298 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15 



stopped last fall, the largest sale being six 12- 

 Ib. cases. The rest has been peddled or sold to 

 the local grocery trade in 12-lb cases. 



The most profitable trade has been in unfin- 

 ished sections, two for 25 cts. These have gone 

 like hot cakes on a cold morning. 



Peddling honey, like other bueiness, has its 

 unpleasant side; but when people find that 

 you are selling good honey at a fair price they 

 will buy of you much sooner than from a gro- 

 cery. 



Some of ray best customers are from the city 

 (Bridgeport). They drive out to the apiary 

 and buy several pounds at a time. 



The fraud-killer of Gleanings should get 

 after the YotLth''s Cornpanion. They are ad- 

 vertising Electropoise. 



Oronoque, Ct., Mar. 24. 



VEXATIONS OF THE MIDDLEMAN. 



TROUBLES OF THE COMMISSION MEN, FROM A 

 COMMISSION man's STANDPOINT. 



By C. F. Muth. 



There is nothing more natural for farmers, 

 bee-keepers, and producers in general, than to 

 endeavor to get the top of the market for their 

 products. As a rule, producers work hard; 

 and the extremely low prices prevailing during 

 the late years have caused sore disappointments 

 to all, but not to producers only. Good prices, 

 a good demand, and satisfactory margins, go 

 generally together, and the reverse is the case 

 in adverse times. We are always ready to take 

 the producer's part, for the very reason that 

 most of us are, more or less, in the same boat. 

 But self-interest often makes us judge others 

 harshly and unjustly. To prove this I will cite 

 two cases in my experience of last winter, even 

 ifsomeof oi'r friends will take sides against 

 the mid ilemaii. 



Coiiiu honey was in very good demand with us 

 last fall. We sold considerable. The honey 

 crop having been an entire failure in Southern 

 Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana, we received our 

 supplies from Northern Ohio, Michigan, Penn- 

 sylvania, and New York. Quality was rather 

 Indifferent; but supplies were insufficient. We 

 bid on a number of carloads of western honey, 

 and received two carloads from California. We 

 bought " choice white " only, but did not object 

 to a small portion of each car being " No. 2." 

 Our prices for the first car were 12 cts. per lb. 

 for " choice white," and 10 cts. for '" No. 2," f. o. 

 b. Cincinnati. We advanced $850, and freight 

 was about $6.50, and we agreed to remit the bal- 

 ance in 30 days after the arrival of the car. 



A rough day on the farm keeps me in the 

 house, and gives me a chance to write this ar- 

 ticle. If I don't give the exact figure in every 

 instance you will have to make due allowance 

 for my quoting from memory. 



The car had been loaded poorly; vacant 

 spaces had been left, which had given the 

 cases a chance to slide and bump together 

 during their journey. It'required steady work 

 for our own folks, and two extra men, for a 

 week or more, to overhaul and repack the hon- 

 ey. All broken combs were assigned to the 

 straining-bucket, as we could do nothing else 

 than make strained honey out of it. Our friend 

 was credited 5 cts. per lb. for his broken combs, 

 which was 2 cts. more than we should offer 

 were we to buy any. There were 300 to 450 

 cases of pretty nice honey in the car, not choice 

 white, but a good salable article, while all the 

 rest were of indifferent quality. We found, in 

 the same cases, fair white and dark combs as 

 well as very unsightly combs of different col- 

 ors; old combs refilled, and many combs with 

 granulated honey. I told my friend that about 

 half of his honey should never have been ship- 

 ped from California to Cincinnati. He is, no 

 doubt, a good man, as his near relatives, who 

 live near our city, are good people; but he had 

 not personally superintended the packing of 

 his cases, and he had not been careful in load- 

 ing his car. I paid him 5, 7, 8 (or 10), and 12 

 cts. per lb. respectively, for his honey. My 

 California friend could not believe my story to 

 be true until his brothers called on us and were 

 convinced of the facts. 



The second car contained about 34,000 lbs. 

 net of comb honey. We had agreed to pay 10 

 cts. for " choice white," and 8 cts. for No. 2, 

 f. o. b. California (San Francisco, I believe). 

 We advanced $2600, and paid freight, $475. All 

 arrived in the best of order — not a comb brok- 

 en; but, oh my I the quality — all yellow! His 

 " choice white " was not even No. 3. The front 

 rows, behind the glass fronts, looked pretty 

 nice. They look nice yet, for only about a 

 third of it is sold; but behind the front rows 

 there is any kind of honey. We had shipped, 

 before we were posted, a number of small lots, 

 say 25 cases each, more or less, to Louisville, 

 Indianapolis, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, To- 

 ledo, and other places. All were returned to 

 us excepting the lot from Louisville. A reduc- 

 tion of l>^cts. per lb. induced the latter party 

 to keep it. It seems that this honey had been 

 put up to cheat. Since we are posted, we over- 

 haul it all, and do the best we can with it, 

 throwing the bad combs into the straining- 

 buckets. According to the original statement, 

 we owe this party about $800 yet, which we re- 

 fuse to pay. We so stated to him, adding that 

 we are sorry that it was not $1,500 Instead of 

 $800, as we should certainly refuse to pay the 

 larger sum, knowing that it would not cover 

 our loss. I told him, furthermore, to send a 

 friend to satisfy him of our statement's being 

 correct, and that we would pay his fare both 

 ways from any station this side of the Rockies 

 if he should find my statement not true. That 



