228 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15, 



WMmSM% 



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MARKETING COMB HONEY. 



The Secret of Getting Good Prices ; Slipshod Meth- 

 ods. 



BY M. BROWN. 



BTr. Root: — Your editorial on page 909, 

 scoring- honey-producers for their sluggish 

 (and in part it may be called corrupt) prac- 

 tice is timely, and ought to have a wide cir- 

 culation, because it is of great importance 

 to honest producers and in stimulating the 

 markets. I am not a large producer, nor 

 one who has had large experience in bee- 

 keeping, dating back for only three years. 

 When I began three jears ago I had to ped- 

 dle out my honey in order to get IS cents 

 per pound for nice white comb; 10 to 12>2 

 cents was the market price, so considered, 

 for all classes of honey. The second year 

 nearly all my honey was sold at my house 

 at an average of 17^^ cents per pound, 

 which very much encouraged me, and was 

 a source of pleasure. 



On the 8th of May last, my number of 

 colonies had increased from 7 in 1899 to 60, 

 with full supers of nice white honey. I 

 was compelled to try again the markets. 

 Peddling was out of the question. I crated 

 my honey under the rules laid down in 

 Gleanings, in three grades; loaded my 

 wagon, and called on our best groceries, 

 offering to leave a crate with them. Most 

 of them had honey out of commission houses, 

 and did not want any at 15 cents when they 

 could buy it at 11, to which I replied that I 

 simply asked their permission to deposit a 

 crate of my honey by the side of what they 

 had; and if they could not sell it in a rea- 

 sonable time and pay me 15 cents for it I 

 would take the honey back, and pay them 

 storage if they desired. My address with 

 guarantee was written on the crate with 

 that understanding. My honey was soon 

 deposited. I went about my work, and, 

 bless you! two days afterward a grocery 

 wagon came in front of my yard v/ith an 

 order for 200 pounds of just such honey as 

 I had deposited with them, with an invita- 

 tion to come and get my pay, and 16 cents 

 was agreed upon for fancy white and No. 1 

 of any kind of my grading. Four houses 

 got all my honey this season, and I had to 

 make but one trip to the city to sell my 

 crop. 



But here comes what I wanted to tell: 

 Other producers came to me and asked me 

 to sell their honey for them, saying they 

 could get but from 10 to 12>2 for theirs, and 

 wanted to turn it over to me at that price, 

 to which I finally consented. But, let me 

 tell you, I soon learned that it would not 

 do at all to attach one's name to another 

 man's product. I had to be good and take 

 back a large part of my friends' honey. 



One consignment from an old bee-keeping 

 friend from a distance was, I am sorry to 

 sa3', an outrageous conglomeration, clearly 

 exhibiting an incentive to deceive, or for 

 immediate profit, regardless of honor or 

 repute. Our market at present is flooded. 

 Agents with consignments arrived, and are 

 drumming it out in all parts of the city at 

 from 10 to YlYz cents; but my customers will 

 not handle any of it at any price. One of 

 my customers who has been in the grocery 

 business all his life said to me a few days 

 ago that he had not the least idea that so 

 much honey could be consumed provided a 

 fine article in nice condition was offered. 

 His experience showed him that a nice ar- 

 ticle will bring fancy prices and largely 

 increase the consumption. He said, "Your 

 honey sells at the rate of one crate per day, 

 while with commission-house honey tliree 

 to four crates last a whole season; and I 

 must say that, if you bee-keepers were 

 more honest, j'our markets would vastly im- 

 prove, and the ccnsumption of honey would 

 displace the so-called fancy sj^'ups which 

 are a manufactured poison at the best." 



Now, Mr. Editor, being only a small pro- 

 ducer, my argument provoked by your re- 

 cent editorial can not produce much weight 

 in correcting the evils that exist. But it 

 does seem to me that, if there were a little 

 more honesty practiced, together with more 

 intellectual practice, all would be vastly 

 benefited in the end by producing a larger 

 consumption and a more staple and uni- 

 form price. Every poor or bad section of 

 comb honey put on the market acts as a 

 drawback in the market instead of a stim- 

 ulant. The actor in the drama may be 

 profited immediately; but when he again 

 has honey to sell he must very likely seek 

 another buyer, and may succeed in finding 

 one, and may keep that up for a period; 

 but what does he do toward increasing the 

 consumption of honey, and improving the 

 market? Well, they have done this: They 

 have disgusted the consumer by placing an 

 inedible chunk of honey before him: they 

 have discouraged the merchant, flooded him 

 with complaints from his customers, and 

 actually caused him to lose good customers 

 of his house by the sale of inedible honey 

 so treacherously concealed in crates, and 

 unsuspectingly unloaded on them. 



Now, Mr. Editor, I have no interest in 

 this matter; the honey that I produce will 

 always find a good market; but that incli- 

 nation to deceive others in this manner is 

 rampant, and is very damaging to bee- 

 keepers' interests — I mean to those of honor 

 and integrity; besides, it largely tends to 

 demoralize the markets, which affects all 

 producers; and I for one would advise those 

 in that habit to quit the business and go 

 and do something for which they are better 

 fitted. 



There is one other matter that interests 

 me, which is that of statistics. I see the 

 thing is up, and ought to have been up long 

 ago; but I would say on this subject that 

 the National Bee - keepers' Association 



