Feb. 7, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



85 



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 page 75). 

 DISCUSSION ON SELLING HONEY CONTINUED. 



Mr. Moore — Mr. Eaton, the chemist of the Pure-Food 

 Commission, would like to say a word or two about label- 

 ing- packag^es, from the standpoint of the Pure-Food Com- 

 mission. 



Prof. Eaton — There is one interesting- thing just brought 

 up I forgot to mention, and that is, about the name and ad- 

 dress of the manufacturer being on every package ; that is 

 the only way honey can be sold in this State, at least in the 

 package sold to the consumer, the name and address of the 

 manufacturer must be on the package, not only in the case 

 of honey but every sample of food. There is just one 

 other thought that came to me as Mr. France, I believe, 

 was speaking about putting honey in glucose-barrels. Of 

 course, perhaps you are anxious to avoid the appearance of 

 evil -, I don't believe that is quite as necessary as it is to 

 avoid the evil itself. It is the adulteration we are looking 

 after. If they get the honey pure, they don't care so much 

 for appearance. I have noticed the worst adulterated honey 

 comes in the fanciest package. 



Mr. York — There are several things I would like to say. 

 I think some one said that the National Biscuit Co. used 

 more honey in barrels than in cans, or preferred it in large 

 packages. If I am not mistaken, they use more honey put 

 up in 60-pound cans than in barrels. The " body-blow " 

 that Mr. Aikin thought he gave me, I did not feel at all. 

 In fact, I would hardly have known that he was aiming at 

 me. He says he has a right to put liis name on every 

 package of his honey. True, he has a perfect right to do 

 so, but if I bought his honey I would take it off mighty 

 quick. Usually the way I put up my comb honey for sale 

 is with these wordson the printed carton : " York's Honey, 

 Absolutely Pure, Always the Best." Suppose I sell that 

 to grocers and they take it out of the carton and find R. C. 

 Aikin's name and address on the section. Wouldn't the gro- 

 cers think York was a fraud ? I have been advertising; I 

 have kept a man out at high expen.se to push "York's 

 Hone}'," and I think I have a right to have my name on 

 that honey and not the bee-keeper's name. It is none of 

 the public's business who produced that honey. When I 

 buy Mr. Aikin's honey, it is my honey, and I have a per- 

 fect right to do what I please with it. I can throw it in the 

 Chicago river if I want to, or give it to anybody. It is not 

 necessary for the consumer to know whose bees produced 

 it. There is a great difference between the adulterated 

 product and the honey produced by the bees. Mr. Eaton 

 said the label must be on every package — not the label of 

 the honey-producer, but of the man who puts it on the 

 market. 



Mr. Eaton — Either the manufacturer or the packer: 

 some one that we can hold responsible. 



Mr. York— So I say that every package that I put out in 

 that shape I have my name on, and I will guarantee it. I 

 am not working in Chicago alone. I boom the business of 

 Mr. Aikin when I pay him his price for his honey. For in- 

 stance, I know Mr. Moore sells honey in this city and gets 

 a good price for it. If he buys Mr. Aikin's extracted honey, 

 and puts Mr. Aikin's name on the pails in which he re- 

 tails it in Chicago, the consumer would thus learn that it 

 was R. C. Aikin who produced it, and think that next time 

 he (the consumer) will get his honey direct from Mr. Aikin. 

 Then Mr. Moore might as well go to hod-carrj'ing. He 

 can't afford to live here in the city and pay his expenses to 

 advertise Mr. Aikin's business. Do you see the point .' 

 When I buy a bee-keeper's hone)', that honey belongs to me, 

 and I stand back of every pound of it that I offer for sale. 

 I don't know that I can say anything more than I have. I 

 have had at least some experience, and believe you all know- 

 how I stand on this question. If you had had the experi- 

 ence I had last winter with honey, I am sure you would not 



use another honey-barrel while you keep bees. They are 

 dangerous. I lost one finger-nail myself from handling 

 honey in barrels ! You will remember while Mr. Bishop 

 was on the platform, yesterday he spoke of a bung coming 

 out — 



Dr. Mason— That was a can and the cover blew off i 

 [Laughter], 



Mr. York— I was going to tell about the 28 barrels of 

 honey that I had standing on end in my warehouse ; before 

 I knew it, the honey was leaking all over the floor, and I 

 had to transfer every barrel of that into tin cans, 



Mr. Poppleton— The honey we had did the same thing 

 in cans. " 



Mr. York— I lost scarcely any honey at all in cans. 

