300 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



part of the association, otherwise we are no Ijetter off than now. 



The large buyers of honey made $-10' per ton on most of the 

 California honey last year. The association would have to be 

 very poorly managed not to save the greater part of this sum to the 

 bee-keepers. 



FREIGHT RATES. 



Through co-operation, acting together, tlie Pecos Valley Bee- 

 Keepers' Association received a reduction in freight rates. The 

 Colorado Bee-Keepers' Association has successfully marketed its 

 members' honey and outsiders' for the last ten years. vSee what is 

 being done right in our own ranks. 



In California the rate on one ton of honey is just the same as 

 on a carload ; here is room for improvement. Through co-operation 

 the bee-keepers would be in a position to correct the many inequal- 

 ities existing. They would receive the respect that other large bus- 

 iness concerns receive, and would receive further consideration on 

 account of their voting power. The waste in business methods in 

 the United States is enormous, and especially in be«-keeping. Then 

 the bee-keepers have to stand to lose for this waste; every penn}^ 

 wasted means so much less for your honey. If Smith produces one 

 ton of honey he should receive just as much per ton as Jones who 

 produces ten tons. If Smith does not care to produce more than 

 one ton that is his aft'air. Co-operation will not eliminate individ- 

 ual effort, but it will give weak and strong alike a square deal. 

 If you do not treat the small bee-keeper as your equal he v/ill be- 

 come your superior by selling to your competitor. P'urther, it is 

 not fair to ask the man who keeps a few bees (4 or 5 hives) to pay 

 membership dues but he is more than willing to pay his proportion 

 per ton for marketing his honey. It is to the interest of the big 

 fellow to take care of this little fellow. 



Calabasas, Cal. 



[Let me call j'our attention to one sentence in the above article which is worthy 

 being cut out and pasted up in our room as a motto. That sentence is, "If you do 

 not treat the small bee-keeper as your equal, he will become your superior by 

 selling to your competitor." 



Read this over and then think about it. How often extensive honey producers 

 forget the importance of the small bee-keeper when considering their affairs. An 

 old farmer, living near ray boyhood home, often made this remark, "While the big 

 guns shoot the heaviest, the little ones scatter all over." What he meant was that 

 we must not overlook the fact that a whole lot of apparently unimportant people 

 have more influence, as a rule, than a few of the big ones we generally pick out 

 as leaders. 



Co-operation ceases to be co-operation the minute we forget the smallest ones 

 in the ranks. It is the duty of the many working together to throw the protection 

 ■of this united effort over the least important in the organization.] 



