44 



(rLEANlNGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1.5. 



(iiic locality may ht^ a very different article from 

 the white-clover honey of somewhere else. 



If honev is graded according to my rules, and 

 a sample "of the honey sent in a small vial by 

 mail, the purchaser may know just what to 

 expect, or the commission man will be l^etter 

 able to inform the intending shipper what liis 

 honey will bring. J. A. Ghken. 



Dayton, 111., Jan. 8. 



[See editorial comment elsewhere in this 

 issue.] 



PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



KEAD AT THE NOliTH A.MErIcAX BEE-KEEP 

 EKS' CONVENTION, AT AI.BANY, N. Y. 



The labors and experiences of another season 

 are ended, and its lessons largely learned. A 

 bee-keeper of my acquaintance devotes this 

 part of the year to a careful comparison of the 

 main points in the season's experience with 

 those of previous years. The facts are then still 

 fresh in mind, and the conclusions are useful. 

 In proof that he is eminently successful in his 

 business, I might mention his name but for fear 

 of his modest presence with us. So we, in con- 

 vention assembled, may compare our varied ex- 

 periences during the season just closed, and, on 

 doubtful points, gather wisdom more rapidly 

 and cheaply than to work it out in our own bee- 

 yards. 



With so large a ci'op in one part of our coun- 

 try that the markets are surfeited, while much 

 of the remaining portion is begging for choice 

 comb honey, it may be that we shall learn a 

 useful lesson on the distribution of our products. 

 What are the hindrances to a better distribution 

 of honey? 



1. Our method of marketing, which hurries 

 it oft' to market without waiting to learn where 

 it is needed. 



2. Freight rates are too high. and. what is 

 wor.se, honey is handled carelessly by railroad 

 men, making it difficult to reach distant mar- 

 kets. 



After signing a release and loading and un- 

 loading his own honey, the bee-keeper is charged 

 double the rates he ought to pay, by these ser- 

 vants of the people. 



A recent ruling, which compelled the shipper 

 to cover the glass, that has been used for a 

 score of years, chiefly to secure more can^ful 

 handling, is a fair sample of the treatment we 

 receive. 



This association should vigorously protest 

 against tl:i> unuui-ranted intei'fcrcnee with oui- 

 rights, and a coinniitUie should be appointed to 

 work diligently until reduced I'ates and better 

 treatment are secured. We have; had such a 

 committee in our State Association, but we need 

 a united effort throughout the counti'y. 



3. I..ack of iiniformity of packages and grad- 

 ing is a barriei- to a pioper distribution. VVhat 

 is accepted in on(! market is not in another. 

 Put up the honey to mef-t tlu; demands of the 

 markets to which it is sent, has been the ad- 

 vice. This sounds too mucli like the cry of the 

 sensational or Sunday newspap(tr num, who 

 says. "We publish \\hal the people di'nuuid," 

 and the pajx'r gels down lower ami lower all the 

 tim(^ Tlu! (jeople are oft(Mi not th<' best judges 

 of th<Mr needs, and often have to l>e educated. 



Starting with the two-pound box. glassed, we 

 have succe.ssfully met and catered to the de- 

 mand for one-pound sections, glassed and un- 

 glassed, full weights and light weights, paper 

 cartons and pasteboard boxes, wood and mica 

 sides, thick (,2-inch) boxes and thin boxes. 1%. 

 V}^ down to 1 '.J -inch, square boxes and tall 



boxes, until there is the greatest diversity in 

 packages, and it is difficult for a dealer to du- 

 plicate an oi'der for any quality unless it is from 

 the same consignment. The producer has 

 wasted his substance in continual changes, and. 

 like the sensational editor, has been but a pup- 

 pet to a senseless demand. 



We should adopta stand: and if glassed honey 

 looks better, cari'ies lietter. and keeps better, 

 why not gradually enlarge the production of 

 this kind, and, if possible, educate the consumer- 

 to buy honey in the standard box. or "'section"? 



I have this year had calls for glassed honey 

 from the West, and yearly the demand for this 

 kind is increasing in the East. 



In the reduction of duty on sugar, no bee- 

 keeper, to my knowledge, was consulted: and 

 fearing that, in the contemplated treaty with 

 Spain, we might again be overlooked, I thought 

 it my duty, as an elected representative of the 

 bee-keeping interests of this country, to address 

 a protest early in the year to the State Depart- 

 ment against the free admission of honey from 

 Cuba. A copy of the letter is here appended: 



Starkville. May 14. 1801. 

 Hon. James G. Blaine. State Department, 



Washington, D. C. 



Mr. Secretary: — Information reaches me 

 that this country and Spain will probably agree 

 upon a treaty of i-eciprocity. With sucli prob- 

 abilities ahead. I desire to be informed, as rep- 

 resentative of the bee-keeping industry, wheth- 

 er honey is upon the free list. If so. I wish at 

 this early day to enter an emphatic protest 

 against any change in the tariff'. 



The contemplated removal of the duty on 

 honey in the Spanish-American treaty a few 

 years since was met by a most emphatic protest 

 "from the 300.000 bee-keepers of the United States 

 of America. Much better reason have they 

 now for protesting, since the great reduction in 

 the price of cane sugar, tlie chief competitor of 

 liquid or strained hon(>y. 



The removal of the duty on foreign sugar was 

 followed by a bounty to our domestic sugai'- 

 l)roditcers. e\-en to the pioducers of maple su- 

 gar, which is chiefly an article of luxury and 

 not a competitor of cane sugar in the manufac- 

 ture as is "strained" honey. Our legislator's 

 who so kindly ri^memb<'r(^d the sugai'-growers. 

 entirely forgot the honey-produeei's. whose 

 product is tint sugar undi r another name. In 

 the manufactuie of certain products, honey is 

 superior to sugar, although not so much supe- 

 rioi' but that we shall have to lower present 

 prices in many cases to avoid the sulistitution 

 of the inferioi' and cheaper article. 



Now. to permit ('\il)an honey to enter free, 

 and still fui'ther reduei' prices, would be an act 

 of iujustice that could hardly be forgiven. In 

 fact, it is que-^tionable whether our industry 

 could survive, unless it should be that limited 

 hi'anch of it devoted to the production of comb 

 and li(|uid hon(^y for table use. Cuba is pi-ob- 

 ably the tinest honey-producing country in the 

 woi'ld. and capable of ])roducing an immense 

 amount of honc^y. So supei-ior is it in this re- 

 spect that sevei'al of our most int<'lligent bee- 

 keepers have left all the advantages of their na- 

 tive land to engage in the production of honey 

 there. 



Our industry is still in its infancy: and while 

 we already produce many million pounds of 

 honey, it is capable of an expansion .so great as 

 to wholly eclipse the prt'sent production of su- 

 gar from the sugar-cane. Four contiguous 

 counties hav(i produced in one season over four 

 million pouiuis of honey, and this represents 

 but a fractional part of what might have been 

 gathered. 



Knowing well the genuine interest von take 



