801 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. is 



and Hamburg. Nor is there any prospect 

 of this situation being changed. 



South Brczil has long been known as a 

 honey country. Hannemann, the inventor 

 of the queen- excluder, made some famous 

 records down there many years ago. As a 

 matter of fact, bee- keeping does not occupy 

 the same place in Brazilian agriculture it 

 did some years ago. Probably Sao Paulo 

 Cit}', with its 350,000 inhabitants, would 

 consume the whole local product, and con- 

 siderably more if the sale of honej' were 

 pushed with businesslike methods. There- 

 fore we may dismiss South Brazil from our 

 calculations for the present. 



Paraguay, that queer far awaj' republic, 

 has very few bee ketpers within her bor- 

 bers. Uruguay has more, but not to cut 

 any figure. Taking Chili, Argentina, Par- 

 aguay, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul, and 

 Sao Paulo together, we have a country as 

 large as the United States, with a much 

 milder climate, and eminently suitable for 

 bee- keeping. Therefore, keep your eye on 

 the Rio Plata countries and the Banda Ori- 

 ental. They are great rivals of the United 

 States in all lines — cattle-raising, dairy- 

 ing, horse-breeding, fruit culture, sheep- 

 herding, and wheat culture; then why not 

 apiculture? 



Further north the next serious competitor 

 is British Guiana, just looming up on the 

 horizon. It is twice the size of Cuba, and 

 is about well adapted to bee-keeping; but 

 that it will ever rival Cuba is to be doubt- 

 ed, for it hasn't a very good name as a 

 health-resort, and the pale faces do not run 

 there in droves. It much resembles Louis- 

 iana; and Georgetown, the capital, I re- 

 gard as a much nicer place to live in than 

 New Orleans. If the climate were as nice 

 as that of Jamaica the country would cut a 

 great figure in the honey market. 



Trinidad and the Windward Islands are 

 too small and too populous ever to have 

 much honey to export. Jamaica is a small 

 island which the natives persist in regard- 

 ing as the leading island in the West In- 

 dies, barring Barbados, the hub of the 

 western seas. British Honduras is a very 

 inviting field for bee-keeping — none better 

 anywhere; and if one can put up with a 

 very quiet existence, "far from the mad- 

 ding crowd," this is the country for him, 

 for life can not be more devoid of human in- 

 terest and excitement than it is there. 

 British Honduras is a fine country for a 

 naturalisf; and with a good house to sell 

 for him in England a bee-keeper need nev- 

 er want for cash, as crops are certain. 



All around the Gulf of Honduras the 

 country is a grand one for apiculture. The 

 periodic revolutions are a serious draw- 

 back ; otherwise their competition would 

 soon be serious. Inland the country is ex- 

 tremely- pleasant and salubrious. 



The most promising field of all, however, 

 is in Mexico, all around the Bay of Campe- 

 che. The leading tree is the logwood, or 

 "campeche, " which flourishes on every 

 hand. The mahogany is also a good source 



of nectar. The country is healthy, and 

 easily reached from New York or New Or- 

 leans, particularly the latter. This part 

 of the world offers many tempting opportu- 

 nities for the enterprise of Americans, con- 

 sequently there are many on the ground 

 making fortunes out of sisal, sugar, ma- 

 hogany, etc.; so the bee-keeper would have 

 some one to swap stories of life in the home 

 land, and eat flapjacks with him Sundays. 



The island of Haiti, one of the world's 

 most beautiful countries, presents golden 

 opportunities to bee-keepers — when it gets 

 a good government, but not till then. Some- 

 times we read the interesting statement, 

 " Uncle Sam is going to take care of it. ' 

 When he does, there will be a perfect scrdm- 

 ble. among bee keepers for locations in that 

 isle of beauty and — honey. 



Now, what is going to happen if all these 

 countries start apiaries on a grand scale? 

 Nothing. Some genius like Phil Armour, 

 of Chicago, will start a gigantic honey- 

 canning factory in some seaboard city, 

 where honey will be put up like roast beef, 

 in cheap packages, to be shipped in steam- 

 er loads to the great hungry European cen- 

 ters, and sold to the multitudes at a nomi- 

 nal profit until American honey becomes as 

 well known as Armour's beef or Pilsbury's 

 flour. It is really a very simple problem. 

 Blend the honeys of Cuba, Mexico, Texas, 

 California, Chili, Guiana, Argentina, and 

 all the rest, in gigantic vats, and can by 

 the million. Europe is hungry for cheap 

 honey with a guarantee that it is pure. 



So far from trying to keep foreign honey 

 out, I would try to get it in, so as to corner 

 the market, or at least control it, just as 

 Armour die with beef. 



There is no better package for honey than 

 the ordinary 3-lb. tin can. The Chicago 

 butchers, Borden's milk, and Maryland 

 peach-canners, have demonstrated this be- 

 yond all per ad venture, for now these goods 

 are regularly stocked by grocers all over 

 the civilized world. 



This explains why I hold that the pres- 

 ent tariff" does us no good. What is wanted 

 is a great agency for taking care of honey 

 in vast quantities, holding it back at times, 

 and distributing over the whole world at 

 low prices to the hungry multitudes. 



[It seems to us that Mr. Morrison has 

 gone over the ground very carefully and 

 fully. The fact that the foreign honeys en- 

 tering the American market are usually of 

 low grades warrants the belief that they 

 will not affect to any considerable degree 

 the prices of American honey, for the duty 

 paid is just as high on a four-cent extract- 

 ed honey as on a fine table honey. We 

 know there is a steady demand for our bet- 

 ter grades of honey for export (our exports 

 exceeding our imports) so we believe Amer- 

 ican producers shoulo not be greatly con- 

 cerned so long as the better markets are 

 left. The methods employed in many for- 

 eign countries in the production of honey 

 preclude the possibility of their honey ri- 

 valing ours. — Ed.] 



