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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



CONVERSATIONS with DOOLITTLE 



At Borodino, New York 



TWO SIDES. 



A correspondent writes : 

 "Would not the beekeepers be 

 better off without so many useless 

 middlemen who style themselves 

 ' dealers ' ? Are they not living- 

 wit hout effort off of the real pro- 

 ducers of honey ? They add nothing to 

 the real wealth of society. They merely 

 transfer things from the place of produc- 

 tion to the place of demand." 



There is an old story about two men who 

 stood on the opposite sides of a signboard 

 wliich read on one side so many miles to A, 

 and on the other side so many miles to B. 

 The first man read from his side, and the 

 other disputed him in no good-natured 

 terms, reading from his side to prove the 

 first wrong. This resulted in their leaving 

 the sign and pounding each other till both 

 were exhausted. On getting breath they 

 returned to the sign, but happened to ex- 

 change places at the sign. This resulted in 

 a good-natured shaking of hands, with the 

 exclamation, "What fools we have been !" 



Is our questioner sure that to "transfer 

 things from the place of production to the 

 place of demand " plays no important part 

 for the beekeeper? What is production, 

 any way? and who are the producers of 

 wealth? Take honey for an illustration. 

 When does production begin, and where 

 does it end? Are the bees the producers, 

 or is the man who manipulates the bees the 

 chief and only factor in the production of 

 honey? When is production completed, or 

 when does the act of production cease and 

 that of consumption begin? Evidently; 

 production ceases when the honey is in the 

 hands of the consumer, and not before. If 

 this 'be true, and it seems to be so, then 

 every man who aids in bringing honey in a 

 suitable form to the consumer should be 

 considered a producer. 



Not only this, but the man who helps 

 create a desire for our honey is a factor in 

 its production — very little less so than the 

 man who owns and manipulates the bees. 

 Wealth is whatever satisfies human desires; 

 and if no one desired honey, then it would 

 have no value; and the placing it on the 

 market would not be real production, or, 

 to say the least, would be useless produc- 

 tion. Production, then, in the broadest 

 sense of the word, means gathering into a 

 suitable form for use, and placing before 

 flios(> wlio liave a desire for that special 

 article the product in such a form as will 



satisfy the desire. But this, if I see cor- 

 rectly, is not all, for there must first be 

 created a desire for any article before there 

 can be any benefit derived from placing it 

 before the one who is expected to consume 

 it. The one who creates a desire adds as 

 much real value to an article as the bees or 

 the man who manipulates them, where that 

 article is honey. Whoever checks this nat- 

 ural movement of trade, or forms a com- 

 bination with liis fellowmen to restrain or 

 control it, is a traitor to society. All legit- 

 imate trade is production. A combination 

 or trust to produce a monopoly is robbery. 



The c[ue.stion then is, Does the dealer or 

 middleman check the natural movement of 

 trade in honey? Does he form a trust or 

 monopoly to hold up the legitimate desire 

 for our product? Is he not rather of value 

 because he brings our goods to the point of 

 consumption at a less cost than could be 

 done by the beekeeper or the consumer? 

 Have not the dealers in the past been prime 

 movers in creating a desire for the honey 

 the beekeepers have produced? If so, the 

 dealer cannot be considered a useless idler 

 by any means. The real idler is the man 

 who has no trade at all — the man who 

 thinks society owes him a living and is all 

 out of joint because he does not get it. On 

 the other hand, the man or woman who has 

 created any new desire in any part of the 

 world for our products from the bees is as 

 much a producer as the man who brought 

 the alfalfa and alsike clover into the parts 

 of the United States where they were not 

 known 50 and 75 years ago, to the nearly 

 doubling of our honey crop in very much 

 of the territory of our country. 



Another thing that none of our beekeep- 

 ers seem to have thought of. Suppose we 

 could do away with all of these " useless 

 middlemen," so that they could not get any 

 commission on the handling of our honey. 

 What then? What occupation must they 

 take up in order to become pi'oducers? 

 Must they all go to keeping bees? If they 

 did, what would be the consequences to the 

 beekeepers of the United States? If every 

 drummer would quit the road, every dealer 

 cease to buy and sell, every so-called 

 " worthless middleman " stop his trade and 

 barter, and all in one mass begin investigat- 

 ing the wonders of the hive, and become 

 " producers," according to the ideas of most 

 of those who proclaim on this subject, 

 where would be found a market for the 

 products of their labor and ours? 



