GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in the South^vest 



Louis Scholl, New Braunfels, Texas. 



TEXAS HONEY PRICES, AGAIN. 



Several times we have discussed honey 

 prices and market conditions of the past 

 season in Texas, and several letters of com- 

 ment have come in. Below is one. 



I notice that you advocate that beekeepers of Tex- 

 as get together and agree on a more uniform selling 

 price of their honey. I believe this ought to be done. 

 I can not see why we can not have quotations of 

 prices of honey in Texas published in Gleanings 

 twice a month as other sections of the country are 

 represented in the Honey Column. It would help 

 some. I am often at a loss to know what price to 

 ask for my honey when the season opens up. I do 

 not want to undersell any one, so I have to guess at 

 about what it may be selling at. 



Tehuacana, Texas. T. M. Jones. 



The above communication has brought on 

 another thought — that of quoting the price 

 of honey in the Honey Column of this jour- 

 nal so that the Texas beekeepers, and others 

 too, who may be interested, can keep posted 

 to a certain degree at least. I have recently 

 met a number of beekeepers who told me 

 that they found, after they had disposed of 

 most of their honey at a certain price, that 

 they could have obtained a little more for 

 it if they had had some means of learning 

 the reigning market price at that time. 



Can you not arrange in some manner, 

 Mr. Editor, to give our readers such quota- 

 tions as mentioned above? I feel that this 

 service would be highly appreciated by a 

 large number of them. [We will see what 

 can be done. — Ed.] 



« * » 



THE EVIL EFFECTS OP SELLING OFF-GRADE 

 HONEY. 



There are two evils that are responsible 

 to a marked degree for causing low honey 

 prices. One of these is the beekeeper who 

 does not read bee-journals nor keep posted 

 on the market price of honey; and who, 

 when he does have some honey to sell, sim- 

 ply dumps it on the market at any ridicu- 

 lously low price that he may be able to 

 obtain. The other evil is the beekeeper who 

 puts inferior honey on the market at any 

 low price that he may be able to get for it. 

 Either one of these beekeepers will have a 

 tendency to affect the entire honey market 

 and bring down the price. 



Under the first class Ave may place tlie 

 large number of small beekeepers who own 

 only a few colonies, and these, perhaps, in 

 box hives. Those of this class do not care 

 to keep up with the times; and since the 

 amount of honey they have to sell is usu- 

 ally small they are not so particular about 

 the difference in the price they obtain and 

 that at which they ought really to sell. 



However, there are a great many beekeepers 

 who have a much larger number of colonies 

 who can be put in this same class. And 

 the amount produced by all of them amounts 

 to enough to cut quite a figure. 



With the beekeepers who put inferior 

 honey on the markets we can class some of 

 our better beekeepers as well as the smaller 

 fellows just mentioned. It has surprised 

 me many times to find some of our well- 

 posted beekeepers putting up honey for the 

 market that we were sure they knew ought 

 not to be offered for sale. It often hap- 

 pens, however, that many of these beekeep- 

 ers must dispose of every bit of honey that 

 they can get together in order to make ends 

 meet. This is especially true during less 

 favorable seasons, and it is during those 

 years that inferior honey is more plentiful. 

 This is not always the case, however, for 

 we have found honey in many of the stores 

 we had occasion to visit on our trips during 

 the most favorable seasons that ought not to 

 have been packed at all. Much of this was 

 packed with fancy honey, and this made 

 the contrast between the good and the bad 

 so much greater. While the mixed lots of 

 honey were a drug on the merchant's hands, 

 good honey was in strong demand. But the 

 chance of selling these merchants more good 

 honey was cut off because they were stocked 

 u]) and would not buy until this " stuff " 

 was disposed of. 



It makes a gi-eat difference if the mer- 

 chants can get good honey and keep it mov- 

 ing off their hands. It gives room for other 

 purchases, and in this manner large quan- 

 tities of honey can be moved off on to the 

 consuming masses. How different, though, 

 if the merchants are loaded up with inferior 

 stuff that they can not move! During the 

 time it remains on the hands of the mer- 

 chants there is little chance of moving more 

 honey, even though it be of better quality. 

 The result is that the market becomes more 

 or less demoralized. The merchants hesitate 

 about buying more honey, even after they 

 have succeeded in disposing of the " stuff." 

 It is to be hoped that moi'e attention will 

 be paid to these most important matters. 

 The difference of even only a fraction of a 

 cent per pound more for our honey is to be 

 considered seriously in this time of greater 

 cost of production and higher cost of living, 

 and with the honey price not keeping the 

 same pace of advancement in price with 

 other commodities. The margin between 

 profit and loss is not great enough to per- 

 mit of much carelessness. 



