SKPTEMBER 3 5, 19: G 



843 



BEEKEEPING IN CALIFORNIA 



P. C. Chadwick. 



Allen Lathaai's queen - rearing 

 l)lan as given on page 592, July 

 13, is good, for I use it and know 

 that it is excellent. If the cells 

 are placed in the colony and al- 

 lowed to be polished for a few 

 hours before giving them the larvae 

 a goodly number may be accepted without 

 the use of royal jelly if the grafting of the 

 larvae is done rapidly and the combs return- 

 ed to the hive at the earliest possible 



moment. 



* # * 



On page 645, Aug. 1, the editor says: 

 " Even as it was, we instructed the boys to 

 burn all such combs." Now I scold and 

 scold about burning things valuable about 

 tlie apiarj' that can be otherwise cleansed, 

 with the feeling that I surely will impress 

 the idea, and then you come along and rec- 

 ommend the burning of combs! The word 

 " burn " should have no part in the cleans- 

 ing of bee supplies, and to my mind should 

 be discouraged entirely. 



* * * 



SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES IN CO-OPERATIVE 

 SELLING. 



The subject of co-operation in selling 

 honey, in the Aug. 1st issue, was well han- 

 dled : but there were too few details in 

 many instances to give the desired infoi-- 

 mation to the casual reader. 



State Market r'ommi.=sioner Harris Wein- 

 slock has under consideration the problem 

 of organizing the beekeepers in Califoraia 

 in the form of a state-wide marketing or- 

 ganization. Mr. Weinstock sent out 2200 

 letters of incjuiry to beekeepers of the state 

 some time ago, and the enthusiasm with 

 which they were received may be best told 

 by saying that only six per cent of them 

 were answered, or about 120. This fact 

 alone was sulficient to discourage any but 

 the strongest in intent and purpose; so, 

 inasmuch as it did not discourage Mr. 

 Weinstock we must place him at the head 

 of the column. He has recently issued 

 another letter, I suppose to those who were 

 interested enough to answer (this is my 

 ]iresumption, as I doubt if he would con- 

 tinue writing to those who showed no inter- 

 est), asking for their judgment as to the 

 advisability of callijig a conference to dis- 

 cuss the subject of a state-wide marketing- 

 organization. 



In my first answer to the conmiissioner T 

 did not speak very encouragingly of tlie 

 possibilities of organizing the beekeepers 



Redlands, Cal. 



into a succes.sful organization for market- 

 ing purposes. My chief reason for so writ- 

 ing was the experience in that line that has 

 now passed into history of organizations. 

 But the efforts of Mr. Weinstock are so 

 commendable that I feel he should be given 

 all the support possible, for it may be that 

 just ahead he may be able to show us a 

 successful organizing plan. 



That there is need of an organization is 

 evident, and yet there are many reasons 

 why it will be dififieult. The article by J. 

 Edgar Ross, page 655, Aug. 1, goes right 

 into the heart of some of these reasons. He 

 goes into history and points out the very 

 thing that causes the downfall of the ma- 

 jority of beekeeping organizations. Then 

 tliere are other reasons that make for fail- 

 ure. One of those is, say what we may, the 

 buyers as a rule are following very clo.sely 

 the trend of the market, and are offering 

 prices that many times allow them only a 

 fair profit for dealing in this commodity; 

 yet at times we know that, when the market 

 is on the downward trend, the buyer gets 

 crafty and the producer -gets panicky, and 

 the tendency is in favor of the buyer. At 

 these periods an organization would be of 

 far more value than at any other time, if 

 the object of holding the producer from 

 " dumping " could be worked out. But, as 

 Mr. Ross says, " Co-operation requires the 

 yielding of individual co-operators, and 

 without the press of necessity it can never 

 be a success." There is the situation in a 

 nutshell. Last season when we were beg- 

 ,ging buyers to take our white honey at five 

 to five and a half cents, it would have been 

 much easier to form an organization than 

 at the present time when honey has moved 

 at a good figure and readily. Last season 

 the buyers were accused of having a gentle- 

 man's agreement which may or may not 

 have been true, while this year almost every 

 one secured more for his honey than he 

 thought possible early in the season, and 

 the beemen do not care whether the buyers 

 are working together or not. This goes to 

 show that the producer has no real concern 

 about organization when he is prosperous ; 

 but when he is not prosperous he is down 

 in the " dumjis " and is all concern. But 

 fi)r all the argument pro and con we are 

 indebted to our State Market Commissioner 

 for the interest he is taking in trying to 

 jicrsuade us to co-operate for our own good, 

 and lie should receive our most hearty 



SllJ.l.l.li. 



