810 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



inferior, or off grades of extracted— per- 

 fectly good for manufacturing purposes, but 

 unfit for table use. I understand that this 

 is only one order. How many more car- 

 loads the company may be able to take cai-e 

 of I do not know. The probabilities are 

 that, if it were not for the bakery trade, 

 the medium and off grades of extracted 

 would not sell at all. As a matter of fact, 

 nearly all store cookies, jumbles, cakes, 

 pastries, etc. , that keep any length of time 

 have to have some honey in them, and the 

 honey must be absolutely pure. Honey, the 

 bakers say, keep the cakes moist and nice; 

 without it they dry up and are unsalable. 

 Nearly all honey-cakes contain some other 

 sweet than honey; but the baker must have 

 the honey pure before he can use it. There 

 is no substitute in the way of glucose or any 

 other sweet than honey; and so long as this 

 is a fact there will be a certain and steady 

 demand for medium grades of extracted. 



A BEAUTIFUL SOUVENIR OF A BEE. 



Elsewhere in this issue we have made 

 an attempt to reproduce a beautiful souve- 

 nir kindly sent us by Frank Benton from old 

 Ireland. It is made of tissue paper, beauti- 

 fully executed and colored; and as the post- 

 al card, for such it is, is opened, a most de- 

 lightful surprise greets the I'ecipient. A 

 beautiful bee, almost lifelike, spreads its 

 silken wings as if about to fly. The inside 

 of the postal card is a reproduction of wild 

 roses, with all the natural colors of the 

 leaves and flowers preserved. Evidently 

 this souvenir impressed Mr. Benton very fa- 

 vorably, and the reader is referred to page 

 820, where he will find Mr. Benton's letter 

 announcing his find of " Alegapis zonata.'' 

 Knowing that Mr. Benton was somewhere 

 in Europe I addressed^ a letter to the De- 

 partment of Agriculture. Washington, and 

 received a letter from Dr. E. F. Philhps, 

 who has charge of the apicultural work dur- 

 ing Mr. Benton's absence, stating that these 

 souvenirs can now be obtained in Washing- 

 ton. * 



I suggest that you send and get one, and 

 then, if you are a single man, mail it to your 

 best girl, with a sweet little note inside. It 

 will please her, I assure you. 



I only regret that we can not reproduce 

 the thing in colors as it is. I have decided 

 to have mine framed, with Mr. Benton's au- 

 tograph letter, to show to our bee-keeping 

 friends when they come to visit us. 



ONE CAUSE OF RUINOUS PRICES. 



There is a conspicuous absence of reports 

 from the clover belt, indicating what the 

 honey-flow has been or will be. While, un- 

 doubtedly, the season has been poor, I sus- 

 pect the lack of reports is not altogether that 

 no honey has been secured, but because 

 some producers fear that it would be an un- 

 wise policy to report a good flow, on the 

 ground that it would depress the market. 

 Probably the majority of our readers have 

 neglected to write at all. A year ago such 



reports as we did receive indicated a poor 

 season. The i)>i mediate effect was a stiffen- 

 ing of prices; but when the carloads and 

 carloads of honey that had been produced 

 (but not reported) were dumped on the 

 market late in the season it sent prices 

 away down with a crash, and they stayed 

 there. Better, far better, to have known 

 the actual condition in the first place rather 

 than to have had a demoralized market, as 

 we did have after the holidays. No good 

 comes from holding back facts and figures. 

 If thei'e has been a big crop, let the fact be 

 known, and that right early. The e fleet of 

 this information vdll be to induce large 

 numbei-s to market early, when prices will 

 be fair, and honey will move easily at fair 

 prices. This will get rid of a large part of 

 the honey in the early part of the fall, when 

 it sells best. That which is held hack, when 

 finally unloaded will not hurt the market 

 nearly as much as if it were all unloaded 

 late with only a few early sales made. 

 " Bulling " and " bearing " the market ear- 

 ly in the season is liable to have a bad ef- 

 fect later on. To "bear" the market- 

 that is, to depress prices by sending out 

 false information to the effect that an enor- 

 mous crop has been secured — has a tendem-y 

 to hold back shipments; then when they 

 must be unloaded there is liable to be a 

 slaughter in prices. "Bulling " the market 

 by not reporting crops secured is almost as 

 disastrous, for there is bound to be a slump 

 in prices when the uy^expected honey is sud- 

 denly dumped on the market. An effort 

 should be made to avoid flooding the market 

 at a time when it can not stand it. 



WHAT HAS THE HARVEST BEEN ! 



Although the reports have not come in 

 as freely as I could desire, yet, taking all 

 sources of information, including such re- 

 ports as we have received, I am not far 

 from the truth when I say the crop has been 

 a light one, taking the tJnited States as a 

 whole, and an entire failure in many locali- 

 ties. The conditions in Cahfornia and Tex- 

 as are not materially dift'erent from those 

 already reported. In the southeastern part 

 of the United States, particularly in North 

 Carolina, the season has been almost a fail- 

 ure. Apparently Michigan, Wisconsin, pos- 

 sibly Minnesota, Northern Illinois, and On- 

 tario, Canada, will have a fair crop of hon- 

 ey. The prospects were dubious two or 

 three weeks ago, when there was a change 

 for the better. New York and Penns\ Iva- 

 nia report all the way from a fair to a poor 

 season. New England seems to be in the 

 doubtful list yet. Colorado will be very 

 much behind its general average; and this 

 is particularly so for the western slope. 

 One correspondent protests against the es- 

 timate made by J. U. Harris, in our issue 

 for July 15, to the effect that 60 per cent of 

 an average crop had been harvested. He 

 thinks that not more than 5 per cent of a 

 crop had been secured, and that the pros- 

 pects are not good for more than 25 per cent 

 of a crop. 



