738 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



superstition in regard to curing diseases, and 

 the weather, etc., I felt sure there was also much 

 superstition in regai'd to animals. I have been 

 told that ordinary striped snakes are harmless. 

 Perhaps you have said so; but I find it almost 

 impossible to prevent everybody around here 

 from killing them as soon as they see them. I 

 try to cultivave their acquaintance whenever I 

 find them; and I confess that I begin to regard 

 them, as you say, like kittens and puppies; and 

 when they are doing great service in destroy- 

 ing bugs and insects, it certainly does seem too 

 bad that we should be so blind to our best in- 

 tei'ests. 



SELLING ON COMMISSION. 



SELLING HONEY FOK LESS THAN THE PRICE 

 QUOTED TO PKODUCEKS. 



Friend Root:— I have been very much inter- 

 ested in the articles on shipping and selling 

 honey, by the commission men, and I am sure 

 that those who sell in that way can profit by 

 studying said articles closely. Now, I know 

 there is a large portion of the people who believe 

 that all or nearly all commission men are up to 

 tricks, and make much of their money by mis- 

 representation. While I do not belong to this 

 class of people. I have one fault to find with 

 all commission men that I liave dealt with; 

 that is. quoting a certain price on honey, and 

 then, when they receive it, selling at a less' price, 

 although the market quotations showed no de- 

 cline in prices at the time. To illustrate: 



We write to a commission man in Kansas 

 City or St. Louis for quotation^, and in reply 

 we receive a very polite letter, stating that they 

 have special facilities for handling honey, and 

 can handle ours to advantage, etc.. and quoting 

 a fair price to-day. We sliip tlie honey, and 

 receive a card or letter stating that it was re- 

 ceived all right; and after waiting a month or 

 two we write to see what has been done with 

 our honey, and find it has been sold for a cent 

 or two less per pound than formerly quoted. If 

 not taking too much space, allow me to relate 

 one or two such transactions. 



I might here give some of the correspondence, 

 to show that I am unbiased in ray opinions, but 

 that would only be taking time and space for 

 only a small purpose. Last year we wrote to 

 Kansas City tor prices, and wei'e quoted K) cts. 

 for nice comb, and were advised to ship imme- 

 diately. We did so, and soon received a notice 

 that the honey was received in good order, and 

 was very nice. Soon we were advised of a de- 

 cline, and our man thought best to hold it for 

 better prices; and finally, after four or six weeks, 

 our honey was sold for 14 cts., which netted us 

 something over 11 cts. Had we known it, we 

 could have got 1,5 cts. net for this same honey, 

 without any great effort to dispose of it. 



Last February we shipped .3 cases, 6 60-lb. 

 cans of extracted honey, to Omaha, Neb. The 

 party there had quoted it at 9 cts. per lb. After 

 two months they had sold one (iO-lb. can at U 

 cts.. and allowed us 7 cts. for the other 300 lbs., 

 and charged us only ten per cent commission. 

 That is, they did not report the 300 lbs. sold, but 

 I presume they considered it sold to themselves 

 at 7 cts., and charged us only ten per cent for 

 making the sale. 



Now, friends, I try to have charity for all men, 

 and especially for those with wliom I have 

 dealings: neither am I much given to complain- 

 ing and fault-finding; yet I should like to know 

 why it is that honey always declines in price 



just after we ship, for we have invariably 

 received a less price for our honey than that 

 first quoted. This has been the case so often 

 that we have about abandoned the practice of 

 shipping on commission. 



And now, brother bee-keepers, are not we 

 somewhat to blame for crowding our honey into 

 the great market centers, such as Kansas City, 

 St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York, 

 etc., thus running the supply beyond the de- 

 mand, and cutting down the prices in these 

 places'? Then when we go to a small town and 

 try to sell honey at a fair price the merchant 

 will show you a St. Louis price current, quoting 

 Southern honey in barrels at .53^ to (5 cts., and 

 sometimes even lower. I tell you, you have to 

 talk like a good fellow if you make a sale at a 

 fair price. Yet with all this, the writer sold, in 

 small towns along the Mo. Pacific E. R., about 

 a thousand pounds of extracted honey at 10 cts. 

 per lb., in five-gallon cans. The can went free, 

 and in one-gallon cans we charged 123^ cts. for 

 the honey, can free. 



We also could have sold more comb honey 

 than we could supply, at 1.5 cts. net, and all of 

 this was sold where I presume there was not 

 100 lbs. sold before I went there. We intend 

 selling all or neai'ly all our honey tliis way in 

 the future. Why can not you do the same? 

 Keep more of the honey out of the great mar- 

 ket centers, and thus keep it up to a living price. 



Bluffton, Mo., Aug. 13. S. E. Miller. 



Friend M., I know there is a good deal of en- 

 couraging people to expect something they do 

 not realize, in getting trade in all departments 

 of business; but I am sure it is not a profitable 

 way. You will notice that I strike upon the 

 same subject in my present Home paper; but 

 we should be careful about being too general in 

 our charges. There are commission men in 

 Cleveland who .sold honey at a larger price than 

 they encouraged us to expect, though this is 

 the exception and not the rule. When you find 

 a commission man who has once done this, 

 hold fast to him, for you have discovered a 

 treasure. 



NYSEWANDER'S HONEY-EXHIBIT. 



AN ATTRACTIVE DISPLAY. 



I herewith give you a glimpse of our honey- 

 exhibit, made at the Iowa State Fair. Not- 

 withstanding the agricultural hall is large and 

 commodious. th(» room always seems limited, 

 and the exhibitor is sometimes i-equired to 

 make the room in height what it is lacking in 

 length. This is true with the exhibit shown. 

 It is about 14 feet in height and 25 feet in 

 length, c(mi]jrising extracted and comb honey, 

 supplies, etc. The amount of honey represent- 

 ed is about 4(XX) lbs. We were required to place 

 most of the extracted honey so far above the 

 heads of the people that shelving had to be 

 largely dispensed with to show up the glass jars 

 to the" b<'st advantage. The larger portion of 

 these wei'e therefore strung on wire. While 

 the row of jars did not appear quite as regular 

 as if shelving had been used, there was nothing 

 to obstruct the light at the back or the view in 

 front, and this more than made up for the 

 slightly irregular appearance, and the clear 

 jars of linn honey showed up very beautifully. 



By the way, the whole exhibit was purely of 

 linn honey. "The clover-fields that were early 

 so promising did little more in this vicinity 

 than to fill the hives when they suddenly with- 



