1910 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



105 



such as to have caused a considerable rise. 

 Bee keepers are advised to analjze and con- 

 sider thoroughly their correspondence with 

 dealers, and to consign to the fire all such 

 conditional offers and the accept-by-return- 

 mail sort as well. 



One of the greatest obstacles to be over- 

 come, if better prices are to be realized, lies 

 directly at the door of a goodly number of 

 bee-keepers. To illustrate, one of our best 

 bee-keepers, having sold his crop of honey 

 early in the season, wrote an urgent letter 

 asking me to send him a sample of a certain 

 grade of honey and to quote price. In reply 

 a price was named, not above current quo- 

 tations, as it was not strictly a table honey in 

 this market The answer received was to 

 the effect that he could not purchase at that 

 price — that he thought he had sold out at too 

 low a price, and that he would lose money 

 by purchasing. That the crop was sold out 

 early in the season, and the price established 

 at a figure so low as to preclude paying the 

 jobbing price to fill -mall orders, snows 

 plainly where much of the trouble lies. 



Hear ye, you bee-keepers who are produc- 

 ing fine honey and selling it retail at jobbing 

 prices! can you not s e that you are working 

 an injustice to the whole fraternity without 

 any benefit to yourself? for if you are obliged 

 to or prefer to sell at jobbing prices, then 

 you can get as much from the dealer, and 

 you will oe money ahead in the end if you 

 charge the wholesale or retail price accord- 

 ing to the classification of your customer, 

 and the amount sold for what you dispose of 

 in a small way. 



You know that honey is nectar secreted in 

 the blossoms of numerous plants, and gath- 

 ered, stored, and ripened by the bees; that 

 it is the purest and most wholesome of 

 sweets; that it comes direct from the hands 

 of the Creator, perfect in every particular, 

 while all other sweets require the interven- 

 tion of man, machinery, and usually the use 

 of chemicals in their preparation for use; 

 that physicians frequently prescribe honey 

 for their patients, and deny them sugar and 

 other artificially prepared sweets, which 

 plainly shows that scientific men who know, 

 regard the latter as un^vholesome and injuri- 

 ous in many cases where the former is 

 wnolesome and beneficial. 



Kenmore, N Y. 



Continued in next issue. 



THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. 



Too Many Retailers for the Number of 

 Producers; Co-operative Selling. 



BY OLIVER FOSTER. 



The steadily increasing cost of living has 

 aroused the people to such an extent that 

 the problem is a national issue. S cretary 

 Wilson has given some of the vital facts in 

 the case, the corporations and tru ts are 

 not entirely to blime, though they are no 

 doubt responsible for the failure of Congress 

 to revise the tariff downward. This end of 



the argument concerning high prices has 

 been the subject of thousands of news aper 

 articles and editorials. What I say will not 

 deal with this, but will be along the line Sec- 

 retary Wilson took when he stated that the 

 retail price of meat was thirty-eight per cent 

 above the wholesale. The waste of time and 

 effort in the small shop is very great, and 

 should have the serious consideration of all 

 thinking people. 



The re I ail business in meat and groceries 

 is tremendously overdone. Tne statement 

 of commercial agencies, that ninety-five per 

 cent of men in ousiness fail is easily believ- 

 ed when one looks at the men who go into 

 the grocery business because they have the 

 mistaken notion that any one can keep store. 

 Farmers, gardeners, tradespeople, etc., buy 

 a stock of groceries for five or six hundred 

 dollars, and proceed to embark in business. 

 The unfitness of this class of men "to make 

 a go " of retailing is shown by the statement 

 when I approach them on the honey propo- 

 sition: "Oh! we can't sell honey, for we 

 never have any call for it." And no won- 

 der. Their idea that business would come 

 to them unsought shows why they can't sell. 



The man who is a real merchant is always 

 willing to give a little time to look into every 

 proposition to see if there is a chance to cre- 

 ate a demand for the article among his cus- 

 tomers. If the goods are choice, such a mer- 

 chant will display and push the line among 

 his cusiomers. 



But most of the retailers are of the small 

 variety, not having enough business to keep 

 themselves, their help, nor their horse busy 

 half the time. It costs just as much whether 

 the ice box holds two ions of meat or only a 

 few links of sausage; the ice melts just as 

 fast, and ice costs money during the whole 

 year. There are something like seven hun- 

 dred retailers of meats and groceries in Den- 

 ver. One hundred could do the work better 

 at a great saving in operating expenses. To 

 hive the most economical methcds in fpera- 

 tion we need something like the public-util- 

 ity corporatii ns in charge of the retail meat 

 and grocery business of cties. I do not 

 think a large corpoiation in control of the 

 retailing business would be likely to lower 



E rices unless forced to do so by legislation, 

 ut the business would be carried on in a 

 more sanit .ry way. The ice-boxes could be 

 larger, and the order that comes out of sys- 

 tem in management would give us better 

 food. 



The great number of retailers who are 

 merely existing in the grocery business could 

 more profi ably join the ranks of the produc- 

 ers. The producers could very easily f ■ 'rm 

 co-operative associations with city stations 

 for d stributiun. The lines that could be 

 handled m'ght include milk, eggs, cheese, 

 butter, honey, and produce ot ail kinds. 

 This is practicable now, as many en amery 

 companies ''umpost d of farmers are sel ing 

 all hese kinds of farm produce from their 

 City stations. As yet nothing has been done 

 to bring about a more economical manage- 

 ment in the distribution of meats and gro- 



