1920 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



161 



decided that the American Honey 

 Producers' League must be organized 

 to operate along lines of common in- 

 terest to beekeepers everywhere, and 

 not upon lines which serve the bee- 

 keepers of one community or section 

 better than those of another. I be- 

 lieve I speak the sentiments of all 

 present at Kansas City when I say 

 that the two principal functions 

 which the League hoped to accom- 

 plish were, first, a stimulus to or- 

 ganization among beekeepers every- 

 where, and, secondly, a prompt secur- 

 ing of information with respect to 

 movement of crops and a distribution 

 of this information to all beekeepers, 

 thus guiding them sufficiently in ad- 

 vance of the movement of their crops 

 to enable them to act intelligently in 

 their marketing. The beekeepers are 

 not now apprised of the annual pro- 

 duction, of its distribution, of its 

 quality nor of the price at which it is 

 sold. 



The beekeepers of New York and 

 all eastern sections are interested to 

 know just what the annual produc- 

 tion of the tremendous western areas 

 will be, each year, and they would 

 like to keep informed of the grades 

 established in the west, of the move- 

 ment of these crops on to the market, 

 to which markets they are being prin- 

 cipally sold, in what sized packages 

 moved and at what prices. This in- 

 formation is vital to them and they 

 will support within a reasonable cost 

 any bureau or organization which 

 necessitates the expenditure of lots of 



Twentieth century marketing meth- 

 ods have brought about just these 

 conditions in many food-producing 

 lines, hence this is no experiment ex- 

 cept in the sense that it was to be 

 achieved in a manner strictly co- 

 operative. The same result is being 

 accomplished by large organizations 

 everywhere who are affiliated to- 

 gether through a common sales 

 agency. The lack of information 

 among producers is responsible for 

 needless competition in the manner 

 of price cutting, glutted markets and 

 ruinous carry-overs. With advance 

 information at hand, the beekeeper is 

 provided with up-to-date tools and 

 avoids these needless and fatal mis- 

 takes. 



The first steps toward ideal condi- 

 tions appear to be the formation of 

 strong and closely knitted state or re- 

 gional organizations, so that the goal 

 of national organization may be ulti- 

 mately and more quickly reached. We 

 hope that 1920 will bring about a bet- 

 ter understanding of the inter-depen- 

 dency of the beekeepers of the East 

 and those of the West, and that a 

 common sympathy will spring up be- 

 tween them upon the objects they 

 have in common, that the human 

 doubts, distrusts and suspicions which 

 hold back mankind from achievement 

 will give way to a sincere, warm- 

 hearted determination to work hand 

 in hand for the emancipation of the 

 industry. 



The incentive is much. We hold in 

 our hands the destiny of the beekeep- 

 ing fraternity. Our product is with- 

 out a peer. None can control it ex- 

 cept ourselves. All forward-looking 



men and women of strength and 

 courage should take hold and build 

 up organizations which can later 

 sweep them on to prosperity and suc- 

 cess through a widened channel or 

 outlet for their products. 



The beekeepers of the East will 

 realize that the large organizations of 

 beekeepers in the West are, through 

 twentieth century methods, standard- 

 izing their packages and grading 

 their products, giving them an appeal 

 to the buying public in a volume here- 

 tofore unknown ; that they are wid- 

 ening their channel of outlet, creating 

 new markets and securing to them- 

 selves a better price by the elimina- 

 tion of the speculative buyer, and 

 they will, we believe, accept our view 

 that the better prices, secured by us, 

 give them at the same time a wider 

 consumption of honey and equal 

 chances to benefit in this whole situa- 

 tion. We shall be glad to know that 

 the beekeepers of the East accept this 

 view and that they will be joining 

 henceforth more actively in our coun- 

 cils and in our future co-operation. 



California. 



The Motor Truck and Outyard 

 Beekeeping 



By C. W. Aeppler 



A motor truck is now considered an 

 essential in outyard beekeeping. The 

 selection of a motor truck on the 

 part of the beekeeper is sometimes a 

 rather difficult task. Those who are 

 operating upwards of one thousand 

 colonies sometimes advocate the use 

 of a large truck, with a capacity of 

 2 or 3 tons. But even then, such a 

 truck is supplemented a large part of 

 the year with a lighter machine, the 

 operating expenses of which are 

 much less. 



A beekeeper with only one or two 

 outyards may find a common roadster 

 type of automobile, provided with a 

 suitable platform, sufficient for his 

 needs. However, the time may pre- 



sent itself that the beekeeper's needs 

 are increased, and that such a ma- 

 chine is no longer of sufficient ca- 

 pacity to haul large loads of supers. 



When this time comes there are two 

 things that may be done. He may 

 purchase a truck to be used entirely 

 for hauling purposes, and retain his 

 roadster for family use, or he can 

 convert his roadster into a truck ca- 

 pable of hauling a ton or more. If he 

 does the former, it necessitates the 

 investment of considerable additional 

 capital; if he does the latter the 

 thought at once is in his mind that 

 his machine will be too unsig'htly for 

 pleasure driving or taking his family 

 to church on Sunday. 



Assuming that most beekeepers are 

 situated as I am, the latter would 

 seem the more logical. My idea of a 

 motor truck for outyard work is one 

 in which there is the minimum amount 

 of fuss, such as rope tying, which one 

 so often has the opportunity to see. 

 Where one wishes to haul supers full 

 of combs over all kinds of roads, it is 

 almost impossible to tie them on in 

 such a way that they will stay on. 

 Furthermore, this tying of ropes 

 necessitates the expenditure of lots of 

 time. Also at the outyards it is not 

 much fun to tie ropes when hauling 

 supers of honey. All of this extra 

 fuss excites the bees to robbing, be- 

 cause of the probable exposure of 

 supers of honey. Sometimes the haul- 

 ing is done in the evening, and if the 

 beekeeper must fumble around in the 

 dark, tightening ropes, his temper is 

 apt to be anything but sociable. 



My idea of such a truck is best 

 shown by the accompanying photo- 

 graphs. The side-board arrangement 

 is based on the old-time method of 

 wagon-box construction. One set of 

 side-boards and one end-board are 

 permanently fastened to the truck 

 floor, and when only a small amount 

 of hauling is done, the truck can be 

 used in this fashion. Also, I don't 

 think that it looks so bad but that 



A load of 112 shallow extracting supers ready to go to an outyard. 



