794 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 1. 



mission-men. Tlie other kind may be a necessary 

 evil, though I am inclined to doubt "it. 



I sometimes tiiinli that honey commission-men 

 are just what bee-keepers make them, or allow 

 them to become. But some of them, I must con- 

 fess, are as "wise as serpents" and fully as harm- 

 ful. It is surprising how easily otlierwise wide- 

 awake bee-keepers pei'mit themselves to be "roped 

 in" by flaming- honey-circulars, sent out by new 

 and untried honey commission-men, quoting high 

 prices for honey, if those who receive such con- 

 signment-.solicitiug circulars would stop to consider 

 lor only a moment, it seems to me they would be 

 wise enough to know that any quoted prices higlier 

 than those given in tlie market columns ot the bee- 

 papers, must be entirely fictitious, and wholly un- 

 reliable — simply thrown out as tempting "bait" to 

 catch the unwary ana easily duped. 



I know that we all like to get high prices for our 

 honey or other products, and yet we sliould not be 

 such blanked fools as 10 suppose that a new honey- 

 commission firm can secure better prices than an 

 old firm that perhaps has worked up a large and reg- 

 ular demand for honey in its years of upright deal- 

 ing. 



Then the proper thing for honey-producers to do. 

 Is to let new hont-y-commission firms entirely and 

 severely alone, uytless satisfied beyond all doubt of 

 their ability and willingness to do just as they pro- 

 pose. 



Residing in what is thoiight by many to be the 

 greatest honey -market in the world— Cliicago— I am 

 often placed in a position to discover some things 

 about the doings of lioney commission-men that few 

 have the opportunity to learn. For instance, you 

 come to Chicago with one or more carloads of hon- 

 ey. You call upon a large hone.vcommission firm; 

 they of course are fully informed as to the needs of 

 the market, or, if necessai'y, they can easily com- 

 municate by telephone with all the other large 

 honey-dealers. In fact, no one will make you an 

 offer, but keep you running from one firm to an- 

 other, yet always wanting to know .i/oi*?- figures on 

 the honey— just what you are asking foi- it. After 

 one of the firms finally purchases your honey— like- 

 ly at their own figure— they will offer to divide it 

 with the other honey commission-men at an ad- 

 vance of perhaps V2 cent per pound, or even at the 

 same price they paid for it. Thus you .see they 

 really can work together, and there is practically 

 no competition whatever. 



Firms with plenty of available cash capital can 

 feuy honey outright, in carload lots, at a greatly re- 

 duced rate, and throw it on the market at a very 

 slight advance— say one or two cents per pound on 

 carload lots— thus making from $2.50 to $300 per car- 

 load, and running the market price down. On the 

 other hand, permit me to quote two sentences from 

 a private letter that I received from an honest 

 honey-commission firm last February, referring to 

 another firm who claim to have plenty of cash cap- 

 ital, but some of whose dealings will hardly bear 

 investigation. The two sentences read thus: ^wm^-t 



" Tlieij boldly say that we are the cause of grocers 

 having to pay over 10 cents per pound for choice 

 comb honey. Our competition makes honey cost 

 fhem so much — more than it otherwise would ! " 



Again, the dishoncut lioney commission men have 

 every thing in their own hands, once they have 

 your honey in their possession. There is scarcely a 

 law by which you can hold them in case you catch 

 them at all. They can sell your consigned honey 

 for whatever they please, and return to you as little 

 as they please. You have only to submit, and next 

 time let such alone, if you are wise. 



But there are honest honey commission -men. 

 What producers should do, is to find such, and en- 

 courage them as much as possible by giving them 

 their patronage and endeavoring to aid them in 

 ever.v way they can— by preparing and packing 

 their honey as the particular market requires, and 

 allowingthem tobe the judges as to the best time 

 to sell. By crowding the honest and careful com- 

 mission-men, you may often cause the loss of quite 

 a good deal on your shipment. Forced sales must 

 always be at the lowest figures. 



But honey commission-men are not the worst evil 

 with which honey-producers must contend, as we 

 shall presently see. 



