792 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



weather. Our exi-criments have been con- 

 ducted with a view of determining just 

 how far such candy may be relied upon, 

 the results of which have been published 

 in these columns from time to time. 



Especially at this time when the price of 

 sugar is " sky-high," as one beekeeper put 

 it, the cost of providing winter stores is 

 indeed a serious question. It must be re- 

 membered that the labor required in mak- 

 ing candy is an item of considei'able impor- 

 tance. We have had no experience our- 

 selves in making the Fuller candy; but the 

 hard candy is apt^ to cost nearly twice as 

 much as an amount of sugar syrup which 

 would last the bees the same length of time. 

 Of course this is only an approximate fig- 

 ure, as so much depends upon the method 

 of making, the facilities at hand, etc. 



Usually some honey is added to the hard 

 candy. Of course, such honey, by reason 

 of the high and long-continued heat, is ren- 

 dered sterile so far as any brood disease 

 is concerned. However, sugar .=yrup is, of 

 •course, sterile in the first placf". 



Many beekeepers will prefer to feed 

 honey instead of sugar syrup this fall be- 

 cause of the high price of the latter. It 

 must not be forgotten that honey bought 

 on the open market is an unsafe food for 

 bees, owing to the danger of introducing 

 foul brood of one type or the other. If 

 the honey has been heated, as r-xplained in 

 the editorial in the last issue this danger, 

 especially in the case of European foul 

 brood, is vastly less. Howevpi, it will be 

 well for all beekeepers, if they do not knoAV 

 the source of the honey, to err on the safe 

 side. 



We hope that there will be few who, on 

 account of the high cost of sugar, will lun 

 any risk in regard to the quantity of the 

 stores. Wintering a colony on barely enough 

 stores is always penny wise anil pound fool- 

 ish; and it is no less so undci the present 

 conditions. 



The War, and ills Effect on 



iifaclering Purposes 



We have received numerous letters from 

 the beekeepers in the Southern States ask- 

 ing what the matter is with the honey mar- 

 ket. They are saying they cannot get any 

 offerings for extracted of medium grade. 

 The situation will be a little better under- 

 stood when we state that we have positive 

 knowledge of some West Indian honey of 

 good quality being sold' in the New York 

 markets as low as 42 cents a gallon. This 

 honey formerly went to Europe like all 



otlier South American and West Indian 

 lioney, and brought good prices, ranging 

 around a dollar a gallon. It will, therefore, 

 be seen that South American honey and 

 other West Indian honeys that come into 

 the United States will net their producers 

 practically nothing after paying freight, 

 commission, and duty. The duty on honey 

 now is 10 cents a gallon. Let us suppose 

 that the price in New York is 42 cents a 

 gallon. Deducting from this 10 cents, it 

 will leave 32 cents, or nearly 3 ets. per lb. 

 Out of this must come package, freight, and 

 commission. It can easily be seen that the 

 producers in South America and the West 

 Indies, with their large crops on hand, and 

 with no prospect of selling it at all in the 

 European markets, will probably unload in 

 the United States, and we cannot blame 

 them. We would do likewise. Possibly they 

 may hold it until after the war. " After 

 the war " — no one knows when that will be. 

 In any event it means that these honeys 

 will come to the United States and set a 

 lower level for a good part, perhaps, of our 

 domestic Southern honey, and for Northern 

 honey used for baking and canning, and 

 general manufacturing purposes. Of course, 

 it does not follow that because foreign hon- 

 eys are cheap that domestic cheap honey 

 must fall to the same level. Nor will it. 



We are also reliably informed that the 

 Rocky Mountain districts that have been 

 producing carloads of fruit have almost no 

 market for their product. They have hith- 

 erto shipped it to England and Germany. 

 America produces more fruit than she can 

 consume. The surplus hitherto has been 

 going to Europe at fair prices. In the 

 same way that the fruit interests of the 

 Western slope are suffering, honey in that 

 region has been coming in for its share. 

 But fruit is perishable unless it is canned ; 

 but honey can be kept till " after the war," 

 whatever that may mean. 



The war-lords of Europe are committing 

 an awful crime against civilization. The 

 individual members of that civilization, the 

 women and children and the non-combat- 

 ants, and the peace-lovers out of the war- 

 zone are going to be the ones to suffer. If 

 tlie wrath of the world would do any good 

 toward putting a stop to this awful destruc- 

 tion of life and property, the conflict would 

 speedily come to a close. But it begins to 

 look now like a world's civil war; and all 

 for what? 



While we are apparently sounding a 

 pessimistic note, we are optimistic enough 

 to believe that the great Creator of worlds, 

 as lie always has done, will bring good out 

 of evil. 



