Sept. 6, 1900. 



AMERICAFn bee JOURNAL- 



567 



for ordinary bees to work on, we might expect to secure half 

 that shortening in one year. Now, instead of spending tci] 

 years upon one to the neglect of the other, put in the our 

 year on both, and bring together your bees with tongur, 

 half lengthened, and your clover with tubes half shortened. 

 and — there you are. 



Of course, nothing is certain in any of these estimates. 

 It might take twice ten years, or it might take only half of 

 ten years to reach the desired result by working in only one 

 direction. It migVit take more than one-tenth the time t<i 

 reach the half-way point in either direction, orit might takt- 

 less. The only point I am urging is that, if wemodif)' both 

 tongues and tubes, we must reach the point of getting red- 

 clover honey in half the time we could get it by working 

 alone at either tongues or tubes; and I suspect that one- 

 tenth of the time comes nearer the truth than one-half. So, 

 Mr. Editor, don't let up in your enthusiasm for long 

 tongues, and get switcht off on the track of short tubes, but 

 run the two parallel. 



Another point I want to urge with equal emphasis — 3'es, 

 with even greater emphasis. It is that this is to be the 

 work of all rather than of a few. I do not undervalue the 

 work of our scientists and our experiment stations. Bless- 

 ings on them for what they have done and are doing. But 

 this is a work in which the multitude can join. You have 

 struck the right chord, Mr. Editor, in saying, " In the 

 meantime I hope our bee-keepers will be on the watch for 

 red-clover heads with short tubes." 



As to both tongues and tubes, it is a matter rather more 

 of finding than of making. The father of a lost child may 

 die of old age before finding it if the search is left to liim 

 alone ; but if all the world joins in the search he will soon 

 have the child in his arms. In the matter of establishing 

 a strain of short-tubed clover, the very first move is to find 

 a plant with tubes at least a little shorter than those of its 

 neighbors. Manifestly, two men on the watch will be more 

 likely to succeed in finding this than one alone. A thou- 

 sand giving a little attention to the matter will be better 

 than one man spending the whole time in the search. Re- 

 member that variations in plants are things of freak. 

 Florists secure new varieties of flowers by looking out for 

 these freaks. A rose-plant, for example, will throw out a 

 branch having roses different from the rest of the bush in 

 some way, and this is called a sport. Or, the flowers may 

 be the same, with a difference in growth of stock. Cath- 

 erine Mermet is a popular pink tea-rose. One day a branch 

 on a bush of that kind was noticed to bear roses that were 

 pure white. Slips were taken from it and propagated, and 

 now we find in all the catalogs "The Bride," the beautiful 

 sport from Catherine Mermet. Agrippina is a Bengal rose 

 bearing crimson roses in great abundance, the plant grovr- 

 ing of usual hight. In 1858, Rev. James Sprunt found a 

 branch of Agrippina shooting away above its fellows. Slips 

 from this branch were taken, and now we have the climb- 

 ing rose, James Sprunt. 



So it is just among the possibilities — nay, even among 

 the probabilities — that somewhere is grooving to-day a sport 

 among red-clover plants that is just what we want, and 

 some one may find it where least expected. The point is 

 that this thing must not be left to the scientists, but all of 

 us common bee-keepers must have our eyes open, and no 

 telling who will be the lucky finder. Probably, however, 

 it will be by cultivation and selection that the goal will be 

 reacht ; yet the first step must be the finding of something 

 at least a little out of the common. You and I can find it 

 just as well as the experiment station — yes, more readily — 

 for there are more ej'es belonging to us, and we can plant 

 and pick out the best. I do not mean that our experiment- 

 station men are not better adapted to the work than are we 

 common bee-keepers. Perhaps one of them may do more 

 than any hundred of us. They are trained for the work. 

 But there are thousands of us ; and as this is largely a mat- 

 ter of finding, numbers count. 



What applies to clover applies also to bees. Differences 

 in length of tongue exist now, and it will be easier to find 

 the longest tongue if many engage in the search. If I un- 

 derstand the matter correctly, glossometers are constructed 

 that are not expensive, and it requires no special skill to 

 operate them. One can be inclosed over a colony so that 

 no other bees can reach it, and the depth to the liquid 

 in the glossometer be noted. In this way all the colonies 

 in an apiary can be noted, and those with longest tongues 

 used as breeders. If the longest tongues are chosen 

 each year, please tell me why constant progress will 

 not be made by atiy one. Please bear in mind that 

 differences in length now exist, and that variations are of 

 constant occurrence. All we are to do is to take advantage 



of the differences and the variations. When some one has 

 made a successful find, let him divide up with the rest, get- 

 ting a substantial return for his dividend. Mr. Editor, 

 please announce the price of glossometers, and let us all go 

 at the work. At the same time let us all be on the lookout 

 for short-tubed clover. 