The world has had what is known in ai'chseology 

 as "Ages"— the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and 

 the Iron Age. But just now we seem to be in the 

 midst of another "Age," namely, the Adulteration 

 Age ! It appears that every thing susceptible of 



adulteration is besmirched with this growing, dev- 

 astating fraud. Sanded sugar, eorncobbed maple 

 syrup, watered milk, paraffined Ijeeswax, and glu- 

 cosed or corn-syruped honey. But enough for our 

 consideration, perhaps, is that of honey adultera- 

 tion. 



Who are the slimy bipeds, guilty of the adultera- 

 tion of our pure, sweet product? They are mainly 

 the cit.v wholesale grocers, the syrup-mixers, and 

 some of the so-called honey commission-men ! I am 

 credibly informed that out of 40 of the largest city 

 customers of a certain Chicago honey-dealer, 37 

 adulterate the honey they purchase ! Think ot 

 that, my fellow bee-keepers ! How many times 

 over can those 37 frauds multiply the honey prod- 

 uct, when the price of glucose to-day in Chicago is 

 but a trifle over one cent per pound ? 



You have often seen one-pound tumblers holding 

 a clear liquid with a piece of honey-comb in It. 

 Well, at least one honey commission-man in Chica- 

 go puts up such, and there is just one cent's worth 

 of pure honey in each tumbler, and the rest is glu- 

 cose. It retails at 10 cents, and costs 3 cents, in- 

 cluding the glass tumbler. 



Why is glucose used almost wholl.y as a honey 

 adulterant ? Because it carries no taste or flavor of 

 its own— so that when only a little honey is added it 

 gives the honey flavor to the whole. Another rea- 

 son is, that glucose does not granulate as does most 

 of the pure extracted honey; this latter is looked 

 upon with suspicion, hence as glucose does not can- 

 dy, it is a feature in its favor with the uneducated. 



The agent of one Chicago adulterating firm said 

 the.y had to have a piece of comb in each tumbler, 

 as that is the only way people would buy honey (?) 

 put up in glasses nowadays. And that shows there 

 is a great laclc of education or information on the 

 part of the consumers these days concerning pure 

 honey. 



So long as the glucose business holds out, it mat- 

 ters not how limited is the genuine honey product 

 on the market, under existing circumstances. 



Now, fellow bee-keepers, what can we do to stop 

 this gigantic evil which threatens to destroy the le- 

 gitimate and honorable industry of honey-produc- 

 tion ? Why. M?w'fc, and pusJi for the enactment of a 

 prohibitory law that will compel the entire cessation 

 of honey and other adulteration, or the requirement 

 that every package of food products offered for 

 sale shall bear upon it, in conspicuous letters, the 

 true name or names of the contents. Then if the 

 consumer desires to purchase glucosed honey, let 

 him do so, and not be deceived^ into buying the 

 adulterated article when he thinks he is getting the 

 simon-pure honey. 



But some will say, "You can't enforce such a 

 law ! " I say wc can. How ? Elect men to office, 

 and not politicians ; men who are honest, who are 

 not afraid to do their duty. Then when our officers 

 attempt to put down our common enemy— the honey 

 adulterators— let us give them all the help within 

 our power, instead of standing around and whining, 

 " You can't enforce it ! " 



Until bee-keepers have in their hands this legal 

 weapon with which to pulverize the monster of 

 honey-adulteration, I can see in the future no en- 

 couragement for our beloved pursuit. But equipped 

 with an adequate anti-adull eraiion law, bee-keeping 

 would go marching onward with the full assurance 

 that its devotees have an even chance to become 

 thrifty and prosperous in a pursuit that endeavors 

 to place upon the table in every home, one of Heav- 

 en's purest and best sweets— honey, as gathered by 

 the blessed bee. Geo. W. York. 



Chicago, 111., Oct. 1, 1896. 



Just as we go to press the American Bee 

 Journal has come to hand with the inlorma- 

 tion that George T. Wheadon has been arrested 

 on a warrant charging him with obtaining 

 money on false pretenses. It seems he sold 840 

 tubs of butter, and several dozen cases of eggs 

 for a Wisconsin farmer, and failed to turn over 

 the proceeds. I also learn through the same 

 periodical that another commission house is 

 still sending out circulars on white paper after 

 the Wheadon stripe, and claiming to be one of 

 the largest dealers in the country. 



