Nov. IS, 1900. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



725 



Convention Proceedings. | 



Report of the Proceeding's of the 31st Annual 



Convention of the National Bee-Keepers' 



Association, held at Chicago, 111., 



Aug. 28, 29 and 30, 1900. 



BV DR. A. B. MASON, SBC. 



[Continued from page 0*^4.) 

 PACKAGES FOR EXTRACTED HONEY. 



Mr. Bishop — I did not come here to make any speech, 

 but I will endeavor to g'ive you my experience— it will take 

 only a short time. The first requisite in selling- extracted 

 honey is to have the customer understand that we are pre- 

 senting- to him a pure article ; that has more to do with it 

 than any package. The first requisite in the disposition 

 of extracted honey is to establish the fact to our customer 

 that we are showing him. and seek to if// him, a pure arti- 

 cle. That, I trust, you will all appreciate. The next thing 

 regards the package in which it is contained. My experi- 

 ence has been that a wooden package is the best, largely. 

 It came from the fact that in 60-pound cans, early in the 

 history of extracted honey, there was adulterated honey 

 sold for California honey, or some other far-famed product ; 

 hence, there is a prejudice, and prejudice, you know, is a 

 very bad thing to remove from the minds of men. It is a 

 hard matter to' disarm prejudice, and they don't forget the 

 fault readily ; hence, there is a prejudice in my experience 

 against tin packages holding 60 pounds. However, we have 

 had some of the finest honey in those cans of any honey 

 that was ever brought into market ; yet I believe a five- 

 gallon, and ten-gallon, and even 100-pound, or ISO to 200, or 

 300-pound, package of wood, properly made so it will not 

 leak, is a very desirable package. It is easily handled — 

 you can roll it along the floor, trundle it on your truck, 

 and there is no danger of injuring the package ; you can 

 open it if you desire by pulling the bung, and exhibit what 

 it contains. The case which holds cans usually has two ; it 

 is heavy, and it is a bigger package. It is not so easily 

 handled ; you can't roll it ; you have to truck it ; if it falls 

 over there is danger of bursting the tin ; after a while the 

 tin becomes uusty if the can is kept long enough, or perhaps 

 will spring a leak, and sometimes they break of themselves 

 and the honey runs away. I believe there is more loss in 

 the can than in the wood package. I would recommend 

 wood packages, either kegs or quarter barrels, half barrels 

 and casks, for honey. In handling amber honey, which is 

 sold largely to manufacturers, barrels are very good, and 

 the quantity does not cut so much of a figure with them as 

 it does with the retail trade ; if we sell to the retail grocer, 

 or those who want small quantities of honey, they usually 

 like to buy SO, 100, 150, or 200 pounds at a time. " I think'l 

 can't throw any great light on this matter. This is my ex- 

 perience from handling honey in this manner. 



Mr. Burnett — There is a fellow over there who said, 

 " About all that Burnett cares for is to get the honey, 

 provided it is in a package that does not give him any 

 trouble," and I guess that is about so. The question is one 

 that we have thrasht over considerably, and I have noticed 

 in a few years, according to my friend. Dr. Mason, that I 

 have been abandoned, and getting behind the light-house; 

 that it has been a live question in quite a number of gath- 

 erings of bee-keepers, and it is certainly an important thing 

 that you get your goods in packages that will take them to 

 the market safely, and where they will not meet with objec- 

 tions that will discount the price. I think that localities 

 have something to do with the kind of package to use. I 

 think that for lower California, the mountainous regions 

 where the honey does not granulate so, some of it not perhaps 

 in years, and the nature of the country, where a package 

 that a man can lift, is desirable, and where the hoops won't 

 get loose because of a long, long dry time, then the 5 gallon 

 or 60-pound tin can, two in a case, is perhaps the most prac- 

 tical one for that purpose that I know of. There are other 

 sections of the country where the honey will granulate in 

 anywhere from 10 to 90 days after its extraction. In some 

 sections of the country they can manufacture their own 

 packages, and manufacture a most excellent package out 

 of wood. I have known of losses after the goods came into 



mj' hands, because the honey was not properly ripened, or 

 in a condition to send to market when the producer sent it. 

