82 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



May 



a better and more practical national organization. 

 Keep your eye on the new National Association 

 aiKl prepare to take advantage of this provision of 

 the constitution. 



Tliero is another subject to which I will briefly 

 i-all your attention: it is an important one. 1 

 refer to the disposal of the products of our api- 

 aries and farms. No farmer or bee-keeper under 

 our obsolete method of trade is receiving full 

 value for their products. Just let us stop and 

 tliink, for a minute. What other class of products 

 is there, the bulk of which must pass through the 

 liands of commission men before reaching the 

 fonsumer? Wliere are there any successful man- 

 ufacturers who are disposing of their goods 

 through the commission house ? Our products, 

 through the prevailing method of sale, is at the 

 mercy of the most unscrupulous commission man. 

 It is the commission man who sells the lowest 

 who does the business, and who establishes 

 the price of our products. The honest com- 

 mission man; the one who would get full value, 

 is not in it. He, too. is at the mercy of the 

 most unscrupulous member of the craft; and 

 we are no better than their slaves. I want you 

 to understand me, and I will repeat; it is the com- 

 mission man who sells the lowest who estab- 

 lishes the price. Right here I imagine that 

 .someone will bring forward that old gag, "the 

 dealer, if he buys for cash, must buy cheap." 

 Does not the argument, when analyzed, sustain 

 my position ? Of course he must; because he 

 must compete witli that unscrupulous commission 

 man; a man who is loaded up with produce that 

 did not cost him one cent; not even the freight. 

 Stop selling through the commission man and then 

 see what the dealers who will buy for cash will 

 pay. If they cannot get our goods on commission 

 they must pay cash. Having money invested in it, 

 then and not till then, will they try and sustain 

 prices. Last fall a friend, a person who buys 

 thousands of dollars' worth of goods through 

 commission houses every year, told me — and he 

 had just returned from New York City— that he 

 was offered fine choice apples by the commission 

 houses at ^il.OO j>er bbl.; and that very day cold 

 storage dealers were paying $2.25 cash per bbl., 

 and taking all they could get at our station, to 

 my certain knowledge. Someone will say, did 

 they not have to compete witli the commission 

 houses? Of course they would if they sold at tliat 

 time; and it is plainly to be seen tliat they could 

 not have paid very much. But they hold their ap- 

 ples until the commission houses can get no more, 

 then they enter the market. Had the commission 

 houses been unable to get apples on commission at 

 any time, would they have been selling at Jsi.OO ? It 

 seems plain enough; and yet the same holds true 

 in every other product. I have asked many city 

 dealers of wliom they purchased their farm pro- 

 duce, and they invariably said, through commis- 

 sion houses, and gave for their reason that they 

 could in that way buy cheaper than of the farmer; 



and I remember one instance in particular, where 

 the dealer with a knowing wink and laughing, 

 said, he would rather let the commission men 

 settle with the farmer, and then his conscience 

 would be clear. I have seen it stated, and I 

 believe with good reason, that the securing of a 

 crop was only one-half the labor or cost. 

 This is true in all industries. I have many times 

 wondered why the time at our farmers' institutes 

 was not divided equally between How to produce 

 and How to sell. I tell you, gentlemen, we must 

 adopt different methods of disposing of our pro- 

 ducts. It will take years to bring this about, and 

 the agitation of the question cannot begin too 

 soon. But there is one thing can and sliould be 

 donCi at once. Commission houses, handling as 

 they do, millions of dollars of other people's 

 money, should be put under state and national 

 supervision, the same as banking; why not? 



Do not forget to save your fancy honey for the 

 Pan-American exposition in 1!)01, it is important 

 that this state make a creditable exhibit. 



In conclusion let me again urge each of you to 

 lose no opportunity to strengthen your own and to 

 encourage the organization of other bee-keepers' 

 societies, until we have one such society in nearly 

 every county in the state. Take interest and 

 pride in your pursuit, and let us make the New 

 York State Association of Bee-keepers' Societies a 

 model organization in every respect. I thank you 

 for your attention. 



QUEEN REARING. 



An Expert Minutely Details His Methods 

 of Conditioning Colonies for the Work 

 — Other Valuable Suggestions. 



BY W. H. PHIDGEN. 



IN THEIR wild or primitive state, as 

 well as when kept as our forefathers 

 did, nature aids bees in propag'ating and 

 perpetuating themselves by the law of 

 " the survival of the fittest " to a great 

 extent. Not only by causing the inferior 

 to succumb in times of scarcity and the 

 vigorous to predominate, until there is 

 but little difference in size, color, dispo- 

 sition, hardiness or business qualities 

 among those in the same territory; but 

 it is seldom that a queen is reared by 

 such except under the most favorable 

 conditions. Like everything else, they 

 make mistakes in swarming too much 

 and too late at times and have to suc- 

 cumb because the anticipated flow is not 

 realized, and oven an unfortunate posi- 



