AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



757 



take our word for it, and they take the 

 honey away in their own packages. 

 That is the most profitable custom be- 

 cause you have no package to buy. 



Mr. York — Before censuring Mr. Root 

 for publishing the quotations which he 

 does, I would like to hear from Mr. Cal- 

 vert. What are you going to do with 

 some bee-keepers who have honey to sell 

 and are willing to take almost any price 

 for it ? The object of the honey market 

 is to make for these men an outlet for 

 their honey. 



Mr. Richardson — I can partly, I be- 

 lieve, answer the brother. I believe if 

 the honey quotation column was done 

 away with, and in its place was opened 

 a space that bee-keepers could advertise 

 in the journals that they have honey for 

 sale, it would be a good thing. There 

 are always some bee-keepers that would 

 have to buy honey to supply the home 

 market. I pick up the American Bee 

 Journal, and I see that Mr. Hutchinson, 

 or somebody else, has a good crop, and I 

 am short. I know him, and that he is 

 reliable. If I want honey I will write to 

 him and buy from him. I think that 

 kind of space in our bee-papers would be 

 good, and it would help us to a great ex- 

 tent. 



A. I. Root — Perhaps our friend is not 

 aware that we have had for years, free 

 of charge, a space where any bee-keeper 

 can tell what honey he has and the price 

 for it. Now, in regard to sending honey 

 to irresponsible men. There is a class 

 of commission men (and if you do not 

 have them in Missouri you are lucky), 

 that will say, " I can give you 18 or 20 

 cents per pound for your honey ;" and 

 the man who gets the quotations is so 

 excited that he rushes off and sends his 

 honey to him when he don't even know 

 him, and maybe has never heard of him. 

 He says, "Oh, he is all right!" aud does 

 not give any other reason for it. We 

 are employed by both Dun and Brad- 

 street to help them report honey-men. 

 We could report every man in the 

 United States that has anything to do 

 with honey. If somebody asks you for 

 honey and you can't readily find them, 

 write us and we will be very glad to help 

 you. A great part of our business is 

 quoting and keeping track of bee-men, 

 and we are inquired of a great deal, and 

 I would be glad to have you inquire 

 more, and you don't have to enclose any 

 stamp. We try to encourage bee-men 

 to be prompt and square, not only tell- 

 ing the truth by words, but by actions 

 also. Honesty is the best policy. If 

 70U have any complaint, just give us 



the names and addresses of the men, 

 and we will straighten them out. 



Dr. Miller — About this matter of quo- 

 tations in the bee-papers — a few years 

 ago I spent some time in the city of Chi- 

 cago going about to the offices of the 

 daily papers that had certain quotations, 

 and I went and took them returns from 

 commission houses showing what I got 

 for my honey, and it was in every case 

 about 2 cents difference from what they 

 were reporting in the papers. It is not 

 an easy thing to have the correct quota- 

 tions, either in the daily papers or in the 

 bee-papers. We want information on 

 this subject, and a certain amount of in- 

 formation, however small, is better than 

 none at all. I would be very sorry in 

 deed to put any kind of censure on the 

 bee-papers for what they are telling 

 about the state of the markets. If any 

 one knows that the quotations are not 

 correct, just send word to that effect, 

 and in every case I have found the bee- 

 papers would be glad to publish it. If 

 you do not know that it is correct, it is 

 something for you to go on ; you have 

 that much more to go on than if you did 

 not have anything. They are likely to 

 be correct. The bee-papers are doing 

 the best they know how. There are 

 times that those reports cannot be relied 

 on. I have found at times that I was 

 getting about 2 cents per pound from 

 my commission men. above the market 

 reports. I would look at the reports 

 and that honey was so much, and as I 

 was getting 2 cents over that, I was sat- 

 isfied. The fact is, we were all being 

 lied to. 



Mr. Holtermann — What I said I said 

 in a sort of a joking way, but there is 

 some truth in it. Honey is handled but 

 very little through commission men in 

 Canada. Just before I left home a man 

 offered to sell us 2,000 pounds of honey, 

 which he said was first-class, for 5 cents 

 a pound. Now would it be wise for us 

 to say in our journal that honey had 

 been sold on our market for 5 or 6 cents? 

 No. You take the daily papers, and you 

 will find the price which is quoted is be- 

 low what the price really is. 



L. D. Stilson — In regard to this mat- 

 ter, I think it would be a good idea if 

 you would look at it from the other 

 side. A person who is producing good 

 honey, as he should, and then sees what 

 the difference in the prices is, he don't 

 need to sell on the market where the 

 price is so low. A gentleman in Indiana 

 sent me a letter asking if any of our 

 Nebraska bee-keepers had any honey to 

 sell, and said, " If any of you have got 

 any first-class honey to sell, I can get 



