Is There a Future for Beekeeping?
There is a demand for all the honey that can be produced in the United States, and there was never a time in the history of the industry when the honey market was so well established. Of course, during the war, when there was a shortage of sugar, the demand for honey was abnormal, but it seems improbable that the market will ever revert to prewar conditions in price or demand. Many persons learned to use honey who will continue purchasing it, notwithstanding they may now buy all the sugar they wish. Honey is not a substitute for sugar in the diet, but properly takes the place of jellies and jams. With the development of the bottle trade in honey, which has been rapid during the past five years, there is an increasing demand in the wholesale markets. The introduction of prohibition has unquestionably caused the use of more honey and of all kinds of sweets. This has already become quite evident. The sugar stringency resulting in the war-basis distribution had its application in many States simultaneously with prohibition. It was not difficult to enforce the curtailment of sugar to confectioners in wet States, but most difficult, and in fact impossible, in the prohibition States, where it was actually necessary to increase the sugar allotment to candymakers. Investigation proves that former users of alcoholic beverages were large buyers of candies and other sweets.
There is an abundant opportunity for the development of local trade in honey in almost all parts of the country. The future of beekeeping is inviting. There is every reason to expect that it will continue to develop rapidly for several years and that it will long continue to be an important minor branch of agriculture. From its very nature, owing to the limited supply of nectar, it can never be one of the leading branches of agriculture, but there is abundant nectar to build up beekeeping to ten times its present capacity.