140 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Feb. 



to know who has anything to do with it. I would much 

 rather tell these men who ask, than to have them get the m- 

 formation from someone else. If the facts are to be pub- 

 lished, I would rather give them the true ones, because I 

 prefer to be a little careful about what the reports are, was 

 my reason for not wanting that statement about getting 300 

 ■ pounds of comb honey in a colony to be printed. There may 

 be a possibility of that occasionally, and it would be cited 

 and quoted and remembered as a common thing. I believe 

 we should withhold such large statements, especially when 

 talking before a reporter. Talk common, practical facts. 

 We can tell the truth and still tell it so it will not become an 

 exaggeration. I believe we should give these reports to every- 

 body who wants them, and let them publish them if they 

 wish. They will find out anyway before they will trade. 

 I won't buy until I have some idea what the crop is. They 

 must know, and will know, and I don't believe iii trying to 

 conceal it from them. I am in favor of making the reports 

 myself, and having all the rest of the bee-keepers do it, but 

 I want them to be careful and consider who they are talking 

 to, and what the facts generally are. Not one particular 

 colonv or apiary, but the crop of the country, the district in 

 which they are living. Have some regard for consequences. 

 Mr. Moore — There is no doubt at all in my mind but 

 what the bee-keepers of our country are out tens of thousands 

 of dollars each year by unwise actions. It is actually a case 

 of self-preservation. This is a little off the question but it 

 just shows how unwise we are. I will put it at 50 to 200 

 tons of comb honey was dumped on the Chicago market to 

 be sold ; that would have been enough for four to six months. 

 In all my travels I never saw so much. I saw 25 or 35 

 cases of comb honey in one place, and the distribution seemed 

 to be general all over Chicago. Some told me that they 

 had paid 10 cents, 11 cents, 12 and 13 cents, and one firm 

 with three or four stores were retailing their honey for 14 

 cents! The market was simply knocked all to pieces by this 

 dumping of honey on the market, and people have been after 

 me again and again. They know I have honey to sell and 

 they say: "What are you asking? Not asking much are 

 you?" I don't believe, far and wide, that we have an aver- 

 age crop. I really believe that there is not over an average 

 crop, but by an unwise dumping on the market you are out 

 two, three and four cents on the pound. The grocers said 

 to me so and so out here had 10,000 pounds of honey, as 

 much as to say that that was something. I say, keep those 

 things in your own bosom. Other trades keep their busi- 

 ness to themselves. Do a lot of thinking, and do very little 

 talking. If they ask you what the crop is, say : "Well, about 

 the same as last year, near as I can tell." Don't tell them 

 that there is lots of honey, or I had 10,000 pounds, or my 

 neighbor. "Be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves," 

 and everyone will gain. 



Mr. Whitney — I believe as Dr. Miller does : I don't know. 

 Mr. York — Mr. Muth, what do you think about it ? 

 Mr. Muth — I believe in honesty. I believe when we 

 "have a big crop of honey throughout the country, dealers 

 should know it, because the law of supply and demand makes 

 the price. Suppose we would buy a carload of comb honey 

 at 16 cents, as it started off early this season, and we didn't 

 sell that carload? (I am talking from my standpoint now). 

 There is a concern in Nevada who a year ago sold us three 

 or four carloads of honey. They start ofif and offered me a 

 carload of honey this season at 16 cents delivered in Cin- 

 cinnati. I told my book-keeper they will holler a little bit, 

 and then they will come down to 15 cents. It was no more 

 than two weeks until they came down to 15 cents. I says. 

 "They are scared. There is honey coming in. They will 

 sell for ID cents before the season is over." I never even 

 answered their letters. It came down to 1314. Two weeks 

 ago they offered to deliver a carload of fancy white honey 

 at my plant for 12^/2 cents. I told the young lady : "It will 

 come down to 10 cents." It is the law of supply and de- 

 mand that makes the market. If you are selfish it will burst. 

 Here, on the other hand, you hold up your honey very high. 

 It was only this morning that I sold 15 barrels of honey 

 before I started ; this was before nine o'clock, at a price that 

 none of you folks would want to sell me your honey for. 

