74 



AMERICAN BEE lOURNAL 



Jan. 31, 1901. 



Convention Proceedings. | 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 31st Annual 



Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, held at Chicag-o, 111., 



Aug-, 28, 29 and 30, 1900. 



BY DR. A. B. MASON, SEC. 



(Continued from pag-e 55). 

 DISCUSSION ON SHIPPING HONEY CONTINUED. 



Mr. Aikin— I am glad Mr. Abbott has made his speech ; 

 I know now where Colorado, Arizona and Utah people can 

 sell their honey. 



Mr. Moore — I was gfoing- to ask him how he sold 30.000 

 pounds of honey a year ? 



Mr. Aikin— Don't bother yourself about that, Mr. 

 Moore. In the first place, if we had barrels, we would have 

 to let the Wisconsin people ship to Chicago, and from Chi- 

 cago to Denver, and from Denver to Loveland ; what would 

 be the freight rate ? Not less than first-class, or once and 

 a half, or double first-class. 



A Member — Couldn't you ship barrel-staves without all 

 that freight ? 



Mr. Aikin— We would probably have to pay the freight 

 on them just the same ; whereas the tin comes to Denver 

 and our cans are put up right in Denver, and distributed 

 thruout the State and adjoining territory, and we have new 

 tin cans. I don't know of anybody in our part of the coun- 

 try who puts up honey in second-hand cans. Last year we 

 put our honey in five-gallon tin cans, otherwise called 60- 

 pound cans. Those cans are made, it is true, out of light 

 tin, and unless they are securely made, you can burst one 

 of them almost as easily as you could roil off a log. When 

 the honey is quite liquid, you put that honey into the cans 

 and let it stand for four weeks, and then you can ship it 

 across the continent and back again and it will be there 

 just the same ; it will candy solid. At least all the honey I 

 ever produced in Colorado, and that has been a good many 

 car-loads, would candy within a month, and will candy as 

 solid as any butter or lard you ever shipt. But why put it in 

 a 60-pound can ? What trade are we catering to, anyhow ? 

