May, 1916. 



167 



Amorican Hee Journal 



Comb Honey and the Federal 

 Net Weight Law 



BV FRANK RAUCHFUSS. 



lAmoni; the producers of comb honey on 

 a large scale who are able to see both sides 

 of this question, none is in a better position 

 to k'ive the consumers' side than Mr. Krank 

 Rauchfuss. of Denver, who has handled 

 hundreds of carloads of honey for the Col- 

 orado Honey Producers. We sent him a 

 copy of Mr. Coverdalj's Utter and insert 

 his comments, thus givintr both sides of the 

 " net weight " Question.— Editor. 1 



QUESTION :— Is the application of 

 the net weight law to comb honey 

 justifiable ? 

 My answer would be, mosi assuredly. 

 I will state a few reasons why, by show- 

 ing up some of the weak spots of honey 

 marketing conditions, past and present. 

 Comb honey in glared sections was 

 being sold by weight. The consumer 

 ordering a pound of honey and gener- 

 ally paying a fancy price for it, 25 to 

 30 cents received from 8 to 9 ounces of 

 actual honey, comb included. This 

 looks pretty much like a case of selling 

 glass and wood and throwing a little 

 honey in the bargain. 



Is it any wonder these consumers got 

 the idea that comb honey is a luxury 

 that only the wealthy can afford? We 

 have seen some cute tricks played by 

 producers to get the best of the other 

 fellow ; one party used tall two-piece 

 sections, to make the honey weigh up, 

 the bottom piece of the section was 

 made of y^-inch lumber. 



Others in localities where comb 

 honey was sold by the case, adopted 

 narrow sections, inducing the building 

 of a thin comb, so as to give as little 

 honey as possible and still make a fair 

 showing. 



We have seen cases of non-separa- 

 tored honey, the front sections facing 

 the glass looking all right, but woe to 

 the fellow who would buy by front ap- 

 pearances, back of this front could be 

 found pot-bellied sections weighing 20 

 ounces, next correspondingly lean 

 ones weighing only 12 ounces ; in some 

 instances two or three sections would 

 be found built solidly together, so they 

 had to be handled and sold as a unit. 



We don't want to imply that separa- 

 tored honey could not be found just as 

 objectionable, because there are some 

 beekeepers who would not hesitate to 

 put white and dark honey, light and 

 heavy sections and even culls in the 

 same case ; to the utter disgust of every 

 person who has anything to do with 

 such a case thereafter. 



With such conditions existing in the 

 principal markets of the country, the 

 dealer should not be blamed for refus- 

 ing to handle comb honey. 



/t is a ivell established fact, that no 

 commodity can be handled satisfactorily 

 in large quantities aud with profit to the 

 producer of it, unless it is conscientiously 

 graded and packed in uniformfackages. 

 The closer the producer can come to 

 the ideal of having all sections of 

 honey in a case practically alike in 

 color, weight and finish the better 

 price he will realize, when a fair 

 minded dealer finds that he can abso- 

 lutely depend upon said beekeeper's 

 pack. 



Now, let us see what effect a reason- 

 able enforcement of the federal net 

 weight law has in bettering the above 



mentioned conditions. 



The beekeeper who wishes to put up 

 comb honey in glazed sections still en- 

 joys this privilege, but he has to mark 

 each section either witli the actual net 

 ivtight or a certain adopted minimum 

 net weight. The consumer, who is 

 willing to pay for glass, can readily see 

 about how much actual honey he gets. 



The beekeeper who previously used 

 thick lumber in his sections will not 

 see any profit in doing so any longer 

 and adopt regular stock material. 



The production of thin-conib, light- 

 weight sections is also likely to be 

 dropped, since net weights must be 

 stated. 



Non-separatored honey will likely be 

 a thing of the past in many markets, as 

 it will be very difficult to comply with 

 the net weight law when packing a 

 poorly produced ■ article. We realize 

 that some beekeepers do produce a 

 very satisfactory article of non-separa- 

 tored comb honey, but it cannot be de- 

 nied that their number is surprisingly 

 small. 



The majority of beekeepers who do 

 produce a good article of comb honey 

 and who are willing to grade and pack 

 their honey in an honest and business- 

 like manner, will no doubt soon realize 

 that the federal net iveight laiv does not 

 increase the cost of firoduction materially 

 (if weighing and grading is done in 

 large quantities the cost of weighing 

 will not exceed two cents per case), 

 while the elimination of the aforesaid 

 objectionable features cannot help to 

 but ultimately bring prices to a more 

 uniform basis. 



