104 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



the harvest of white clover comes 

 these colonies will not be overstocked 

 with eggs or brood. Give them a 

 chance to work on surplus, and if you 

 take off the cases entire, do not wait 

 for them to fill the last sections, but 

 put the unfinished ones in the next 

 case. This is a good plan to try, and 

 one that does no damage. 

 Lockwood,9 N. Y. 



vor tne American Bee Journal. 



U. S. Honey-Proilncers' Association. 



J. F. HAYS. 



In his suggestions to honey pro- 

 ducers in regard to selling their honey 

 in home markets, Mr. M. M. Bald- 

 ridge says : " Pay retail agents a 

 good commission ; if they disobey in- 

 structions, take away the unsold 

 honey and refuse to supply them with 

 any more until they comply with your 

 wishes." 



I do not look upon this plan in such 

 sanguine light as does Mr. B., for in 

 99 cases out of 100, instead of the 

 dealer complying with the producer's 

 wishes, he would be supplied with an 

 inferior quality of honey, likely 

 enough built by the bees in a soap- 

 box inverted on an old-fashioned 

 box-hive, while the producer with his 

 first-class honey would be left in the 

 lurch. This is a very important point 

 to consider in this matter of controll- 

 ing the price of honey, and for which 

 I can see no remedy. 



Mr. B. next informs us that 20 and 

 25 cents per pound is none too much 

 for honey, on the principle of " live 

 and let live." Now let us look at the 

 inconsistency of this. A few years 

 ago honey was in demand at 25 cents 

 per pound ; then honey producers 

 were almost " tickled to death." 

 They boasted that they were making 

 from 200 to 500 per cent, on their in- 

 vestments, and boasted so long and 

 loud that they attracted public atten- 

 tion, and the people were not slow to 

 take hold of a business requiring such 

 small capital and with such paying 

 results. Naturally enough, there are 

 now more than fifty honey producers 

 to where there was one then ; conse- 

 quently prices for honey have fallen 

 on account of over-production. Now 

 there is quite a change in the tune. 

 Instead of boasting of enormous 

 profits there are pitiful whims about 

 not getting former high prices, on the 

 principle of " live and let live." 



Mr. B. next proceeds to berate the 

 commission men. He says that com- 

 mission men are to a great extent re- 

 sponsible for the prevailing low price 

 of honey. Will any bee-man admit 

 such misanthropic nonsense? His 

 remedy for the evils commission men 

 have wrought, is organization. By 

 what means he expects honey pro- 

 ducers to better their condition when 

 organized, he leaves his readers in 

 blissful ignorance. So did the leaders 

 of the Grange movement a few years 

 ago. That word " organize " possesses 

 a magical power that is generally suf- 

 ficient to cause men to jump without 

 considering where they may alight. 



The farmers were made to believe 

 that they were suffering terrible 

 things at the hands of '' middle men;" 

 and the cry was, " organize," and 

 organize they did, but tney ignomin- 

 iously failed to better their condition 

 one whit. Does Mr. B. expect honey 

 producers to make themselves a 

 laughing-stock, as did the Grangers, 

 by demanding a high price for their 

 honey on the -ground that they are 

 organized ? 



A United States honey-producers' 

 association with its members so 

 widely situated must, of necessity, 

 not only fail of its object, but make 

 matters a great deal worse. Simply 

 because a little handful of flour-pro- 

 ducers on Fox river can control the 

 price of a staple commodity, it does 

 not follow that the bee-men of the 

 United States can likewise control the 

 price of an article that is not a staple, 

 and with a steady increase of its pro- 

 duction to contend with besides. Bee- 

 men should be warned by the sad ex- 

 perience of others. 



Macomb,+o Ills. 



For tbe American Bee Journal. 



f araiDg Bee-Repositories. 



EUGENE SECOR. 



