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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



of them. It seems as I stated, that there are 

 some disreputable firms that talk big, general- 

 ly without any commercial rating, who are 

 banded together for the purpose of bleeding 

 bee-keepers of their honest hard earnings. As 

 I explained in our last issue, their scheme is to 

 offer quotations on comb and extracted honey, 

 considerably above the market, in order to get 

 consignments. If they can get a producer to 

 make an outright sale, that is just what they 

 want; because then they do not have to pay 

 for the honey, nor can they be forced to, because 

 they are irresponsible and non -collectable. If 

 sent on commission, then of course the honey is 

 the property of the bee-keeper, and they have 

 got to render some returns or take the conse- 

 quences. 



One firm quotes white-clover honey in one- 

 pound sections, choice, 15^ to IGi-i, when they 

 know perfectly well that the market of Chicago 

 is only 12 and 13 cts. Again, they quote bright 

 pure beeswax at 32 to 35 cts., when they know 

 perfectly wtll the right quotation is about 22 to 

 35. 



Now, you may wonder why we do not give 

 the name of this firm. We are at present mak- 

 ing a very thorough investigation, and if we 

 discover from reports that they are an out- 

 and-out fake we will give our readers their 

 name. In the mean time we want to caution 

 you in regard to a class of circulars from com- 

 mission houses, making quotations above regu- 

 lar well-known houses. 



Now, let me caution you again, as I did in 

 last issue, don't, <7on't send your money to firms 

 you don't know any thing about, even though 

 they talk glibly about bank references, their 

 high standing, their long experience, and all 

 that. Just send their names on to us, and we 

 can tell you very quickly whether or not they 

 are responsible. 



SHIPPING HONEY BY FREIGHT C. O. D. 



If you must ship your honey ;to some new 

 firm, or to some firm concerning whom you do 

 not feel exactly satisfied with, and yet who ap- 

 pear to have good bank references, proceed in 

 this way : Consign your honey to your own name, 

 in the city or town where the honey is to be sent. 

 Go to your nearest bank, with the bill of lading, 

 and request them to make out a sight draft 

 for the amount of the bill, and forward it with 

 the bill of lading to their corresponding bank 

 In the town or city where the honey is consign- 

 ed. The bank at that place will, on receipt of 

 the money, turn over to the parties the bill of 

 lading, which will entitle them to get the hon- 

 ey at the railway station, and you, in the mean 

 time, will get the cash. 



This is the ordinary way of sending honey or 

 any other commodity by freight C. O. D.; but 

 in this case the bank or banks take the place of 

 the express company as custodians of your 



property, and do not surrender it over until the 

 same has been properly paid for. In many 

 cases the banks, on presentation of the sight 

 draft, make a liberal advance atonce, providing 

 the customer for your honey is known to them. 

 Their rate of charge, usually, for such service, 

 is a minimum of 25 cts.; on larger amounts, 

 about one-fourth of one per cent. 



If the party desiring your honey does not pay 

 for the same, or refuses to take it, you can in- 

 struct the bank to turn it over to some other 

 commission house; but it is never wise to ship 

 honey in this way unless you are tolerably cer- 

 tain that the firm desiring to purchase it will 

 take and pay for it. If it refuses, you must go 

 to the expense and trouble of finding another 

 house, carrying on the negotiations by tele- 

 graph, and perhaps of accepting terms which 

 may be considerably less than what you would 

 be willing to take, except for the fact that the 

 honey is already shipped, and at its destination, 

 in the hands of the railroad company, and must 

 be disposed of at once. 



CREATING YOUR OWN HOME MARKET. 



I have nothing to say against reliable com- 

 mission houses; but even with the most honor- 

 able of them, sometimes dissatisfaction arises. 

 And then, too, you must understand, when you 

 ship honey on commission, that you have to 

 pay cartage, freight, and commission of gener- 

 ally 10 per cent. The result is, that you can 

 not get more than 85 per cent of the market 

 quotations, and more often not over 75 per cent.* 

 And then, too, when everybody consigns honey 

 to the city it has a strong tendency to de- 

 press prices. Honey, like every thing else, is 

 subject to the law of supply and defiiand. Re- 

 duce the supply in the cities, and the prices 

 must necessarily go up. 



A good deal has been said about selling hon- 

 ey around home; but it will do no harm to say 

 more about it. F. A. Snell and others have 

 been writing in our columns of late a series of 

 articles on peddling honey, and creating a home 

 market; and there are hundreds and hundreds 

 of bee-keepers, thrifty ones, who every year 

 sell their honey at a large advance over the 

 regular market quotations in their cities. Our 

 friend Dan White, of New London, O., a bright 

 and progressive bee-keeper, sells his honey 

 around home; and he told me, a few days ago, 

 that he always expected to get several cents 

 more per pound for his honey, even including 

 cost of labor in disposing of it, than he could 

 get by shipping it to the city. H. G. Acklin, of 

 St. Paul, is another example; F. A. Snell an- 

 other; Geo. D. Vinal another, and so I might 

 give you quite a list. 



* At the Chicago State Convention it was figured 

 by the members present that, when comb honey is 

 quoted at 14 cts., the net amount received by the 

 producer (after commission, cartage, freight, leak- 

 age, and shipping-cases liave been deducted) is only 

 10 cts., or only 71 per cent of the market quotation. 

 —Ed. 



