Published Monthly by the W. T. Palconer Manfg Co. 



VoL vm. 



MARCH, J898, 



No. 3. 



^slil 



The Problem of Marketing. 



Written for the American Bee-Keeper,\ 



BY ED. JOLLEY. 



A^:2HE market is an offspring of de- 

 '<Sj:'j\$ niand. When there is no demand 

 '^^ there is no market. When the 

 demand exceeds the supply of any com- 

 modity, the market price will go up. 

 When the supply is equal to the de- 

 mand, the market will be firm, and the 

 prices good. When the supply exceeds 

 the demand, the tendency of the mar- 

 ket price is downward. When the sup- 

 ply on the market is far in excess of 

 the demand, the market is overloaded, 

 glutted, and the effect of a glutted mar- 

 ket is depressing on any commodity. 



The producers are the ones who suf- 

 fer the consequences of an overloaded 

 market. It is not the commission man, 

 who handles the butter and eggs, cab- 

 bage and potatoes, who loses when the 

 market is gorged. His rates of com- 

 mission remain the same, and the in- 

 creased volume of business, and quick 

 sales arising from the cut in prices, 

 enable him to come out on the safe 

 side. 



It is not the broker in the exchange 

 who loses when there is a decline in 

 the price of wheat, oil or money. It is 

 the producers of these commodities 

 who suffer. And, really, are they not 

 responsible for the gorge? Is it not, in 

 the majority of cases, through inju- 

 dicious management on the part of 



producers, that the market is glutted 

 and the price of their product lowered? 



The market prices that rule the 

 whole country are established in a 

 few of our large cities. If you 

 take a load of produce to your nearest 

 town and ask your merchant what he 

 is paying for such produce, he will scan 

 the columns of his daily and quote to 

 you the market price. If you remon- 

 strate, and tell him there is a general 

 scarcity of such produce, he will quick- 

 ly tell you that it may be scarce here, 

 but there is plenty of it in New York 

 or Chicago, and by taking a car load of 

 it he can get it from there at a little 

 lower price than that quoted. If you 

 would sell your produce at all you must 

 sell at the market price— a price that is 

 m.ade in the glutted markets of a city 

 three or four hundred miles away. 



That the producers have worked 

 their own ruin, is especially true 

 of the honev producer. Because in 

 other lines of produce the excuse of 

 over production can often be given. 

 But of honey, there never was an over- 

 production, and I doubt if there ever 

 will be one. If every man, woman and 

 child were to eat a reasonable amount 

 of honey for one month, there would 

 not be honey enough left to cause a 

 hollow tooth to ache. 



The price of honey goes but little or 

 no higher in times of dearth than in 

 seasons of universal plenty. Simply 



