ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPEES' ASSOCIATION. 201 



ing, usually between eight and nine o'clock. This information was 

 distributed by Washington to all of the other various stations. For 

 instance, the report from New York was stent to Chicago, Pittsburg, 

 and all the other cities in which a market station was maintained. 

 That was done by the ordinary, commercial wires all over the country, 

 that is, over the Western Union or the Postal, and it naturally entailed 

 a great expense to the government, but after the war came on it was 

 a relatively easy matter to secure additional funds. I would roughly 

 make the statement that money was just thrown at the heads of the 

 agricultureal department. Congress said, in effect, "Here is the money. 

 Take it and do whatever you can with it, so long as you can stimulate 

 production and conservation of food." That was their one great 

 aim, the conservation of food and the stimulation of production. The 

 work grew by leaps and bounds. The producer and the dealer ap- 

 parently were much pleased with the service, and stations were opened 

 in additional cities until to-day there are stations maintained in every 

 large city in the United States and the Government has now in opera- 

 tion a leased wire system of about fifteen thousand miles, which is the 

 largest leased wiring system operated by any concern or organization 

 outside of the Associated Press. 



By this leased wiring system it is possible for Chicago to know by 

 nine o'clock each morning what produce is selling for in every large 

 city in the United States, including the western cities, the north central 

 cities, and the eastern cities, and these wires are all lumped together. 

 The information on the Chicago market is sent to Washington, New 

 York picks it up, and if you are a grower in the vicinity of New York 

 or a dealer in New York City you ^vill know that day what each kind 

 of produce is selling for in the United States. 



I might state at this time we also maintain what is called field 

 stations, that is stations in the producing areas. In California, I will 

 speak of California from the standpoint of honey. We have two 

 field stations there, one at San Francisco and one at Los Angeles. 

 Those field stations show what dealers are paying for honey or any 

 other commodity f. o. b. that particular point. That information is 

 valuable primarily to the man in the city, so that on any one particular 

 day or the day following, the dealer and the producer knows what a 

 commodity is selling for in the producing section; he also knows what 

 a commodity is selfing for in the consuming markets. In addition 

 to that, he knows the supplies on each of the particular markets. For 

 instance, this morning in Chicago we had the emploj^ees in our office 

 get in touch with all railroads coming into Chicago and give us a report 

 of receipts of all commodities on which we are now issuing reports, 

 including honey, so that this information is alSo included with the 

 market news information relative to prices that are sent to all of the 

 various market centers. 



I am explaining the method of obtaining this information, because 

 of the fact that I believe it is somewhat of interest to you in that I 

 believe a great many of you are receiving our market news bulletins. 

 I can assume that from some of the letters I have received it has been 

 indicated that the writer is wondering how this information has been 