During our coldest weather it is 

 often desirable to heat our bee-reposi- 

 tories. The cheapest way in which 

 this can be done, and at the same 

 time produce the desired result in 

 health and comfort to the bees, is 

 worthy of consideration. Some use a 

 hard-coal stove, and some, I believe, 

 an open fire in a cellar fire-place. In 

 large rooms where it is practicable to 

 use either of these, I see no reason 

 why they might not be economical 

 and satisfactory. Others carry a hod 

 of live charcoal into the cellar at 

 every " cold snap." This I think can 

 be improved upon by the use of an 

 oil or gasoline stove. I have not used 

 the latter, but I am using for the sec- 

 ond winter, the former. I am in- 

 clined to the opinion that a common 

 kerosene-oil stove, such as are used 

 in a great many summer kitchens, is 

 good enough for all practical pur- 

 poses. So far, this winter, I have had 

 to light mine only a few times. The 

 temperature out-doors has dropped 

 several times to about 30° below zero, 

 but the cellar has been kept at as 

 near 45° above zero as possible. When 

 it gets below 40° I light the oil-stove. 

 In a few hours the temperature of a 

 room 12x20, and 7 feet high, will be 

 raised 10°. 



The cellar under my house is 32x40 

 feet, divided into four rooms. The 

 partitions are studded, lathed and 

 plastered. The house is heated with 

 a soft-coal, hot-air furnace. The 

 northwest room is occupied by that. 

 The southeast room, cornering with 

 the furnace-room, is the bee-cellar. 

 It has no outside windows nor doors. 

 It is Egyptian darkness from Novem- 

 ber until April. The heat from the 

 furnace affects it but little, except 

 that the whole cellar is kept dry by it. 

 (Seed-corn is kept in the cellar.) As 



the grounds slope to the north, and 

 the outside entrance and several 

 windows are on that side, and as I do 

 not try to keep any of the rooms from 

 freezing except the bee-room (which 

 is also the vegetable apartment),when 

 the fluid in the thermometer gets to 

 playing " bo-peep " down among the 

 thirties, and continues those antics 

 for two or three days, the bee-room 

 will sooietimes get a little too cold. 

 Then the oil-stove is lighted. I find 

 it so simple, so cheap, so easily con- 

 trolled, so perfectly adapted to the 

 needs, that I ask nothing better. 

 Forest City, 5 Iowa. 



Fbr tbe American Bee JonmaL 



ImproTing tlie Honey liM. 



GEO. W. PENN. 



I think that it is time for the bee- 

 keeping fraternity to wake up, and do 

 something to better the condition of 

 the honey markets. What injures 

 our honey market more than anything, 

 is the small producers. Take my 

 location for an illustraton, which will 

 compare well with the whole country. 

 A certain per cent, of all trades and 

 professions in this town and country 

 keep bees ; the per cent, will run 

 about as follows : Doctors, 3 out of 

 5 ; merchants, 2 out of 18 ; lawyers, 

 1 out of 15 ; shop-keepers, 4 out of 9 ; 

 hotel-keepers, 1 out of 5; laborers, 

 teamsters, etc., 12 out of 40; and 

 farmers, 2 out of 5. Now but a small 

 per cent, of all these people will pay 

 any particular attention to their bees; 

 so if they happen to get any honey it 

 will be in bad shape for market, and 

 they will almost give it away to get 

 rid of it. Farmers sell broken lots of 

 honey for 8 cents per pound, and take 

 it in trade ; and in large boxes, to be 

 cut out as sold, they may get 10 cents 

 per pound. So I am compelled to 

 hold mine until all these lots are sold. 



The merchants say to me that they 

 would rather pay me from 3 to 5 cents 

 per pound more for my nice one- 

 pound sections of honey, but they are 

 compelled to take it off the farmers' 

 hands or lose their trade. So they 

 cannot afford to pay much for it, and 

 hence they sell it cheap, although I 

 have been getting 123^ cents per 

 pound in cash for my comb honey. 



Of course it sells slowly as long as 

 so much cheap, broken stuff is on the 

 market. In making a delivery re- 

 cently, of over 4,000 pounds to about 

 40 stores, I learned some new ideas. 

 One was that the finest and nicest 

 honey put up in the best shape has to 

 take a " back seat." I called at one 

 store, just after delivering 5 cases of 

 one-pound sections, to tell them about 

 the empty cases, etc. Not seeing any 

 of my honey in sight, I began to 

 wonder what had become of it so 

 quickly. They told me that they did 

 not know when the cases would be 

 empty. In looking at it they con- 

 cluded that it was such a nice lot of 

 honey, and in such nice condition that 

 they had thought best to keep it out 

 of sight until all the other lots were 

 disposed of. Of course I could not 



