December, 192i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



773 



h FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



■ — ~^ __ 



WHS found buried deep in tlie earth, and on 

 top of the deposit gigantic fir trees 500 

 years old were growing. The age of the 

 firs and the depth of tlie deposit, together 

 with the fact that the ocean has receded 

 three miles from this point, lead to the be- 

 lief that it is at least a thousand years 

 since the wax drifted ashore at this place. 



About the wax was evidence of shipwreck, 

 and indented in it were hieroglyphs of 

 strange design. This allows the supposition 

 that an ancient ship had through misfor- 

 tune drifted ashore here. 



The sample which Mr. Crittenden showed 

 me was rather black but in good condition. 

 Maybe some brother beekeeper in the vicin- 

 ity of Nehalem, Oregon, who reads "Glean- 

 ings" can give us some more facts on this 

 rather odd bit of history. W. W. Barnhill. 



Polk, Ohio. 



DEALERS AND SPECULATORS 



Why Established Honey Dealers Prefer Stable 

 Prices. Folly of Price- Cutting 



Until recently the writer has, to some ex- 

 tent, shared the probably common belief 

 that most honey dealers naturally are inter- 

 ested in keeping the wholesale price of hon- 

 ey as low as possible; but in talking with 

 one of our largest western bottlers recently 

 some new ideas were received, and these 

 again were strengthened by the writings 

 of two large honey buyers in October 

 "Gleanings," E. E. Eoot and Geo. W. York. 

 Mr. Eoot tells how his company decided to 

 boost the local sale of honey to prevent 

 prices from dropping too low, and Mr. York 

 makes one of the strongest appeals for co- 

 operative marketing that has come to my 

 notice. 



Just why should dealers desire to prevent 

 lioney prices from dropping below the cost 

 of production? Is it not because such men 

 are business men and not speculators? The 

 latter class is always attempting to "bear" 

 the market when buying, and "bulling" it 

 when selling, in order to gain as large a 

 margin of profit as the traffic will stand. The 

 real dealer is interested in building up a 

 steady, permanent trade, and his margin of 

 profit is, as far as he is able to control it, 

 based on a percentage basis of the turn- 

 over; for that reason he is not interested in 

 the speculative elements, but would greatly 

 prefer stabilized prices that would assure 

 liim liis necessary margin. Of course it is 

 only human that any dealer wishes to buy 

 for a little less than the market price, but 

 the thinking dealer realizes that, if he can 

 buy for less than the market price, his com- 

 petitor can likely do as well, and perhaps 

 better, and that therefore the market has 

 fallen, and that instead of buying "below" 

 market he is buying on a "lower" market. 



Here, perhaps, is the answer to the ques- 

 tion that has puzzled some of our producers 

 who this year attempted to move honey by 

 cutting prices, only to find that the demand 

 if anything decreased. Dealers do not buy 

 heavily on a falling market. A retailer may 

 move his stock by cutting prices; a small 

 producer also may do the same, but if large 

 holdings are forced on the market at cut 

 prices the dealers will fear further declines 

 and will adopt a policy of watchful waiting, 

 buying only what stock they need; while if 

 the market is steady they are willing to buy 

 large quantities to enable them to get quan- 

 tity discounts. J. Skovbo. 



Hermiston, Ore. 



BEEKEEPING IN AUSTRALIA 



How Lack of Pollen Sometimes Causes Loss or 

 Many Colonies 



Ninety-five per cent of Australian honey 

 is gathered from eucalyptus trees of which 

 there are many dozens of kinds, and some 

 are in flower at all times of the year. Most 

 of the apiaries are located in forests and 

 along rivers or lakes. Migratory beekeeping 

 is resorted to, though of late years more of 

 the mountain beekeepers are moving their 

 bees out to the drier earlier pollen-producing 

 country for the purpose of securing early 

 brood-rearing, cope w^eed and Avattle being 

 very early and heavy pollen producers. 

 Some varieties of wattles are in bloom all 

 through both winter and spring. 



Our seasons run in cycles of four or five 

 years, one year being a very bad one, two 

 poor to medium and two good to bumper. 

 Seldom or never do we get a year when the 

 bees will not gather ample honey for their 

 own needs, but pollen famine is the trouble. 

 The summer and autumn of 1920 produced 

 ample stores of honey but little or Tio pol- 

 len, with the result that but little autumn 

 brood was reared; and in the following 

 spring, before the spring pollen was gath- 

 ered and brood reared, the old bees of the 

 winter cluster died off, leaving hives with 

 ample honey in the combs, many bee farm- 

 ers losing up to four-fifths of their colonies. 

 Experiments to produce artificial pollen 

 have so far failed. Beekeepers are trying 

 to save the combs of pollen stored during 

 the good years and keep them until the 

 droughts. 



In a good season apiaries on good forest 

 sites will average over 300 pounds per col- 

 ony, and individual records of 700 pounds 

 and over are often recorded. A good forest 

 site in a good season can hardly, if at all, be- 

 overstocked, but occasionally a small waspy 

 fly comes in millions and almost crowds the 

 bees off the blossom. H. W. Eaggatt. 



Natimuk, Victoria, Australia, 



