262 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



April 24, 1902 



separate, sheet with the Chicago Board of Trade prices on, and 

 they follow largely the same method that is followed by the 

 American I5eo Journal that is quoted for honey, because the 

 price of honey does not fluctuate up or down frequently ; that 

 is to say, it is frequently stationary at a certain price, or just 

 about a certain price, for sometimes several weeks at a time, 

 then they don't change the quotations, they don't even chause 

 the print of it. It stands sometimes several weeks ; but let 

 there be a little difference in price, sufficient to affect more 

 than one house, and thev are quick to take note of it in that 

 Trade Bulletin, but with hardly any more change than occurs 

 in the American Bee Journal. 



Dr. Miller — The amount of transactions in any one article 

 makes a great deal of difference witli the papers and with the 

 market as to the reports. In the daily papers you will lind 

 the market for green goods and picked turkeys, but you will 

 not find that they give you the report of market prices of 

 honey, because thev say there is so much less, not even enough 

 honey to warrant any quotation at all. You and I think there 

 is a big lot of honey sold, but compared with cheese it is a 

 small matter. They will only report things in which there 

 are large transactions. I doubt very much whether there are 

 more than two or three men here who can give me the fair 

 market price of turkey-feathers just now. I can't straighten 

 you out if you don't linow anything about it. That's just 

 what applies to this honey-business. If we can produce 

 enough of it and get more on the market we will have more 

 exact prices. So long as there isn't enough of it so that the 

 daily papers feel warranted in giving any quotations at all, 

 you can't have the thing figured down. 



Mr. Dunn — Where the bulk of the product is in the hands 

 of two houses they can protect the market. Take the outside 

 markets and compare them and the cost of transportation 

 here. They can get that price. They have to make the money 

 on it. They have the right to a liberal commission, but I want 

 Chicago to stand as high as it can stand, and it can afford to 

 stand transportation added as well as any one in the market. 



Dr. Miller — There is no law that I know of against allow- 

 ing Mr. Dunn, when the market is two cents higher elsewhere, 

 and one cent for transportation — no law against Mr. Dunn 

 buying out these two houses and transporting it. [Applause.] 



Pres. York — I rely upon Mr. Burnett to give the proper 

 quotations. I believe he can tell the truth ; I have felt pretty 

 sure in the quotations. I would like to have him raise the mar- 

 ket two cents, if he can. 



Dr. Miller — If he can raise the market two cents we ought 

 to raise his wages. 



Mr. Dunn — Yes, sir. 



(Continued next week.) 



Contributed Articles. 



a. 



•'sr'pf'Sfni 



No. 7.— Apiculture as a Business. 



A Discussion of Selling by Weig-ht or Case 

 Which?— The Cause of Lig-ht Weigrhts— 

 Colorado Grading Rules All Right- 

 Two Sides to the Question. 



BY R. C. AIKIN. 



fNoTB.— Since the foUowing article was written tlicre iinve tieen several arti- 

 cles ,'ind editorials nn tiie Bubject. But. as the urounil has not hnen fully cov- 

 ered hv any, and this article touches a nuraberot pointB notal all considered by 

 other writers. 1 tblnn it best to let it co without ^e-writin^^ I recommend i)ar- 

 ticularly that the reader note the abuse that may be made by the middlemen of 

 buyitiK t)y welKht and selUtiK by the case. Also, do a little Mgurinp on the cost 

 of cases and sections, and you will see that there is oothinf; gained uy producing 

 light-weight honey. Three pounds more honey in the case pays tor the case 

 and se tiona. approximately.) 



IN No. 6 [page 167] I dealt somewhat with the questions 

 of separators to obtain even-weight sections, and of sell- 

 ing '• by the piece." 'While the thought is before us, I 

 may as well pay my respects to the Editor, and to Mr. 

 Burnett. 



I think I see Messrs. York and Burnett doing a retail 

 business, each handing out 14-ounce pounds to customers 

 who pay for i6 ounces. They sell also maple syrup at SI. .50 

 a gallon, and give me 11 pounds, can and all; canned fruits 

 at so much for so many — 1, 2 or 3 pound cans, " shorts ;" 48 

 pounds of flour when I ask for and pay for SO pounds ; and 

 on and on through a long list of articles. 



