§4 



TEE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



drops to the tongue, they could be easily 

 tasted. When the first crop of red clover 

 is in bloom the bees pay very little attention 

 to it. I presume it is because the white 

 clover and basswood are in bloom at the 

 same time, and they can do better than to 

 be hunting for the dwarfed, half-size blos- 

 soms of the red clover, from which they 

 might be able to extract a little honey. I 

 have occasionally seen a bee on the first 

 bloom, but it was very seldom. On the 

 second crop, that raised for the seed, I al- 

 most always find a large number of bees at 

 work. There are probably two reasons for 

 this. One is that, in some localities, there 

 is little else to keep them busy, and the 

 other is that these blossoms on the second 

 growth, that is, many of them, are smaller 

 than those on the first growth. Notwith- 

 standing that the bees often work industri- 

 ously for two or three weeks on the second 

 growth of red clover, I have only once had 

 my bees store any surplus from it. It just 

 about keeps the bees out of mischief, and 

 incites to breeding. One year I was aston- 

 ished to see work resumed in the sections in 

 August, and it went ahead so bravely that I 

 looked up the source from which the honey 

 came, and it was from the second growth of 

 red clover. The fields of this clover were 

 fairly swarming with bees. My brother and 

 myself had 1,000 pounds of red clover, comb 

 honey that year from about 70 colonies. An 

 unusual drouth that year had stunted the 

 growth of the clover, thereby making the 

 blossoms smaller and the tubes so short 

 that the bees could reach the nectar. One 

 interesting point was that the pure Italians 

 stored more honey than did the hybrids and 

 much more than did the blacks, in fact, the 

 latter did but very little. The foregoing is 

 given in response to Bro. Thompson's cry 

 for some to " come to his rescue. " 



EXXRKOTED. 



Selling Honey on Commission. 



A few weeks ago Mr. E. T. Abbott in the 

 American Bee Journal condemmed the busi- 

 ness pretty severely. Said it was wrong in 

 principle. It allowed some other man to do 

 business on your capital. It placed your 

 goods and business in the hands of a stran 

 ger at whose mercy you were placed com- 



pletely. Etc., etc. The only business-like 

 way of doing business was to sell for cash. 

 Of course, there is truth in what Bro. Abbott 

 says, but there is also another side to the 

 commission business, and in a Idte number 

 of the American Bee Journal Doctor Miller 

 shows it up as follows : — 



" On page 87, Mr. Abbott takes very radi- 

 cal ground — a little too radical, it seems to 

 me. His idea is all right, that it's a risky 

 thing to send honey to men you know noth- 

 ing about. That's true, and the fact that 

 commission men have things so largely in 

 their own hands makes it all the more im- 

 portant to know about the man you deal 

 with. But if you know your man, and are 

 sure that he's straight and honest, I don't 

 see why there's anything wrong in the 

 principle of selling on commission. Why is 

 the principle any different from hiring a 

 man to peddle honey for you V In either 

 case it is doing business on your capital, 

 and so is the man doing business on your 

 capital who uses your saw to saw your stove- 

 wood. 



' Most commission men are honest and 

 honorable, ' says Mr. Abbott. Then find 

 out which they are, and ship to them, if 

 you've no better way to dispose of your 

 honey. 



There's just a bit of moonshine in the idea 

 that there's no risk about selling for cash. 

 If a man is dishonest it may be safer to send 

 on commission than to sell for cash. For 

 if you sell to him for cash and he fails to 

 pay on receipt of the honey, you have no 

 recourse at law if the man is not financially 

 responsible ; whereas, if you ship to him on 

 commission, and he pockets the proceeds, 

 you can proceed against him as a criminal. 

 Don't condemn the whole commission busi- 

 just becausethe minority of men in it are 

 bad. " 



I presume that the greater part of the 

 comb honey that I have produced has been 

 sold by commission men, and I have never 

 seen any cause for regret in sending it to 

 them. The first 1,000 pounds of comb honey 

 that I ever produced was sent, the 4th of 

 July, to Mr. A. C. Kendel, a commission 

 merchant of Cleveland, Ohio. Within two 

 weeks the honey was sold at 15 cents a 

 pound and I had the money in my pocket. 

 But I knew before sending him the honey 

 that he was an honorable man. For years 

 he had given quotations in Gleanings, and 

 Mr. Root had often spoken very favorably 

 of him. I had never heard one word of com- 

 plaint against him. Mr. R. A. Burnett has 

 also sold considerable honey for me in a way 

 that has been very satisfactory. He has 

 sometimes secured as much as two cents a 

 pound above the regular market, because 

 my honey was very fine and put up neatly. 



