creation of insects as a group 

 will give them the key to much that 

 is astonishing in their behavior, and 

 will aid in the avoiding of incorrect 

 ideas, for these latter always breed 

 bad practices sooner or later, and the 

 art of keeping bees is only sue essful 

 as long as it follows closely to the 

 natural laws that govern the life his- 

 tory and habits of the honeybee.- 



Maeterlink has dealt with the busi- 

 ness from the philosophic standpoint, 

 and tries hard to establish a common 

 ground of consciousness between man 

 and bee. How far he succeeds it is 

 not for me to say. The point I do 

 wish to emphasize is that humanity 

 and bees present such a series of flat 

 contradictions, such a contrast in 

 modes of structure and life that we 

 are physically unable to meet on the 

 same plane of thought or motive. Let 

 us look at a few of the main contrasts. 



In structure we have our skeleton 

 inside and a fleshly covering — -the bee 

 carries her skeleton outside. We are 

 centralized with the brain in the 

 head and our nerves centering there. 

 The bee has her nerves scattered all 

 over the body, uniting in "local brains" 

 (ganglia), where the nerves meet. 

 The fact that the ganglia at the head 

 of the insect are rather larger is 

 merely due to the presence at that 

 point of the sense organs of eyes and 

 antennae. The eyes of the bee are 

 compound, and non-adjustable, one 

 fact which alone might explain a vast 

 difference in comparison with a being 

 whose organs of vision are instantly 

 focused as ours are. 



Turning from structure to develop- 

 ment, we find that the insect life is 

 divided generally into three distinct 

 periods, corresponding with the 

 changes in metamorphosis. In the 

 first, all the eating is done; in the sec- 

 ond all the sleeping, and in the third 

 all the breeding; this in contrast with 

 our development, wherein we begin 

 as perfect, though small, individuals, 

 and grow larger, interspersing our 

 eating, sleeping and breeding, 

 tliroughout life. The bee is an anom- 

 oly through its communal develop- 

 ment, but essentially the last or per- 

 fect stage of its life is really the 

 breeding stage of the insect, greatly 

 elaborated and complicated. 



When we cut our finger it heals. 

 The hand of the workman wears per- 

 petually away, and as steadily is re- 

 placed from beneath. Our bodies con- 

 tain myriads of cells that are at work 

 repairing and replacing tissue all the 

 time. The result is that until an in- 

 jury or disease actually stops our es- 

 sential organs, we live. An insect, 

 however, wears out like a garment. 



