148 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



A ugiist 



From The Bee-keepers' Review. 



ASSOCIATION AND CO-OPERATION THE 

 MOST IIOPEFUI, FIELD. 



Aloiij;- tlu- line of hives, supers uiid 

 fi.Kturcs there does not seem to be nnicli 

 chance of o'reat improvement. Our iiu- 

 pleraeiits liave been so simplified and im- 

 proved that he would be a bold spirit, 

 indeed, who would start with the idea 

 that he could much shorten or cheapen 

 operations, and thereby add to tlH> in- 

 come by lessening tiie cost. 



Methods have been explained, discuss- 

 ed and e.xamined .so often and so fully 

 that a practical man cannot hope for 

 much along that line, to either increas(> 

 the CIO}) or inconu'. 



But when we have j^ot the crop pro- 

 duced and ready to tix for market, the 

 whole mass of b(>e-keepers are at sea: n(» 

 fixed and uniform method of j^rading- or 

 stvle of package prevails. If a dealiM' 

 orders a certain grade of honey from 

 twelve dirterent producers, he is liable 

 to get one dozen kinds as to grade and 

 package, (n'en if the ijuality is uniform, 

 and it is tlie producer who has to stand 

 the loss to even it up. One or two of 

 the twelve prodnc<u-s will undouhtediv 

 sell at a diflf<'rent price than the others; 

 maybe at a loss through ignorance of its 

 true value. Every producer is not bv 

 nature a salesman. Then why should he 

 keep trying to be one '? Are we. as a 

 class, so stupid or full of conceit that 

 we are unwilling to say there is some- 

 thing we do not know: something 

 someoni^ can do b(ater than we can ? 



Co-operation and association would 

 give us a chance to put the selling of our 

 crop into the hands of a good salesman, 

 to have all our honey graded by a cotii- 

 petent grader, who works under instruc- 

 tions from a j)r(>perly authorized person 

 competent to estal)lisli a grade. 



Our packages, both for coml) and ex- 

 tracted honey, would be uniform ; so 

 that a dealer could buy a carload all 

 alike, and a sample would be a sample 

 of the whole. 



Packages, being ordennl by the car- 

 load for the Association, could be pur- 

 chased at greatly red\iced prices and 



shipped to the user at much less cost 

 for freight. 



IJclow an-giscn. in a condensed form. 

 some of {\w essentials lor co-operation, 

 any feature of which admits of much 

 elaljoration. 



In order to establish a bee-keepers' 

 and honey exchange there must be 

 enougli beemen of one mind who pro- 

 duce enough of bee-products to make it 

 an object, and the nearer it comes to 

 embracing all of the beemen in the ter- 



■S*K 



*"llA~-. 



C. A. HATCH. 



|-itoi-y CDVcred. the bettei' it will work : 

 for it is the outsiders and thos(! who 

 wait to -"see how it works" that make 

 trouble. It is much easier to criticise 

 and lind fault than it is to be a pioneer 

 and bear the brunt of organization and 

 starting the machinery necessary to 

 carry on a successful exchange. 



This means a giving up of many of 

 our individual rights for the common 

 good. "The greatest good to the great- 

 est number" must always be the motto 

 of successful exchanges, and a willing 

 anil cheerful agreement by the minority 

 to the will of th(! majority. This simi- 

 larity of ideas and onent^ss of purpose 

 must be tin; foundation of associated 

 effort. First, the association of ideas, 

 next the association of individuals hold- 

 ing those ideas, then the association of 

 products and tin; division of the profits 



