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tor, but do not look at your neighbor's 

 honey with a suspicious smile. 



The price of honey has been very 

 low for a numljer of years — too low to 

 satisfy producer or dealer— l-the same 

 as ail other products of 'the farm. 

 Wheat at 70 cents per busheh'is to our 

 farmers no more satisfactory than 

 10 cents a pound for the best comb 

 honey is to our bee-keepers, or 6 cents 

 a pound for the best extracted clover, 

 or 3 cents a pound for dark honey. 

 But, what could be done under the 

 circumstances ? Could our farmers 

 say, " We will keep our wheat until it 

 brings a dollar a bushel ?" Could bee- 

 keepers form a " trust," or make a so- 

 called " corner," or elect a commis- 

 sion to stipulate the price at which 

 honey should be sold ? It takes a 

 younger man than I am to indulge in 

 such impractical ideas. 



If a number of our sanguine bee- 

 keepers could have only a part of our 

 experience, they would know that 

 comb honey sells fast when cheap, but 

 that it is almost impossible to dispose 

 of a large lot if an advance of only a 

 few cents per pound is added. They 

 should not confound their own small 

 home trade (even if their crop was 

 5,000 pounds or more) with the trade 

 of dealers in large cities. They should 

 know that tlie country is not saved, if 

 only they have disposed of their crop 

 at a good price. 



There are two large dealers, one of 

 thein in New York, who, under the 

 impulse of a " short crop," bought 

 comb honey which they now oiler at 

 2 cents per pound below cost. Such is 

 not healthy business, and it will come 

 back to the bee-keeper another season. 

 Sanguine bee-keepers will be the cause 

 if we have an over-production, a honey 

 famine, and again an ovei'-prod action 

 all in the course of twelve months. 

 This is within the range of possibili- 

 ties in our country, where we occa- 

 sionally slide from one extreme to 

 another. 



Comb honey will remain a luxurj'. 

 It will sell fast when cheap enough, 

 and though a good business can be 

 done in it for the bee-keeper and 

 dealer, its production will be only of 

 secondary consideration as compared 

 with that of extracted honey. Since 

 manufacturers make use of extracted 

 honey, it bids fair to become a staple 

 article ; nothing will hinder it from 

 becoming such, unless the prices put 

 on will place it be3'ond the reach of 

 manufacturers. Its prices will be con- 

 trolled more or less by the prices of 

 sugar syrup, whicli cannot be other- 

 wise. Let us make due note of it ! 



The wish to obtain the highest mar- 

 ket prices is the most natural with 

 producers, and nobody is more de- 

 serving of that piivilege than they are. 



Manufacturers know, from their time 

 of labor, which is worth a certain 

 amount per day, and their cash ouU 

 lay, how to determine the price of 

 their goods. Farmers, gardeners, bee- 

 keepers, and others, however, labor 

 for uncounted liours ; and when their 

 product is marketed, tliej' have to 

 accept the prices that they can get. 

 They determine nothing. 



When times are flush, and demand 

 is good, good prices are realized, and 

 the reverse is the case when times are 

 dull. Is it a wonder that a sort of 

 anarchistic feeling creeps over the 

 producers ? Our condition should be 

 bettered. There is no doubt about it. 

 But how shall we proceed ? 



Farmers sell their wheat to their 

 neighboring mills, to dealers (middle- 

 men), or they ship it to the city. Who- 

 ever pays the best price is the buj'er. 

 Gardeners, bringing their produce to 

 the city, sell it in the market, as a gen- 

 eral rule ; but if they fail to dispose of 

 it, they leave it with shippers (midille- 

 men again) to dispose of it for them. 

 These shippers have a custom among 

 hotels and boarding-houses ; other 

 dealers ship to other places, and make 

 a living in their own manner, benefit- 

 ing themselves and others. Without 

 these middlemen our gardeners would 

 labor under great disadvantages. Our 

 markets would be poor sliows without 

 the " huckster." 



The same proportion holds good 

 with bee-keepers. Honey-dealers are 

 not only ornamental when occasion 

 ofl'ers — for instance at fairs, exhibi- 

 tions, etc. — but they are useful aud in- 

 dispensable to bee-keepers. 



The dealer holds forth in a place 

 handy to consumers and other dealers; 

 makes himself acquainted with the 

 wants of the public, and works up a 

 demand, the like of which is just as 

 impossible for the bee-keeper to do, as 

 it is for the farmer to peddle out his 

 own wheat among his neighbors. The 

 dealer has facilities which the bee- 

 keeper has not. 



The truth of the proverb. "Every- 

 one to his own trade," has been dis- 

 pla3'ed to me lately so well that the 

 matter deserves to be mentioned in 

 this connection. A party hail ofl'ered 

 to us his services as salesman. Talk- 

 ing the matter over, he came to the 

 conclusion that he would be a poor 

 wholesaler, but that he would do bet^ 

 tor by buying the honey of us and 

 selling it in his own manner, and on 

 liis own account. We had no objec- 

 tions. 



He took a 50-pound can of honey on 

 a passing street car, and went to the 

 lower part of the city. Here he com- 

 menced to canvass, homeward, everj- 

 house. His can became lighter as lie 



went on, and when he reached our 

 neighborhood it was empty. 



He took another 50-pound can, and 

 canvassed another street in a similar 

 manner, etc. In less than two weeks 

 ovn- friend and brother bee-keeper hatl 

 sold 800 pounds of honey, and cleared 

 $67. He told me that he sold his own 

 honey in the same manner when at 

 home. How many producers in a 

 hundred could do like he did ? This 

 time you see he was a middleman, 

 useful to himself and others, and I had 

 no reason to begrudge his large profits. 



Middlemen are useful to all branches 

 of industry, otherwise they would not 

 be there. Large manufacturers would 

 be lost without them. The prosperity 

 of their business depends upon them, 

 to a great extent ; otherwise they would 

 not pay them high salaries or large 

 commissions. 



It is a lack of experience, or a sign 

 of narrow-heartedness in a number of 

 bee-keepers, to consider the dealer a 

 leech, instead of a benefactor — an 

 opinion not shared, however, by the 

 larger part of experienced bee-keepers. 



In dull times, like the present, the 

 bulk of the lioney would remain unsold 

 in the hands of bee-keepers, but for 

 the unceasing industry of dealers, who 

 take upon themselves responsibilities, 

 invest their capital, and use their best 

 endeavors for their own success and 

 that of bee-keepers. Their interests 

 are mutual, and their motto should be : 

 " How can we best work and best 

 agree ?" 



Cincinnati, Ohio. 



SWARMING-. 



Do Bees Select a New' Home 

 Before Swarniing i — Temper- 

 ature and Tcntilatioii. 



Written for the American Bee Journal 



BY J. E. HAND. 



It seems that from Mr. G. W. Dem- 

 aree's answer to Query 505, on page 

 23, that writer does not think that the 

 bees select a new home before swarm- 

 ing, and no doubt there are many 

 others of the same opinion. I used to 

 think the same, until several instances 

 came under luy observation, that led 

 me to conclude tliat bees do sometimes 

 if not always, look for a home before 

 swarming ; tliough they are not always 

 successful in their undertaking,I firmly 

 believe that tlie majority of swarms 

 know just where they are going befoj-e 

 tliey leave tlie maternal roof. 



I u.sed to hunt bees during swarm- 

 ing time, and transfer them from the 

 trees to the hives. On several difter- 

 ent occasions, having found the tree 

 which I sujiposed contained a large 

 I swarm, judging from the way the bees 



