GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



July, 1921. 



COMPULSORY HONEY GRADING 



Ho-w the Di'vision of Markets is 



Helping the beekeepers of JVis- 



consin 



By S. B. Fracker 



YOU ' V E 

 taught me a 

 lesson. Nev- 

 er again will 

 you find me tak- 

 ing honey out of 

 the combs as 

 fast as the bees 

 ]iut it in." 



So said the 

 first beekeeper to be fined under the new 

 Wisconsin honey-grading regulations which 

 have been in force since last August. A 

 representative of the Division of Markets 

 had found sour and fermenting honey la- 

 beled "Wisconsin Number 1" on sale in a 

 grocery store and soon learned that the bee- 

 keeper who supplied it was in the habit of 

 extracting honey without waiting for it to 

 ripen. He is probably not the first bee- 

 keeper in the United States to be prose- 

 cuted for selling unripe and sour honey, but 

 it was the first case brought for violation 

 of a compulsorj^ honey-grading law any- 

 where in the world. 



The next case was more typical of viola- 

 tion of grades. Stacked up in a corner of a 

 busy city grocery store were a dozen cases 

 of comb honey all carefully labeled "Fancy 

 White." Inspection showed uncapped and 

 empty cells, occasional dirty sections, dis- 

 coloration, and imperfect attachment to the 

 wood. In other words it was a typical mix- 

 ture of fancy, Number 1, and Number 2 

 honey with a few sections which could not 

 even* be considered Number 2. Consumers 

 were being asked to pay the highest mar- 

 ket price, and the purchasers would go a 

 long way to keep from buying ' ' Wisconsin 

 Fancy ' ' honey in the future, if the sale con- 

 tinued. The marketing specialist visited 

 the beekeeper, who in this case proved to be 

 belligerent, and insisted that his honey was 

 as good as any. A warning was given, but 

 the same condition was found a week later 

 and again a fine and costs resulted. 

 Compulsory Grading Protects the Beekeep- 

 ing Industry. 

 These incidents represent different phases 

 of the grading of agricultural products. In 

 the first case not only the man who sold the 

 unripe honey, but every other beekeeper 

 who ever had occasion to sell extracted hon- 

 ey in that neighborhood, would have been 

 placed under a serious disadvantage if the 

 honey had not been discovered and returned. 

 Purchasers, grocers, and consumers alike, 

 after losing faith in extracted honey, prob- 

 ably do not try it again for many years. 

 The injustice to the consumer and to the 

 distributor react against the whole extract- 

 ed-honey business. 



In the second instance the damage to the 

 reputation of comb honey was serious. Sec- 

 tions marked "Wisconsin Fancy — White" 

 should be the finest food product from the 

 standpoint of appearance, nutrition, and 

 quality that the purchaser can buj', and 

 should be as much of a delight to the eye. 



in the grocery 

 store and on the 

 table, as they 

 are later to the 

 jialate. Any sale 

 which brings 

 discredit on that 

 label constitutes 

 an injury to 

 honey producers 

 which it is hard to estimate. 



For several reasons compulsory grading of 

 honey, cheese, potatoes, cabbages, and 

 other farm products is being favorably re- 

 ceived as a large scale marketing experi- 

 ment in Wisconsin. The producers here are 

 as hard hit as those of other States by in- 

 dustrial depression and deflation and by fall- 

 ing prices. In anticipation of this condition 

 a division of markets was established in 

 1919 to assist in locating buyers, improving 

 conditions of competition, and straighten- 

 ing 'out the channels of trade. 



Sales of all kinds should be based on ac- 

 curate descriptions of the material to be 

 sold, especially where buyer and seller do 

 not come face to face. This is the principle 

 on wliich all the fruit packing of the or- 

 chard districts is based, and is the founda- 

 tion on which they are developing a de- 

 mand for standard qualities of fruit. One 

 might as well expect to sell goods as first 

 quality when that term is meaningless as to 

 sell grain by the wagon-load instead of a 

 legally defined bushel. In other words 

 quality is ns much a factor in price as quan- 

 tity and should be as capable of exact de- 

 scription. Beekeepers believe honey can be 

 accurately described and that the meaning 

 of the terms used should be legally defined. 

 Nobody profits by a standard price for all 

 sorts and grades, as a low quality article 

 not only fails to gain anything by being 

 mixed with fancy goods but brings every- 

 thing down to its own level. 



Work of the Division of Markets. 

 Most of the honey-grading work this sea- 

 son is, of course, educational. C. D. Adams, 

 field agent of the division of markets, 

 spends much of his time explaining the 

 methods and standards of grading to gro- 

 cers and beekeepers, with the result that 

 the half a dozen prosecutions have been in- 

 cidental rather than the most important 

 part of the work. 



It is now only a year since work was be- 

 gun on the grading problem in Wisconsin 

 and only six months since the grades went 

 into effect. Since then every container of 

 extracted and every section of comb honey 

 produced in Wisconsin has had to be marked 

 with the grade or with the word "Ungrad- 

 ed. ' ' No small part of the task has been to 

 carry information about that requirement 

 to the 10,000 beekeepers of the State. No 

 lists of honey producers, either by the as- 

 sessors, census-takers, or inspectors, are 

 complete. 



The first snag struck by the division ad- 



