THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



Jan. 7, 



suits, for in a short flow, that only lasts 10 days or so, a 

 swarm on etupty frames has not time to consume much honey 

 in rearing drones. 



But I have gotten so far away from what I started out to 

 tell, that this will have to be continued. 



Southern Minnesota. 



Proceedings of the Illinois State Bee-Keepers' 



Convention Held in Chicago, Nov. 18 



and 19, 1896. 



BV A SPECIAL BEE JOURNAL REPORTER. 



IContinued from page 838] 

 SECOND DAY— Forenoon Session. 



The convention was called to order by Pres. Miller at 9:30 

 o'clock, and Mr. Jas. A. Stone offered prayer. 



SELLING HONEY THROUGH COSI.MISSION-MEN. 



QuES. 11. — Should we encourage selling our honey through 

 city commission-men ? 



Dr. Miller — This is the next practical question. Who 

 knows? I'will ask you straight, How many think we should 

 sell our honey through city commission-men ? [One]. How 

 many think we should not encourage it? [Eleven]. 



Mr. Ellis — Does that question refer to Chicago ? 



Dr. Miller — I suppose the spirit of the question would be 

 answered exactly if we should say Chicago. Sending our 

 honey from home to the large markets would be the general 

 idea. I should say, if you can sell your honey yourself, you bet- 

 ter do so, because the chances are you will get more money for 

 it and be more certain of it ; but if you are not a salesman, 

 you may do better with commission-men. 



Mr. Grabbe — I believe we have some reliable honey-deal- 

 ing firms here in Chicago who would be perfectly safe to ship 

 honey to, and you would get your pay for it, but I think the 

 ma.iority of them here at present are not reliable. A bee-keep- 

 er near St. Louis, wrote me a short time ago that he had about 

 5,000 pounds of extracted honey which he thought of shipping 

 to Geo. T. Wheadou & Co., of this city. I advised him not to 

 ship It, as they were considered a fraudulent firm. It was a 

 few days afterward, that I received a letter from another gen- 

 tleman who had shipt them 10 cases of extracted honey, 

 amounting to very nearly 870, and they were to remit at once; 

 they agreed to buy this houey outright — there was no consign- 

 ment about it ; they were to pay him seven cents cash for it, 

 on arrival. The bee-keeper informed me he had shipt the 

 honey, but they had not remitted to him, which they should 

 have done some time ago. I wrote him that it was considered 

 a fraudulent firm. He sent me an order a few days ago to get 

 his money for him, but when I went to see about it there was 

 no firm there, but I found one of the men who had workt for 

 them. It was not Wheadon at all who did the business, but a 

 man by the name of Terrill, who was the proprietor, and only 

 used Wheadon as a flgurc-head ; ho got the consignments and 

 did the buying through Wheadon, and I understand that they 

 sold thousands of dollars worth of produce and never a dollar 

 of it returned to the shipper. They closed out the last of Oc- 

 tober, I believe, and I was told that Terrill had gone to Cana- 

 da, but where Wheadon is, I don't know. 



Dr. Miller — I'erhaps the pertinent question is, shall we do 

 all we can to have all the commissiou-nien killed ? j fjaugliler. | 



Mr. Ellis — Killed, or relieved of the pressure of too much 

 goods for this market ? Of course, we can do that ourselves 

 by selling somewhere else, and wo can reach customers which 

 they don't reach. There has been considerable honey taken 

 from here to Wheaton, Hi., and west of Whealon, and so on, 

 and in smaller markets, which does not interfere with the 

 sales here at all, and wo will get more money ; and those who 

 sell outside will get more money also. 



Dr. Miller How many are here, who, within the last two 

 years, have shipt any bODey to commlsslon-meu ? [Only one). 



There is one thing, if honey is never shipt to them, it can't do 

 any particular harm. 



