STATE bee-keepers' ASSOCIATION. 115 



for there. It is also a guide for those seeking a market. 

 I should think it had a good deal to do as a matter of fact 

 with the general business of the country. 



Mr. Colburn — I am a resident of Chicago and I asked 

 that question because I wanted to find out if there is any dif- 

 ference, or if it had any appreciable effect; and the reason 

 I asked it is, I have been on South Water Street a good 

 many times and I always found on enquiring there that the. 

 prices of honey were invariably greater than these market 

 reports give us to understand. Why that is so I don't just 

 know. I think I know the South Water Street houses pretty 

 well. I was a grocer here in Chicago for a number of years 

 and went all around the streets with my market wagon on 

 every day in the summer, and every other day in the winter, 

 and I found things down there were quite peculiar. This fall 

 I examined up and down the street on one or two days and 

 I found at that time five different firms reported honey as 

 selling at 15 cents a pound in one-pound sections. At that 

 time our market quotations — the nearest was within seven 

 days — gave us prices at 12 to 14 cents. This is what I don't 

 understand, and I want to understand it. Every bee-keeper 

 within 300 miles of Chicago who sends his honey here, if he 

 takes these papers, naturally is enquiring and looking at these 

 reports, and these reports ought to be reasonably accurate. 

 At the stock yards, with which I was familiar for a number of 

 years, the market reports give the actual sales as they are. 

 They don't say, "We quote so and so." They say, "Armour 

 bought so and so, such and such a kind of stock, and it sold 

 for so much." I think our market reports ought to be under 

 the control of this Association, on account of the fact that 

 there is such an apparent discrepancy between the reports in 

 the papers and the actual condition on the street. We as 

 individuals who are bee-keepers are interested in having prices 

 at a reasonable figure, and we don't want any market reports 

 which show the prices of honey to be less than it is generally 

 sold at. Whether they are, or not, I can't say, but I think 

 they are. In every investigation I have made I have in- 

 variably found a difference of one or two cents in the reported 

 price of the honey from the price on the street. In the quo- 

 tation from Milwaukee it is from one to two cents higher than 

 the Chicago market, and yet Milwaukee is 200 miles nearer the 

 great center of honey-production than we are. I brought this 

 up because I think the bee-keepers will lose two cents a 

 pound on every pound they send to Chicago unless they get 

 straight market reports. 



Mr. Wilcox — The question is, What effect do market re- 

 ports have on the honey market? If they be timely and truth- 

 ful they tend to steady the market, to prevent fluctuations, 

 and are highly profitable to all. 



Mr. Moore — There isn't any use in allowing any preju- 

 dice to enter into the discussion of these questions. I know 

 a good many people think that all lawyers are thieves, and all 

 commission men in the same class. They are very much like 

 the rest of us; they are all honest and all dishonest. But 