 It has come out at diflerent times here in this convention, 

 and in other ways, that the great bulk of the honey we 

 have been producing and taking such pains to get nice, 

 good honey for people to eat, goes where? Into tobacco, 

 into whisky or liquor of some kind or other— I don't know 

 what all it is put into. A representative from one of the 

 Chicago honey commission firms told us last year that the 

 great bulk of the extracted honey they bought and sold did 

 not go on the table as a table syrup. If that is true, use 

 your old, dirty barrels if you wish to, but we in the West 

 who have a good table " syrup " that can't be excelled any- 

 where in the United States, propose to put our honey into 

 cans. It is the cheapest package we can get. Every old 

 alcohol and glucose barrel is pickt up by the farmers and 

 others who want to take water on their ground for drinking 

 purposes. The cheapest barrel we could buy would cost us 

 $100, it wouldn't hold anything except water, and not al- 

 ways that. It is true that we could take the barrels and put 

 them out there and use them. I made a piece of furniture 

 in Iowa out of walnut, and it was put up several years be- 

 fore it went to Colorado. It stood all right until I'moved it 

 to Colorado ; after I got it in that dry climate, the cracks 

 opened up until you could stick your finger thru. That is 

 what the barrels would do if you shipt them from a damp 

 climate and let them stand a little time without redriving 

 the hoops. I tried that once on some barrels I had in Iowa 

 in use for three or four years. After they had stood in my 

 shop, I filled them with honey, having the hoops driven 

 tight and putting on iron hoops and drove them until I was 

 afraid I would burst the hoops, and then shipt them to Colo- 

 rado and let them stand in the sun a few days, and then 

 went around and could lift the hoops off from the barrels 

 with a finger. If the honey had not been candied it would 

 have been out on the ground. That cuts but little figure 

 with Wisconsin and New York people, and you who have 

 barrels and can use them and ship them to the factory. I 

 am producing honey and working on a different line alto- 

 gether. Mr. Moore wanted to know how I could sell 30,000 



pounds of honey in my local trade. I am making it a 

 staple, and as a staple it must compete with other sweets 

 of equal grade — that means granulated sugar with some 

 water poured into it to make a syrup. I am not catering to 

 the fancy trade, but when the poor people of this country 

 buy our extracted honey and use it as a syrup, they don't 

 want to buy a barrel of it, and they don't want it to be ex- 

 pensive, either. They don't want to pay 25 cents, or even 

 five cents, for a package that will hold five cents worth of 

 honey. I am going to hit Mr. York real hard while I am 

 on-.the floor, and if he undertakes to get after me, I want 

 you to get between us. Some of you remember reading in 

 the American Bee Journal an editorial by Mr. York criti- 

 cizing those of us who want to put our name and address 

 on our package, and he says, " Does the farmer put his 

 name and address on the bags of wheal^v and on his pota- 

 toes, and on his horses and cows ? " taking the whole list of 

 them, pretty much. " Does he put his name and address on 

 them when he sends them to market ? " The case isn't ap- 

 plicable at all ; his argument is altogther lame. The wheat 

 the farmer sells goes into a big bin with 1,000 other farm- 

 ers' wheat ; it is shipt in a car-load to the mill, the miller 

 grinds it, and when it becomes flour, every sack of it goes 

 out with the miller's brand on it, and it remains on it until 

 it goes into the family to be consumed. When Mr. York 

 buys my honey, if he buys it in barrels or 60-pound cans, 

 and puts it up in little packages to sell to the retail trade, it 

 doesn't make any difference whether I have my address on it 

 or not, it becomes then Mr. York's honey ; but when I ship 

 my comb honey that goes thru his hands to the retail trade, 

 and is never changed from the moment it leaves my hands 

 until it reaches the retail store, my name has a right and 

 my address has a right, to be on that package and remain 

 there until it goes to the consumer, or until it gets into the 

 store. I have a right to have my name and address on every 

 separate section, and in proof of my position I will ask 

 you if you can find any package whatever in foods that 

 is sent out in any other way. The name and address of the 

 packer or manufacturer is on that goods whenever the 

 goods goes right thru to its destination in the original pack- 

 age ; butter is so branded, eggs are not of course, because 

 an egg is an egg, and it is out of the question from the na- 

 ture of the product. Yet in the city of Denver, there is a 

 firm, I have been told within the last few days, who are 

 making a specialty of strictly fresh eggs, and when these 

 eggs go out to the different houses around the city, they go 

 out with the name and address of the firm putting them 

 up and guaranteeing them strictly fresh and all right. 

 Now, I will not take any further time on this particular 

 phase of it. But why continue with the large package ? 

 why waste any more time with that ? Do as I have been 

 doing — put your honey into the small retail package right 

 the first thing; put packages up in dozens, or any other 

 way, just as all kinds of fruit and other things, and put 

 them up and send them right to the consumer and let them 

 be used as a table syrup. My honey is put in lard-pails 3, 

 S, and 10 pound sizes, holding 4, 7, and 14 pounds of honey. 

 I put that honey into the pails at the honey-house. I re- 

 fuse to sell it, except to people right by me, until it has 

 candied solid ; then I take it to the stores, and the store 

 salesmen in my town to-day don't want liquid honey, 

 because they will pick it up and tip it on one side and read 

 the honey-label and then set it down and go off. Every 

 customer who wants to look at it will do the same thing. 

 Directly the honey is oozing out around the rim. When it 

 is candied, there is none of that trouble. I am sorry my 

 honey isn't here. I made a shipment by freight but it has 

 not yet arrived ; otherwise I could show you all of this. I 

 have the printed instructions right here, how to melt that 

 honey, and the people can learn, and will learn, and when 

 they come to the store they want a package that they can 

 take home, some syrup to go on their table as a staple, and 

 they don't want to pay any fancy prices for the package ; 

 it is simply to put on their tables. They want it in the cheap- 

 est package they can get, and so when it is in a candied 

 condition they take it home and melt it, and everyone 

 is better pleased. Some like it better in the candied condi- 

 tion, and want it put up in cans. I put it up so they can 

 have it either way. If they want it they can take it in the 

 pails and put them in their wagon and go home ; it can be 

 used in town or country, or in the mining camp ; outing 

 parties take it because there is no leakage, no bother get- 

 ting to their camping-ground. Let us quit looking so much 

 after the manufacturing trade and begin to put our honey 

 onto the table of the family, and we will do two things — 

 we will benefit the family, and we will take a lot of this 

 honey away from the manufacturer, and they will be com- 



