THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



759 



proper commission on the honey sold 

 by and through their retail agents. 

 This would require two commissions 

 in order to reach consumers. 



But, says one, I thought you were 

 opposed to commission men. and that 

 you proposed to get rid of them alto- 

 gether. By no means ; for in order to 

 carry out my programme successfully 

 commission men are neccessary, and 

 besides I have never advocated their 

 destruction. All I have ever proposed 

 or desired to do was simply to stop 

 patronizing the sci/-appointed com- 

 mission men who now sell our honey 

 at wholesale, and who have had in the 

 past, and still have at present, a great 

 deal to do in fixing and mauipulating 

 the price of it. 



My position is, that the producers 

 are the proper parties to fix the price 

 on honey to consumers, and that this 

 can be done through an intelligent 

 committee appointed by the delegates 

 of an association representing the 

 honey-producers of the United States. 

 This committee can and should agree 

 upon a scale of prices for both white 

 and dark honey in sections, and how 

 the same should be graded, and these 

 prices should and would be satisfac- 

 tory not only to producers, but like- 

 wise to consumers. 



The disposal and distribution of 

 honey on the plan herein briefly out- 

 lined can be, and has been, adopted 

 by individual producers, but by no 

 means so successfully and harmoni- 

 ously as by and through a protective 

 and co-operative association of the 

 leading honey-producers, and for that 

 reason I am decidedly in favor of 

 organizing, as indicated,at the earliest 

 practicable moment. 



M. M. Baldbidgb. 



After the reading of the foregoing 

 essay, the following discussion took 

 place : 



J. A. Green— I find it difficult to in- 

 duce the grocery men to adopt the 

 commission plan. I often leave honey 

 with a grocerymen to be paid for 

 when sold. 



R. F. Holtermann— I consider that a 

 stock honey-company is preferable to 

 the plan advocated by Mr. Baldridge. 



James Heddou— It is supposed that 

 supply and demand control the price 

 of products, but it does not always. 

 The potato crop is a short one this 

 year, and the price has gone up three 

 or four fold ; honey is a much shorter 

 crop than potatoes, but the price has 

 not quite doubled. The trouble is 

 just this : Honey is a luxurious lux- 

 ury, and always will be, and you may 

 churn me now just as you did fifteen 

 years ago, and you may continue to 

 chum me, but it does not alter the 

 fact. The market for a luxury is 

 easily glutted. 



A. I. Root— I am not able to grasp 

 the plan outlined by Mr. Baldridge, 

 but I feel that something might oe 

 done to keep up prices. I am con- 

 vinced that the high price of honey 

 does not hinder its sale. We have 

 sold more honey this year than ever, 

 even though the prices are much 

 higher. Honey is a luxury, as Mr. 

 Heddon says, and people who buy 



luxuries do not generally care for the 

 prices of such articles. 



Thomas G. Newman remarked that 

 an even distribution of the honey crop 

 over the whole country was all that 

 was needed, even in " years of 

 plenty ;" there was no truth in the 

 theory of over-production, the low 

 prices were the legitimate result of 

 an uneven distribution. Last year I 

 saw in Mr. Burnett's warehouse, and 

 honey depots in other metropolitan 

 cities, the honey piled up until it was 

 not only burdensome to the honey 

 merchants, but it had overstocked 

 the markets, and as a necessary re- 

 sult it had run the prices down until 

 the quotations were sickening to the 

 honey producers. The way to avoid 

 a repetition, now that the prices had 

 advanced to a " paying " and satis- 

 factory amount, was for every bee- 

 keeper to see that all the home mar- 

 kets are well supplied before shipping 

 any quantity to the large marts of 

 the country. The firm of which I am 

 a member has sold over twenty tons of 

 extracted honey this year at the ad- 

 vanced prices, and with much greater 

 ease than it has sold a much less 

 amount at the low prices of a previous 

 year. The poor crop of honey this 

 year has to many, if not to all, been a 

 blessing in disguise. 



A. I. Root said that he agreed with 

 Mr. Newman, and one of the greatest 

 blessings was the fact that the short 

 crop had demonstrated that there 

 was no truth in the story of Prof. 

