862 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



Mr. G. B. Shklton :— Your honey at hand, and we find by 

 propel- test that it is not satisfaetoi-y in regaid to flavor, and 

 will ask it yon want it returned, as we can not use it. 



Uniontown, Pa., Oct. 10, 189t). M. & B. 



Mr. George B. Shki.ton:— The honey arrived safely, and I 

 would have rcpiiecl earlier, hut Imve been away :i day or twd, 

 and been quite busy ;ilsu. I am r-on^- to say tli;it 1 ilo not like 

 the honey as well as what I have iornierly liad from y<iu, noi- 

 do my friends like it. It seems to have a taste and smell 

 like t'obaeco— that is the only thing that I can liken it to. 

 What is the matter with it? E. A. J. 



ItCharleroi. Fa. Oct. 15, 1890. 



DFi'ipnd S., I want to thank you, to coininenee 

 with, for your concluding postscript. Even if 

 you have been misused, and liave suffered, it 

 indicates that you feel neiyhhorly; and my ex- 

 perience indicates very strongly, that, if a man 

 wants to be treated in a nelgJiborly way. he 

 must cornjnence in a neighborly way. While 

 we do not agree to be responsible for mistakes 

 that railroads make, we certainly do not mean 

 to be indifferent to the interests of our custom- 

 ers. As we understand it, your honey passed 

 «ver three different railroads. This, of coui'se, 

 would add much to its charge. While every 

 -shipper should hi' ])r'epared to do his best in de- 

 ciding upon the ciieapest route by which to 

 send goods, as a general thing the one who 

 •orders the goods can tell better the best route 

 to have tiiein shipped. As a rule our customers 

 do indicate tlic route. Sometimes they tell us 

 if we think we can make a better route, to do 

 so; but it requires a man of large geographical 

 knowledge and experience, and one who keeps 

 constantly posted in regard to the railroad lines, 

 to be able" to help in this matter intelligently. 

 We are already provided with guides and books, 

 and every thing else that can help us in this 

 matter of transportation, and we are still work- 

 ing hard for better facilities and more knowl- 

 edge. I have often remonstrated with the 

 •clerks because of the brevity of their letters, 

 and a seeming lack of interest in the needs of 

 •our customei'S. But they often tell me, that, to 

 write at length, as I do, would take so much 

 time that it is entirely out of the question; and 

 as evidence of the truthfulness of their stand- 

 point tliey might point to great heaps of letters 

 •on my desk, to be answered if I ever get time to 

 •<lo it. I do wish, from the bottom of my heart, 

 that it were possible for me to look up every 

 tangle in business, and answer it at length; but 

 I fear, dear friends, you will have to accept the 

 will for the deed for a good part of it. Now 

 comes the real trouble. Our friend probably 

 asked for a sample of tln^ Arizona honey, and 

 we sent, as we supposed, honest samples. In 

 that carload from Arizona there were some- 

 thing like .5(X) si.\ty-pound cans of honey, nailed 

 up two in a box. The association that shipped 

 the honey I'eceived it from ten or twelve diflfer- 

 ent individuals. These individuals graded it 

 themselves, and marked the grade and quality 

 •on the outside of the boxes. When we first re- 

 ceived it we opened quite a large number of 

 cans, and the grading seemed to be so honest 

 and square that we accepted the labels on the 

 outside, without going to the tremendous task 

 of opening every one of these 3.50 boxes and 

 sampling the honey. It turned out afterward, 

 however, that we should have saved a deal of 

 trouble by doing just that very thing. Some- 

 body among the ten or twelve shippers was 

 either lacking in conscience, or else was so 

 heedless that his offense was about as bad. This 

 is nothing very strange. You can hardly go 

 into any community and find ten or a dozen 

 bee-keepers, or even farmers, who would not, 

 if they had a chance, work off a poor grade of 

 their product so as to get a high-grade price for 

 it. In fact, almost (ill of us have done more or 

 less of this kind of work until we learned by 

 experience that it would not do. Oh that I 

 could impress upon the minds of the readers of 

 ■Gleanings the fact that honesty is the best 



policy! We need men now in this present age 

 — and, oh there is such a .sff(? need of them ! — 

 who will i)nt up any thing for market in such a 

 way tliat a commission man oi' tiic purchaser 

 who gets llicin \\ ill kno\\' from the chdrdctcr of 

 the man that there is no need of breaking open 

 packages to see if they are honest throughout. 

 Friend Terry has built up his reputation, not 

 only on potatoes, but also on strawlx'i'ries. by 

 tills kind of honesty; and he lias Immmi exhorting 

 the whole nation, through his writings, and 

 through his institute work, to do just this very 

 thing. Dear friends, jn.st think of it! Friend 

 Sh(>lton says he would not have had his repu- 

 tation injured as it has been, for a JuiiKhrd dal- 

 hirs. and no doubt he is pretty neai'ly right 

 about it. This damage must be made good by 

 some one — that is, some satisfactory arrange- 

 ment must be made with these customers. If 

 the man who shipped poor-grade honey will not 

 do it, it falls upon us. It is like the story I told 

 a few weeks ago, about writing Breckenridge 

 County for Bracken County, only that was an 

 innocent blunder, perhaps, and this is the con- 

 sequence — at least it would seem so — of a delib- 

 erate attempt to defraud. 



We are now coming to something that cuts 

 close. Friend S., we want you to tell us what 

 initials were on those boxes of bad honey. And, 

 by the way, I think the time is coming when 

 every package of honey must have the address 

 on it of the iiroducer, and the producer must 

 stand responsible for the truthfulness of the 

 label outside. To do this is going to make a 

 good deal of trouble in raking up these transac- 

 tions; and especially getting them into print is 

 going to hurt somebody's feelings terribly, per- 

 haps. But it is the only true and sure founda- 

 tion upon which to build up a great trade in 

 our industry. This great trade has already got 

 a good start, and people are getting to have 

 confidence; and we as bee-keepers must fight 

 for this confidence, and must fight for our in- 

 tegrity, as we would fight for the American 

 flag.* It is the only solid rock on which any 

 industry can be built up. The butter and 

 cheese business have had to go through just 

 this kind of work, and they are going through 

 it now, and it is the same way with those who 

 produce and handle eggs. There is no way but 

 the honest way. The patriarch Job say: 



"As God liveth, who hath taken away my 

 judgment; and the Almighty who hath vexed 

 my soul; all the while ray breath is in me, and 

 the spirit of God is in my nostrils, my lips shnll 

 not speak urickedness, nor my tongue titter de- 

 celt."— {Job 27:2—4.) 



The italics in the above text are my own: 

 and the only course for us is to rise up in our 

 strength and in our might, and say with good 

 old Job, " My lips shall not speak wickedness, 

 nor my tongue utter deceit," not even though 

 bags of money that we sadly need are held out 

 as a bribe for just a little bit of deception. 

 nWe will try to give the outcome of our settle- 

 ment with friend S., in a later number. 



Now, dear friends, it is not the extracted- 

 honey men who are guilty. The same kind of 

 work comes up more or less in crating comb 

 honey. Very likely it is carelessness, or setting 

 somebody to work to help pack the honey who 

 does not "know any better than to put nice clean 

 white sections on the outside, and the dark 

 ones inside. Here are some letters below that 

 tell you how it works in our great cities: 



*A verse of my favorite liymn occurs to me here: 



Are there no foes for me to face? 



Must I not stem the Hood? 

 Is this vile world a friend to grace, 



To help me on to God! 



