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120 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL. REPORT OF THE 



keeper will sell it and I won't be able 

 to; but that is not so. 



This we think because we have no 

 one to lead us or advise us, and if we 

 had a National Board of Quotations — 

 the amount of honey would be gath- 

 ered from the whole United States, 

 and a shortage or surplus could be 

 seen at one glance, if the National 

 Bee-Keepers' Association would send 

 you out quotations showing you the 

 real condition of things, and the bee- 

 keepers would know how much to 

 charge for their honey. 



I do believe if any one of you are 

 fortunate enough to have any honey 

 left you may get a better price. Now 

 there is no one to lead or advise. We 

 are like a flock of sheep, and it is 

 time we get together and organize and 

 get a little more money for our honey. 



President Miller — If there are any 

 questions I am sure Professor Jager 

 will be glad to answer them. I would 

 be glad to hear this question dis- 

 cussed. 



I might say that Mr. Boy den in- 

 formed me a short time ago that the 

 reduction of the rates on western 

 honey had been granted; it will be 

 sent through as first class after the 

 25th of next January. 



If you have any questions in regard 

 to the sale of the honey or an organi- 

 zation such as has been suggested, I 

 will be glad to hear them. 



We have Mr. Muth (Jr.) from Cin- 

 cinnati. Mr. Muth? 



Mr. Burnett, could you give us a few 

 remarks in regard to the marketing of 

 honey ? 



Mr. Burnett — I do not claim to be 

 an authority on those things. I think 

 the President got me up here so you 

 might have a look at me and blame 

 me for the low price of honey. 



You have heard Prof. Jager. Now I 

 wish to say to you that I enjoyed his 

 talk very much indeed; it is a beauti- 

 ful theory not yet in practice. Yet I 

 think if we had one hundred such fel- 

 lows as Prof. Jager it "would be in 

 practice within the next five years — 

 give them lots of time. The Professor 

 has an excellent vocabulary, and while 

 he informed you very precisely that 

 there were lots of tricks in trade he 

 did not tell you about any. He is 

 quite up to date. Nevertheless, I wish 

 to ask of you all to support him be- 

 cause you must have warships to 

 command, and he certainly is carrying 



heavy caliber, and it will bring down, 

 I was going to say, prices; no, it will 

 boost the prices if he has his way 

 about it. 



He, however, touched upon the ser- 

 ious problem of educating tiie, bee- 

 keeper, fleally that is fundamental; 

 you must have the bee-keeper edu- 

 cated, not only to get honey, but you 

 have got to be sure before you trust 

 anybody that he is worthy of trust. 



Bee-keepers as'a class are very dis- 

 trustful. 



Now I am simply talking from my 

 experience, and perhaps they have 

 justification for it — 



We had a man send us a lot of 

 honey. I will not put the low price of 

 twelve cents but I will say fifteen, 

 which I get for the best grades of 

 comb honey at the present time where 

 I am not undersold by somebody else, 

 which is true in this city. It is being 

 sold for almost as low, if not quite as 

 low, as Prof. Jager told you it was in 

 Minneapolis. 



Those people who are selling that 

 honey — they have got more honey than 

 will be sold. That depends upon the 

 consumption and that is an unknown 

 quantity, but according to Prof. Jager 

 it is all consumed in Minnesota; there 

 is none left. 



We have some coming from there 

 now. He didn't know about that 

 though, I guess. 



Then a neighbor of his who got fif- 

 teen cents for his honey and shipped 

 his in and we sell it for twelve cents 

 — he wants to know why he didn't get 

 as much as his neighbor did. The fact 

 is his combs were crooked, had rubbed, 

 and were in more or less a leaky con- 

 dition and gave us a great deal more 

 trouble than the honey that sold at 

 fifteen cents. Much of it we have to 

 clean up and sort over. We wish we 

 had never seen it, you know. 



Then we get less out of that than 

 that we sold for fifteen cents. 



Much of it we have to clean up and 

 sort over and for this we get less 

 money for our trouble. 



This market problem certainly is an 

 important issue — if the honey pro- 

 ducers in the country were all in the 

 hands of one organization, as Prof. 

 Jager would like to have it, they can 

 set the pKices on it, like coal. I don't 

 know whether they did or not, but it 

 looks a ^^od deal like it — therefore 

 you could get that price for all the 



