THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



1i 



honey. He visits commission house 

 No. 1, and huds some Iioney for sale, 

 but it is not put up in attractive form 

 and does not show to good advantage 

 among tlio articles above mentioned. 

 He otters a low price for the honey, 

 but it is not accepted. He then visits 

 commission house No. 2, 3, 4, etc., in 

 rotiition witli the same result. 



Finally he tinds one who has a lot 

 of honey of fair quality that has been 

 on his hands for several months, and 

 the consignor has been prodding him 

 up for a remittance, and, in order to 

 get it off his hands, and make a set- 

 tlement with the consignor, he ac- 

 cepts tlie low price offered. 



Probablj' tifty retail merchants do 

 this same tiling. Probably it is often- 

 er that the commission merchant, or 

 his assistant, does the soliciting, go- 

 ing from store to store with a sample, 

 liut it all amounts to the same thing, 

 a low price is established. The pace 

 is set, and we have to go that gait if 

 we want to be in it. 



COMMISSION MEN BETWEEN TWO FIRES, 



BUT IT IS THE CONSIGNOR THAT 



IS "SCORCHED." 



The commissiou man is always be- 

 tween two tires. On the one hand he 

 nmst secure good prices and make 

 prompt remittances in order to retain 

 the confidence of liis consignors; on 

 the other hand, lie must meet the op- 

 I'.osition of his competitors. He usual- 

 ly goes broke; if he does, it is usually 

 aftei* he has left, and his consignors 

 are "left" also. Who pays the fiddler 

 in such cases, Mr. Hyde? The last 

 paragraph is not meant as a slur at 

 honest commission men, but there is 

 more truth than poetry in tlie asser- 

 tion. 



May I ask Mr. Hyde which city 

 he would wish to ship to if he must 

 choose lietween the tw^o? 



Whicli one can place your honey 

 before the retailer or the consumer 



in the most attractive form and name 

 the best price for youV Which can 

 afford to handle it for you at the 

 smallest percentage V The one man- 

 ager having trained helpers to handle 

 it and everything suitably arranged 

 for handling the product of a large 

 corporation, or the one out of fifty 

 with untrained help, poor facilities 

 and forty-nine competitors? 



As to the wholesalers, we would 

 be wholesalers ourselves in all the 

 principal cities of the United States; 

 and we could easily dispense with 

 tliem entirely, by and by. 



I fully agree with. Mr. Hyde that 

 we must come as near as possible to 

 sliipping our product direct from the 

 producer to the consumer, but I fail 

 to see what advantage the wholesaler 

 of the present time has over our (sup- 

 posed) manager, or in what way he 

 aids us in getting our honey more di- 

 rect to the consumer, 



A NATIONAI, ASSOCIATION WOULD BE 



FOOLISH TO DEBAR BUEK-COMB- 



HONEY. 



In alluding to bulk comb honey, 

 Mr. Hyde says: "Then I fancy, etc." 

 Now this I loolv at as a mere fancy; 

 a conjecture. Tlie organization would 

 certainly be very foolish to try to 

 debar any kind of honey that there is 

 a demand for at a good price; and I 

 see no reason why he wishes to fancy 

 any such thing. This is where I 

 think he has gone around the sub. ect 

 to get a look at the dark side. He 

 refers to the demand in Te.xas for 

 chunk or bulk-honey being ahead of 

 tlie supply. This w^ould be one of 

 the missions of our association, viz., 

 to draw from those points of tlie 

 country Avhere there is a surplus and 

 place it where there is a demand. 



Mr. Hyde discourages a honey 

 producers' association on account of 

 our weakness, and then turns round 

 and proposes going up against an or- 



