256 THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 



The Development of the Honey Market 



E. F. PHILLIPS, Bureau of Entomology 



Delivered at Meeting of National Beekeepers' Association, Denver, 



February, 1915 



The production of honey is but the first step in the course of 

 this commodity on its way to the consumer. The work of bee- 

 keeping proper ceases with the preparation of honey for market 

 but in order that the beekeeper may get his rightful share of the 

 retail price, it is necessary that he pay attention to the market- 

 ing side of the honey business. The increase in the prices of other 

 foodstuffs, without a corresponding advance in the retail and 

 wholesale prices of honey, has placed a burden on the beekeeper. 

 The present demoralization of the honey market, due in part to 

 the increase in commercial honey production in the United States 

 within the last decade and especially to the recent heavy imports 

 of foreign honeys, makes this question an urgent present one. 

 Conditions are now such that it seems time to examine the situa- 

 tion carefully so that the market may be developed along lines 

 that will result in the most good to American beekeepers. 



The Limitations of Co-operation. — The plan of producers unit- 

 ing to sell their products is attractive in theory and in some cases 

 in actual practice has been found satisfactory. To people of pro- 

 gressive ideas, the principle of co-operation makes a strong appeal 

 and it is not always popular to suggest that there are limits to 

 co-operation. It has been repeatedly proposed and recently again 

 suggested that the commercial beekeepers of the United States, 

 perhaps through the National Beekeepers' Association, organize 

 a co-operative association for the selling of honey, the evident plan 

 being to develop the wholesale honey markets. The true friend of 

 co-operation will do all he can to prevent the formation of co-opera- 

 tive societies which are from their character predestined to failure. 

 I propose, therefore, briefly to give the reasons for the belief that 

 any effort to form a co-operative society from the National Bee- 

 keepers' Association is unwise and certain of failure. 



There are in the United States over 700,000 beekeepers, per- 

 haps not one per cent of whom could be ranked as professionals. 

 The large number of beekeepers who possess only a few colonies 

 makes any control of the national honey market a most difficult 

 task. Even if all beekeepers were professionals with uniform pro- 

 ducts, the extent of territory covered would preclude co-operation. 



Within the United States there are five distinct honey regions. 



