366 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



deceived us; but another season, when 

 buying in carloads, every case will bear 

 the owner's name, or we will not buy 

 the honey. 



Honey should be graded by name, us- 

 ing the terms, fancy white, white, fancy 

 amber, amber, fancy buckwheat, buck- 

 wheat. Of course, in each term, to lower 

 the grade, the words No. i and No. 2 

 could be used. 



Extracted honey also has its off-side. 

 We had a number of complaints on ac- 

 count of the honey being full of bees. In 

 loading a car of extracted honey, and 

 without the name of the owner on the 

 case, we cannot tell who deceived us; 

 therefore, in future, every man will have 

 to have his name on the cases so that we 

 can trace the dishonest packages. 



When we sell to the trade we must 

 guarantee the quality; therefore when we 

 buy, we should have the quality that is 

 bargained for and nothing else. I do not 

 think well of the barrel, as it frequently 

 leaks, and give my recommendation for 

 the 6o-lb. cans; new cans at that, for sec- 

 ond-hand cans frequently are damaged 

 from too much usage. 



We recently bought a car of extracted 

 honey, and then the Association didn't 

 want to ship because someone else offered 

 them a fraction more, but we shall send 

 our claim to an attorney, and if he thinks 

 we can legally hold them, will enter suit. 

 Morally, they are bound to deliver; but 

 we do not often find farmers who consid- 

 er a moral contract good. 



We bought buckwheat comb hone}^ 

 from a party in New York State, and, 

 after making the sale, he wrote that his 

 neighbor received '4^ cent more than our 

 offer, and he wanted us to increase the 

 bid, which we did. This is hardly fair, 

 for, if we had offered him '4 cent per lb. 

 viore than his neighbor received, I am 

 sure that he would never have given us 

 the benefit; but, as the honey made a 

 profit, we felt inclined to be liberal, as we 

 wanted to have this party's friendship; 

 for we buy his honey every year. Should 

 his party read this article, we do not want 



him to be offended, as we only cite thi 

 instance to showthe difiiculties that some 

 times confront us. 



It is well that every man finds his own 

 market, and I heartily recommend home- 

 trade, and, thereby, higher prices for the 

 producer; but when our firm buys we buy 

 to make a profit, and ask no sympathy 

 from anyone, for we have been trading 

 for years, and will continue doing so. 

 The combination in trade, commonly 

 called Trusts, sometimes advances prices, 

 and then again lowers them. If we had 

 been agents for the honey producers, we 

 would have held every pound of their ex- 

 tracted at 10 cents, at producing points, 

 because we knew of the shortage and the 

 requirements of the trade, b^it much of 

 the honey was sold at producing points at 

 6 cents per lb., therefore the manufactur- 

 er is the gainer. We are so closely alli- 

 ed with the handling of honey that we 

 buy honey others will not, and we make 

 our own outlet, usually selling such leak- 

 ing and granulated comb honey to manu - 

 facturers. 



As to our endeavoring to buy at low 

 prices, we want the reader of this article 

 to know that the bee-papers are also buy- 

 ers of honey and they always buy as cheap- 

 ly as they can. It is every man's privilege 

 to refuse to sell, whether he is manager 

 of an Association or a private individual. 

 Managers are not in business for their 

 health; they make money. They make 

 it on their salaries or on conmiissions they 

 receive. 



I know of two men who buy honey in 

 Wisconsin, and who buy it cheap. This 

 year we went there, and as soon as they 

 heard we were in the field, they advanced 

 their price. That only goes to show that 

 if we had not gone there, they would 

 have gathered in the honey at low prices. 

 Competition is so keen that we must 

 avoid the middle-man, and buy our goods 

 direct from the producer whenever possi- 

 ble. We have customers who consign 

 honey every year, and know we make 

 them more money than if they sold the 

 honey for cash at home. Frequentl}' we 



