THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



G4() 



For the American Bee Journal 



Statistics of the Honey Crop. 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



Miicli lias been written durina; the 

 last few years relative to a statistical 

 report, regarclins the honey produc- 

 tion of our country, and all believing 

 that such a report would be of great 

 value to the bee-keepers residing in 

 Xorth America. To this end the 

 National Convention, in the fall of 

 1S82, appointed a committee to gather 

 together all the individual reports 

 possible from every State in the 

 I nion and Canada ; so that these re- 

 ports might be condensed into a suit- 

 able table, thus showing the extent of 

 the honey-production of our country. 

 Although the work of this commit- 

 tee was a partial failure, owing to 

 various causes, still we have the table 

 Jis given by Dr. C. C. Miller, on page 

 221 of the Bee Journal of 18S3, 

 which does much credit to the com- 

 mittee, and gives us, together with 

 Dr. Miller's remarks on page 222, a 

 fair idea of the honey-production of 

 our country. Again, on page .51 of 

 the same volume, is a report of the 

 honey-production of the State of Illi- 

 nois, as gathered by the assessors of 

 that State, which is probably the most 

 complete report ever published in the 

 bee-papers. 



Xow, while these reports are of 

 much value in giving the honey re- 

 sources of our country, still they are 

 not just what the wants of the honey- 

 producer demands ; inasmuch as they 

 come too late to help us in marketing 

 our product. What we want to know 

 IS, how much white honey there is in 

 the country previous to Sept. 1 of the 

 same year in which the report is col- 

 lected, for nearly all of the disposing 

 of our crop is done for the next six 

 months after that date. Hence, it 

 becomes almost a necessity that we 

 have some reliable means of knowing 

 what the crop of white honey is each 

 year, previous to the time of selling, 

 if we would dispose of our crop un- 

 derstandingly. Thus far, all of our 

 statistical reports have not helped us 

 in the least in this matter, in that 

 they have been nearly a year behind 

 the time that we have use for them. 

 Some object to any one having access 

 to a statistical report save the pro- 

 ducers, but I think this a mistake; 

 for we should be willing to " let live 

 as well as to live." Thus the report 

 becomes of as great value to the 

 buyer as to the producer, and he 

 should have the benefit of it to en- 

 able him to buy understandinglv. 



In the above, all will, I think, see 

 the necessity of a reliable report on 

 or about Sept. 1 of each vear; but how 

 we are to get such a report is the 

 thing which has batfled us so far. I 

 see by a late monthly bee-paper that 

 there is talk of establishing a bee- 

 keepers' bureau for this purpose, and 



if all will take hold of it, it may prove 

 a good thing ; although the thing as 

 proposed looks like shutting out all 

 but the producer, under a penalty of 

 any producer who shall divulge any 

 information to the merchant or coii- 

 sumer. I claim that the inerchaiit 

 and the consumer have as good a right 

 to facts regarding the honey produc- 

 tion of our country as any one ; and a 

 staple market price for honey cannot 

 be obtained until they do have that 

 right. 



A method for obtaining statistics 

 which will benefit all.is what we want. 

 I am led to give one which has already 

 partially developed in the Bee .Iouu- 

 NAL without any labor or thought 

 being expended upon it— through the 

 columns of "Our Letter Box." In 

 these columns we find reports from 

 nearly every State and country in the 

 world, which reports are given free ; 

 so that no great expense is attachable 

 to my plan. It was these reports and 

 the cheapness of them which led me 

 to study into tlie feasibility of obtain- 

 ing a statistical report through them. 

 By taking a complete Postal Guide 

 (the January issue) we Ond that the 

 location of every county in every 

 State is given bv a little © with a 

 point being attached to all of them 

 except the circle for the central 

 counties, which are left plain. The 

 point is attached to the side of the 

 circle, so as to designate the relative 

 position of each county in relation to 

 an imaginary division of the State. 

 Thus, if a county is in the northern 

 part of a State, it. is designated thus 

 5, if south, thus 9, etc. 



a^ow, as I read the reports in " Our 

 Letter Box " from the different States, 

 I took my Postal (fuide, and by the 

 Post-Oflice given, found the countv, 

 and then found the relative positi()n 

 that this county held in the State, and 

 thus I got a limited idea of tlie honey 

 yield of that portion of the State. 

