26o 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



ketthem, and all that, there are journals 

 and books on the subject, but this matter 

 of bee-keepers embarking in the business 

 is sure t come up sooner or later, and I 

 don't think it is out of the way for the 

 Review to consider it to the extent of try- 

 ing to decide whether it is a desirable 

 adjunct to the bee business — provided, of 

 course, that the bee keeper wants an 

 adjunct. 



*»ll^fc»UF»^U» 



DI.SPOSING OF THE CROP. 



So many bee-keepers, after having 

 worked hard all summer, and produced a 

 good crop of honey, almost "fool it away" 

 when it comes to the marketing of the 

 crop. Some lose it entirely by sending 

 it to some irresponsible party. If all of 

 the losses of this kind were known, I 

 think some of us would be surprised. In 

 my travels among bee-keepers I am often 

 surprised to learn how men of apparently 

 good judgment have lost hundreds of 

 dollars by sending a crop of honey to 

 some swindler. Where is the bee-keeper 

 who ships his honey to distant markets 

 and has never been swindled? My losses 

 in this direction have been very small — 

 25 pounds of comb honey. This hap- 

 pened several years ago, when I lived at 

 Rogersville. Some firm in Detroit wrote 

 and wished to buy my crop of honey, but 

 before making an offer they wished to 

 see a sample. If my honey was nice, 

 white honey, they would pay 15 cents a 

 pound for it. They asked me to send 

 them, by express, a couple of cases. Upon 

 its arrival they would send the pay for it, 

 and make an offer for the whole lot. 

 They referred me to Bradstreet or Dunn, 

 or, if I preferred, I could send the honey 

 C. O. D. Mr. West, who then lived here 

 in Flint, sent seven cases of honey. An- 

 other man living here sent them 20 

 barrels of cider, having new barrels made 

 expressly to ship the cider in. This firm 

 of swindlers got a large amount of pro- 

 duce from all over the State in just this 

 way. They sold it for cash as soon as it 

 arrived, or else re- shipped it to another 



State. If one of the dupes went to De- 

 troit he could not find his goods, nor 

 anything else, for that matter, as nothing 

 was stored. It was either sold or shipped 

 at once. Of course, this firm soon found 

 it necessarj' to seek a cooler climate than 

 Detroit, but they had plenty of money 

 with which to buy winter clothing. 



Above all other considerations towers 

 this one of knowing, positively, within the 

 range of human possibilities, that the 

 firm to which you .send your produce is 

 al)solulely honest and reliable. Better 

 sell your comb honey at ten cents to a 

 firm that you know will pay you ten cents, 

 than to a firm that offers you 15 cents, 

 but about the honesty of which there is 

 the slightest doubt. This is so self-evi- 

 dent that it seems almost like folly to re- 

 peat it, but the transactions of every year 

 show that such advice is abundantly 

 needed. The strong point of these 

 swindlers is that they offer just a little 

 more than the market price. Not enough 

 more to arouse suspicion, but just enough 

 to lead the unsuspecting victim to believe 

 that, all things considered, this market is 

 the best. There is usually some plausi- 

 ble story goes with this offer — some ap- 

 parently reasonable reason why this slight 

 advance in price can be made. Before 

 sending honey to a firm, see how they 

 are quoted in the commercial agencies. 

 Consult their references if they give any. 

 If they don't, then ask for references. 

 This alone will not answer. Swindlers 

 have a way sometimes of getting a fair 

 rating in commercial agencies' books, 

 or of getting good references frotrf some 

 bank by depositing money that may be 

 withdrawn later. A good rating and 

 good reference, count; but, as I have 

 said, they are not everything. In ad- 

 dition to this, I would advise a shipper 

 who is in doubt, to write to the bee jour- 

 nals. A great mass of correspondence 

 goes through the hands of an editor. If 

 a firm is shaky, or is not dealing fairly 

 with its customers, the editor is sure to 

 get a hint of it right away. If a firm 



