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180 



TEiXTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



being too small. I would like to 

 bring before the National Association 

 that we have representatives here 

 from Ontario as well as Quebec, and 

 we are doing things in the bee-line 

 there, and a number of your members 

 come over to our Ontario Association, 

 and we are glad to have particularly 

 the men from New York State, who 

 come there almost every year, and 

 others; and while I am on my feet, 

 I would like to say that we have been 

 looiking from year to year for a meet- 

 ing of the National at Ontario or some 

 Canadian point; it has not been there 

 for some years. An invitation was 

 issue from the Ontario Association 

 to this convention to come to Toronto 

 as soon as possible. 



Now, with reference to the work 

 that is being done in Ontario in the 

 selling of honey. About five or six 

 years ago the suggestion was made 

 in the columns of the Canadian Bee 

 Journal, and then at the Ontario Con- 

 vention, I think the meeting at Barrie 

 the first time — Mr. Byer was connect- 

 ed with these references, and I think 

 I made some references myself in the 

 Canadian Bee Journal — and out of 

 that grew a committee; it started as 

 a honey exchange, which didn't do 

 very much in the way of organized 

 selling; it settled down to a crop re- 

 port committee. This crop report 

 committee, we were fortunate in the 

 selection of its members. The man 

 on this work is the important factor; 

 the man in charge of the selling or- 

 ganization is the whole thing. If you 

 get the right man it goes; if you do 

 not, it doesn't, as all who have been 

 associated with selling organizations 

 know well. This committee, in the 

 first place, was composed of Mr. Byer, 

 Mr. Couse (who is a business man, 

 and was Secretary of our association 

 for 21 or 22 years) Mr. Sibbald, and 

 one or two others, whose names I 

 can't recall; anyway, they were men 

 who were honey-producers, and busi- 

 ness men in the selling of honey and 

 in other lines. These men meet an- 

 nually to consider the crop report. 

 The crop report is obtained in this 

 way: "We send to our mailing list of 

 bee-keepers a post-card with a crop- 

 report form on it; this is sent about 

 July 20th, I think, and the report 

 is expected to be in by August. This 

 is sent to our mailing list, I am mak- 

 ing this a part of my work at the 



Agricultural College at Guelph, to col- 

 lect a mailing list of bee-keepers in 

 Ontario. I now have about three 

 thousand names andl addresses of bee- 

 keepers in Ontario; I haven't nearly 

 all of them yet, but I am getting them 

 from the inspectors from year to year. 

 We send out a thousand post-cards 

 with the blank to be filled out. I have 

 forgotten just the number, but it is 

 in the neighborhood of 500 reports 

 we received from bee-keepers, stat- 

 ing their crop of white honey. Those 

 500 bee-ikeepers reported 1,375,000 

 pounds, in round numbers, of extract- 

 ed and comb honey, largely extracted. 

 They also reported on these cards 

 the number of colonies they have, 

 what their crop was last year, and the 

 prices they obtained last year, and 

 comparing this year's crop with last 

 year's crop, also taking into consider- 

 ation the fruit crop and other things 

 which "^ight bear on the prices of 

 honey, this committee estimates what 

 the price of honey should be for this 

 season. This committee has done 

 this sort of thing now for about five 

 years. I think it is, and have never 

 failed. The prices w^hich have been 

 received by the bee-keepers for their 

 crops, at least by the majority 

 of them. There is no combine, no or- 

 ganized selling as such, simply look- 

 ing to the report of this committee. 

 It has come now that the producers 

 largely look for this report; the buy- 

 ers also look for this report, and there 

 is not much trade done in selling until 

 this report comes, and the buyers 

 have just about made up their minds, 

 as far as white honey is concerned, 

 that they might as well depend on 

 these prices, because those who hold 

 the bulk of the honey in Ontario will 

 hold for those prices and get them. 



Now, further than that, in the mat- 

 ter of organized selling, I have no 

 doubt a good work could be done. It 

 is very difficult, but it is being done 

 by some of your states, and some 

 groups of States combined, I under- 

 stand; and while it seems like a very 

 large mouthful, to control the whole 

 output of the United States, provid- 

 ed you can find the man, or body of 

 two or three men with the business 

 ability to dio this work, it can be done, 

 but, as has been stated, there must 

 be the money forthcoming to run the 

 business. How the business manager 

 of the National has continued' to do 



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