OCTOBER 1, 1912 



633 



40 ets. per hundred — transportation 40 cts. 

 At my door I paid $2.00 for it (2 cts. per 

 pound). Think of it! Eighty cents to pro- 

 duce and deliver on our tracks, and $1.20 

 to take from the car and deliver to my 

 door! Yes, but some say there is a great 

 loss in such stuff. But the loss is principal- 

 ly on account of having to hold the stuff 

 too long in order to get a high price for it. 

 The price is low enough, and with a perfect 

 system of ordering and shipping, it would 

 not be long on our hands. There will be 

 fifteen or twenty cars of watermelons on 

 the track at one time, when the daily de- 

 mand is perhaps two cars or less, and they 

 stand on the track and rot down in the hot 

 sun, and the shipper not only loses his 

 melons but the freight also. Then perhaps 

 there will be days when there are none in 

 the market at all. Now several dealers 

 order them or they are shipped without 

 orders, and each dealer must depend on 

 guessing what his competitors are going to 

 do, and so miss it badly at times. The 

 producers are advised the market was over- 

 stocked, which accounts for the loss to 

 them. The market was overstocked only 

 hj a poor SA'stem of ordering, and making 

 the price so high that people who want 

 them can't pay the price. We have to pay 

 anywhere from 25 to 50 cents for a good 

 watermelon. Who can afford to keep a 

 family on them at such prices'? A land 

 indeed flomng with milk and honey ! But 

 who can afford to drink milk at ten cents 

 a quart, or eat honey at 25 to 30 cents jier 

 pound, except the rich, and they are few 

 in comiDarison with those who are not. 



A shipment of eight bushels of plums 

 was received in this market by a dealer 

 who wanted three dollars per bushel; but 

 the grocers could not handle them at that 

 price, and six bushels at least were dumped, 

 a dead loss to the produce^' and consumer, 

 besides paying freight. All manner of 

 fruits and vegetables are dumped rotten, 

 not because everybody had all he wanted, 

 by any manner of means, but the price 

 was i^rohibitive. 



Producers' associations are formed to in- 

 crease prices to better the conditions of the 

 producers, without a thought of the con- 

 sumer who must use their products or 

 there can be no profit. Starving the con- 

 sumer by taking all his money for one 

 melon when the same money would buy 

 two, and give a good profit to the pro- 

 ducer too, is a sin. There are two, and 

 only two, who are vitally concerned — the 

 producer and the consumer, and they are 

 mutually interested, for each must depend 

 on the other. If they will look out for 



themselves the question of high cost of liv- 

 ing is solved. 



The 1911 apple crop is reported the 

 largest ever gi'own in this country; yet the 

 price never was so high. Why"? Do the 

 producer and the consumer know why? 

 They should. It would lower the price 

 fifty i^er cent to consumer, and yet pay 

 a good profit above freight and distribu- 

 tion. Lowering the price of such things 

 would increase the demand corresponding- 

 ly. Every one should have all the fruits 

 and vegetables he wants, though it be mel- 

 ons, peaches, pears, plums, etc., wliich are 

 really luxuries. Then there would be a de- 

 mand for more farmers, fruit-growers, etc., 

 and the nation's blood would be stimulated 

 anew. 



Farm products are not the only ones 

 which are manij^ulated to pay undue profits. 

 You buy a piano. The dealer keeps at least 

 one hundred dollars of your money. A 

 rocking-chair you pay $5.00 for cost the 

 dealer $1.50. As staple a thing as carpets 

 are sold at a jjrofit of fifty per cent above 

 the invoice. I have been thinking over 

 tliis thing for a long time, and am sure 

 that a producers' agency will be much more 

 satisfactory than a buyers' union, because 

 everybody will be reached, whether he 

 wants to or not ; and the fewer you have 

 to organize, the better. 



I hope you will give this article a place 

 in your pages at an early date, for it 

 seems to me to be of vital present interest 

 to the whole country and all people. 



RIPENING HONEY ARTIFICIALLY 



The Plan, while Possible under Certain Conditions, 

 is Not to be Advised Generally 



BY W. B. BRAT 



I was pleased to see the remarks made 

 by Mr. Ireland, president of the Canter- 

 bury Beekeepers' Association, in your issue 

 of May 1, regarding the artificial ripening 

 of honey, and wish to confirm what he says. 

 Mr. Hopkins has had a great deal of ex- 

 perience, and has done much good for the 

 beekeeping industry in this country; but in 

 this one thing I do not think his experience 

 is conclusive. There is more than Mr. Hop- 

 kins' reputation as a beekeeper depending- 

 on a proper understanding of this subject, 

 and I trust he will not be offended if I help 

 to throw a little further light on the con- 

 ditions prevailing in New Zealand. For 

 close on to three years I was permanently 

 engaged as a government apiary inspector^ 

 and my work took me into every part of 

 New Zealand. 



