106 



GLEAXINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



Feb. 



was one boy who used to swear on the 

 streets so fearfully that the neighbors all 

 felt troubled about him. There he stood 

 right before me with penitential tears in his 

 eyes ; aud when the speaker, in motherly 

 tones, gave him Christian counsel and en- 

 couragement, I inwardly prayed that God 

 might spare and bless her even more abun- 

 dantly. When I saw the teachers from our 

 public schools join in the work, and come 

 forward to the anxious-seat to exhort and 

 encourage their pupils whom they found 

 there, I said in my heart as did Jacob, 

 " Surely the Lord is in this place." 



I felt the influence of that meeting during 

 the whole week. During the first day of the 

 convention at Albany, the low price of hon- 

 ey was discussed, and several of the honey- 

 producers felt as many of our farmers do 

 now, a little sore about the price they were 

 receiving for their products, and they very 

 naturally felt like blaming somebody. One 

 speaker made some remarks in regard to the 

 middle-men and commission-men. Another 

 suggested that the latter were a useless 

 class, for they get all the profit while we do 

 all the hard work. A third condemned them 

 as a whole, and some of the terms he 

 used were not very complimentary. I began 

 to feel that they were getting into the same 

 spirit I was when I first sat down in that 

 revival meeting, and it seemed to me as if 

 God called on me to enter a mild protest. 

 They readily gave me the floor, aud I asked 

 if it were not probable that there are good 

 men and bad men among honey-dealers as 

 well as among honey -producers. 



" Dear friends," said 1, " let us be careful 

 how we condemn indiscriminately any class 

 of people ; and, above all, let us not say un- 

 kind things of any brother behind his back. 

 If a bee-keeper has plenty of time, and with 

 it the ability to retail his honey, or to fur- 

 nish it in any way directly to the consumer, 

 by all means let him do "so ; but if he has 

 other business that pays him fair wages, 

 and if, like many of us, he has discovered 

 that he has no talent for peddling and selling 

 in little dribs, by all means let him employ 

 somebody who has this talent, and then 

 every thing will be pleasant and there will 

 be harmony. If a middle-man pays him so 

 little that he can not afford to eniploy him, 

 it is his privilege to trade some other way. 

 If the commission-man he selects fails in 

 selling the honey at the price wanted, try 

 some other man or some other way; but 

 through it all, let us have charity." 



There was another thought I did not give 

 then, because I did not wish to take up so 

 much time, but I will give it here. At the 

 convention, middle-men were accused of 

 doubling on the honey, when they buy, and 

 sell at wholesale. This may be true iii some 

 instances, but 1 think not often. Middle- 

 men often have many vexatious losses as 

 well as ourselves. A. C Kendel, of the 

 Cleveland Seed Store, invested several thou- 

 sand dollars in a cold-storage room of the 

 most approved construction. The very first 

 year he tried it he lost $2000 clean cash ; he 

 lost it, too, I verily believe, in trying to 

 help farmers and producers, by taking pro- 

 duce when the market was glutted, rather 



than have it a total loss to the producer. 

 During the present winter, however, with 

 the benefit of the experience of the year be- 

 fore, be has succeeded so finely that he has 

 already pretty nearly or quite made up 

 for the losses of a year ago. At the Forest City 

 House, where we took dinner, grapes and 

 other fruit were on the table, from his cold- 

 storage room. They were as fine in the 

 middle of January as any fruit I ever ate at 

 any season of the year. Now, friends, I 

 have no doubt l)ut that Mr. Kendel is get- 

 ting twice as much for those grapes as he 

 paid for them ; and one who has no concep- 

 tion of the care and anxiety, as well as mon- 

 ey it cost to enable him to do this might 

 say, "Just look at it 1 he paid us only 4 cts. 

 a pound for those very grapes that he is 

 now selling for 10 and 12 cts." The above 

 figures are given at random, only by way of 

 illustration. One thing I do know, and that 

 is, that middle-men are often obliged to sell 

 honey as well as fi'uit at a great loss •, they 

 take risks where they buy things of this 

 kind out of season, and they must have 

 their profits. In my remarks" I suggested, 

 if I am not mistaken, that we should invite 

 the honey-dealers to be present at our con- 

 ventions, that we might hear both sides of 

 the question. About this time our good 

 friend L. C. Root suggested that one eve- 

 ning be devoted to the consideration of the 

 honey-market, and that middle-men, com- 

 mission-men, honey dealers and consumers, 

 be invited to Ije present and give us their 

 views. Accordingly an evening was ap- 

 pointed ; and as the invitation was given 

 through the press, a large number were pres- 

 ent — perhaps 200 oi- more. During the 

 midst of our talk a fine-looking young man 

 came up hurriedly to the platform, and 

 threw off his overcoat with an air that seem- 

 ed to imply that he was squaring himself 

 for a fight. His first words were something 

 like this : " Ladies and gentlemen, I am a 

 middle-man ; " and then he gave us one of 

 the finest talks in regard to the sale of hon- 

 ey I have ever heard in my life. Some one 

 had doubtless repeated to him the unkind 

 words that were uttered the day before, as 

 seemed evident from some of his remarks. 

 His name is Mr. Henry R. Wright, and his 

 place of business is 328 Broadway, Albany, 

 N. Y. I extract the following report from 

 his talk as given in one of the Albany daily 

 papers: 



"I sell honey; I am not a producer. I consider 

 honey a staple, not an article of luxury. I think 

 the low prices due to over-production. I should 

 like to see a uniform style of comb adopted, some- 

 thing- like this. [The speaker exhibited an unglaz- 

 ed frame which would contain a comb and about 11 

 ounces of honey.] Two-thirds of the honey pro- 

 duced is buckwheat. I sell 100 cases of buckwheat 

 to 10 of the others. I sell from f 10,000 to $30,000 

 worth of honey a year, and I don't make a specialty 

 of it either. [Applause. 1 My experience shows 

 that an ung-lazed package of about 10 or 11 ounces 

 that will sell for 10 cents is the most popular, and if 

 a uniform package of that size could be adopted it 

 would increase the sales of honey, and be of benefit 

 to the producers." 



The speaker had a number of the frames of the 

 size shown by him disjointed, and he said any one 

 who wanted one could have it. There was a scram- 

 ble among' the members, and the frames soon dis- 

 appeared. 



