ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 99 



valent opinion among the smaller bee-keepers of Ontario, I do not 

 know wether it applies to you, perhaps you are more businesslike, I 

 hope so. Even though recent war conditions have more than doubled 

 prices of honey, many of our specialists are beginning to croak about 

 the fear of ruinously low prices at an early date. This is not according 

 to prospects of a world shortage of all foods for a few years; but is 

 based on the erroneous view that honey must be classed as a luxury. 

 The sooner we kill that idea by good salesmanship the better it will 

 be for all concerned. 



The farmer who exclaims at a high price for honey has not the 

 slightest objection to the price of butter or eggs, however high it happens 

 to be. Then why should not honey follow the market as well? Pro- 

 vided the bee-keeper can get over that sentimental idea and look at 

 bee-keeping as a business proposition, the more honey sold at home the 

 better. Even at an estimate of one or two pounds per annum per person, 

 the home town and community of the average bee-keeper will take a 

 large share of his crop by judicious advertising. The producer of 

 anything up to ten thousand pounds scarcely needs to ship honey 

 at all. Such a market has in many cases been developed in a few 

 years. 



But for uniformly good prices some form of cooperation is essential. 

 In 1903 the Ontario Bee-keepers' Association tried to organize a co- 

 operative honey selling association, and ended up with a crop-reporting 

 system which alone has meant many thousands of dollars in stabilized 

 prices to the bee-keepers of that province. You can understand how 

 it works easily enough. In one county conditions have been favorable 

 so that a good crop has been harvested, whereas other counties may 

 have a short crop. The man with a good crop thinking honey will 

 be plentiful cuts the price a httle so he can be sure of selling. This, 

 in a measure, sets the price and the fellows with poor crops are caught 

 both going and coming. The reporting system gives all a fair start, 

 and when the committee recommends a standard of prices as well as 

 reporting the crop by counties prices are, made more uniform. As 

 this report goes to all members of the association bee-keepers having 

 short crops get an idea as to where they may buy honey to supply 

 their regular customers, and in this way distribution is regulated. 



The next step, of course, is organized cooperative selling. This 

 is not easy, because bee-keepers lack confidence in one another, or they 

 go about this important matter in the wrong way. Lacking a coopera- 

 tive selling organization it seems best for most bee-keepers to sell 

 their honey through the established channels of trade: The jobber, 

 wholesaler and retailer. 



These are the "middlemen" we hear so much labout, and we 

 cannot get along without them. The question is, "Are they to be 

 cooperative middlemen seeking the interest of the producers, or inde- 

 pendent middlemen seeking their reward by "profitable" and specu- 

 lative deals? Even the latter have a legitimate field; but their method 

 of handling the product is not meant to profit the producer any more 

 than is absolutely necessary in order to get the business. Then there 

 are often two many of them getting a profit off the one shipment before 

 it reaches the ultimate consumer. 



