THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



141 



forgotten which, and have not time to 

 look up the matter) to formulate rule 

 for grading honey. I wonder if the api- 

 arists of to day realize that it is only about 

 a decade of years since the grading of 

 honey was seriously thought of, and that 

 the scheme originated with bee-keepers 

 themselves. Doolittle was one of that 

 committee; and there were also one or 

 two commission men on the committee. 

 Doolittle said to the commission man: 



" Do you open crates of honey consign- 

 ed you on commission?" 



•' Yes, always; just as we trv- butter 

 shipped to us, to see if it runs alike all 

 the way through, unless the shipper 

 guarantees that packages are alike all the 

 way through, according to outside appear- 

 ances. Where they do this, if it is not so, 

 the fraud falls on them, and we are not 

 responsible; but where no guarantee is 

 made by the shipper we would be respon- 

 sible if the contents of case or tulj were 

 not alike all the way through. Besides, 

 all those who buy insist on seeing the 

 quality of goods by sampling one or more 

 packages of any lot before purchasing. " 



" Would you con.sider it dishonest for 

 a producer to average his year's crop of 

 honey, then put it accordingly in each 

 crate, facing it up with the whitest and 

 nicest sections?" 



" No; not unless said producer wrote us 

 it was all alike all the way through. It 

 is my business to kno'w what I am selling 

 where anything can be looked into as 

 easily as can a crate of honey ; and with 

 its consignment the responsibility of the 

 producer is changed from him to me ; I 

 acting as proxy. To fill a crate of honey 

 with white outsides and dark cen- 

 ters, shows a lack of financial make-up; 

 as honey put up that way rarely sells 

 much in advance of the regular price for 

 dark honey; but I can see nothing dis- 

 hotiest in so doing. ' ' 



And I have since talked with other 

 commission men on this same subject, 

 and all very nearly agree with the above. 

 If I put up honey as above, and upon 

 Consigning it to be sold, I write; " I ship 



you 20 cases oi fancy zvhite honey to be 

 sold on commission," or sell those cases 

 my oivn self to any consumer as fancy 

 white, then I am dishonest; but if I sim- 

 ply write : " I ship 20 cases of honey to be 

 sold on commission, according to your 

 best judgment, " then there can be no 

 claim of dishonest)- made that will touch 

 me; and all " smelling the strongest of 

 brimstone," and "talking around the 

 outside of the tent ' ' that Bro. Hasty can 

 do, will not prove "faithful are the 

 wounds of a friend," because such things 

 fail to wound the truth. Claims of dis- 

 honest}' should be proven, not asserted. 

 Give us your proof gentlemen, or be con- 

 tent to hold your peace. 



I considered well what I was writing on 

 page 165 of Gleanings; and should not 

 have written as I did, only I had become 

 .sosick and tired of those old chestnuts in 

 various forms, being brought up to prove 

 that the low prices for honey came about 

 because bee-keepers "put up their honey 

 dishonestly," that they "massed too 

 nmch honey on the large city markets." 

 Then follow "adulteration," "over pro- 

 duction, " "farmer bee-keepers under- 

 selling, " "slovenly and unattractive 

 shape," "lack of forming exchanges," 

 etc., while the great mass of the bee- 

 keepers of the land have been, and are, 

 pushing on with might and main a sys- 

 tem which has brought the price of honey 

 to where it stands, and which wdll, if 

 continued in, down the price to where it 

 will mean starvation for us, even though 

 we may bring to our use all the "short 

 cuts and lightning methods that his [W. 

 L. Coggshall ] bright brain can devise." 

 In trying to solve the question of, "Why 

 has the price of coal gone from I3.50 a 

 ton in 1874 to )f5.2o a ton in 1897, while 

 butter has gone from 50 cents a pound in 

 1874 to 15 cents per pound in 1897?" 

 light may dawn on our mental vision 

 which may teach us something regarding 

 an unju.st system. 



Borodino, N,Y. April 18, 1898. 



[ I felt sure that our good friend Hasty 



dill not fully understand brother Doo- 