 Wiley about the manufacture of comb 

 out of paraffine, and the filling of it 

 with glucose. The excellent article 

 which friend Newman wrote on that 

 subject about two months ago, was a 

 convincing proof of its absurdity and 

 falsity ; now when prices of honey 

 were high, and the demand urgent, 

 not a pound of bogus comb honey was 

 to be found upon the markets' of the 

 world. That was one good thing that 

 had been the result of a poor crop ; 

 another was, that those who had any 

 honey to sell got nearly double the 

 price for it, to what they would have 

 obtained if the short crop had not oc- 

 curred, had the prices continued at 

 the depressed rates of a year ago. 



James Heddon— Last spring we 

 tried to get up a honey producers' 

 convention. Everybody said that we 

 were trying to get up a '■ corner." We 

 never tried to do anything of the kind. 

 We merely wished to get together and 

 see if something might be done to 

 secure better prices. 



A. B. Mason— I am interested in 

 this topic, but not so much as those 

 who do not sell their honey in their 

 home markets. 



Next came the subject to be led by 

 E. J. Oatman, of Dundee, Ills., on 



Getting the Bent Price for Honey. 



Mr. Oatman explained that there 

 had been a mistake made in placing 

 his name upon the programme ; but 

 he would say briefly that circum- 

 stances were so varied that it was 

 almost impossible to give rules for 

 all. In his case he traveled consid- 

 erable, and was always upon the 

 watch as to where honey could be sold 

 to the best advanlage. 



Mr. R. A. Burnett, of Chicago, Ills., 

 then read an essay on the subject of 



The CommlKiilon men and the Honey 

 market. 



The struggle that has existed from 

 the beginning of the era of man, 

 seems to abate but little if at all. To 

 qet the largest return for the smallest out- 

 lay, seems to be as general amongst 

 the people of to-day as amongst those 

 who have gone down the centuries 

 that have preceded the present one. 

 We may find the reason for this, in 

 assuming that it is a natural law— 

 ours, as it were, by inheritance. 



The child soon gathers ideas of 

 value, and in the exchange or barter 

 of marbles, each endeavors to get the 

 best of the bargain, about to be con- 

 summated. It may be that both parties 

 are satisfied, each rejoicing over his 

 success, and this is as it should be ; 

 but, alas, it is oftener the exception 

 than the rule ; for very soon some 

 friend shows to one of the parties how 

 he was beaten in the trade, by telling 

 him how many more " chinas " he 

 would have given for a like amount 

 of " mibs " and " Cornelia ;" and thus 

 destroys his peace of mind and body ; 

 for he is very apt to exert himself to 

 find the boy who got the best of the 

 bargain, and entreat with him to 

 trade back ; but the usual reply is, 

 •' Not much ; it was a fair trade, and 

 now if you want your Cornelia back, 

 vou can have it for all the chinas." 

 Thus if he gets back the " Cornelia," 

 he has lost all the " mibs," and " Cor- 

 nelia" cannot do much without a 

 constituency. 



But the boy who got the worst of 

 the marble trade grows to manhood, 

 and as a rule forgets or laughs at the 

 remembrance of his misfortunes in 

 the marble period. He is now en- 

 grossed in the interesting pursuit of 

 apiculture. By and by he has some 

 beautiful honey to dispose off. We 

 will suppose that he has not been a 

 regular subscriber for a paper devoted 

 to the pursuit in the life tnat he has 

 chosen ; or, if he has, that portion 

 which was devoted to giving market 

 reports, has been, at his solicitation, 

 eliminated from its pages. 



Now he has more honey than his 

 home market can consume at a fair 

 value. He casts about him for 

 another outlet that may bring him the 

 needed money to exchange for food 

 and shelter—" for man cannot live by 

 bread alone ;" this being alike true of 

 honey, will, I think, be conceded by 

 all present. He is now without a 

 guide, having cut off his source of 

 information of what honey is bring- 

 ing in the great marts of his country. 



However, he knows a man living in 

 a large city (who may be a tinsmith). 

 This friend goes to his grocer and 

 asks him what honey is worth. He is 

 given the retail price, which is com- 

 municated to his country friend. The 

 price given is a high one. At once, 

 without more thought, he sends 

 (probably by express), 1,000 or,»5,000 

 pounds of honey. This brings from 

 10 to 50 times as much as the grocer 

 could retail, he refuses to take it, and 

 it lies about the express companv's 

 room until the shipper can be heuid 



