228 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



about the dishonesty of farmers, — 

 taught by many a lesson, too. In 

 these days of modern business 

 ideas, an established business 

 house expects to make its money 

 by its business and to depend upon 

 maintaining and extending its 

 business. Few are so shortsighted 

 as to expect to make a living by 

 little steals of a dollar or two here 

 and there. Acting myself, in a 

 middle capacity between the com- 

 mission mei'chant and the farmer, 

 that is, sampling and buying grain 

 of the farmers for the city firms, I 

 have found first, — that many far- 

 mers, if they could get me to buy 

 their grain on tlieir own samples, 

 ■would deliberately sell a poor lot 

 on a falsely good sample and, in 

 cold blood, see me or the San 

 Francisco house lose any sum what- 

 ever to their own gain ; while I was 

 never yet wronged by a regular 

 grain firm in the city. I am only 

 speaking now of the dishonest far- 

 mer. I am not calling all alike. 

 And I only want to illustrate that 

 the claims of dishonesty are not 

 all against the commission house. 



But the question of actual sup- 

 ply and demand without any arti- 

 ficial element is very clear. No 

 one is going to continue producing 

 an article when the price is less 

 than it costs him. Hence if peo- 

 ple throw large quantities on the 

 market at a low price you may 

 know that there is still a living in 

 it. The only exception would be 

 where multitudes produced ex- 

 pecting to get some former price 

 only to see their mistake when the 

 article has to be sold at a loss. 

 But this condition would be tem- 

 porary. 



If so many are in the business as 

 to render it unprofitable this year, 

 you may depend that enough will 

 drop out to equalize it next year. 

 I will close this letter by asking- 

 space for the opinion of Costigan, 

 Cohen & Co., of San Francisco, 



an upright, sagacious and success- 

 ful commission firm. Having writ- 

 ten them for their views upon this 

 question, they replied as follows : 



To Mr. a. Norton. 

 Dkau Sir : 



The writer is not snfficiently 

 fiiniiliar with tlie cost of production of 

 honey here and elsewhere to give you 

 all the information asked for in your 

 letter of the 4th in.st. 



There is no doubt that should an as- 

 sociation be formed, incliuliiii; all the 

 apiarists in the state, they could estab- 

 lish higher prices for honey under cer- 

 tain conditions. These would be, that 

 the honey all be marketed through the 

 agent of the association, and that all 

 members live up to its rules. That is 

 one side of the question ; the other is, 

 that there has never been any such 

 body formed, which has been more than 

 temporarily successful. 



The writer knows of just such cases, 

 Avhere men have banded together and 

 signed written agreements not to sell 

 their produce for less than a given 

 price, and in less than an hour someone 

 of them has ofl'ered to sell for less than 

 the price agreed upon. 



If all the members lived up to their 

 agreement, it would make producing 

 profitable, and outsiders would go into 

 the business and undersell them. This 

 alone would break up the association 

 as its goods would not meet with ready 

 sale and the individual members would 

 themselves sell their honey for what 

 they could get. 



We never yet have seen a combina- 

 tion of any kind where some party to 

 it would not undersell the established 

 price. 



After all, the question of supply and 

 demand will regulate prices in the long 

 run. 



Yours truly, 

 Costigan, Cohen & Co. 



Gonzales, San Francisco, Cal, 

 June G, 1887. 



CAUSE OF DROUGHT AND CY- 

 CLONES. 



Thos. E. Hill. 



During a recent journey to Europe 

 the passage across the ocean was es- 

 pecially unpleasant, because of fogs, 

 the only consolation in contemplating 