 When several reports were given from 

 one State, I got a limited idea of the 

 yield of that State. Take the State 

 of Indiana for instance : I find under 

 date of July 2s, a report from S. 

 Hathaway of "less than one-half a 

 crop," and by turning to the Postal 

 Guide, I find that he lives in Dela- 

 ware county, which is in the eastern 

 part of the State. Under date of 

 Aug. 3, B. F. Baldwin reports PO 

 pounds of honey per colony ; he living 

 m Grant county, which is in the cen- 

 tral part of the State. Then J. M. 

 Hicks reports from the northern part 

 of the State under date of Aug. 1.5, 

 "no honey:" while under date of 

 Aug. 20, J. Sharp reports from the 

 western part, "poor season for 

 honey." Could I get a report from 

 the southern part of the State, I 

 would have the report from five dif- 

 ferent parts of Indiana. But as it is, 

 I have only a report from four parts 

 from which to summarize. 



In summarizing, I call an average 

 crop -50 lbs. of comb honey, per colony, 

 or 7-5 lbs. of extracted ; but as none of 

 these reports say whether the honey 

 is comb or extracted, I must guess 

 them at one-half of each, hence 62 

 pounds is an average crop. Mr. 

 Hathaway says " less than one- half," 



which would be 30 pounds ; Mr. Bald- 

 win says "r,0 pounds;" Mr. Hicks 

 says none ; whih-Mr. Sharp says "poor 

 season," whicli 1 call 15 pounds. Add 

 these together and I have 105 pounds, 

 which, divided by the number report- 

 ing, or 4, gives 26 pounds as the 

 average yield of honey per colony in 

 the State of [ndian». or a little more 

 than one-third of aciop. In this way 

 I take all of the States reporting, anil 

 summarize the wfiole United States 

 and Canada, when I find the yield for 

 1884 is below an average yield. 



Now, if we consider that only those 

 who get large yields are given to re- 

 porting, we nuist reduce this amount 

 about one-third, when I guea.t that the 

 crop of 1884 is about two-thirds of an 

 average yield, which guess I will 

 wager is hot far out of the way. But. 

 says one, " we want no guessing in 

 the matter.'" True, and the reason 

 we had to guess was, because so few 

 volunteered to report. However, the 

 plan was what I was after, not the 

 guessing at the 1884 crop; for the 

 plan can be made to produce a reliable 

 report. 



About Aug. 1, let the Editor of the 

 Bee Journal, or any one interested 

 to the amount of about S-5.00, write a 

 postal card to bee-keepers who take 

 the Bee Journal, and who live in 

 the central, north, east, south, and 

 western part of each State (or print 

 the cards when S5.00 will cover the 

 cost) to collect the reports of at least 

 one bee-keeper in each county which 

 he thinks is covered by his territory, 

 or have that bee-keeper summarize 

 reports in his own county, when a 

 summarized report of such counties 

 is to be sent to the Editor of the Bee 

 Journal. 



He will now have about 200 to 2-50 

 summarized reports which he can 

 summarize by States, and again as a 

 whole, giving it in the first issue of 

 the Bee Journal for September. 

 Thus we shall have a report of all the 

 average yields of white honev, in time 

 to be of value to us. All will be look- 

 ing forward to this report as a guide 

 to their future actions regarding 

 the buying and selling of the crop. 

 All will have sufBcieiit interest in 

 the work to cause them to take action 

 in it. 



Most bee-keepers know the amount 

 of the crop in their respective coun- 

 ties, as early as Aug. 10, and a report 

 could be made out with but little 

 writing, save to the one who is to send 

 the report to the Bee Journal ; bee- 

 keepers, as a rule, are a set who tell 

 their bee-keeping neighbors of their 

 welfare. I had heard from nearly all 

 the bee-keepers, in this countv, pre- 

 vious to Aug. 10, this year ; aiid the 

 highest report was .50 pounds per col- 

 ony, while nothing was reported by 

 others. A summarized report of the 

 county would give an average yield of 

 18 pounds to each colony in the 

 spring. Then I had letters from 

 Cayuga, Cortland, Madison, Oneida, 

 Tompkins and Chenango counties, 

 which would bring the average yield 

 of. the honey crop in Central New 

 York down to about 16 pounds per 

 colony, or less than one-third of the 

 average yield, as given by practical 



