374 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



grocer to whom lie sold it, had disposed of 

 it in liis presence for double the price he 

 received, and thought it best to sell his 

 honey at retail and thus save such profits 

 obtained by middlemen. 



L. C. Root called attention to one thought 

 expressed in the essay that he considered 

 misleading. It was there stated that but 

 '•little labor" was necessary to success. 

 Where parties made it an exclusive busi- 

 ness, they found " much labor" more like 

 the correct idea. He had labored in many 

 callings but bee-keeping had given him 

 more fatiguing labor than any other. He 

 read an item in the Utica Herald stating 

 that $100,000 had been made at the business, 

 which was untrue. This "little labor" and 

 "large profits" idea had ruined many. It 

 had been stated that the business was just 

 the thing for feeble and broken-down per- 

 sons; that they could keep 100 colonies, and 

 the like; but his experience proved that 9 

 out of 10 of such persons failed in the busi- 

 ness. It required energy and labor, and 

 bee-keepers earned every dollar they got. 

 He thought that dealers and the public 

 should understand more about marketing 

 honey as well as bee-keepers. They usual- 

 ly refused granulated honey, though it was 

 the best test that could be applied to know 

 that it is pure. They should be informed 

 that if put into warm water it will be 

 brought back to its liquid state, and that 

 when they bought it in that state they 

 might know it was pure. Another thought 

 in the essay was excellent— that of attend- 

 ing personally to the placing of the honey 

 upon the market, and of obtaining the most 

 desirable package. Under no circumstance 

 should an inferior cup or jar be used to put 

 up extracted honey. Take some standard 

 jar that can be used for other purposes and 

 it helps to sell the honey. He thought there 

 was no end to the amount that could be 

 sold it put upon the market in an attractive 

 shape. 



S. M. Locke. — The best packed fruit al- 

 ways sold the best, and the best honey in 

 the best shape for market will always sell 

 the best. Much honey is sent out in poor 

 shape and hence is unsalable, but when put 

 up in good shape all can easily be sold that 

 can be produced. 



J. H. Nellis said that he put up his honey 

 in small packages and found that if attrac- 

 tive such always sold the most rapidly. 

 Wherever there are 25 or SO bee-keepers 

 they should organize a society, and then act 

 together and sell honey to only one or two 

 groceries, and in that way cut off rivalry 

 and groceries running one another at their 

 expense. They should appoint a committee 

 who would make a point of putting it up in 

 good shape and pushing its sale. 



C. R. Isham.— Over production is only a 

 bug bear. It is no trouble to sell all the 

 honey that can be produced, if in market- 

 able shape. Our large honey producers sell 

 all they can raise, and at good figures, too. 



Dr. Walter. — Home markets were the 

 thing, in his experience. He could always 

 get 5 cts. per tt. more at home, than honey 

 was sold at, that was shipped to his neigh- 

 borhood from other places. He sold all he 

 could raise at 30c. per fe. 



C. R. Isham.— Honey is now an article of 

 commerce and large crops must be sold to 

 wholesale men iu large cities, who ai-e bet- 

 ter prepared to handle it than producers. 



N. D. West said he believed in selling to 

 one house, so that there should be no run- 

 ning the price down. 



A. J. King.— A large foreign demand had 

 sprung up, and honey was now being ex- 

 ported in large quantities, and we must also 

 study the best shape to put it up for that 

 purpose. C. F. Muth, Cincinnati, also sold 

 basswood honey largely to factories where 

 sugar was used before, also to brewers. As 

 to adulteration, he believed that was all in 

 the past when honey was liigh. It was now 

 too cheap to pay for adulterating. One 

 good test was to subject honey to the cold 

 30° below zero, and if pure it will granulate; 

 if it does not granulate it is impure. 



Mr. W. M. Hoge being asked to express 

 his views, spoke as follows on the subject of 



Honey Dealers. 



Mr. President, Ladies & Gentlemen: 

 Next to the business of the aparist comes 

 that of the honey dealer. If properly pro- 

 tected and encouraged it would contribute 

 the most to the production of honey. It 

 would support the trade of the bee keeper 

 in the same manner as the wholesale dealer 

 supports that of the manufacturer. The 

 wholesale dealer, by affording a i-eady mar- 

 ket to the manufacturer by taking his goods 

 off his hands as fast as he can make them, 

 and by sometimes even advancing their 

 price to him before he has made them, en- 

 ables him to keep his whole capital, and 

 sometimes even more than his whole capital 

 constantly employed in manufacturing, and 

 consequently to manufacture a much greater 

 quantity of goods than if he was obliged to 

 dispose of them himself to immediate con- 

 sumers, or even to retailers. As the capital 

 of the wholesale merchant, too, is generally 

 sufficient to replace that of many manufac- 

 turers, this intercourse between him and 

 them interests the owner of a large capital 

 to support the owners of a great number of 

 small ones, and to assist them in their losses 

 and misfortunes, which might otherwise 

 prove ruinous to them. An intercourse of 

 the same kind universally established be- 

 tv/een the honey producers and lioiiey mer- 

 chants would be attended with effects equal- 

 ly beneficial to the bee-keepers. They 

 would be enabled to keep their whole capi- 

 tal, and even more than their whole capital, 

 constantly employed in the cultivation of 

 their bees. In case of any of these acci- 

 dents, to which no trade is more liable than 

 theirs, they would find their ordinary cus- 

 tomer the sound honey merchant, a person 

 who had both an interest to support them 

 and the ability to do it. Were it possible, 

 as perhaps it is not, to establish this inter- 

 course universally and all at once — were it 

 possible to turn all at once the whole capital 

 of all the bee men to its proper business, 

 the production of honey, withdrawing it 

 from every other employment into which 

 any part of it may be at present diverted, 

 and were it possible, in order to support 

 and assist upon occasions the operations of 

 this great stock to provide all at once with 

 another stock almost equally as great, it is 

 not perhaps very easy to imagine how great, 

 how extensive, and how sudden would he 

 the improvement which this change of cir- 

 cumstances would alone produce upon the 

 whole face of the country. 



The zeal and energy of the dealer, though 

 in its own nature altogether unproductive. 



