82 



SEVENTEEKTH AXNUAL UEPORT OF THE 



strong, that is the organization, what we 

 want is a big membership and a big lot 

 of money here to work on. We wanf to be 

 able to go up to a bee-keeper .and say, 

 "I want $1.50 membership fee for a 

 year." He will say, "What are you going 

 to give me for it?" "I will send letters 

 to each of your neighbor bee-keepers, 

 telling him what honey is worth, to keep 

 the price up. "' Probably he only has ten 

 or twenty-five or a hundred and fifty dol- 

 lars' worth of honey. If he raises the price 

 one rent, he has almost doubled his money 

 al! right. 



The idea is this: you can't figure this 

 year as any average of any kind, because 

 the honey crop has been so short it hasn't 

 been very much trouble to regulate the 

 price. Suppose we get a big crop of honey 

 next year, like we did in 1916. Six hundred 

 letters are not going very far. You need 

 about six thousand to make any effect. 

 These people that don't know what honey 

 is worth are going to sell at any old price 

 they can get. But when a letter goes out 

 from the Association, telling them what 

 the honey is worth, they are going to sit 

 up and take notice. The idea is, how are 

 we going to get thode members? Each 

 one of us have got a committee, and every 

 year we are going to go after them. Get 

 every member you can. If you can't get 

 the members, send in your own member- 

 ship now, and send in the list of names. 

 If we send those letters out for awhile, a 

 year or two, and keep the price up, even 

 if they do not join at first, they will come 

 after awhile. If we can save them a few 

 dollars the first year, they will be glad to 

 join. It is going to take a lot of work and 

 a lot of study to get that going, but if we 

 go after it right, we can make it pay. 



A Member — If your neighbor has bees, 

 you can't tell him how much to sell his 

 honey for. 



The Secretary — If j'our neighbor has 

 bees, you can control that, yes. You know 

 how it is. When you go up to a neighbor 

 you say, "Your honey is worth such and 

 such a price." He will say, "You keep 

 still, I am attending txi my own business." 

 If the price committee sends out a letter, 

 he will listen to that, but you can't say 

 to your neighbor. "Here, you sell your 

 honey for this or that." You will have 

 to go around the other way to reach him. 

 It will have to come through this Associa- 

 tion. 



Mr. Has.singer — I do not think that 

 anybody will understand that the price 

 committee is trying to dictate the price 

 to anybody. It is merely a suggestion to 

 let people know what honey is worth. 



You don't have to sell for the exact price, 

 but you will know what it is worth. We 

 can go near it or over it, but we want to 

 know what the price should be, what the 

 honey is worth. 



Mr. Kanneberg — Mr. President, I know 

 from my own experience that I want to 

 get as much for my honey as I can, and it 

 should be the same with any other man. 

 If he has only one or two colonies, he 

 wants to get as much money for his honey 

 as he can, and if he gets instructions that 

 the honey is worth that much, I am sure he 

 will be willing to sell if for that. If he 

 knows he can get five or ten cents more for 

 a cake of honey, he is glad he can get it, 

 and next year he will be still more glad 

 when he can continue this sale 



Mr. Stewart — 1 would like to ask every 

 man here, if the general public knew some 

 of the facts about honey, how much honey 

 could you sell at any price? 



Mr. Roehrs — What facts, for instance? 



Mr. Dadant — I think that our friend 

 Stewart is usually on the opposite side. 

 We get a pretty good price for our honey. 

 The question is, if everybody knew the 

 facts about honey, what would we get 

 for our honey? The question seems to be 

 ^ut in a way to imply that we would get 

 less money for it or that we couldn't sell 

 it at all. I think if the general public 

 knew the exact facts about honey, there 

 would not be enough honej' produced to 

 fill one-tenth of the demand. i 



The last two years the American Bee 

 Journal has printed a very small pamphlet 

 of sixteen pages, "Facts about hone5^" 

 You have no idea the number of people 

 who have looked through that and said 

 they were astonished; they didn't know 

 what extracted honey was, and didn't 

 know why it could be sold cheaper than 

 comb honey. I am satisfied that there 

 were over one hundred thousand copies of 

 the pamphlet published and sold. I am 

 satisfield it has helped to increase the 

 price of honey, and if you can only inform 

 the public in regard to what honey is 

 really worth, how pure and sweet it is, 

 and how good, how healthy, that we can 

 sell at good prices all we can produce." "I 

 want to say here that when I saw the 

 prices set by the committee this spring — 

 my eldest son is a member of that com- 

 mittee, if I am not mistaken, I told him, 

 "You are placing it too high." "You 

 must remember that I have been for nearly 

 fifty years selling honey, and that only at 

 the beginning, about 1868 and 1869 has 

 honey sold at what it does to-day." We 

 have sold a great deal of honey at all the 

 way from six to ten. cents a pound, and to 



