958 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15 



six barrels to sell I send out samples and sell 

 where I get best offer from reliable party. I 

 put emphasis on ' ' reliable party. ' ' Last year 

 I sold six barrels to a cash Ijuyer in the South. 

 He ordered laie to ship it to him at Louisville, 

 Ky. I did so, but he did not accept the hon- 

 ey there for some reason which he never 

 explained. They never wrote me. A com- 

 mission man finally took it off my hands, but 

 I had to pay double freight. Caution is nec- 

 essary with- cash buyers as well as with com- 

 mission men. 



I suppose there must be some bad commis- 

 sion men or so many would not say there 

 are; but I believe that, if the commission men 

 are all eliminated from dealing in honey, the 

 producer will receive a blow that he will feel 

 for quite a while. 



This is the most important subject of any 

 to the ordinary bee-keeper, and I greatly ad- 

 mire your desire to give all a square deal in 

 this matter as well as in others. I shall watch 

 closely for future articles on this subject. If 

 people get better posted they will not go to 

 town and sell honey two or three cents un- 

 der the market price, as Charles MacCulloch 

 says they do. Please keep this subject hum- 

 ming until it reaches the country men. 



Sterling, -Ark., May 6. 



[While it is possibly true that commission 

 men as a class are not all that they ought to 

 be in a business way, we believe (and have 

 before stated) that those who quote on the 

 honey markets in this journal are honest and 

 reliable. It is true we have received some 

 complaints at times, and in some cases the 

 commission men have been at fault, and in 

 others the trouble lies clearly at the door of 

 the bee-keeper. We believe that the most of 

 our men in the Honey Column belong to the 

 class described by our correspondent. 



The trouble is, we don't hear about the 

 good deals; but if there is the least dissatis- 

 faction we hear about it at once. Where 

 there are a hundred good sales made to one 

 bad one, the latter is the only one that is 

 talked about, and it is talked so much that 

 one easily assumes that all others are like it. 

 While it is true that there are some bad cor- 

 porations and some bad honey-men, it does 

 by no means follow that all are. There is 

 too much wholesale condemning these days. 

 It would indeed be a sorry day for producers 

 if all commission business would be outlawed. 



Now having said this much in defense of 

 the commission men who quote in our col- 

 umns, let us give a letter of an unsatisfactory 

 deal with one of these same men. We give 

 the letter without name. — Ed.] 



Dear <S'(>.'— While the subject of commission houses 

 is up in Olbanings, perhaps the enclosed statement 

 just received from one of vour regular advertisers and 

 price-quoters mig-ht be of interest to you. Note the 

 time of shipment, 1903, and settlement. 1907; commis- 

 sion nearly U of what they claim the honey sold for. 

 I marked 19 cases of this honey " fancy;" the rest A 

 No. 1, and I think I was fair in grading. You will see 

 by the weight they give that the sections were well 

 filled, as they were in ideal sections. I made the 

 weight 47 lbs. more than they do. I don't think they 

 have quoted the price of this grade of honey less than 

 13 cts. since I sent this shipment. The freight was 

 prepaid on this shipment. Is not the small producer 



who occasionally sends them honey almost at their i 



mercy? D. J. Hills. 



.V)'. D. J. Hillti.—'We have your kind favor of the 13th Inst., 

 and are pleased to hear from you, and you would have had an 

 earlier reply ; but the writer has been absent from this eity, 

 and found your letter awaiting a reply, which we gladly give 

 you. Yes. It is time. Your shipment can now be closed up, 

 and the result is as follows: 

 190:j, Dec. 11. received 36 cases of honey, 812 lbs. i oz. 



Sales, 36 cases, 812 lbs. 4 oz $82.70 



Cliarges — 

 Commission, storage, and Insurance 19.08 



Your net 63.62 



1906, Feb. 12, paid remittance 25.00 



Check herewith for balance your due 838.62 



We trust the result will please you; and when you have an- 

 other crop to ship we may be able to serve you. 



Yours. Co. 



[While the letter of the commission firm 

 furnished us by Mr. Hills does not prove dis- 

 honesty, yet if the facts are correctly stated 

 it does reveal a degree of neglect or careless- 

 ness that should not be allowed in a fix'st-class 

 house. We have had some dealings with 

 these people, and we believe they mean to 

 do the right thing generally. But it should 

 not take three and a half years to dispose of M 

 36 cases of honey, providing it is A No. 1, the I 

 most of it. Such honey, any time, should be 

 disposed of inside of 90 days at the outside. 

 The experience of commission men, and our 

 own as well, shows that a fancy or No. 1 

 honey will move off quickly (if producer does 

 not ask too high a price) while No. 2 and 

 off grades go slowly. Possibly this commis- 

 sion house might aver that this honey was 

 not A No. 1, as claimed by Mr. Hills. 



We have seen a number of instances where 

 thei'e was a dispute as to the grade. Where 

 the matter has been referred to us we have 

 sometimes had to decide in favor of the city 

 man and sometimes for the bee-keeper. We 

 have seen several lots of comb honey classed 

 as No. 1 that absolutely had not even been 

 graded, the entii'e crop being mixed indis- 

 criminately in the cases except that the No. 

 1 and fancy sections were put next to the 

 glass. This policy is exceedingly reprehen- 

 sible. Dissatisfaction on both sides is inevi- 

 table. One accuses the other of dishonesty. 

 Nobody gains by it, and, worst of all, the 

 bee-keeper is the heaviest loser; for if the 

 consignee must regrade and repack, he is go- 

 ing to make the other fellow pay for it. 



We are not claiming that Mr. Hills did not 

 grade his honey. In view of the fact that 

 that there have been other complaints con- 

 cerning this company, the presumption is 

 that Mr. Hills is not misstating the facts. IJ 

 the honey, therefore, was A No. 1, there is 

 no excuse whatever for keeping 19 cases of 

 it from Dec. 11, 190^, till May 29, 1907, be- 

 fore making returns. 



If the honey was kept over three years 

 and then sold, it is a wonder that it brought 

 even 10 cents. Most comb honey kept that 

 length of time would bring hardly one-third 

 prices. 



Mr. Hills draws attention to the charges 

 that amounted to nearly 25 per cent of the 

 gross sales. It is not surprising that the stor- 

 age should have been a large item in view of 

 the long delay. If the honey had been sold 

 promptly this charge would have been insig- 

 nificant. Unfortunately the items of com- 



