THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



3i 



a price as to niaUe ils free use be- 

 yoiitl the means of the masses. 



If hoiu'v tliat is now produced 

 was as equally distributed throu<j;li- 

 out the eouutry as it was in olden 

 time, there would be a demand at 

 good prices for every pound that 

 has been or is likely to be produced. 

 There never has been anything like 

 an over production of honey. Spe- 

 cialists are producing a great deal, 

 but many of them have so little 

 confidence in their own ability to 

 make sales of it, they put it up in 

 the best of shape and away it goes 

 to some city commission merchant 

 who so often reports back : " Your 

 honey arrived in very bad condi- 

 tion, much of which was broken 

 out of the sections, is in poor sliape 

 for bringing anything like a fair 

 price, but we will do the best we 

 can for you," when the facts ai'e 

 that the honey had been received, 

 in the best of shape and readily 

 sold at good prices. Well, after 

 long delay, the beekeeper — in the 

 meantime becoming anxious for 

 some kind of a return or settle- 

 ment — writes to know what is the 

 best that can be done. The answer 

 finally comes back. " We got an 

 offer of eight cents per pound for 

 honey you sent us and fearing it 

 might be the last chance we let it 

 go, but will not take any commission 

 on the sale as it has turned out ; 

 sorry, but we have done the best 

 for you we could." 



" The best we could " with a 

 big B, but how often the whole 

 story is a big lie. Reader, If you 

 have been there, you know how it 

 is yourself. I will give you a sam- 

 ple of some things I have seen on 

 this line. A commission house, 

 in a city a few miles from my place, 

 received a pretty good consign- 

 ment of choice white clover ex- 

 tracted honey put up in sixty 11). 

 cans. Part of it Avas sold for ten 

 cents. Ten cans had remained on 

 hand for several months and had 



candied and when the caps were 

 turned olf to show the honey, it 

 would bulge out and stick and daub 

 every thing near it. One day this 

 fall I was in this house, when a 

 storekeeper came in and asked if 

 there was any more of that ex- 

 tracted honey on hand? One of 

 the lirm shovved the stock, but the 

 buyer said, "Why! this stuff has 

 all gone back to sugar, I don't want 

 that at any price." After the man 

 left, the head of the firm said to me, 

 " Mr. B, the man who shipped that 

 sugar-made honey to this house 

 will leain that " honesty is the 

 best policy" before he is through 

 with it. I will sell it for five cents 

 per pound the first chance I have 

 and after I take my commission 

 out, there will not be much left." 

 Said I, ''just put it on the scales 

 and see how much there is ; I will 

 take it." There were six hundred 

 pounds of it, which cost me but $30. 

 I took it home, liquified and sold 

 it to my customers for fifteen cents 

 per pound ; but what did t'other 

 fellow get? He got one lesson in 

 the commission business if he got 

 nothing more. 



The great law of supply and 

 demand is supi)osed to regulate 

 prices, and should, but does not in 

 all cases. As proof of this asser- 

 tion, I will say that the demand for 

 all the honey produced, even in 

 the best seasons, is sufficient to 

 consume, at fair prices, all that is 

 produced, but what is radically- 

 wrong is that the supply is not 

 distributed so as to come within 

 reach of the demand. Some may 

 claim that " owing to the sparsely- 

 populated country where the}' live 

 and the large quantities of honey 

 produced, there would be no such 

 thing as finding sale for all that 

 might be produced, and we have 

 no alternative but to send our 

 product to the commission houses 

 to be sold. Now when this is the 

 case there is no help for 3'ou ; do 



