American Hee Journal 



April 11, lyuT 



"strained" honey? I have the idea that 

 being called "extracted honey" makes it 

 higher. 



Mr. France — It does not. Some years 

 ago I shipped a case to New York City, 

 and in order to secure a 4th-class rate 

 I had to bill it "syrup." 



Dr. Bohrer — Are you not of the opin- 

 ion that there is a body, if you make an 

 appeal to, they will assist you ? 



Mr. France— Yes, sir; it would have 

 been done long before now if some 

 other little questions had not come up. 



Mr. Kimmey— It seems to me that 

 this is a matter which is not right ; 

 it is a wrong we have suffered because 

 it has not been attended to. It seems 

 to me that the General Manager is 

 the man that ought to do it. A com- 

 mittee ought to be appointed to assist 

 him, but we should furnish the General 

 Manager with all the information we 

 can give him. We ought to pass a 

 resolution to act, and then we ought 

 to make a resolution in some way to 

 empower the General Manager. I move 

 that this matter be referred to the 

 Committee on Resolutions for action. 



The motion was duly seconded and 

 carried. 



Dr. Bohrer — This same object I pre- 

 sented to the Convention in St. Louis, 

 and it was adopted, and the aim of this 

 resolution was the object of what we 

 are taking a vote on now. It provided 

 for a Legislative Committee to be ap- 

 pointed from each of the States, and 

 they in turn to act through the Mana- 

 ger of this body, and ask for a change 

 that might be necessary as to the trans- 

 portation companies. It is said now, 

 and it is a fact, I have no doubt of it at 

 all, and we, as an organization, ought 

 to look out for the matter at least, and 

 in time. If we apply through the proper 

 officials I believe we could get it. It is 

 an^ easy thing to appoint a committee, 

 but it is quite a different thing to get 

 them to act. 



Pres. Dadant — I believe the greatest 

 trouble is, too many people are ap- 

 pointed on committees. If you have one 

 man from each State you will probably 

 hear from three or four states, and then 

 the matter will drop. Get two or three 

 men together and there will be more 

 action. Now I want to hear other re- 

 marks. 



Mr. Victor — It may not be in order, 

 but I think there are other questions in 

 regard to transportation that ought to 

 come up before we settle this. For in- 

 stance, I understand there is a question 

 in regard to rates on bees, and on 

 comb and extracted honey, and the rate 

 on bees ought to be considered gen- 

 erally. 



Pres. Dadant— This is a matter of 

 importance. The Secretary will read 

 another question on the matter of rates 

 on bees, and we can include this be- 

 fore we dismiss the matter. 



FREIGHT KATES ON BEES. 



"Freight rates on bees from Texas 

 and other states are so very high. Is 

 there any help from the National Bee- 

 Keepers' Association?" 



Mr. Bacon — The existing high freight- 

 rates are due to the negligence of the 

 majority of the honey-producers. These 

 railroad men are not familiar with the 



production of honey. The best thing is 

 to get your statistics together and show 

 them ; get some samples of the ship- 

 ments of honey from your different 

 apiaries in Texas, and show them where 

 it will be to their business interest 

 to make the rates lower, so they will 

 figure on this, and, consequently, the 

 shipments will be larger, and this will 

 put some more money into their pockets. 

 These railroads are, as I said, divided 

 into three classifications. First, I would 

 suggest, take the Classification Commit- 

 tee that would cover the greatest move- 

 ment of honey. First, I would say the 

 Western Classification ; and if you suc- 

 ceed, then go to the Southern and East- 

 ern Classification, and state that you 

 have got this from the Western ; that 

 will be very influential. If you will go 

 before them in a business-like way, and 

 put the matter before them, they will 

 give you just as cheap- rates as they 

 can. I went down to St. Louis last 

 year and got them to reduce the rates 

 to the 6th, which got our rate down 

 one-third, so that we can ship to-day 

 into these Southern States for two-thirds 

 of what we used to. I went down there 

 with my bo.xes and samples, and I told 

 them the amount of honey that had been 

 shipped out of a certain place in Texas, 

 and these men opened their eyes; and 

 I told them what the honey industry 

 was in the South, and they responded. 



