1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



911 



least a little ; but as it was I went marching 

 round, hooting as before. 



It seems that friend Fowls is making a mole- 

 hill into a mountain, and that the said New 

 Yorker is unduly alarmed. It is true I have 

 sold a good many tons of candied honey right 

 to consumers, they to melt it if they wish it 

 liquid, and that I have also sold much honey 

 at 6 cents per pound. 



It is said that the city of Denver consumes 

 more honey per capita than any other city in 

 the United States ; and while it is only 46 

 miles by wagon and 56 by rail, I seldom sell 

 any honey there. There is an immense pro- 

 duction of honey about Denver and tributary 

 country ; and when ihere is a fair to good 

 crop we must export more or less. When I 

 came to Loveland, ten years ago, it was a vil- 

 lage of about 1000 population. I believe there 

 were not 10 people in the village worth |10,000, 

 and very few worth even $1000. Why, my 

 dear Mr. Fowls, if the store-keeper had offered 

 the citizens a syrup in some fancy glass that 

 cost the consumer as much for the package as 

 for the syrup, such dealer would have been 

 thought crazy. 



Now let me tell you that every grocery in 

 my little home town has honey for sale, and 

 they sell, too, and Denver is in much the same 

 fix. There is another fact I want you to re- 

 peat over and over until it is fixed in your 

 mind to stay. It is this : Granulated sugar is 

 also in every store in all our towns, and so are 

 glucose mixtures in some form in most of them 

 and many have sorghum and other syrups. 

 These are staple sweets, and they are the sweet 

 consumed by the masses ; and if you stop to 

 think, you know why ; but since you do not 

 seem to get the idea I will tell you. 



There is all over our land a vast population 

 who never taste honey, and a great number who 

 never even see it once in a year — very many 

 never see it. The production is limited, alto- 

 gether too limited to supply all the people. 



AIKIN AFTER FOWLS 



Then the price (not mine) is strictly prohibi- 

 tive to the common people — common finan- 

 cially. Mr. Fowls and that New York man (I 

 do not name the New Yorker, because he has 

 not come out publicly, and when I asked him 

 to give me some figures for publication he 

 never replied) know very well the common 

 people can not afford to buy honey at fancy 

 prices, and zvill not buy much when they can 

 get sugar much cheaper. 



The great mass of the people are of the 

 " common herd " so far as finances are con- 

 cerned — unable to spend money freely. These 



people buy sugar and other cheap sweets, of 

 necessity. They are willing to buy my hon- 

 ey — yes, they are more than willing ; they 

 much desire it. 



I said I had sold much honey at 6 cents a 

 pound, and here is how it was done : If my 

 customers came with their vessels to get the 

 honey they paid me 24 cents for 4 pounds. If 

 I furnished them a 3-pound lard pail they also 

 paid 6 cents more for the pail — 30 cents for 4 , 

 pounds of honey. Do you not see that my 

 customer's honey cost him 7}^, and at the 



(fO hadth. (imEjIkc 



the quid duffef m«fe fiow-^naMdlly 



CMiW havt 8ta5te of the aiwe.rufTi 



THE FANCY ARTICI^E. 



same time he could buy sugar at 6 and less, 

 and package thrown in ? and a little water 

 with the sugar makes a. fine syrup. The ques- 

 tion is a simple one. There is not in my town, 

 and adjacent territory within 15 miles, enough 

 people to regularly consume honey as a staple 

 sweet at fancy or luxury prices, to provide a 

 market for % the product in said territory. 

 My town has a total population of about 2000. 

 If each man, woman, and child in the place 

 would consume 10 pounds of honey annually, 

 I could sell only 20,000 pounds if I got the en- 

 tire trade. My own crop alone would make 

 at least 15 pounds per capita, and there must 

 have been from 10 to 15 pounds more produced 

 by others. What shall we do ? 



While I sold at 6 cents a pound for the na- 

 ked honey, I got 6 cents a pound for it. Do 

 you comprehend that, Mr. Fowls, and Mr. 

 New Yorker? The A. I. Root Co. catalog for 

 1900 quotes Muth 1-pound jars at just a trifle 

 less than 4 cents each. I do not know the 

 weight of them, but I do know that if I got 

 them here at a cost of % cent each for freights 

 and drayage I should do well. Thus they 

 would cost me 4>4 cents each. Six cents for 

 my honey and Ayi for the glass makes 10^ 

 cents. Put to this another cent and a half for 

 freights to Oberlin, brother Fowls, and the 

 honey costs at your depot on track 12 cents a 

 pound, or twice the cost of granulated sugar 

 laid down at same place. 



We will assume that Mr. Fowls has bought 

 a carload of my fine honey to splice out his 

 short crop. He must have something for his 

 trouble and risk, so he adds a cent a pound 

 and puts the honey into the groceries. The 

 grocer must add about two cents apiece more 

 on each jar, thus the honey costs the consumer 

 15 cents. This honey, mind you, is in no way 

 inferior to Mr. Fowls' extra-fine superior dou- 

 ble gilt-edge Oberlin product. Say, Fowls, 



