120 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



I will have no other use for bee-journals, 

 than to help me advertise a lot of bees for 

 sale cheap. Then, if you will kindly furnish 

 me the names of a few large cities where but 

 little adulterated honey is sold; as soon as I 

 can get rid of what promises in this instance 

 tp be a rather troublesome conscience, I ex- 

 pect to locate in the city and engage in busi- 

 ness, when if you conclude to publish your 

 leader on the subject of this article in pamph- 

 let form, I will order a few thousand copies 

 for distribution among my prospective cus- 

 tomers. 

 Capac, Mich. • May r>, 1891 



First-Class Goods Must be High Priced.— 

 The Policy of Silence Disapproved. 



W. V. OLABKE. 



OT him at last!" was the 

 naughty, gloating expression 

 that rose to my lips on read- 

 ing the April leader. Here, now, 89 times 

 I have read these plaguey leaders, and could 

 not find a flaw sufficiently glaring to call for 

 correction. This is too one-sided altogether! 

 Editors ought to give their critics a chance 

 once in a while. Well, I have got one at 

 last, after waiting over three years; and I 

 mean to make the most of it, lest I skould 

 not get another in a hurry. You tell us that 

 adulteration of honey ie practiced because 

 there is profit in it. "Right you are! " But 

 what proof have you that if honey were as 

 cheap as glucose or sugar, adulteration 

 would cease? None whatever. There would 

 be just as much honey on the market when 

 the yield is meager as when it is abundant. 

 It would be as it is in regard to port wine, 

 the production of which is equally abundant 

 when the vineyards fail as when they are 

 laden with grapes. Most of the port wine 

 of commerce never saw Oporto, or any other 

 place in Portugal. Your argument if it 

 were sound, should presuppose that honey is 

 put on the market cheaper than its rivals. 

 At the same figure, glucose and sugar would 

 be its rivals still. Only by cut rates could it 

 run the adulterated products off the field. 

 That would give the honey business its final 

 quietus, for to sell it as low as glucose or 

 sugar, would entail a dead loss. It would be 

 like cut rates on railroads. Wealthy cor- 

 porations cannot stand that sort of thing 

 long, and it would soon deal a death blow to 

 bee-keeping. 



There is a kind of "Eureka" air about 

 your leader. Yes, you have found it, and 

 you are in such a hurry to exhibit your dis- 

 covery that you cannot wait to introduce it 

 by due process of argument, and so the con- 

 clusion arrived at is given at the beginning 

 of the article. It is done too in a gladiato- 

 ri;'.l fashion. "I am going to say right here 

 that I have more faith in cheap honey to 

 prevent adulteration than I have in anything 

 else that can be employed." Well, I am go- 

 ing to say right here, that I haven't a parti- 

 cle of faith in that way of preventing adul- 

 teration, and farther, I don't think W. Z., 

 when he comes down to hard pan, has any 

 more faith in it than I have. Let us see, 

 coffee is adulterated with dandelion and 

 chicory. How do we guard against adulter- 

 ation? By cheapening down .Java and 

 Mxjcha to the price of the inferior articles? 

 No, but by taking more vigilant precautions 

 against imposition. Cloth and silk fabrics 

 are adulterated. How do we guard against 

 this evil? By getting the best woolen goods 

 and the richest silks down to the price of 

 shoddy? Not much. But by obtaining the 

 goods from direct importers who order 

 them from the manufacturers, and can give 

 a guarantee of quality. There is no line of 

 business in which a pure and genuine article 

 can compete at the same figures with the 

 inferior imitations. A gullible public, 

 caught by flaming advertisements, will waste 

 its money at cheap stores where it is pre- 

 tended that the best goods are sold at less 

 than cost, and low as the lowest, but sensi- 

 ble people know that a really good article 

 must be paid for, and that in all honest 

 trades, quality settles value, and fixes price. 

 The mercantile world is chockful of this 

 kind of humbuggery that preys on the 

 credulity of customers who are made to be- 

 lieve that a good and genuine article can be 

 offered as low as inferior and worthless 

 goods. There is no "hocus-pocus" by means 

 of which this can be done. 



We had a discussion in one of the bee- 

 journals not long since as to the actual cost 

 of honey production. I cannot take time to 

 hunt it up, and can only give my general 

 impression on the subject, which was, that 

 there is only a very moderate margin of pro- 

 fit, at current prices. Now, talk about 

 cheapening production, and finding out 

 methods by which one man can take care of 

 several apiaries of 150 colonies each, no man 

 knows better than the Editor of the Review 



