THE APIARY.

Otago Witness, Issue 3338, 6 March 1918, Page 6

THE APIARY.

By J. A.

A GOOD EXAMPLE.

Some families fail .to give proper consideration to the\questiou of laying in a satisfactory supply of honey for the season. Hie Jady of til© house will buy a 101 b tin of honey almost with fear and trembling, afraid that she will bo considered improvident; and as to getting such a supply as would enable her to put it on tbo table the year round, it is not dreamt of. Where honey is constantly on sale in retail quantities, and can easily be procured, thie may bo all right, though even then it ia the very reverse of economy. Where, on the other hand, honey can only be procured in its proper season, then the only way is to lay in a stock. A few days ago I met a gentleman who, with his wite and four children, constitutes a family of six persons. He told mo that he had procured his year's supply of honey for his family, and that they had all grown very fond of it. I was curious to know just what that meant, and was not a little astonished when ho told me it was 4001 b, and that he had procured it direct from the apiary at 5d a pound. His opinion was that no sweet could compare with honey, either in food value or in health-giving properties, and that he allowed his children as much of it as they chose to take. With a long experienco in my own family, and a thorough acquaintance of,, the value of honey, I could endorse this "man's view, and could not help feeling that if there wero more families of the same mind coughs and colds and some other infantile troubles would be less troublesome than they are. With some there may be a fear that the young people would grow tired of honey; but while that was often the case under the old system of straining honey, and where it was nearly always more or less flavoured with pollen, it is not the case under modern conditions, where the honey is extracted by the honey extractor and retains the aroma and flavour peculiar to the flora from which it ia gathered. You may put the finest jams and jellies on the table, and each in turn will pall on the taste and require a change; but only honey can be kept constantly there and be constantly used. Honey is coming to its own- very rapidly these days, and probably the increased values owing to sugar shortage in England will enlarge the desire for it and create a greater demand now at Is a • pound than it ever had when it was begging for a purchaser at less than one-half that price. What an impetus it would give to the industry of beekeeping if every six persons in the Dominion required 4001 b of honey! It would mean 30,000 tons for a year's supply. Could it be provided? Yes,, quite easily; at present it is going to waste. The limit of production in honey we cannot even guess. There is room for an expansion of the industry such as at present is little dreamed of. We have not heard of an example bdfore quite so good as the one we have quoted} if there is such, all we have to say is, "Go up top."

WHAT U.S.A. BEEKEEPERS ARE THINKING. The new year of 1918 opens with very unusual promise for beekeepers. That promise is one of continued high prices tor their honey. Those prices now axe the highest ever known, and it i 3 not too much to say that they will probably be high next summer—just how high in dollars and cents we cannot say, because so much depends on local conditions. Laet season's crop left in the hands of beekeepers and in storage is very small. There is only a littlo left at the retail stores, and that little will soon be exhausted. If producers last year had secured double and treble what they ever did before, it is our opinion the market would still be almost bare of honey. So even if it were possible to produce that much, prices would still be high and every pound would be taken. The use of sugar is to be cut down by the United States .Food Administration still lower to 31b a month per person, or a little more .than one-third the normal amount consumed. The nations of Europe, eo far as sugar is concerned, are in worse condition than we. for while they have sugar, the amount is much smaller than in the United States. Europe is crying for sugar, and must have it. To make up for the shortage she bought honey last season in enormous quantities and by the shipload, and is still trying to get it.. She will be eager to get the new crop as soon as it is available.

In addition to the enormous demand for honey by the Allies, the old avenues of trade in this country are scouring the country to. find honey. Since the war began, and since the wide increase of advertising, honey, so far from being a luxury, is coming to be recognised in this country as a staple article of food. When sugar can be obtained only in limited quantities, honey is the only substitute that can be used, and the housewife is using honcv as she never did before, and, what is more, honey has gone into her home to stay. The time was, and not so very long ago either, when the beekeeper who produced his honey had to find a buyer; and even then ho had to shade the price down, down, down in order to make a sale. Today the tables are turned. The beekeepers are staying at homo, and the buyers are coming to them. It is not the beekeepers who are shading their prices now. It is the buyers, one after another, who are coming across with more and more money. Only recently we came across a case where a producer had a little honey. The buver asked him how much he would take for it. He named an advanced price. The buyer came back, saying he could not pay it, and the beekeeper began to think he had put the price too high. The next mail brought another letter from the buyer, saying he had concluded to take all his honey at"the nrice stated; and so on it goes. Even" though there should be an early world peace, the price would still be high on everything, including honey. All food supplies are short, and will be for some time after the great war is over. Taking everything, into consideration, it is important that the beekeepers of this country and Canada speed up. They have the greatest opportunity they ever had. They owe it as a duty to themselves, and, more than all else, they owe it as a duty not only to their country and to their Allies, but to a whole, hungry world. As long as the war lasts sugar will continue to be held down to .very small amounts per capita consumption—not enough to supply a balanced ration to each family. It becomes, therefore, a patriotic duty on

tho part of every beekeeper to help make up this balanced ration, because honey is now a recognised and necessary food. J ike wheat, potatoes, and meat. It is far more valuable as an energy-producer than any ono of thoso throe; and while, possibly, no better than sugar, it is more easily assimilated and has flavour.—Gleanings.