 But Mr. Burnett knows more about this subject than all of 

 us put together. He has handled much honey in his 20 

 years in Chicago, and I would like to have him close this 

 discussion, if he will. 



Mr. Burnett— I thought perhaps you had enough yes- 

 terday, but this discussion brings to my mind a little inci- 

 dent. I will relate it. If Dr. Mason takes exception to it, 

 you must draw your own conclusions. We will lay the 

 scene on the bridal tour. After a little lapse of time in 

 conversation, the lady turning said, "Who is sweet?" 

 The reply was, " Both of us." Now, this discussion on 

 packages has been sweet ; it is all right, and the condition 

 of the package will tell the tale when the honey is taken 

 out. If the package was properly prepared for the honey, 

 there will be no difficulty with the honey when it is taken 

 out. I have been given considerable credit here that I am 

 not entitled to, in my opinion, and therefore I would depend 

 wholly upon the circumstances and the conditions in which 

 you are situated. I know to put honey in a barrel in some 

 places would be almost to waste the honey. I don't know 

 that there is any place where honey in a can would be 

 wasted, providing the can was all right ; so the can may 

 have that much advantage over a barrel ; if they are leaky 

 and rusty, why the barrel is perhaps preferable to cans as 

 now used. One gentleman here spoke about using second- 

 hand cans. I never came nearer getting into trouble than 

 I did once on that question. I have been very, very careful 

 when askt by bee-keepers what sort of package to use for 

 their honey, for unless I knew all the circumstances con- 

 nected with their situation I could not advise, and on many 

 other questions I have endeavored to be conservative ; but 

 I knew where new cans were bought for honey, that noth- 

 ing had been in those cans before ; I bought the cans by 

 the car-load and shipt them to parties who filled them with 

 honey, and sold the honey, and as I could get the cans and 

 cases back from the parties to whom I sold the honey at a 

 low price compared with the cost of new, it seemed tome 

 those cans ought to be all right, and as far as I could see 

 they were all right ; so I wrote to my correspondent about 

 the matter, and he at once graspt the idea that that was 

 just the thing, that they could save at least a half a cent a 

 pound on their honey by so doing. Having committed my- 

 self that far, I got some of the cases and the cans and I be- 

 gan testing them, and found that there were difficulties' 

 that were quite unexpected ; but my correspondent got a 

 chance to get cans even cheaper — second-hand cans cheaper 

 than the ones I offered him— and he didn't wait for me to 

 sell them to him, but bought elsewhere, aud before he got 

 my letter (he had waited some time) he wrote me that he 

 had bought cans elsewhere, and unless I could make those 

 cans cheaper he guest he had enough. About that time I 

 had come to the conclusion I was not going to send them 

 to him, and I wrote back and said I was very glad to get his 

 letter saving he had enough ; if anything should hap- 

 pen that i half expected might happen, I didn't veant to be 

 a party to it. I think that happened some six or seven 

 years ago, and only this year I got a letter from him, and 

 he said, " There are a few of those second-hand cans that 

 I bought, that you may remember vrriting me about and 

 thinking they would be a good thing. Well, this is the last 

 of them— I will never have any more. You know of some 

 of the trouble I have had." He blames me now for being 

 a party to that, because I suggested the thing. I had not 

 investigated thoroly before I communicated my thought to 

 him. Now this is a warning to you who have not made any 

 mistake up to this time. If anybody undertakes to use 

 cans for honey that have been used for anything, if they 

 don't get caug'ht the first time, they are twice as liable to 

 get caught the second time with trouble; and if they don't 

 get caught the second time they are three times as liable to 

 get caught the next time ; and when they are caught, they 

 are caught hard ; they don't forget it. If I don't say any- 

 thing or talk about anything else, I think I have helpt ev- 



