1903 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. * 



437 



treatment here, except as a further caution 

 to the apiarist, to reiterate what has been 

 frequently stated, that such swarms should 

 not be made till shortly prior to the time 

 when the colony would have swarmed nat- 

 urally. 



To be continued. 



INCREASING THE DEMAND FOR HONEY. 



The Folly of Talking only in the Bee=papers 



where only a Few Bee=men are Interested; 



the Value of the Local Newspaper as a 



Means of Interesting the Public. 



BY WM. M. WHITNEY. 



Air. Editor: — The g^reat question among 

 practical bee-keepers at the present time 

 seems to be, '' How can a greater demand 

 for honej' be created, and, as a consequence, 

 a better price be obtained? " In transpor- 

 tation, manufacturing, and large commer- 

 cial operations, combination appears to 

 solve the problem. Bacillus co>nbiniis seems 

 to be floating in the atmosphere, and bee- 

 keepers are becoming infected. It is thought 

 b}' man\' that, if all the bee-keepers of the 

 country should combine, they would become 

 masters of the situation, and that better 

 and more uniform prices would be obtained 

 for the products of the apiary. Very' true; 

 but //"—'* there's the rub." To secure or- 

 ganization and combination among any 

 class of producers so widely separated, the 

 majority of whom are operating only in a 

 small way, is next to impossible. When 

 have farmers, fruit-growers, poultry-rais- 

 ers, or any^ other class of producers in a 

 small way, scattered widely over the coun- 

 try, ever been able to combine so as to con- 

 trol the price of any commodity they pro- 

 duce? 



It is true that the California fruit-grow- 

 ers have, to some extent, been able to fix 

 prices of fruit by organization; but suppose 

 the same fruits were being cultivated by 

 every farmer and small-fruit grower all 

 overthiscountry, as honey is being produced, 

 do you suppose any combination could be 

 formed to control prices? 



In Jthe first place there is but a small per 

 cent of the bee-keepers who take interest 

 enough in the business to join even a local 

 organization, or who take any literature on 

 the subject of bee-keeping. They treat 

 apiculture as an insignificant branch of 

 farming, like poultry, which is allowed to 

 care for itself, as a rule. If there happens 

 to be a surplus, it is taken, like butter and 

 eggs, etc., to the local grocer, and exchanged 

 for such supplies as are needed, and at such 

 price as the grocer sees fit to give. The 

 price, usually a low one, is fixed, not by 

 the producer, but by the middleman, and is 

 the standard price for that locality. What 

 is the bee-keeper with a few hundred pounds 

 of surplus choice to fancy honey to do but 

 to take what he can get, or go into competi- 

 tion with the grocer and peddle it? F^ew 

 persons are adapted to doing that kind of 



work, or have the time in which to do it. 

 He might ship to some commission house, 

 but that so often proves so unsatisfactory that 

 he thinks a bird in the hand is worth two 

 in the bush, so takes what is oifered at 

 home. 



This may be said to be an argument in 

 favor of combination. Grant it; but with 

 nine-tenths of the bee-keepers in the country 

 outside of any organization, whom you could 

 not whip in with a cat-o-nine-tails, how are 

 you to combine? 



Now, it seems to me that the surest and 

 best way to create a demand for honey, and 

 thus enhance the price, would be to get the 

 local press interested; i. e., publish through 

 the local papers instruction or information 

 regarding the uses and benefits of honey as 

 a food, a medicine, etc. It is surprising 

 how little is known by the majority of peo- 

 ple, even in the country, of the value of hon- 

 ey in numberless ways in a family. If we 

 who are interested in this matter (and all 

 bee-keepers ought to be) would thus place 

 before the people in a judicious manner the 

 ways in which honey may be used to great 

 advantage, many families that have consid- 

 ered it a luxury in which they could not in- 

 dulge might be induced to try it. For in- 

 stance, here is a family fond of warm bis- 

 cuit and honey, or pancakes and honey, but 

 think they can not afford it, but would adopt 

 it if they were told that a syrup of granu- 

 lated sugar, costing about 3 cts. per lb., 

 mixed with good thick extracted honey, 

 costing in bulk, say 12 cts. per lb., made a 

 very fine syrup for the purpose, with all the 

 flavor of honey, and making the average 

 cost only about 7 cts. per lb. How much 

 better this would be for the consumer than 

 to buy the stuff put on the market by the 

 trade generally, with nobody responsible 

 for its manufacture, and composed princi- 

 pally of glucose or something worse ! When 

 mixed at home we know what we are using. 



The above is simply an illustration of 

 what might be done were we to turn our at- 

 tention in the direction of the local papers. 

 We may talk till doomsday through the bee- 

 journals, that nobody sees but the bee keep- 

 ers, and but few of them, I'm sorry to say, 

 and it will never create a demand for honey 

 one iota. What would we thipk of the bus- 

 iness sense of a manufacturing establish- 

 ment that exploited its goods and wares 

 through the medium of a publication that 

 fell into the hands of its competitors only? 

 That is substantially what bee-keepers are 

 doing in their efl'orts to market their honey. 

 They talk in the bee- journals; they talk in 

 conventions, where there is no one to hear 

 but themselves. Why, it almost seems like 

 lying awake at night to talk to oneself. 



Our queen bee- keepers can give numerous 

 recipes for cooking with honey as an ingre- 

 dient; simple remedies for various com- 

 plaints with honey as an important factor, 

 etc., until the use of honey will be considered 

 a necessity. I repeat, we must get at the 

 public through the local newspaper. Then 

 when the use of honey has become so pnpu- 



