July 31, 1902 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



487 



day world we must conform somewhat to the customs that 

 prevail in our surroundinRs. 



You Rive utterance to a well demonstrated fact, th;ii 

 it is better to be a little lower in the (juotations given than 

 a little higher than the actual conditions warrant, for these 

 quotations are supposed to be given as a guide for those 

 who have produce to place upon the market. It is the desire 

 always of the commission merchant to (luote as high as he 

 dares (and sometimes he dares a little too much), for it is 

 only natural, as society is now organized, that he should 

 seek to get the goods to sell. It is much pleasanter to re- 

 ceive a letter from a consignor which reads : " You got for 

 us the full market price for what we sent you," or, "You 

 got us more than the market price," than it is to get a let- 

 ter saying, " You did not get us even the market price, but 

 a good deal less, and we don't think you have treated us 

 right; we shall write to the bee-papers and tell them just 

 what you are doing." 



Now, the commission merchant's skin is not thicker 

 than that on the alligator's back ; therefore, an impression 

 of a painful nature is sometimes made upon it, and by ex- 

 perience he learns (that is, if he wishes to become wise) to 

 avoid as many of the disagreeable things as possible. For 

 ourselves, we may say that we frequently discourage would- 

 be consignors from sending us their product when we find 

 that they think their goods should bring a little more than 

 the quotations. Very truly yours, 



R. A. Burnett & Co. 



THE FACTS AS TUKV ARE. 



On page 195, we note the article from Rip Van Winkle, 

 on " Ouoting the Honey Market." Even if we are outside 

 of the Chicago market we take exceptions to his statements, 

 simply for the sake of truth and justice The writer of that 

 article certainly selected a fit name, when he signed himself 

 " Rip Van Winkle," admitting thereby that he has been 

 asleep for years, and is utterly ignorant of present condi- 

 tions of commerce and trade. Furthermore, the man who 

 is afraid to attach his name to any statement he makes, 

 lacks the courage of his own convictions, and can hardly be 

 taken seriously. 



We endorse most emphatically every word of Editor 

 York's reply, and especially where he says, " // is better to 

 quote a cent loiver rather than a cent above the market.''' 

 Exactly this has been our rule ever since we have been in 

 the business, and the same has been generally appreciated 

 by shippers. 



The quotations we give in the journals are the market 

 value, or, in other words, the selling price in quantity lots. 

 In a small way, single cases or so, here and there, a better 

 price is obtained, while, in a jobbing way. the price quoted 

 is sometimes shaded in order to effect sale. This must be 

 left to the seller's discretion and judgment. He is on the 

 spot and must size up his customers, take into consideration 

 the condition of the market, demand, supply, stocks on 

 hand, etc. 



If the market is well stocked, with more supply to fol- 

 low, demand not brisk, and indications pointing towards a 

 decline in price, the commission man is justified in making 

 concessions ; in fact, it is his duty to close out at a fair 

 value, rather than to hold the honey and take still less 

 later on. 



We have had shippers write us that other parties had 

 quoted better prices than ourselves, and wanted to know 

 why we, being in the honey-business, could not do as well, 

 or even better. We would answer that we could not con- 

 scientiously quote higher prices than we felt safe we could 

 realize, and if they could do better elsewhere that was the 

 place to ship to. Thus, we lost some shippers for a season 

 or two, but invariably they would come back to us, and 

 oftentimes admitted that they had made a mistake. 



Again, if the market is overstocked with a certain 

 grade, and no demand, we advise not to ship; that we 

 could not see our way clear to meet the shipper's expecta- 

 tions, and, rather than have complaints afterwards, we pre- 

 ferred not to handle the goods. If we quote, for instance, 

 fancy white honey at 14cents a pound, we feel confident 

 that we can realize that price, and shippers can depend that 

 returns will be made accordingly, provided, however, that 

 the shipment comes up to the standard rules of grading. 

 Quite often we receive honey marked fancy and No. 1, which 

 is really no more than No. 2, or amber, to say nothing of 

 the careless and slovenl)' way in which the honey is put up. 



Only recently we received 14 cases of honey packed in 

 two large dry-goods cases, no caution marks, and, conse- 

 quently, they were handled rather roughlj- in transit. 



They appeared to be in good order, and we signed for them 

 that way when we received them from the railroad company. 

 In caponing the cases there was not a whole comb in the lot. 