 During hot weather it fermented, and the end would blow 

 out of a barrel, for something has to give way ; but that 

 holds equally true with the tin can. If the honey isn't ripe 

 when you put it in the tin can, the tin can won't hold it. It 

 will burst the can and burst the case around the can. It 

 will get out under the right conditions. Now, I am of the 

 opinion that hard and fast lines in any cause are not desir- 

 able. I do not think that every man, even if he is a mem- 

 ber of the same organization or fraternity, ought to wear 

 exactly the same shaped hat or coat, but that there is a 

 necessity for a variety of packages. Furthermore, a barrel, 

 or a wooden package, has been for many years used to mar- 

 ket honey in, and people are accustomed to getting it in that 

 shape. I know a great many who argue wholly for the tin 

 can, and say it is a more convenient package. You can 

 take a tin can and put it on a steam heater, or anything of 

 that kind, after it has become candied, and so bring the 

 honej' to a liquified state, audit gives you very little bother; 

 and that it is a more convenient package for retail purposes, 

 and that sort of thing. I quite agree with them, and for that 

 purpose, and for that trade, a tin can is necessary ; but you 

 may not all know it, and I don't know that I know it my- 

 self, but one-half, certainly, in my opinion, of the honey 

 that is produced in the United States is bought by parties 

 who bu3' large quantities at a time, and are in a position to 

 handle it in large packages. They have the facilities for 

 getting the honey all out of a barrel just as clean as they 

 will out of a tin can, in Wisconsin in particular; and I 

 think that the bias that Mr. Bishop has for the wooden 

 package is that based on his experience largely with the 

 honey produced in Wisconsin. I don't know that anywhere 

 in the country there is a package made that is equal to a 

 package that a member of this convention uses — Mr. Pick- 

 ard. He tells me it is made of basswood for staves, and oak 

 for heads, and oak hoops ; they are preferable to iron hoops ; 

 that is my experience. I think that he has told me that he 

 has never yet lost any honey — not a pound — in that kind of 

 package. Now, Mr. Pickard might have lost it in this way: 

 Those who got his honey weighed the barrel after the honey 

 had been in it for a while. I think the package will " drink " 

 anywhere from three to five pounds of honey, and it will 

 keep that weight, so that the gross weight won't have lost 

 anything. If it is kept in a damp place, the gross weight 

 will have gained, there will have been a certain amount of 

 moisture that goes from the outside into these barrels, 

 but I haven't had any trouble with them of any kind, aside 

 from that which I have alreadj' stated, of finding it, or 

 rather having had them filled with unripe honey ; but we 

 have had cans burst that were new cans in new cases, be- 

 cause the honey expanded in the cans. I think it is well to 

 use the package that you are accustomed to using, provid- 

 ing you find by your experience you do not have to sell it at 

 a discount. Cans i in Wisconsin, I think, would cost in 

 the neighborhood of about a cent a pound for the honey 

 the}' contain ; how much does your package cost you a 

 pound, Mr. Pickard ? 



Mr. Pickard — One holding 3S0 pounds costs 90 cents. 



Mr. Hatch — It cost us '4 cent per pound. 



Mr. Burnett — Wouldn't it at that rate cost you over 'j of 

 a cent ? If you save -3 of acent a pound on a package that 

 will sell equally well as another, it is certainly to your in- 

 terest to use that kind of package ; but I do deplore the idea 

 of advising people promiscuously to use a SO-pound can, or 

 a 7S-pound can, or 100, or any dimension whatsoever under 

 1,000, if they haven't the conditions that surround those 

 people in Wisconsin. For instance, in the South they use 

 cypress barrels, and we have a good deal of trouble with 

 those, and I have found generally that it has been because 

 the honey was not thoroly ripened before being put into 

 packages ; but they are a wonderfully good package for 

 what they use them, and most people of that country are 

 familiar with them. The honey will bring as much in that 

 SO-gallon cypress package as it will in tin cans. Of course, 

 in talking in this way I can't meet everybody's special ex- 

 perience with their packages, but if they will ask questions 

 I am sure Mr. Bishop will be able to answer them intelli- 

 gently, and if he can't, why, I don't know that I can. 



Pres. Root — I think there is another commission man 

 present who buys honey outright — Mr. Weber. If he will 

 come forward we will be glad to have his opinion on the 

 question of barrels, kegs, and tin cans. 



C. H. W. Weber — I have found, if you want white clover 

 honey sold for table use, it is best to put it into tin cans, 

 while for manufacturing purposes a barrel is cheaper, and 



