staple article, so that there shall he 

 some uniformity of price in different 

 places and not, as I have known the 

 present year, honey sold at 10c. per 

 pound in one town and at 20c. in another 

 town 12 miles distant. Probably in 

 time this matter will regulate itself, but 

 a little concert of action may hasten it. 



It is only recently that honey is found 

 quoted in the market reports, but it is 

 now considered of consequence enough 

 to secure a regular quotation in some of 

 the leading daily papers. I am of the 

 opinion, however, that the quotations 

 generally given are not in the interest 

 of those who produce the honey, their 

 tendency being to " bear" the market. 

 We should at least look for reliable 

 quotations in our own bee publications, 

 but they are just about as unreliable as 

 the dailies and weeklies. Last fall I 

 made a somewhat careful canvass of 

 the commission houses and other places 

 where honey was sold at wholesale in 

 Chicago, on South Water street, and 

 vicinity. I think I omitted no place in 

 that locality where honey was sold, and 

 at a rough guess I should say I found 

 honey at about 40 places and the poorest 

 comb honey I found could not be bought 

 as low as the highest prices quoted for 

 the best comb honey. This spring I 

 sent to a commission house in Chicago, 

 the culls of my honey, none of it first- 

 class, which was sold for something 

 over 14c. per pound, and at the same 

 time the Chicago papers, the " old reli- 

 able" A. B. J. included, were quoting 

 " white clover in single-comb boxes, 10 

 to 12c." Looking at the last quotation 

 in the American Bee Journal, Sept. 

 number, I find single-comb, white, 10 to 

 12c, and at the same time commission 

 men were reporting sales at 16 to 18c. 

 One of the troubles, about our smaller 

 markets particularly, is that many 

 who raise only a few pounds of honey 

 take it to the nearest market and sell 

 for whatever is offered, without any 

 knowledge whatever of what they 

 ought to receive, and even if they do 

 look at the quotations, they will sell 

 much below the real market. Within 

 12 miles of my home I saw white clover 

 honey, this year's crop, in prize boxes, 

 which the grocer had bought at 10c. per 

 pound of a man who makes a business 

 of raising honey, and the last I knew 

 had over a hundred colonies of bees, 

 and he takes the bee periodicals, too. I 

 believe he had sold all his white honey 

 at that price. 



Another trouble is the large number 

 of houses at which honey is sold in our 

 cities. Most of them know little about 

 honey, and a really nice article will be 

 sold for about the same as the poorest. 



The producer should know something 

 about the actual state of the market, 

 and when he makes a shipment should 

 send instructions not to sell below a cer- 

 tain price, unless he has perfect confi- 

 dence that the consignee is fully posted 

 and will get full value. Is it not better 

 to ship to a house which makes a 

 specialty, if not a sole business, of sell- 

 ing honey ? 



If the National Convention will in- 

 fluence the Chicago papers to give us 

 reliable quotations of the honey market 

 it will not have met in vain. 



Marengo, 111., Oct. 1879. 



[The above communication was writ- 

 ten by Dr. Miller, as a contribution to 

 the Essay Department of the National 

 Convention, but by an oversight on his 

 part, was not mailed till after the pub- 

 lication of the November number of 

 the Journal. Kef erring to the want 

 of reliability in the quotations of honey, 

 as given by the daily and other papers, 

 we can only express the opinion that 

 they must necessarily be nominal so 

 long as there is not a recognized grade 

 in quality, and uniformity in the style of 

 preparation for market. Last spring, 

 for several weeks, the daily papers of 

 this city made no changes in their quo- 

 tations for honey, as the article had be- 

 come a drug on the market, and the 

 demand was quite restricted. At that 

 time we held several hundred pounds, 

 for which we had in December, 1878, 

 paid 13c. per lb., and which we found 

 exceedingly difficult to sell at 10@llc, 

 even in small lots. The last of it (about 

 1,000 lbs.) was sold in October at 10c. 

 This honey was in excellent shape (2 lb. 

 prize boxes) but only medium in quality. 

 It is possible, in some instances last 

 spring, much higher figures were real- 

 ized even for ''culls," especially if the 

 parties shipping had relatives or friends 

 engaged in the commission business, or 

 themselves thoroughly canvassed South 

 Water street. And further, it does not 

 necessarily follow, that among 40 houses 

 we can buy honey at the highest figure 

 they are paying. By referring to page 

 342 American Bee Journal, August 

 number, it will be seen we advised bee- 

 keepers to "make haste slowly" in 

 throwing their product upon the market. 



