1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



19 



WHY DOES HONEY SELL SLOWLY? 



"Say, Doolittle." 



"Yes, Clark." 



' ' You remember that question from the 

 question-box at Syracuse before the Onon- 

 daga Co. Bee Convention of three days ago, 

 regarding honey selling slowly this fall and 

 winter?" 



"Yes." 



" What was the conclusion in the matter? 

 I had to come away before the discussion 

 had fairly commenced." 



' ' I could not stay till the discussion was 

 ended; but one of the ideas that was ad- 

 vanced was that adulteration had largely to 

 do with the matter, in that it made the com- 

 mon people suspicious of all honey; conse- 

 quently there was an under-consumption of 

 our product through this suspicion." 



"Do you believe that?" 



" I do believe that there is an under-con- 

 sumption of honey, and quite agree with the 

 idea brought out — that, with less than half 

 a crop of honey in the United States the 

 past year, honey rarely ever sold as slowly 

 as it has been doing for the past three 

 months." 



' ' Yes, that part I agree with. But do 

 you think that the cause is the adulteration 

 of honey, or, rather, that there are stories 

 in circulation to the effect that honey is 

 largely adulterated? " 



' ■ I think that this may have something to 

 do with the matter. Don't you?" 



" Do you remember when there was such 

 a great cry a few years ago in the agricul- 

 tural papers about oleomargarine, and how 

 the markets would be ruined for butter, and 

 the dairymen find themselves out of employ- 

 ment, unless the thing was stopped? " 



"Yes, I remember how the papers were 

 filled with the subject of oleomargarine, and 

 about the great injury it was, and would be 

 likely become, unless there was some law 

 passed regarding the matter." 



' ' Well, did the oleomargarine matter 

 cause butter to sell more slowly? " 



"But there was a law passed that caused 

 oleomargarine to be sold for what it was, 

 and not for butter." 



"Correct. But was there an under-con- 

 sumption of butter during this oleomarga- 

 rine scare? " 



" I do not fully remember. ' ' 



"If you will study up I think you will 

 find that there was no less butter on the ta- 

 bles in the homes and hotels of the country 

 during those times than there was before or 

 since, in proportion to the means with 

 which the people had to purchase. So far 



as my memory serves me, the cry of adul- 

 terated butter cut no figure as to making 

 the people use less butter. ' ' 



"That is something I had not thought 

 about in my reasoning that the adulteration 

 scare had to do with a lack in the call for 

 honey. ' ' 



"Then look at the liquor business. All ad- 

 mit that the larger share of the whisky 

 drank is adulterated with the rankest poi- 

 son, and some of it to such an extent that 

 there is little if any pure whisky about it. 

 Yet statistics tell us that the consumption 

 of liquors, per capita, is greater to-day than 

 it ever was before. Does the cry of adul- 

 terated liquors cause a slowness of their 

 sale?" 



' ' If you state the case correctly, it would 

 seem not." 



"It looks to me that this laying of the 

 trouble of a lack of an energetic call for our 

 honey to an adulteration scare is far fetched, 

 and that it is not a reasonable ground for 

 such bee-keepers as Doolittle, House, Bet- 

 singer, Kinyon — yea, and the bee papers 

 generally to take. Facts in other matters 

 show that the cry of adulteration does not 

 scare consumers of other products quite so 

 easily." 



"Aren't you coming out pretty strongly 

 in this matter?" 



" Possibly so; but I like to see people rea- 

 sonable in the position they take — yes, 

 more: I like to have them dig deep enough 

 into a thing to know for certain whereof 

 they affirm before they make an asser- 

 tion." 



"Without stopping to argue further along 

 the adulteration line, allow me to ask how 

 you account for this slowness in sale of our 

 honey; for we all admit that there is not 

 the demand for honey which we wish there 

 was." 



"Simply on the ground that the great 

 mass of our people do not consider honey 

 as something which it is necessary that 

 themselves or their families have. In other 

 words, the desire for honey is not so great 

 as it is for butter, whisky, tobacco, etc. 

 Their butter they must have or the dinner 

 is not worth the eating. The whisky they 

 must have, even if it means sorrow, ruin, 

 and crime to themselves, their families, the 

 nation, and the world. Their tobacco they 

 must use, even if their clothes are ragged 

 and their shoes are out at the end of their 

 toes; and the tea-drinking habit must be in- 

 dulged in whether there is any honey on 

 the table or not." 



"But don't you think that we could edu- 

 cate the people to a point where they would 

 consider honey of as much a necessity to 

 them as tea, and the things you have men- 

 tioned?" 



"No, never." 



"Why not?" 



' ' Because when you get them educated, 

 and the time comes from straitened circum- 

 stances that they must retrench, they never 

 retrench in favor of honey. Did you ever 

 know of a family giving up their butter, 



