88 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Beekeeping in California 



p. C. Chadwick, Redlands, Cal. 



SELLING HONEY THE SAME WAY THAT 

 ORANGES ARE SOLD. 



This will not reach its readers until after 

 the meeting on market at Los Angeles is 

 past history, and I have not felt that it was 

 my business to attend the meeting, as I am 

 not on the committee; but I have thought 

 many times, and still think, the only logical 

 way to handle this marketing business would 

 be on the lines on which the orange business 

 is handled. This plan could be followed out 

 successfully if properly managed. Not only 

 would the beekeeper be saved the profits of 

 a middleman or two, but the buyer would 

 get the honey at a figiu-e that would let it 

 reach the retailer and ultimately the con- 

 sumer at a reasonable figure. The orange- 

 marketing system as followed in California 

 to-day is one of the most sane and satisfac- 

 tory of any system of marketing of an agi-i- 

 cultural product. I might profitably give a 

 synopsis of the workings of the California 

 orange pool, and explain the advantages. 



There are really several pools in opera- 

 tion at some of the packing-houses at the 

 same time. For instance, we first have the 

 Christmas pool. This includes all of the 

 fruit picked and shipped for the Christmas 

 trade, and closes about Dec. 10 as a rule. 

 All growers who put fruit in the pool 

 receive the same for their fruit of the grade 

 they furnish. Then there is the season's 

 pools, and pools of various lengths during 

 the season. It is the season's pool of which 

 T will speak principally, for it will serve my 

 purpose best in comparison. The holiday 

 fruit is, as a rule, not included in the sea- 

 son's pool, but all of the remainder of the 

 shipping season is included which runs 

 over a period for the navels from Jan. 1st to 

 near the first of June, varying a little ac- 

 cording to the season. The fruit is hauled 

 into the packing-houses and weighed, set 

 aside, and the boxes marked. "Wlien they are 

 ready to pass over the grader, an account is 

 kept of the amount of the different grades 

 as well as the culls. These records are com- 

 piled from day to day as the fruit of the 

 individual comes in until all of his fruit has 

 passed over the grader. At the end of this 

 period the entire amount is added, so many 

 of such and such a grade, and so many 

 culls. The great advantage in the season's 

 pool is that the grower receives for his fruit 

 exactly what every one else in the pool re- 

 ceives, or an average for the entire season. 

 If the market happens to be bad in New 



York or Chicago for a week or so, and the 

 price runs down at those points, the grower 

 need have no fear of his fruit being sold 

 cheap on that market, for after his fruit is 

 packed it loses its identity, and no one 

 knows or cares where it goes, and the result 

 is that no one man gets all of the high 

 prices nor all of the low, but the average 

 for the season is figured on the entire 

 amount, as so much per box, and the grower 

 gets the average on the number of boxes he 

 furnished for the season. When the fruit 

 is packed the packers will advance a certain 

 amount on the fruit shipped. 



This plan could be followed in handling 

 our honey without any great outlay of capi- 

 tal. Honey in the warehouse, covered with 

 insurance, is considered gilt-edge security 

 by our banks. There could be a central sell- 

 ing agency from which all of this business 

 could be handled, and a pool agreement 

 signed for the season. When I had, say, 50 

 or 100 cases of honey stored I could take a 

 warehouse receipt for it, get it insured, and 

 forward it to headquarters; the manager 

 could go direct to the bank, present the 

 receipt and bon'ow on it, which in turn 

 could be mailed to me in the form of a draft 

 or check. This, at the end of the season, 

 would be deducted from my returns for the 

 season. An inspector could be put on the 

 road to travel and check up the amount of 

 each producer of the grade his honey would 

 be classed under. If, for instance, there 

 were ten beekeepers in Redlands who had 

 honey stored, it could be inspected, graded, 

 and reported to the selling agency as to the 

 amount of the different grades. The selling 

 agency could in turn sell a car of a certain 

 grade and order it loaded and forwarded to 

 a certain point. The beekeeper always needs 

 money right away, and in this way could be 

 satisfied, and yet help to hold the crop di- 

 rectly in the hands of our own agency. This 

 would eliminate also the habit of buyers 

 traveling through the country, paying a 

 difference in prices ranging as high as two 

 cents for the same grade of honey in the 

 same locality from different producers. 



I know this could be done if the beekeep- 

 ers were ready to back the agency, and 

 would put the honey market in the hands of 

 the beekeepers instead of allowing the buy- 

 ers to place arbiti-ary prices on our crops. 

 I have written something on this line 

 previously, but desired to enter a little more 

 into details at this time. 