I hear my friends in Chicago laughing when they have 

 read thus far, and, between their fits of laughter, saying to 

 me, "Everybody does so; it's the custom, and the can, 

 bag, box, etc, are worth, or cost, something," Then they 

 turn to the wholesale-house man who has just come in, take 

 him into the private office and " raise Ned " with him be- 

 cause he insists on selling flour by the hundred-weight, that 

 is, four pounds short ; and all other goods in like manner. 

 Excuse me, I mean they treat the "traveling man " like a 

 king, and do the " Ned " act with honey-producers who sell 

 honey at so much a case, guaranteed so much per case aver- 

 age, with a minimum below which no single case may go. 



Y'ork and Burnett, stand up. Now, sirs, tell me how we 

 came to produce short-weight sections. Tell me if it was 

 the bee-keeper, or the wholesale buyer, or the retailer, or 

 who it was that wanted 14-ounce sections, or originated 

 them. Do you say none of them? Possibly you are right. 

 I do not think that any one specially devised or brought out 

 a 14ounce section with a view to selling a "short" pound. 

 I suspect so good, fair and honest a man as A, I. Root, and 

 possibly some other good men, had something to do with it. 

 The plan was to have a 4'4 x4'4 pound section that would fit 

 a certain place. This same section was originally very 

 largely used two inches thick, and was intended to hold a 

 full pound. 



Later it was found that a two-inch-thick section was too 

 thick to be quickly and neatly finished by the bees ; then 

 came the idea of reducing the thickness to get a nicer and 

 better-finished one. The prime object sought was the 

 quality of the goods, and when bee-men found that the 

 thinner section was in fact a nicer one, they consoled them- 

 selves with the thought that, if they could not supply a full 

 pound in the thin section they could make it up in quality, 

 thus no one was harmed. Possibly some have been guilty 

 of selling the short-weight section with the hope to increase 

 profits thereby ; but, sirs, that thought did not originate 

 the short-weight ; but will you deny that the 48-pound 50- 

 pound sacks of flour, etc., had not so good an excuse back 

 of them ? 



The bee-man can produce a neater and more salable 

 article in a section thinner than two inches ; and, knowing 

 this, we use a thinner one. We would use a thinner still if 

 it were not that the weight would be altogether too much 

 reduced. You see we can not change the other dimensions 

 of our sections without a great expense in changing hives 

 and such, hence we are trying to do the very best we can 

 under the circumstatices. 



Then, too, conditions of the colony, strength of the 

 honey-flow, and a great many things conspire to make a 

 variation in the weights of sections of honey, but the fra- 

 ternity, as a whole, are striving to obtain the most even re- 

 sults. If we were to-day — knowing what we do of the 

 science of the business and needs of the trade — to be placed 

 in a position in which we were to start all anew — hive- 

 making machinery, size, shape and proportion of hives — in 

 short, with present knowledge but everything to build 

 anew, I vpould make some changes that would be for the 

 better in obtaining an honest and best pound of honey. I 

 believe thousands of others feel just the same way. 



So the light-weight section came, and came not simply 

 of choice, or premeditated for fraudulent ends. Once here, 

 no doubt some bee-keepers who retailed honey thought to 

 increase profits. And, some retailers not bee-keepers, saw 

 that to buy 22-pound cases of honey at 10 cents a /'0««a', 

 and retail at 12'2 cetits a piece, meant 80 cents profit, where 

 a 24-pound case bought and sold in the same way would 

 only give a 60-cent profit. This made an inducement to 

 demand a 14-ounce section, and that it be sold to the whole- 

 sale and retail merchants by the pound. 



Now, sirs, Messrs. York, el al., can not you see that when 

 I produce light-weight sections to sell by the pound \.\).3X\X 

 is to your interests, and yours only ? One thousand sec- 

 tions for light-weight use cost me almost^ if not guile, as 

 much as for heavy-weight use. Cases ditto. And, when 

 you make me sell to you by weight it is plainly your advan- 

 tage and my loss. If I am to sell by weight I want 18-ounce 

 sections, for then I have the pay for four ounces more 

 honey, and the sections and cases cost me no more than for 

 light-weight goods, A case of 14 ounce sections at 10 cents 

 a pound brings .'i?2. 10. while a case of lnounce ones at the 

 same price brings S2.70 — enough to pay for the case and 

 sections, and approximately a good, big 2.S cents a case net 

 profit besides. 



But something is wrong. I should not sell 14 ounces of 

 honey for a pound, nor should you. You should not want 

 to buy my honey by weight and sell by the piece, nor any 



