200 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



November 



Selling Extracted Honey at Whole= 

 sale — How to Get Best Prices. 



(By J. F. Mclntyr). 



Delivered at the Denver Convention oi' the Na- 

 tional Bee-Keepers' Association. 



I BELIEVE the president and sec- 

 retary have dehberately and with 

 malice aforethought run me up 

 against the hardest problem in apicul- 

 ture, agriculture, horticulture or any 

 other producing business that is not a 

 monopoly. I have only agreed to write 

 a paper, however, not to solve the 

 problem. 



The statement, "To him that hath 

 shall be given," etc., still holds good, 

 only it should be made plainer. To 

 hitn that hath money shall be given a 

 high price for his produce; and from 

 him that hath not money his produce 

 shall be taken at a very low price, is 

 the saying up-to-date. I believe that 

 this law is as inexorable as fate when 

 the words "at wholesale" governs what 

 is said. A poor bee-keeper could ped- 

 dle his honey, and sell directly to con- 

 sumers who do not know his weakness 

 at a good price; but the large pro- 

 ducer cannot do this; his honey must 

 pass through several hands to reach 

 the consumer, and the price is govern- 

 ed by the market. , 



It is said that "All things come to 

 him who can wait." Ah, there is the 

 rub; how can a man wait with hungry 

 mouths to fill, and interest gnawing at 

 his vitals. I have before me San 

 Francisco prices current, dated July 4th, 

 1902. Under Honey it says, "Buyers 

 and sellers are too far apart in their 

 ideas of values for much trading." Do 

 you know what that means? It means 

 that the men who have honey to sell 

 now in California can wait. If there 

 was one man who could not wait the 

 buyers would get his honey at the 

 present low price. 



I don't know a single neighbor bee- 

 keeper that has his last year's honey 

 crop on hand now. They have all 

 sold at a low price to speculators. 

 Only a small part of their honey has 

 reached the consumer; the remainder 

 is in the hands of strong men who 

 bought it at a low price and are hold- 

 ing for a high price. 



At our conventions the question is 

 often asked, "What are we going to do 

 with the small producer who is too 



weak to hold his honey and breaks the 

 market?" I always look at the ques- 

 tioner to see if he wants to kill the 

 small producer, let the speculators eat 

 him up, or organize him. The ques- 

 tion has never been answered to the 

 satisfaction of every one present, but 

 nearly all seem to feci as if the man 

 had done wrong by selling so cheap. 

 The big-hearted man with the love of 

 humanity thrilling his breast, gets up 

 and says, "We really must organize 

 these poor fellows so they will be able 

 to hold their honey for a better price." 

 The stoic gets up and asks how much 

 longer 100 of them could hold than one. 

 if they were all in the same fix, and 

 must have money. The dealers would 

 laugh at such a weak corner on honey, 

 and wait a very short time until it 

 went to pieces. The "Bulls" must have 

 real strength. Bellowing and pawing 

 the dust does not scare the "Bears" very 

 much, so the organization fails to make 

 its corner effective, the offtcers are 

 blamed, and things are in a worse shape 

 than they were before. 



Is there no hope then for the man 

 who is too weak to hold his crop? Yes. 

 there is still hope. 



The citrus fruit grower of southern 

 California have done much to solve the 

 problem. Their product was perisha- 

 ble and could not be held, no matter 

 how much money they had. Their 

 business got in such bad shape that 

 they were receiving expense bills in- 

 stead of returns for carloads of or- 

 anges shipped East. They had to do 

 something or quit the business, and 

 they did it. They organized to sell 

 their fruit and get honest returns. 

 They placed agents under bonds in ev- 

 ery large city in the United States. 

 These agents kept the head office in 

 Los Angeles posted, and pushed the 

 sale of fruit. Eleven million dollars 

 worth is now consigned to these agents 

 annually, and honest returns made to 

 the grower, and the average of citrus 

 fruits doubled instead of declining. 



This organization. The Southern Cal- 

 ifornia Fruit Exchange, has been so 

 successful that they have all become co- 

 operative cranks, and now propose to 

 give other producers, who are too weak 

 to maintain agencies of their own, the 

 benefit of their agencies to sell their 

 products. The weak bee-keepers in this 

 "neck o' the woods" may now organ- 