 The straw had absorbed part of the leakage, and the heavy 

 wood prevented it from oozing through the case. In noti- 

 fying and explaining to the shipper, our trouble began, 

 though it was wholly his own fault. Such cases arc a 

 tedious and thankless job, but we are glad to say that they 

 are few with us. 



Rip Van Winkle further says : " The commission man 

 has the honey-producers in his grip, more especially when 

 he is a buyer as well as a commission man:" and. "A 

 buyer is always a ' bear ' on the market." Kip Van Winkle 

 does not seem to be aware of the fact that most bee keepers 

 prefer to sell rather than to consign, which is but natural. 

 If a bee-keeper sells his crop he knows exactly what he gets, 

 and if the buyers are not willing to pay his price he is not 

 compelled to take their offer. If he sells his honey his re- 

 sponsibility ends, and his chances end at once, whereas the 

 buyer takes all the chances himself, and it is also but nat- 

 ural that he should veant to buy as low as possible ; but even 

 if he thinks he has made a good purchase he is far from 

 being sure of a profit. 



Of all the honey we handle the most of it we buy out- 

 right. We know the shippers know hoiv to grade their 

 honey, and how they put it up, and we have no trouble in 

 agreeing on prices. 



Rip Van Winkle is absolutely wrong when he says com- 

 mission men have the producers in their grip. The bee- 

 keeper who has his honey in good shape will find no trouble 

 in selling it. If one buyer will not pay hira what he con- 

 siders fair value, others will. The buyer knows he can not 

 buy his honey for a song, and will not dare to make him 

 any ridicuou^-ly low offer, for fear that some of his com- 

 petitors will pay a better price ; and, if he wants the honey 

 he will pay fair market value for it. We have bee-keepers 

 in New Y'ork State whose crop we have bought ever since 

 we have been in business vfithout a break. They are not 

 "small fry," either, but generally come down with a good- 

 sized crop, and one year brought to New York over 4000 

 cases. They never even try another ;«ar/(-c/, knowing that 

 they will always find us willing to pay fair value, and evi- 

 dently they are well satisfied for us to have them " in our 

 grip." 



On the other hand, there are some producers who are 

 laboring under the delusion that no other honey is as good 

 as ///f/;-,T, no matter how inferior their own may be, and 

 these are rather hard customers to deal with, especially so 

 when they want to buy a few cases themselves. These are 

 the ones who want to buy a single case or can at the lowest 

 quotations, and even less, because they are bee-keepers them- 

 selves. 



A bee-keeper wrote us the other day (seeing that we had 

 new crop Cuban comb honey), that he would like to have a 

 few cases, and offered us lb cents (which was all he could 

 pay), or 9'2 cents for a full carrier ; that he was an apiarist 

 who was not going to pay Cuban apiarists fancy prices to 

 the detriment of home apiculture. We refused his liberal (1) 

 offer, having no intention of slaughtering the hone)' for 

 his benefit. 



No doubt some bee-keepers will disagree with us, but, 

 their opinion to the contrary notwithstanding, we have 

 given the facts as they actually are. 



Hy. Sbgelken, of Hildreth & Segelken. 



Only One Night to Denver.— By going over the Chicago & 

 North-Western and Union Pacific railways, you will need to spend only 

 one night on the road from Chicago to Denver. There is a daily train 

 leaving Chicago at 10 a.m. on the C. A N. W.. and leaving Omaha, 

 Nebr., over the Union Pacific at 11:30 p.m. of the same day. This 

 train arrives in Denver at 2 p.m. the following day. That is, by start- 

 ing from Chicago at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 2, you will arrive in 

 Denver at 2 p.m. the next day, or Wednesday, Sept. 3. inample time for 

 the first session of the National Bee-Keepers' convention, which begins 

 that evening. 



Now as to rates: The round-trip price at that time from Chicago 

 to Denver will be S25. By going over the route mentioned, the regu- 

 lar sleeping-car rate would be only .?3.00, because of being only one 

 night on the way. 



There is also another saving by taking the C. & N. W. and Union 

 Pacific. There is a Pullman tourist car on this train from Omaha, in 

 which the charge for a .double berth is only §1.50 to Denver. As no 

 sleeping-car aocommodations are required on this train east of Omaha, 

 it will be seen that one can go comfortably by this route for a very 

 small sum. 



We may say that Dr. C. C. Miller and the Editor of the American 

 Bee .Journal expect to go over the route indicated, starting at 10 a.m 

 on Tuesday. Sept. 3. Who will .join us \ 



