' ^ s» ~- 



V -J'. , " * ~ s.f'Ti • 



ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KBEPERS' AiSSOCIATION. 



123 



honey, and cannot find a market for it 

 anywhere. What will you pay for it?" 

 I wrote to him what I would give him 

 for it, and keep to work through the 

 summer; I generally take my vacation 

 then. He said, "You can have it." 



Then this fall he wanted to sell me 

 his honey again. He wanted 10 cents a 

 pound for it, and would not take no 

 less, and he has his honey left. 



I know of several big producers in 

 Wisconsin that hold their extracted 

 honey at 10 cents now. Well, I hope 

 they will sell it. I toldi them I could 

 not handle it at that price, without 

 raising mine, and then that would cut 

 down the consumption; it would make 

 the people believe it was too high at 

 the present high prices of living, and 

 they would feel that they could not 

 afford to eat honey, therefore I would 

 rather quit — not letting my customers 

 see me at all until honey could either 

 be sold' at a staple price, or was down 

 to where it was previously in my 

 travels. 



Now about this question of labor 

 production: The price, or the value of 

 anything, is decided by the amount of 

 labor invested in it. If there is more 

 labor invested in producing a dollar's 

 worth of honey at present prices than 

 in wheat, the bee-keeper will go to 

 wheat raising, and vice versa. 



Mr. Kannenberg — Mr. Niver says he 

 will go out of the business if the con- 

 ditions are so and so. That will give 

 the amateur & chance to sell his honey 

 in the home market. 



Mrs. Holbrook — ^A man from a neigh- 

 boring State came into a village not 

 far from here, with a ton of honey and 

 sold every pound at 25 cents a pound, 

 around to homes. 



Pres. York — Comb honey? 



Mrs. Holbrook — ^All extracted honey. 

 He said to the people to whom he sold, 

 "No man can produce pure honey for 

 less than 25 cents a pound," thus giving 

 them the impression that any one 

 bringing any honey into the State for 

 less than 25 cents a pound was not 

 giving pure honey. Hence those peo- 

 ple bought that honey; they believed 

 in that man; and his goods were not 

 as good as other goods that were fur- 

 nished in that State; he made them be- 

 lieve he had the best honey. Do you 

 6ee the point back of that? He won 

 the confidence of the people. He said, 

 "TJiat honey cannot be produced for 



less than 25 cents a pound and be 

 pure." 



Mr. Wilcox — I know one or two men 

 who sell large quantities of honey, and 

 there is a secret in it; if I tell it, and 

 don't tell who they are, it may help 

 you some. They try to establish a 

 uniform grade. You all know we can- 

 not produce the same grade of honey 

 at all seasons of the year, or from 

 year to year; in different localities it 

 varies. But you can have a uniform 

 grade by buying different kinds of 

 honey and mixing it to a certain 

 standard — those different varieties of 

 pure honey; you can have it uniform 

 in color and flavor, and when they 

 establish a market for that particular 

 honey, and advertise it as their honey, 

 they can work up a trade; I know of 

 two or three bee-keepers who do that 

 ^and I think there may be others. I 

 have never done it myself. 



Mr. Huffman — I am a little like Dr. 

 Miller on this question; I think that 

 "location has a good deal to do with 

 it." These parties can get these big 

 prices where there is no competition. 



Now Mr. Wheeler, in referring to 

 Aurora, struck the key-note with us. 

 We have parties — farmers. — producing 

 quite a little bit of honey — two or three 

 thousand pounds of honey — who never 

 think of asking more than 7 or 8 cents 

 a pound of it. They come in and they 

 flood our local market — fill up the 

 grocery stores all round — and what are 

 5'ou going to do to get higher prices 

 in such a place as that? I am asking 

 for information. I held my honey back 

 until that other honey was all sold, and 

 now I am selling it for 10 cents. What 

 are you going to do when they put their 

 honey on the market at these prices? 

 Where are you going to get off at? You 

 cannot buy it from them; they will not 

 sell it to you; they have their cus- 

 tomers. I offered 8 cents straight to 

 one party who had 2,000 pounds. 



Mr. Reynolds — Nearly all our large 

 dealers here in town bought white 

 clover honey delivered at 6 cents. 



Mrs. Holbrook — Wlio fixes the price 

 of honey, the producer, or the man in 

 the w^holesale house, or the commis- 

 sion man — the wholesale man or the 

 producer ? 



Mr. York — I would like to ask Mr. 

 Burnett to answer that, as to how the 

 market is fixed here in Chicago? 



Mr. Burnett — ^I will ask Mr. Cavanagh 

 to answer, by proxy. 



fe:.Sii;-¥-, 