By grading and packing our honey 

 right, by enabling the consumer to 

 readily find well-produced honey, which 

 is properly marked, attractively dis- 

 played and is sold at a reasonable price ; 

 by our working either co-operatively 

 or individually to accomplish this end 

 and by supplementing it with well 

 directed advertising, we should soon 

 be on the way of seeing pure honey in 

 one form or the other on the tables of 

 the majority of our people. 

 Denver, Colo. 



That Net Weight Law 



BY DR. C. C. MILLER. 



IN considering the law as to marking 

 weight on sections, the first thing 

 we must do is to dismiss from our 

 minds the thought that the law is made 

 for the benefit of the producer. It is 

 made for the benefit of the consumer. 

 That is as it should be ; the greatest 

 good to the greatest number; and the 

 number of consumers is twenty, fifty, 

 a hundred-fold more than that of the 

 producers. If the consumer gains 

 more than he loses by having the 

 weight stamped on the section, then 

 the section should be so stamped, " and 

 there's an end on't." 



No use to say that there's any impos- 

 sibility about weighing each section. 

 Thousands upon thousands of sections 

 have been accurately weighed ; in fact, 

 in years gone by the great majority of 

 them were thus weighed. The fact 

 that they were weighed by the grocers 

 doesn't change the case ; if a grocer 

 could weigh them so could a bee- 

 keeper. 



"Oh, but the grocer can weigh them 

 one at a time as he sells them, and the 

 beekeeper with 1000, 10,000, or more to 

 be weighed all in one lot would be 

 swamped." Well, now, which will con- 

 sume the greatest sum total of time, to 

 weigh 1000 sections all in one job, 

 with everything in the most convenient 

 shape for it, or to have a grocer make 

 a separate job of each one, in many 

 cases adding the time of the customer 

 who stands waiting ? 



"But do you realize that a man with 

 20,1100 sections to be got ready to ship 

 at a given time would be utterly unable 

 to get through so long a job in the 

 given time ?" Well, there is no law 

 against hiring extra help, and there are 

 plenty of people waiting to accept such 

 a nice little job as weighing sections. 



Of course, when the grocer weighs 

 the section he gets his pay for that ex- 

 tra work by the extra profit he gets on 

 the section. If the weighing is shifted 

 from the grocer to the producer, and 

 if the producer can do the weighing as 

 cheaply as the grocer, then the cost to 

 the consumer should not be increased. 

 "Well, if you insist upon anything of 

 the kind, the beekeepers ought to be 

 paid for the extra work, while the fact 

 is that they'll not get a cent more, and 

 the result will be that they will be 

 driven out of the business, and there 

 will be no comb-honey produced. Do 

 you want that ?" That would be rather 

 deplorable, and if you can establish it 

 as a fact^or if you can establish the 

 fact that consumers would lose more 

 than they would gain by the stamping 

 of each section, then it is a pretty clear 

 case that the law should be repealed. 



It is pretty certain that it is to the 

 advantage of the buyer to know just 

 what he is buying and how much, but 

 if he must pay too much for that knowl- 

 edge he will be the loser. If the pres- 

 ent law results in raising the price to 

 the consumer, then it is hardly a good 

 law. It looks a little as though it 

 would thus result when comb-honey 

 producers are thinking — or at least 

 talking — about giving up comb-honey 

 production. Should any considerable 

 number of them do so, it must inevit- 

 ably make comb honey scarcer, and so 

 more expensive to the consumer. But 

 there is a possibility that these bee- 

 keepers are more scared than hurt, and 

 that there will be no diminution in the 

 number of comb-honey producers, if in 

 the long run they find that the law puts 

 no burden upon them for which they 

 will not receive a fair compensation. 



It is on these lines that the matter 

 should be considered, and from the 

 standpoint of the consumer rather than 

 the producer, and in no case should 

 there be any hint as to the impossibility 

 of carrying out the present law to the 

 strictest letter. 

 Marengo, 111. 



Season in Southern California 



BY J. E. PLEASANTS. 



HONEY-PLANTS are coming into 

 bloom early here this spring. The 

 bees are increasing rapidly and 

 swarming in the valleys Orange bloom 

 is coming in gradually instead of all at 

 once as is often the case. This is very 



