Vol. XVII. 



riARCH, 1Q07. 



No. 3. 



FREIGHT RATES ON HONEY. 



A New York Producer Who Declines Mr. Moth^s 

 View of the Matter. 



F. GREINER. 



IN HIS ARTICLE in February is- 

 sue of the A. B. K. Mr. Muth 

 accuses the bee-keepers of caus- 

 ing the extortionate freight rates on 

 honey themselves. 



I do not believe that the eastern 

 honey producer complains or has any 

 reason to complain that the rates he 

 pays on honey are high. I am located 

 in the western portion of New York 

 State and I can ship to any of the 

 large cities in the East at thirty-five 

 cents per hundred pounds. 



I do not pretend to know what the 

 Colorado or Texas people have to pay 

 to reach the same markets, but I 

 should say that they ought to pay 

 nearly in proportion to the distance. 

 Perhaps that would be prohibitory 

 for them, but it does not seem to me 

 that it would be just and fair to the 

 Easterner if they could ship at the 

 same price that we do here. They 

 can produce a great deal cheaper by 

 reason of the better pasturage, cheap- 

 er lands, cheaper lumber, etc., and 

 they can well afford to pay the rail- 

 roads a little more than we do in the 

 East. 



So far as I can see, the injuries 

 that comb honey shipments receive 

 sometimes cannot influence the freight 

 rate one way or the other, for the 

 shipper stands the "racket." It can 

 he only in very extreme cases that 

 railroads pay any damages. I have 

 never had a single such case adjusted 

 in upwards of thirty years, and only 

 one case where damage was actually 

 paid has come to my knowledge in 

 all this time. It is my opinion that 

 the railroad employees ought to han- 

 dle comb honey with greater care 

 than they do, and that the railroads 

 ought to pay damages in many cases 

 when they do not. On the other 

 hand, if we do ship frail honey and 

 it breaks down in transit, we ought 

 to stand the loss, and always have 

 to. So why should there be reason 

 for a high rate on honey when it 

 matters absolutely nothing to the rail- 

 road whether they carry honey or po- 

 tatoes. The fact is, the rates here 

 are the same as we pay on apples 

 or other fruit; and if we can afford 

 to pay the freight on cheap fruit we 

 certainly ought to be able to pay the 



