1906 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



416^ 



poultry-keepers, showing conclusively that 

 the poultry business is a paying proposition 

 when rightly managed, and, what is more, 

 is a valuable adjunct in connection with bee- 

 keeping. These special articles alone will 

 be worth the subscription price to Glean- 

 ings for a year. 



Moreover, our correspondence course in 

 bee-keeping is drawing out a valuable series 

 of questions in the Heads of Grain Depart- 

 ment, which will be answered by the editor, 

 based on his experience, and on his knowl- 

 edge of the various localities where the 

 questioners reside. 



We hope, along in the middle or the latter 

 part of summer, possibly earlier, to get out 

 Gleanings in our new publishing house that 

 will be equipped with the latest machinery. 

 Our present dress of type is pretty badly 

 worn, owing to the large runs we have been 

 compelled to make on account of the rapid 

 increase in our list of subscribers, of an av- 

 erage of 800 per month since Jan. 1. 



My younger brother, H. H. Root, lately 

 from the Northwestern University, is now 

 my assistant and associate. He takes to ed- 

 itorial work like a duck to water. His de- 

 partment is that of sifting out the copy and 

 otherwise preparing it for publication. This 

 leaves me more free to study the needs of 

 our subscribers, to experiment with and 

 work with bees; in short, bring the journal 

 in a general way up to a higher standard 

 than it has been before. We are striking 

 out for 50,000 names, and it looks now as if 

 we were going to reach that number. The 

 strange thing about it is that these new 

 readers are not new bee-keepers, but main- 

 ly old ones who have never before taken a 

 bee-paper. Instead of selling their product 

 ■*at any old price" they will now keep in 

 touch with the market and sell accordingly. 



CO-OPERATION IN THE HANDLING AND SELL- 

 ING OF HONEY AND BEE-KEEPERS' 

 SUPPLIES. 



The principle of co-operation is magnifi- 

 cent; it is Christian in that it aims at mu- 

 tual helpfulness. In short, it seeks to stim- 

 ulate brotherhood in its best sense. 



Whether co- operation can be made a suc- 

 cess or not depends somewhat on the indi- 

 vidual membership; but, more than all else, 

 on the character and business ability of the 

 manager elected or appointed. If he is a 

 good man, and will do business on business 

 principles, pay cash in advance, or give sat- 

 isfactory security for all goods purchased in 

 the name of the society, he will have no 

 trouble about buying goods. In short, he 

 must do precisely what the dealer does, and 

 often for little or no pay. In the majority of 

 cases he soon tires of this, and the co-opera- 

 tive feature is dropped. 



We have probably done business with co- 

 operative societies as long as or longer than 

 any other manufacturer in our line, for it is no 

 new thing with us. But because of the fact 

 that some CO- operative societies are often not 

 willing to assume responsibility for con- 



tracts entered into, and because they have 

 been disinclined to pay a good manag,er a fair 

 salary, the plan has more often been a fail- 

 ure than a success. There are two or three 

 marked exceptions, and these exceptions are 

 based almost wholly on the essential factors^ 

 enumerated. 



In my opinion the only way to make co- 

 operation succeed is to incorporate the soci-- 

 ety; then make each member not only sub- 

 scribe, but pay for a liberal amount of 

 stock. When this is done he is compelled to 

 take his fair share of responsibility. Any 

 business, to succeed, must have capital, for 

 it always costs to do business. The plan 

 proposed by F. E. Brown, looking toward 

 co-operation, at the National convention at 

 St. Louis, was perfectly practicable, but it 

 appears that bee-keepers would not sub- 

 scribe for the stock in sufficient numbers to 

 do business, and so it has generally been. 



It has been assumed that we would be 

 hostile to the principle of co-operation — a 

 perfectly natural assumption, in view of our 

 dealers. This is a mistake; but we have 

 run across in our experience so many in- 

 stances where the plan was tried and failed, 

 involving severe losses on the part of some 

 one, that a word to the wise will be suffi- 

 cient. Just'as I write these words, informa- 

 tion has come of another society that has 

 failed, and left its manager in a "hole." 



We have always urged co-operation in 

 selling honey; and to be consistent we could 

 hardly condemn the same principle when ex- 

 tended to the buying of supplies when right- 

 ly applied. I see no reason why a manu- 

 facturer would not sell to a society properly 

 organized and financed, providing that such 

 society did not publish the wholesale rates it 

 secures, to the outside world that has no in- 

 terest in the organization, and probably 

 never would have. 



THE BRANCH-HOUSE QUESTION. 



This whole question brings up the matter 

 of whether it is cheaper and better to or- 

 ganize bee-keepers into co-operative socie- 

 ties, or do business through the medium of 

 an agent or middleman. As a matter of 

 fact, there is a certain cost .in manufactur- 

 ing the goods. To this cost must be added 

 the expense of selling. No matter by what 

 plan, this item will be nearly equal to the 

 making. 



Some have argued that the middleman — 

 that is, the dealer or distributor— should be 

 abolished and sell direct to the consumer, 

 saving the middleman's profits. The prin- 

 ciple is very pretty in theory, but it has not 

 proved to be satisfactory in practice. Years 

 ago, when we shipped all goods from Medi- 

 na direct to the consumer, the majority of 

 bee-keepers would not order their goods un- 

 til almost the last minute, then they wanted 

 them instanter. They would wait until they 

 were sure of a honey-flow, then clamor for 

 the goods. When they could not get them, 

 then the poor manufacturer was the recip- 

 ient of all kinds of complaints— bees swarm- 

 ing, no hives nor sections. Under the pres- 

 ent plan of having dealers and distributing- 