Mr. York — There are a great many bee-keepers who do 

 ship honey to commissiou-men. I find there are some who 

 ship honey to commission-men that have been exposed as 

 frauds in the bee-papers, and still the shippers read the bee- 

 papers ! I find, also, that after I have publisht a firm as 

 fraudulent, bee-keepers who read the Bee Journal write me and 

 ask about them, whether or not they are responsible ! I thiuk, 

 however, in the majority of cases those who ship to dishonest 

 honey commission-men are those who do not read the bee- 

 papers. I have tried to do what I can to expose the fraudu- 

 lent firms, although T was " taken in " last year (1895) by ad- 

 vertising, and immediately denounced them ; and this year I 

 commenced good and early on the same firms, as well as on 

 Wheadon & Co., although two of the bee-papers publisht page 

 advertisements of the latter fraudulent firm. One bee-paper 

 advertised for them even after I had publisht them as frauds, 

 so there was no excuse for that. Of course, these firms all pay 

 their advertising bills promptly, and it may be that some pub- 

 lishers were anxious to get cash. But we all know it does not 

 pay to encourage crooked firms, no matter how willing they 

 are to pay. I think it not best to encourage shipping to the 

 general run of commission-men. I know there are a few honest 

 firms, but I think, as Mr. Grabbe says, the majority are in- 

 clined to take advantage of the shipper, not only in the honey- 

 business, but any other line of produce. I thiuk we ought to 

 discourage shipping to commission-men as much as possible, 

 and encourage the selling of honey in the home, or near-by, 

 markets. 



Mr. Grabbe — These parties near St. Louis, whom I men- 

 tioned, never subscribed for the American Journal. I told 

 both of them the American Bee Journal had publisht Whead- 

 on & Co., as fraudulent, and one of them would have saved his 

 $70 if he had been a subscriber. Since then, he has told me 

 he subscribed for the Bee Journal, but it is too late. 



Mr. Baldridge — I should discourage shipping to commis- 

 sion-men. What I mean by that, is something lika this: 

 Honey should be sold at home, in the home markets, or sold 

 direct to city purchasers, who will pay cash on delivery — in 

 other words, buy it right out. 



' Mr. Grabbe — It is best to sell for spot cash on delivery. 

 But what assurances has the shipper that he would get his 

 pay, if spot cash on delivery were agreed upon ? 



Mr. Green — Let him ship with sight draft attacht to bill 

 of lading ; then he is perfectly safe. 



Mr. Grabbe — That may be true, but what if the firm re- 

 fuses to cash the draft after the honey gets here ? What will 

 be done with the honey, then ? The railroad company is not 

 responsible ; they turn the goods over to the consignee. I 

 have sold carloads of goods, with that same attachment to the 

 bill of lading, but the other party got hold of the goods, and 

 the draft was returned, not casht. I think it was a Califor- 

 nia bee-keeper who shipt a carload of honey to a firm here who 

 could not cash the draft, and the shipper immediately tele- 

 grapht to another firm to take the honey. Of course it was 

 then at the mercy of the other firm ; I do not know whether 

 he got anything for his honey or not. Also, I would say, 

 while on this subject, that a certain honey-buyer in this town 

 went to a commission-house to buy honey, aud he dealt with the 

 principal member of the firm, who sold him the honey and 

 pocketed the money without giving a bill, or anything at all. 

 The buyer walkt off with his honey, and the commission-man 

 pocketed the money, and I suppose he never made any returns. 

 That is one way the crooked commission-men do business. I 

 really think what we need here is a honey exchange, or at 

 least some firm with plenty of capital that can sort of control 

 the honey product, either buy it up or have it, shipt to them 

 subject to sale, or something of the kind, so that these dishon- 

 est people can't get hold of the honey, and then let bee-keep- 

 ers ship only to this one firm. I suppose one good firm in 

 Chicago could handle all the honey for the city, that is, one 

 wholesale firm. 



Mr. Ellis — Do you know how much was shipt to Chicago 

 last year ? 



Mr. York — As nearly as I could discover, there were 1,- 

 200,000 pounds of honey put on this market last year; of 

 course, there may have been a little more, but I think 

 that is nearly correct. Don't you think, Mr. Grabbe, that is 

 about right ? 



Mr. (irabbe — Yes. 



Mr. York— One firm handled 20 carloads. Of course I 

 could not find out exactly how much Horrie & Co. handled, but 

 I understood they sold quite a good deal ; they were a little 

 backward in telling just how many car-loads, but I am sure 

 they handled a great deal, and made small returns for the most 

 of it. I am still receiving complaints against them on last 