 I have to go outside to buy this honey. I will duck under you 

 and beat you every time. You hold up your end and I am 

 glad of it. It is the law of supply and demand ; it is finding 

 its level. These people in the West who have big crops of 

 honey, they will come down. If you want to select your 

 price for honey get it out earlier. Honey that is produced 

 in May — get it out. There is a demand early in June and 



July. If you wait until everybody wants money you are 

 too late. If a dealer pays i6 cents and the next competitor 

 buys it for 12^ cents, how long will a fellow last in busi- 

 ness? I don't believe everything I read in the paper even if 

 it is in the American Bee Journal. I have my own deduc- 

 tion of this. When there is a big crop you don't tell the 

 truth, and a man who keeps the truth from the general pub- 

 lic — well, I will tell you it is not right for the general public. 

 It has made the demand for all the honey that's produced 

 in this country ; the individual bee-keeper, not at all. There 

 are others. There are people in the West that don't know 

 a queen from a drone that handle carloads. These fellows 

 dig in ; they sell honey. You don't care, you abuse the 

 dealer. You have got the wrong fellow. You want to get 

 at the National Bee-Keepers' Association to promulgate the 

 uses of honey. There was one fellow in California, I be- 

 lieve, three years ago, who had an awful crop of prunes. 

 They said prunes were scarce, and the wholesale grocer 

 throughout the country knew better, and they simply kept 

 the prunes. In San Francisco they had 500 cars of prunes 

 to put in storage, and it wasn't any time before the associa- 

 tion advertised throughout the State the good uses of prunes. 

 The National Bee-Keepers' Association could do that and 

 bring the price of honey away up. Any legitimate honey- 

 dealer wants to pay the bee-keeper every dollar there is in 

 it ; he wants his shipments ; he wants to make him happy. 

 I think I have covered the ground now. 



Dr. Miller — I want to emphasize that one point. We 

 want the National Association to pet so large and to have 

 so much money that they can put a lot of money into adver- 

 tising. I saw those advertisements and they didn't always ap- 

 pear in the form of advertisements. They made me think, 

 "Why. I haven't been eating near nrunes enough." That's 

 what we need' in all the prints. We want those dealers to tell 

 the people the importance- of eatin.g honey. In regard to this 

 tellinc what our crops are, you may talk if you please about 

 keeping it quiet. If you are a born bee-keeper and you got 

 a big crop of honey, you want to tell somebody. I can keep 

 quiet and not tell, but I want to tell so badly that it wrenches 

 me terribly I 



Mr. Smith — Dr. Miller said he wasn't full of prunes then ! 

 In my correspondence with dealers I find they don't always 

 tell the truth. They say honey is a drug on the market ; 

 it is worth 11 cents, choice snow-white is worth 12^^ cents, 

 and I have had individuals write me right from those places 

 where those dealers are saying that they can't buy a pound 

 of honey under 20 cents, and I have shipped honey in there 

 at 18 cents a pound right under their noses. 



Mr. Wheeler — I don't want any reflections on Mr. Muth. 

 I send him lots of honey, and he always did the square thing, 

 and hasn't crowded the price down, either. I find him a bet- 

 ter man to deal with than some Chicago fellows. 



Mr. Starkey — I am glad I said what I did, although the 

 impression wasn't what I intended. I am glad Mr. Muth 

 said what he did. He said something good for us. I am 

 a little misunderstood by Mr. Muth in reference to my state- 

 ment. The question was: Why should we tell the people? 

 It wasn't my idea that we should keep the facts from the 

 people who handle our honey, but the fact that there is an 

 enormous crop I don't think should be spread broadcast. 

 I don't believe in suppressing the truth, on general princi- 

 ples. There are such things, thou.gh, as discretion and honesty 

 with silence. The best point and most important thing that ha- 

 been said has come from Mr. Muth. We should increase the 

 demand for honey. I had about 4,000 pounds of honey, and 

 I could have rushed it into barrels down here, and I could 

 have received probably 5 cents for it; and I got 15 and 12^ 

 cents where a man took as much as a dollar's worth. That 

 has been my price. I have probably got 200 pounds left. 

 I didn't go around to sell it. If we are patient when we 

 have honey we can say, "I will furnish vou honey at a cer- 

 tain price," and then wait for them to come and buy that. 

 You can get your price if it's right. I believe we ought to 

 advertise.^ and the National Association is our only means. 

 The National could spend quite a little money among the 

 newspaper men, even in the Ladies' Home Journal and the 

 Saturday Evening Post. I notice they are advertising a corn 

 syrup. They spent lots of money on that, but no more 

 than the National Bee-Keepers' Association could spend. 

 I called them up by telephone and asked them to send me a 

 sample, and it was clear and nice, and iust as sweet and 

 fine, and very much like the syrup produced back in the 

 hills from cane, exactly like it, and it is sweet and has the 

 same flavor. It is 10 cents for a pound and a half package 