Mr. Stone — I believe in all of this 

 discussion, that any committee that we 

 will appoint along this line will do us 

 no good until we begin at the other 

 end, and we learn from our General 

 Manager that the trouble was soon 

 gotten over when they got to the S-gal- 

 lon cans in a case together, and then 

 it had to be iron-bound, and they got 

 their rates. Now, we will never get 

 rates on comb honey until the bee- 

 keepers begin to do their part. I know 

 men shipping comb honey to customers 

 200 or 300 miles, and they just ship 

 it in 12 or 24-pound cases with the glass 

 exposed, and not put together ; but you 

 pack your cases in a good box, about as 

 heavy as two men want to handle them, 

 then lay handles clear across the sides; 

 and if the bee-keepers will do this they 

 will have no trouble in getting these 

 rates; we will get them for the ask- 

 ing. This is my experience. I have 

 heard railroad men say that men will 

 break the glass and eat the honey, and 

 we will have to pay for it. I believe the 

 trouble all lies with the bee-keeper in 

 the manner he ships his honey. 



Mr. Anderson — You are getting pretty 

 close to me now. Why are we members 

 of the National Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion? We figure it like this: Because 

 in unity we think there is strength. We 

 think through the united efforts of the 

 bee-keepers of the United States results 

 can be accomplished for the good of 

 the honey-producers of the United 

 States. Now, for instance, Mr. Muth, I 

 understand, says that the Lord gives 

 help to those who help themselves. 

 The good efforts of Mr. Toepperwein 

 did not reach us all ; we did not think 

 that we would have to pay full fare 

 to get down here, and when I asked for 

 rates they said, "We have heard nothing 

 from the National Bee-Keepers' .'\sso- 

 ciation." Now, then, we have a good 



country in the North for producing 

 honey, and there are good localities in 

 the South for the bees, but when we 

 have to pay $450 to transport a car of 

 bees there, we cannot afford to buy or 

 sell them, when you can obtain a car 

 to transport horses and other live stock 

 for $150. I know that through the 

 united efforts of the Association, through 

 the Manager, we can obtain better re- 

 sults. Now, I don't want to encour- 

 age all the bee-keepers in the South to 

 ship their bees up North when there 

 is a honey flow on, but we expect to 

 buy from them. Now these rates can 

 be obtained if some one — the leading 

 oflicers of this Association — are empow- 

 ered, and will go at it with energy. I 

 think we should not rest until we get it. 



Mr. Holekamp — The work which Mr. 

 France did before the Western Classi- 

 fication Committee was satisfactory as 

 far as extracted honey goes ; but there 

 are these dift'erent committees, because 

 extracted honey bears the same identi- 

 fication all over the country, while the 

 Western Classification is 4th and 2nd 

 class; therefore it seems necessary that 

 these different Classification Commit- 

 tees ought to be interviewed wherever 

 their headquarters are, and it ought to 

 be handled through their headquarters. 



Mr. Victor — I had a little experience 

 in shipping bees to Colorado. They 

 charged me $200 per car from Whar- 

 ton. Tex., to Colorado ; the distance we 

 can travel in 36 hours on a passenger 

 train. While we are paying two or 

 three times as much as cattle, the cat- 

 tle have more attention than the bees, 

 unless we instruct that they be treated 

 right. We only get one transportation 

 while with cattle we get two. I wanted 

 to experiment along the line and take 

 care of some honey in the summer and 

 ship them back in the winter and in- 

 crease them, but the rates were so high 

 I could not think of it at all. We Texas 

 bee-keepers sometimes have a good 

 many bees to spare ; we can look ahead 

 and see if our seasons are not going 

 to be very good, and if the rates were 

 not so high I think we could ship bees 

 from Texas to other points to quite an 

 advantage, and I believe if the rail- 

 road companies would take this matter 

 under consideration it would be easy 

 for them to see that by giving us a 

 lower rate on bees, they would have 

 more to handle, which would more than 

 over-pay the difference on the present 

 rate. 



Pres. Dadant — We should go, ahead 

 and try to get a better rate, as this 

 matter is of great importance to us. 

 We ought to have a committee all the 

 time interviewing those Classification 

 Committees, so as to get matters re- 

 duced ; and I believe we ought to re- 

 quire this Association to name the men 

 who are to serve on this Committee. 

 I believe also that the Board of Direc- 

 tors will willingly grant the sufficient 

 amount to pay for the expenses of the 

 men who will interview those Asso- 

 ciations. This matter is of importance 

 to the bee-keepers. 



J. Q. Smith— I think that that Com- 

 mittee ought to find out from the rail- 

 roads what sized package would be ac- 

 ceptable to them, and have a satisfac- 

 tory box, certain weight, and enclosed 



