HONEYBEES AND HONEY PKODUCTION. 
35 
the year in which the war first diverted shipments to our 
shores. These imports reached 227,092 gallons during the 
first half of 1918, indicating a probable further material 
increase in the total this year. This imported honey is 
largely amber and dark types, used hitherto mostly for 
baking purposes, and usually competes only with similar 
grades of home-grown honeys. Most of the imports are to 
New York. 
Honey is also imported into the United States from the 
island possessions of Hawaii and Porto Rico, The Hawaiian 
imports are partly of a first-class honey, derived from the 
Algaroba, a leguminous shrub tree similar to the mesquite of 
the Southwest, and partly from honeydew, and have ranged 
in value from about $35,000 to $60,000. For the first six 
months of 1918 (to Dec. 31, 1917) the value increased by 
two-thirds over the total for 1917, representing the receipt of 
1,445,000 pounds of honey. Those of Porto Rico, principally 
from the guava and guama, both leguminous trees^ and of 
fair quahty, have mounted rapidly from a value of $17,904 
in 1911, the fiLrst year of substantial shipments, to $103,388 
in 1917. The value has already reached $219,843 for the 
first haK of 1918, representing almost 2,000,000 pounds of 
honey. 
SUPPLY AND PRICES. 
The conditions obtaining years ago in connection with 
honey production tended to the handling of honey rather 
on the basis of a seasonal product than as a staple food for 
use throughout the year. 
The bulk of the honey was produced by farmers as a side 
line, the bees being given little attention and the honey 
being produced at relatively little expense. The crop was 
marketed at low prices in the autumn, and stocks were usually 
exhausted by the late winter. There was little demand and 
practically no supply during the spring and early summer. 
Honey is now handled in a large way as a staple food 
product, and this has been in part brought about and the 
industry is being now largely shaped, through the influence 
of commercial beekeeping, the production of honey as a 
principal occupation, which calUngi while exceedingly 
ancient, has had a rapid and interesting development during 
recent years. The fact that bee diseases drive out of 
