THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



279 



A MAC.IC I.ANTKRN SHOW. 



Ill another place 1 mention some of the 

 thinjjs done hv the I'liiladelphiaboys for 

 our comfort and entertainment, but I neg- 

 lected to say anything about one very 

 enjoyable feature, that of bee-keeping 

 subjects shown by a magic lantern one 

 evening. This part of the entertainment 

 was under the the charge of Mr. W. E. 

 Flower, and the talks that accompanied 

 each picture were something of a sur- 

 prise to some of us — a professional show- 

 man and lecturer could not have done 

 better. We were surprised because Mr. 

 Flower had been so quiet during the con- 

 vention that we did not suppose he could 

 talk like that. He was really eloquent 

 over a picture of Father Langstroth; and 

 had an excellent explanation, or some 

 little witticism or drollery, for almost 

 every picture shown. For instance, in a 

 picture of a local apiar\' in which the 

 owner and his little dog were seen sitting 

 side by side on a bench, he said that that 

 dog knew more about bees than some 

 folks did; besides this, she was remarka- 

 ble in another way; she was longer in the 

 morning than at night. Some one in the 

 audience wanted to know "how that was," 

 and he .said that her owner "let her out 

 in the morning and took her in again at 

 night." 



COMMISSION mi;n. 



There is seldom a convention in which 

 commission men are not hauled over the 

 coals; and the Thiladelphia convention 

 was not an exception. Some looked at 

 the commission business as entirely 

 wrong in princi])le that the producer or 

 seller is actually furnishing the commis- 

 sion man with capital upon which to do 

 business. Others looked upon the com- 

 mission man simply as an agent of the 

 seller, and asserted that it was perfectly 

 right and legitimate to employ some man 

 to sell your honey for you; and when you 

 could realize more from the sales when 

 such a man was employed, than when the 

 honey was sold outright, which was the 



experience of some who were present, it 

 showed good business principles to have 

 the honey sold in that way. Great care 

 should e.xercised, however, in choosing 

 the man who is to sell your honey on com- 

 mission. Not only should he be honest 

 and financially reliable bnt experienced 

 in the handling and selling of honey. 

 Several instances were given in which 

 fine lots of honey had been sold at ridic- 

 ulously low prices simply because it had 

 been sent to some commission man who 

 had had no experience in the sale of hon- 

 ey. There was quite a disposition on the 

 part of some to urge bee-keepers to sell 

 for cash only, which can easily be done 

 this year, on account of the short crops, 

 but others reminded us that years of 

 plenty might soon follow in which we 

 might be glad to avail ourselves of the 

 services of the commission man. It was 

 intimated that some one dealer might 

 make his house very popular with bee- 

 keepers by abandoning the commission 

 feature, and paying cash for honej-. This 

 is probably true, but it must not be for- 

 gotten that, in the ver\- nature of things, 

 such a dealer could not afford to pay as 

 high prices as might be secured bj' the 

 commission man. If a man furnishes his 

 own capital, and takes the risks of busi- 

 ness, he must have pay for it. 



EXTRACTED. 



RASPBERRY JUICE. 



In the Alisenceof Xectar the Bees Filled their 

 Coinlis with the "Next Best." 



In the last issue of the Review, Critic 

 Taylor took Bro. Root to task for intimat- 

 ing that raspberry honey might be the 

 juice of berries. It is true that rasp- 

 V)erry honey comes from the blossoms of 

 raspberries, and, as Mr. Taylor says, it is 

 a very fine article, but, in times of scar- 

 citv, it seems that bees may possibly 



