1558 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Deo. 15 



his canned goods, his cereal foods, or his 

 honey, if you please, if he at the same time 

 secures a proportionate increase in value. 

 In some instances, at least, he will actually 

 get more for his money than formerly. 



THE MARKED ADVANCE IN THE PRICE OF 

 CALIFORNIA SAGE HONEY. 



A COMPARISON of the mai'kets on Califor- 

 nia honey of a year ago in New York, and 

 the same markets this year, shows an advance 

 of approximately 2 cts., or nearly 33^^ per 

 cent. There was a short crop both years in 

 California, but we can hardly account for 

 the difference in price by the diffex'ence in 

 supply. The probabilities are that the new 

 pure-food law has scared out the would-be 

 adulterators in New York and elsewhere, so 

 they dare not piece out this honey with glu- 

 . cose, making a little go a good way. 



It will be noted, also, that prices are stiff- 

 ening right along the line on all grades of 

 honey. Early this season the market was 

 uncertain; bu*' instead of weakening, as it 

 usually does, tke market is even stronger. 



CAUCASIAN BEES. 



In the October number of Irrigation Mr. 

 Frank Rauchfuss, of Colorado, sums up our 

 present knowledge of the Caucasian bees, 

 adding his own experience, which is not 

 small, seeing he has owned several colonies 

 of this race for six years. He says they are 

 undoubtedly gentler than any other race yet 

 discovered. 



They have longer tongues than any other 

 bee yet tried in this country. 



They are quiet under manipulation. 



They are not inclined to store in the brood- 

 chamber. 



They raise a great many queens when de- 

 prived of their leader. 



They contract their hive-entrance in the 

 fall with a grayish propolis. 



They winter very well out of doors. 



Their queens are not of uniform color. 

 Some are grayish black, and some are rust- 

 colored (rufous). 



The queens are very prolific layers. 



The drones are generally of a grayish black. 



The workers are apparently smaller than 

 Carniolans or Italians. In color they are 

 not uniform. Some are grayish black all 

 over, with white hairs on the abdomen. 

 Others are rufous on the first ring of the ab- 

 domen. 



Thus far they have not equaled Italians as 

 honey-getters, but this is probably due to the 

 negligence of the breeders in the Caucasus. 



PRICE OF SAGE AND CUBAN HONEY IN THE 

 NEW YORK MARKETS. 



Mr. W. K. Morrison, after reading the 

 article by Mr. E. W. Alexander, in our issue 

 for Dec. 1, stating that choice California sage 

 honey was selling at from 4^ to 5^ cents in the 

 city of New York, felt very sure that our 

 correspondent had been misinformed as to 



the facts. As he has very recently come 

 from New York, and having spent several 

 months in that city, making a special study 

 of the honey situation, he feels very positive 

 that the prices on honey are very much high- 

 er than tho§e that were quoted to Mr. Alex- 

 ander. I requested him to prepare a state- 

 ment, which he has done as follows: 



Mr. Alexander quotes choice California sage honey 

 as selling for 3% to 4% cents F. O. B., which would 

 make the price in New York 4% to SVa cents. Now, 

 I do not hesitate to say Mr. Alexander or his inform- 

 ant is entirely wrong in quoting such prices. If any 

 man can import honey from California at the present 

 time, and land it in his warehouse for less than 7 cents 

 per pound, he is doing wonders, for no one else is do- 

 ing it. My experience in New York was quite differ- 

 ent from Mr. Alexander's, and I was there four months 

 this summer. When I left, comb honey was selling 

 OH Fulton St., Brooklyn, for 30 cents per Ideal section. 

 This was in the dairy stores, where butter, eggs, and 

 milk are sold, and extracted honey (tupelo) was 25 

 cents per 1-lb. bottle; In fact, my impression of the 

 New York market was exactly the opposite of Mr. 

 Alexander's — that is, the market for honey was good 

 and getting better, and I think I know something 

 about New York, having kept bees there on a roof 

 years ago, and selling my honey for $5.00 per •24-section 

 case, and I could do as well (if not better) to-day. 



I took pains to find out how things stood in Brook- 

 lyn; and in all that vast city (over a million) there 

 was not a single honey-store. Even the great depart- 

 ment stores, most of them, did not have honey in 

 stock (they were " going " to get it). Brooklyn is 

 probably the best place in the whole world to sell hon- 

 ey, because its inhabitants are largely New York busi- 

 ness men, the richest in the world. 



As to the Cuban honey, we need not worry about it, 

 because in England, where there is absolute free 

 trade, honey is much dearer than it is with us. Quo- 

 tations of heather honey in Scotland, in the British 

 Bee Journal of a recent date, say the price is fi-om 30 

 to 44 cents per lb. California sage honey brings at 

 the very lowest 9 cents in large lots, in London, and 

 it costs but little more to send it to London than it 

 does to New York. 



After the first of the year glucose syrup will no 

 longer masquerade as honey, and prices ought to be 

 considerably stiffer for all grades of honey A good 

 deal of molasses, too, will be ousted because most of 

 it is entirely unfit for human consumption. A good 

 proportion of granulated sugar will also come under 

 the scrutiny of the pure-food inspector because it 

 contains glucose and sulphites. I am not a pessimist. 

 Now is the time to stick out for higher prices. 



We have not been able to get any thing 

 like 4| and 5 cents on sage honey at Medina. 

 In fact, we have not been able to obtain any 

 thing better than 7 cents delivered here, and 

 we are over 600 miles nearer California than 

 New York is. The quotations on sage honey 

 in the New York markets are 7i and 8 cts. 



It is possibly and probably true that the 

 honey-salesmen in New York, that Mr. Alex- 

 ander approached, desired to give him the 

 impression that they could buy mountain 

 sage and Cuban honey at ridiculously low 

 l^rices, with the view of jewing him down on 

 his buckwheat. That is an old trick, and 

 very often serves his purpose. But Mr. Alex- 

 ander had sold his honey, so no harm was 

 done. 



A fair ANSWER TO A FAIR QUESTION; HON- 

 EY-CROP REPORT IN GLEANINGS. 



The following item appeared in Ii'ri- 

 gation, an excellent monthly published at 

 Denver, C«l.: 



I have been reading with interest the honey-crop 

 reports which we have been receiving during the sea- 

 son, and especially those we have received from a cer- 



