E 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



EDITORIAL 



GLEANINGS FEELS that its readers 

 should have the benefit of all the facts and 



opinions from 



HONEY 



MABKETS— 



PRESENT 



AND FUTURE 



reliable 

 that 



soim'ees 

 are in its 

 possession. On 

 the other hand, 

 it hesitates lest 

 some of these facts and opinions may be 

 misleading. However, we shall take our 

 chances and tell what we know, trusting to 

 the good sense and intelligence of our read- 

 ers, wlio will probably be able to guess as 

 well as we can what the future price of 

 honey will be. 



At the present time practically all the 

 extracted honey, except some little lots in 

 the hands of bottlers, brokers, and specu- 

 lator's, has been sold. Southern honey has 

 begun to come in, and it is bringing good 

 prices. 



Buyers are out everywhere, contracting 

 or trying to contract for the coming crop. 

 In some cases ])roducers have been foolish 

 enough to sell their future crops as low as 

 6 and 7 cents in California. Where bee- 

 keepers are reading the bee-journals thej^ 

 are getting all the way from 7 to 11 cents. 

 The best gi'ades of extracted are being con- 

 tracted for in California now for 10 cents ; 

 and some California orange has sold as 

 high as 13 cents. These are all on future 

 deliveries, mind you. Some carloads of 

 " amber of last yeat-'s crop have sold in New 

 York, for export, for 15 cents, this high 

 figure being due, undoubtedly, to war neces- 

 sities and the general scarcity of extracted. 



We are reliably informed that the British 

 Government has been on the market for 

 5000 barrels of extracted honey, and the 

 Russian Government for 3000 barrels more. 

 Neither was able to get more than stray 

 cars. 



When war was declared in August, 1914, 

 the price of southern honey went down- to 

 a very low figure — 3 or 4 cents a pound; 

 and now we have learned that some of that 

 same honey (tupelo) is being delivered in 

 New York at 12 cents. 



Whence all this furore about extracted 

 honey? While it is true that the general 

 rise in the price of all food products, in- 

 cluding sugar, has boosted the price of ex- 

 tracted, yet there are some other factors to 

 be considered. 



(1) Recent inquiries in New York among 

 the brokers and large buyers show that there 

 is an unusual demand for extracted honey 

 for export. From the best information 

 available it is ajDparent that European bak- 

 ers are using immense quantities of honey 

 to preserve cakes and bread: for it is a well- 

 known fact that honey will keep baked 

 goods soft and moist as almost nothing else 

 will. 



(2) An important factor is the scarcity 

 of sugar in Europe. The price of this com- 

 modity has gone up there; and in some 

 cases, at least, it cannot be had at any 

 figure. The same thing may be said of 

 syrups. Naturally, American honeys come 

 in to fill up the gap. » 



(3) Honey is taking the place of glycer- 

 ine in pharmaceutical preseriiDtions abroad. 

 Glycerine that was formerly used in a very 

 large way by druggists has become prohibi- 

 tive in price on account of the European 

 governments commandeering it for the man- 

 ufacture of dynamite and other explosives. 

 Honey in many of the prescriptions takes 

 the place of glycerine, and it blends as 

 readily with alcohol as does glycerine. 



We have been advised that the new prep- 

 aration that is placed over scalds, burns, and 

 general wounds, and that has given such 

 remarkable results, is almost two - thirds 

 honey. 



(4) It is apparent that the bottled-honey 

 trade that has been advertised so extensively 

 of late in this countrj^ has brought honey 

 into the drugstores of the United States as 

 never before; and as our druggists can 

 scarcely get glj^cer'ine, they are using honey 

 largely, where gh^cerine was formerly used. 



One large broker, perhaps the largest 

 buj'er of honey in car lots, when we asked 

 him recently in New York what the Euro- 

 pean governments were doing with so much 