For our encouragement we have the fact that there 

 have been red-clover queens and red-clover bees. In gen- 

 eral, a little is done by bees everywhere on red clover. A 

 little effort ought to bring a little increase in the amount of 

 red-clover honey secured, and united effort ought to bring 

 entire success. It would be a shame to American enterprise 

 if, within a short time, bee-keepers of this country do not 

 succeed in bringing together tongues and tubes so that tons 

 of honey now wasted may be taken. Shall we all help ? — 

 Gleanings in Bee-Culture. McHenrv Co., 111. 



Marketing' Honey Thru Commission IVIen. 



BY \V. F. MARKS. 

 (Addmx before the Xew y'oik- .Slale Asmeiatiuu of Bee-Keepers' Soeieties.) 



I HAVE seen it stated, and I believe with good reason, 

 that the securing of a crop was only one-half the labor 

 or cost. This is true in all industries. I have wondered 

 why the time at our farmers' institutes was not divided 

 equally between " How to Produce " and " How to Sell." I 

 tell you we must adopt different methods of disposing of our 

 products. It will take years to bring this about, and the 

 agitation of the question can not begin too soon. No farmer 

 or bee-keeper under our obsolete method of trade is receiv- 

 ing full value for his products. 



Just let us stop and think for a minute. What other 

 class of products is there, the bulk of which must pass thru 

 the hands of commission men before reaching the con- 

 sumer ? Where are there any successful manufacturers dis- 

 posing of their goods thru the commission house? Our 

 product, thru the prevailing method of sale, is at the mercy 

 of the most unscrupulous commission man. It is the com- 

 mission man who sells the lowest who does the business, 

 and who establishes the price of our products. The honest 

 commission man, the one who would get full value, is not 

 in it. He, too, is at the mere)' of the most unscrupulous 

 member of the craft ; and we are no better than their 

 slaves. I want you to understand me, and I will repeat — it 

 is the commission man who sells the lowest who establishes 

 the price. Stop selling thru the commission man. and then 

 see what the dealers who will buy for cash will pay. If 

 they can not get our goods on commission they must pay 

 cash. Having money invested in it, then and not till then, 

 will they try and sustain prices. 



Last fall a friend, a person who buys thousands of dol- 

 lars' worth of goods thru commission houses every year, 

 toldme— and he had just returned from New York City — 

 that he was offered fine, choice apples by the commission 

 houses at $1.00 per barrel ; and that very day cold-storage 

 dealers were paying $2.2S cash per barrel, and taking all 

 they could get at our station to my certain knowledge. 

 Some one will say, did they not have to compete with the 

 commission houses ? Of course they would if they sold at 

 that time; and it is plainly to be seen that they could not 

 have paid very much. But they hold their apples'until the 

 commission houses can get no more, then they enter the 

 market. Had the commission houses been unable to get 

 apples on commission at any time, would they have been 

 selling at $1.00 ? It seems plain enough, and yet the same 

 holds true in every other product. 



I have askt many city dealers of whom they purchast 

 their farm produce, and they invariably said thru commis- 

 sion houses, and gave for their reason that they could in 

 that way buy cheaper than of the farmer; and I remember 

 one instance in particular, where the dealer with a know- 

 ing wink and laughing, said he would rather let the com- 

 mission men settle with the farmer, and then his conscience 

 would be clear. Ontario Co., N. Y. 



[Mr. G. M. Doolittle comments on the foregoing as fol- 

 lows in the American Bee-Keeper :— Editor.] 



I have shipt my honey on commission ever since 1877, 

 and his assertion that "our product, thru the prevailing 

 method of sale, is at the mercy of the most unscrupulous 

 commission man," is not the truth, by any means, accord- 

 ing to my experience. To be sure, I have run across un- 

 scrupulous commission men, and I 'now know of some who 

 will drop off honey, or any other products, at a lower price 

 by 25 percent thaii the goods are really worth, or quoted at. 



