ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEDPEEfcS' ASSOCIATION 



193 



strated by the Colorado Honey-tPro- 

 .ducers' Association, whose membership 

 is scattered over a large territory. 



Members should not be compelled 

 to sell their honey through the asso- 

 ciation, nor to buy their supplies 

 through it, for if a co-operative asso- 

 ciation cannot demonstrate that it can 

 do better in the majority of cases 

 than a single individual, then it needs 

 fixing. 



A good, live co-operative association 

 is not only a blessing to those belong- 

 ing to it, but also a benefit to every- 

 one connected with that industry 

 within a wide radius. 



The bee-keepers of Colorado and 

 other Western iStates would be glad if 

 our brethren in the Middle and Eastern 

 States would organize, as we feel that 

 it would be to our mutual benefit. 

 F51ANK RAUCHEUiSS, 

 Manager Colorado Honey-Producers' 



Association. 

 Denver, Colo. 



Pres. York — It seems to me that co- 

 operation and advancement is in near- 

 ly every paper now. Mr Rauchfuss 

 is manager of the Colorado Honey- 

 Producers' Asisociation. They have 

 been organized for a number of years 

 along co-operative lines, not only for 

 the selling of the honey crop, but for 

 buying bee- supplies. What will you do 

 w^ith this paper? 



PRICES COMPARED TO 23 YEARS 

 AGO. 



Mr. (Selser — I want to say to the bee- 

 keepers that that paper is rather mis- 

 leading, and some of the statements in 

 it are hardly correct, although I do not 

 accuse our good friend of not trying to 

 state it as he understood it. 



In the first place, in regard to the 

 prices of supplies and' honey, he 

 makes a comparison between the quo- 

 tations of the market today, and 23 

 years ago. I don't recall what was 

 in the bee-papers as to quotations 23 

 years ago, but I do know something 

 which to me is much better than that. 

 I know actually what honey brought 

 23 years ago, and something about 

 what it is bringing to-day. In sub- 

 stantiation of that statement I want to 

 say that probably some of you here 

 know that it is not so many years 

 ago wh«n buckwheat honey in kegs 

 was offered in this iState at 3 7-8 cents 

 a pound. I was up in this State some 



20 years ago and bought a carload of 

 buckwheat honey at that price. To- 

 day that very same honey is sold 

 right in this State, within the last 

 thirty days, at seven cents a pound. 

 That doesn't look very much like a 

 decline in prices. I also went to 

 Wisconsin and Michigan twenty odd 

 years ago, and I contracted there in 

 car lots for white clover honey in 

 barrels at 5 1-2 cents f. o. b., and the 

 individual bee-keepers through Wis- 

 consin were only getting 5, 4 1-2 and 

 4 3-4 cents, and they were very glad 

 to have me contract with them. This 

 year that very same honey in barrels 

 has sold at those same points for 8 

 and 8 1-2 cents a pound. That doesn't 

 look very much like a decline. Sit- 

 ting over there at the side is a gentle- 

 man I have been dealing with for 

 many years for fancy white clover 

 honey in the comb, and he can re- 

 member not so very many years ago 

 when you could get, right up in St. 

 Ijawrence County, that honey for 

 about 13 or 13 and a fraction cents. 

 New York people bought it in car- 

 lots some fifteen or twenty years ago. 

 This year that same honey is sold for" 

 16 and 16 1-2 cents in car lots. Gentle- 

 men, you are very much mistaken 

 when you make the statement that 

 bee-supplies have gone up and honey 

 gone down. That is positively incor- 

 rect. I think we have never seen a 

 time in a quarter of a century that 

 honey brought as good prices as it is 

 bringing today. As to the price of 

 honey, retail, it is one of the peculiar 

 things that a grocer fixes the retail 

 price of comb honey at 25 cents, and 

 he can get 25 cents for the flat pound 

 of comb honey from the average shop- 

 per that comes in his store. If he 

 pays by the case to the dealer, 16 

 cents, he sells for 25 cents; if he pays 

 18 cents he sells for 25 cents; if he 

 pays 20 cents, he sells for 25 cents, 

 but it raises the question that the re- 

 tail grocer buying a case or two of 

 comb honey can hardly afford to sell 

 it on five cents a pound margin, so 

 that when honey goes up, there is 

 going to be a great deal less of it 

 used, simply because the grocer 

 thinks he can't sell honey on such a 

 low margin. The average retail gro- 

 cer won't sell more than three or 

 four cases at the outside, and when 

 the season closes, he will have half a 

 case to carry over, and he has got to 



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