ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATIO^ST. 



85 



sixteen and one-half cents per pound, per 

 carload. That has cleaned the honey out 

 of the country. 



Now, we are unable to get prices for 

 honey for only a few people who want to 

 use honey, and also because, not of the 

 short crop at all, but because everybody else 

 pretty much who has had anything to sell 

 is asking a higher price. Thej' naturally 

 expect to make a higher price. Fifty per 

 cent if not more of the people who have 

 come to us for honey say, "Of course, 

 everything else is higher, so is honey." 

 And they make no complaint about the 

 price, they take it. But if you are going 

 to get it into your head that because you 

 are.^etting these prices that are prevailing- 

 no^, for honey, for some seasons in the 

 future, you may be disappointed. And 

 this unusual and tremendous demand is 

 taking the honej^ out of the country. As 

 an example of that I woiild cite the Im- 

 perial Valley, California, case. The honey 

 in that territory was cleaned out in the 

 month of June, a honey that has dragged 

 on the market from year's end to j'ear's 

 end, since it began to be produced there. 

 Then, again, it hds crept to what we might 

 call the high-water mark in price, taking a 

 price of fifteen or more cents a pound. 

 The recent quotations that I have, they 

 are asking now in Cuba, furnishing your 

 own container, one dollar and seVentj-five 

 cents a gallon. The honey is cleaned up. 

 There is more of a supply around here than 

 there is anywhere else intjie country. We 

 here this week shipped' honey even to 

 Vermont. 



Mr. Hassinger — Mr. President, it seems 

 to me the object of the price committee is 

 to foresee and get a report on the standing 

 of all these conditions; and the prices are 

 based on those conditions. That is what 

 we have the price committee for, and to 

 find out these conditions, things the other 

 producers would have no means of finding 

 out, and that is what the prices are based 

 on. Am I right? 



The President — It would seem to ma that 

 the purpose of this committee is not to 

 boost prices beyond reason, but is to in- 

 struct the small bee-keeper or the unin- 

 structod bee-keeper in regard to what the 

 prices ought to be. Now, Mr. Burnett is 

 doing a wholesale business. He buys and 

 sells in large quantities in the wholesale 

 trade. The price is controlled largely by 

 supply and demand there, but when you 

 come to the retail trade, supplj^ and demand 

 doesn't really have so much to do with it. 

 If the people have the money and there is 

 the honey and they want it, they are going 

 to buy it, if it costs ten cents or thirty cents 



a pound. It doesn't seem to make ver}'^ 

 much difference. I find that sometimes 

 when I ask a good price it sells better than 

 at a low price, for sometimes people are 

 suspicious of honey when it is sold away 

 down low. They think it is something 

 else. I think we ought to keep clear in 

 our own minds that it is not to boost 

 prices beyond any reasonable amount, but 

 to inform ourselves and our brother bee- 

 keepers as to what the price ought to be, 

 especially in a retail way. 



Mr. Wheeler — There is another nice 

 point that I think ought to be considered, 

 and that is the quality. You can't go to 

 your neighbor, ten miles away, and ask 

 the quality of his honey and what it is 

 worth. If a man in his district is producing 

 a poor grade of honey and it is poor year 

 after yeai , if he holds that honey for the 

 price of the finest Wisconsin honey or 

 white clover huney, he will lose the sale 

 of his honey. People have a taste. They 

 know what they like and w^liat is good 

 honey, and if a man in order to throw 

 trade his way has a poor grade of honej^ 

 he knows it is pure but it hasn't the fine 

 flavor that some honey has, in order to 

 dispose of that honey he must send it to 

 a wholesale house, and he has to put the 

 price down. . I do not see how he is to get 

 around that. That is a question that 

 would come up in every case, I should 

 think. It depends on the quality, and 

 every man as far as T know is glad to get 

 all he can for his honey, but he feels that 

 he had better sell for ten cents a pound than 

 ti) ask twenty and not sell at ail. 



Mr. Flood — The Government is putting 

 out a price list every. month, that seems 

 to answer the purpose, free to everj' bee- 

 keeper that asks for it. 



Th« Secretary — To answer that I might 

 say that price list goes to the wholesale 

 end of it only. You can't get the retail 

 prices fronl that. It gives the wholesale 

 prices. What do these little bee-keepers 

 care about wholesale prices? For instance, 

 they ship to Mr. Burnett and sell for ten 

 cents, but we do not care, thej"^ don't hurt 

 us a bit. If we sell for twenty-five cents 

 and the retail dealer sells for ten, that is 

 what hurts us. That price is good as far 

 as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough. 

 You remember a year ago when Mr. 

 Brunec got up his paper and says, what is 

 honey selling for? Members came to this 

 convention and sold honey at retail as low 

 as ten cents, and up to twenty-five cents, 

 an average of fifteen cents a pound a year 

 ago. I would like to ask anybody here 

 that sells honey at ten cents retail, a 

 pound, to stand up. You won't have to 



