966 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



to keep pace with demand — that goes with- 

 out saying. 



Now, then, how is the demand to be 

 increased ? Every beekeeper in this country 

 has an interest in this question, and should 

 be glad to help solve and see solved the 

 problem, not just of increasing his own 

 individual market, but of enlarging the 

 general market; for the more universal is 

 the honey market, the more certain are all 

 to profit. 



To arrive at the proper basis for answer- 

 ing this question of increase let us go into 

 the subject from the standpoint, primarily, 

 of why it is that comparatively so little 

 honey is used. 



The first and most natural answer to that 

 question lies in the word ignorance — igno- 

 rance of the food value of honey. There 

 has come about a gradual general forgetting 

 on the part of the present generation of all 

 that honey means in deliciousness and 

 wholesomeness. 



In our opinion, this has been brought 

 about by two things — first by the gi-adual 

 shifting of the bulk of the consuming popu- 

 lation to the big cities and the consequent 

 getting away from nature and natural foods 

 to the more artificial life and foods which 

 belong to city dwelling. The second cause, 

 undoubtedly, is the big advertising which 

 has been and is being done by the sugar- 

 refiners and the makers of all kinds of 

 syrups — cane and corn. This advertising 

 has steadily and forcibly directed the atten- 

 tion of the consumer from that choice prod- 

 uct of nature, honey, to the flavor, packing, 

 and supposed deliciousness of sugar and 

 syrups, the good points of which it has 

 heralded with such art and persistence that 

 to-day the average consumer thinks of su- 

 gars and syrups alone when he thinks of 

 sweets. 



Then it stands logically to reason that the 

 only way to bring the bulk of the American 

 people back to honey, and to make converts 

 to the use of honey of those people who 

 nowadays never give it a thought, is to 

 bring honey forcibly and persistently to 

 their attention; in short, to lift them out of 

 their ignorance, as it were, by an education- 

 al campaign of advertising which will con- 

 vince them that the most wholesome of all 

 sweets is honey ; to tell them that the inimi- 

 table flavor of honey is a palate pleasure 

 they are robbing themselves of unless they 

 use honey freely — on their bread, wafiles, 

 etc., and to show them that, for many cook- 

 ing purposes, nothing in the world of sweet- 

 eners can compare with honey from the 

 standpoint of flavor, keeping qualities, and 

 economy. 



We all know that, once the average person 



is acquainted with honey goodness, it is 

 almost a certainty that that person will 

 continue to eat and use honey. We all 

 know the vast influence of advertising in 

 persuading the big general public to do 

 what you want them to do — provided the 

 thing you want them to do and the goods 

 you want them to buy are based on honesty 

 and quality. But who is to do that adver- 

 tising? who is to be the pioneer in opening 

 up the wildei'ness, to the profit of all pro- 

 ducers of honey? It would hardly pay all 

 the honey-raisers to try to get together on 

 such a campaign. The pro rata of expense 

 would be an infinitely difficult task. Yet, in 

 the interest of all, this advertising is almost 

 a necessary thing. 



An attempt at the solution of this problem 

 is being made by the publishers of this 

 journal. Through their efforts, and at their 

 expense, a strong, persistent, and consistent 

 honey-advertising campaign has been plan- 

 ned, and is being put into operation. As is 

 generally known, the A. I. Root Co. has now, 

 as it has had for many years past, large 

 apiaries of its own. It will be remembered, 

 also, that Mr. A. I. Root is one of the 

 pioneers in the production and marketing 

 of extracted honey; and since his marked 

 success in this field, beginning nearly forty 

 years ago, the apiaries of Mr. Root and the 

 A. I. Root Co. have been prominent features 

 in their general business. In addition (this 

 is a most important feature to consider in 

 connection with this campaign) they are 

 large marketers of the honey outputs of 

 other apiaries (their friends and customers) 

 from all over the United States. Thus, 

 being known to distributers of food prod- 

 ucts as a big source of honey supply for the 

 general market, both under their special 

 brand of select honey known as Airline, and 

 with bulk or unbranded honey, they are in 

 the very best position to benefit all honey- 

 raisers by advertising honey generally. 



A Ketrospect for 1914 



No great floods or snowstorms struck 1914 

 as they did in 1913; but 1914 will go down 

 in histoiy suffering a calamity far worse 

 than floods, storms, hurricanes, and earth- 

 quakes all combined. If the whole of Eu- 

 rope were shaken by an earthquake the 

 destruction of life and propei'ty could not 

 be worse than what the " Great War " has 

 wrought already. But what has the war to 

 do with apiculture? A gi-eat deal. It has 

 affected the honey market. It has cheapen- 

 ed the lower grades especially because the 

 South American and West Indian product 

 that formerly went to Euroj^e is now dump- 

 ed into this country to the soiTow and dis- 



