146 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



outlined it, but I suppose there were 

 some not here. 



The way we have operated in Canada 

 has given us good results. You may 

 think it is kind of a binding thing. It 

 is co-operation but not an incorporated 

 thing, and it gives the bee-keepers an 

 idea of what is in the country. 



You are going now at it in a hap- 

 hazard way; you do not know what is 

 in the country; you know nothing 

 about it. You see the reports coming 

 out sometimes in the Journals of enor- 

 mous crops and people selling their 

 honey and not getting what they 

 should for it. They are a good deal 

 in the game like the railroads are, to 

 get men to go west. They come out 

 with great glowing reports about our 

 crops, until they get men out there; 

 they are working it for themselves, 

 looking after their end of it. They 

 should be at it in our interest. We 

 produce the goods and why should we 

 not get the money? 



Some honey is sold for double the 

 money it is bought for; other insti- 

 tutions are getting the money — not the 

 bee-keepers. 



For several years, in Canada, it is 

 done by our Ontario body. 



We appoint our committee down 

 there — we appoint our officers at 

 Toronto — we appoint them this next 

 week, and then they appoint this 

 committee. They appoint a committee 

 of three and the Secretary goes in as 

 the fourth. They live in different parts 

 of the country. We get the men who 

 will take an interest in that kind of 

 thing. 



W^e send out circulars to the mem- 

 bers. In fact they do not confine 

 themselves just to members, but send 

 them to pretty nearly all the mem- 

 bers, rather all the bee-keepers in the 

 Province. Our Secretary sends out 

 circulars to every one. Invariably 

 nearly every one sends in. Firms can- 

 not buy honey now until after this re- 

 port goes out, in a way, because there 

 is no bee-keeper who will sell to them. 



After the report goes out that honey 

 should be ll^^ cents — they cannot go 

 to bee-keepers before and say, "We 

 will give you six cents;" they will not 

 sell until the report comes out. 



Foster & Holtermann did not buy 

 any seven, eight, nine or ten cent 

 honey this year. In fact Mr. Holter- 

 mann told me he bought some honey 



in sixty pound cans at eleven cents; 

 of course, at the time these reports 

 came out that there were such crops, 

 they got weak in the knees and sold it 

 out and he wishes he had it now. 



The getting out of these reports is 

 working good with us. We are getting 

 good prices; not as large prices as I 

 heard last year you were selling at; 

 all the way from five and one-half 

 up to as high as twenty cents. Is that 

 not a terrible variation? Everybody 

 selling their own honey. 



Mr. BuU-^I have the summary we 

 took last night; each one giving the 

 prices they were getting for their 

 honey, to jobbers, to retailers and to 

 users. 



I will give you the summary. Honey 

 sold to wholesalers at an average of 

 nine and one-half cents; the range 

 runs from eight to eleven cents. That 

 is for extracted. 



For comb, the average price it sold 

 at was sixteen cents to the wholesaler; 

 to the retailers, the average price is 

 fourteen and one-half cents for ex- 

 tracted; the highest being fifteen 

 cents; the lowest, thirteen. That is 

 not so bad. 



Comb honey prices to the retailers, 

 sold at 16 2-3 cents. 



Let us go over to the consumers' 

 prices, and we will see something: 

 Two to the wholesalers; four to the re- 

 tailers; and twelve to the users. 



Prices: Average nineteen cents for 

 extracted honey; some of us sold it 

 for twenty-five; some of us sold it for 

 ten. 



Now, what is the trouble? Some- 

 body is losing nine cents a pound and 

 somebody is gaining six cents. 



The idea of getting up this report — 

 and this committee to report prices — is 

 that they should send it out as early 

 as possible, to -find out what the profit 

 is going to be, not only to members 

 but to everybody here, everybody who 

 produces honey in this section of the 

 country; you get the report from them 

 and then make recommendation of the 

 average price. 



You have the prices sent out by the 

 committee; if you are getting more 

 than that, don't cut your price; if you 

 are getting under that, charge more. 



The price to retailers and whole- 

 salers varies three cents the pound; 

 to the users, fifteen cents. 



We have a little money in the Treas- 

 ury. Is there any better way that we 



