ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



115 



Mr. Taylor: It will not do so. 



Maintaining Good Prices for Comb 

 Honey. 



"Is it possible for bee-keepers to 

 maintain the good price of comb honey- 

 after such a crop as the last one?" 



Mr. Dadant: I don't know who 

 asked that question, but I am one of 

 those who believe it can be done. Bee- 

 keepers should not go down town and 

 take what is ofCered to them, but set 

 a reasonable price on their honey and 

 stay with it. They will get their price, 

 if they will advertise it and drum it a 

 little as other people do their business. 

 We have never taken our honey to the 

 market and accepted the prices offered 

 until they were suitable. We have al- 

 ways got fairly good prices for our 

 honey. We ought not to ask exorbi- 

 tant prices. But I believe, if we stick 

 together, we can get good, fair prices. 



Mr. Wilcox: Will the lowering of 

 the price of honey increase the con- 

 sumption of it? If it will not, we can 

 just as well maintain a fair price for 

 producing it; but if it is necessary to 

 lower it to increase the consumption, 

 then the natural laws may govern. 



Mr. Taylor: If you lower it, the 

 jobbers will get the same price they 

 got before; the retailers v,'ill get the 

 same price, and the consumers pay 

 just as rnuch. Nobody is out hut you. 



Mr. Wheeler: This is a question' of 

 vital importance to the bee-keeper, 

 more important than any other ques- 

 tion that has been discussed. I think 

 that the price of honey this year in 

 the wholesale markets on the street 

 is below the price of any other com- 

 modity that is TDeing consumed at the 

 present time, and it is simply by clog- 

 ging the market. Th'at clogging of the 

 market is caused by honey being 

 dumped in here, and people that 

 crowd in early think they will get a 

 good price, but they get simply what 

 the wholesale man has a mind to give. 

 The price varies all the way from ten 

 cents for the best comb honey. 

 A person can go in and buy 

 comb honey at any price they 

 have a mind to set on it, and 

 it demoralizes the price of honey. 

 I am around among the grocery men 

 all the time, and I keep in closer touch 

 with the trade than most of you, the 

 retailer and wholesaler, and all of you. 

 If Mr. Moore and I could have had the 

 control of the Chicago market, we 



could have kept the price up, as it 

 ought to have heen. We kept it up 

 for a while, hut this honey in the mar- 

 ket finally swamped us. We could have 

 got a good price for honey the whole 

 year through if we could have con- 

 trolled it. Pork, eggs and all the 

 commodities are ibringing as much as 

 they did a year ago, and there is no 

 reason why the beautiful white clover 

 honey coming into Chicago should be 

 given away — no reason except that 

 these people dump their ihoney on the 

 market and take what is given. 



Mr. Moore: Mr. Wheeler, tell what 

 you got for your first comb of honey 

 here. 



Mr. Wheeler: Sixteen and seven- 

 teen cents a pound. 



President York: From the grocer? 



Mr. Wheeler: Yes, sir, right along 

 through September. 



Mr. Moore: I got eighteen for the 

 first. 



Mr. Wheeler: Now you have ihard 

 work to give it away. 



Mr. Whitney: It seems to me one 

 way to secure better prices is to get 

 all the bee-keepers of o»r neighbor- 

 hood to join the bee-keepers' associa- 

 tion and attend a convention like this, 

 and hear people , talk about ways and 

 means to secure better prices. Now, 

 I know of a case up in Wisconsin 

 where a grocer told me last summer 

 that he had gone out into the country 

 and found a fine lot of clover honey at 

 ten cents a pound. The producer of 

 that honey took no bee-paper and be- 

 longed to no bee-keepers' organization, 

 ,au,d was not posted. If we had all 

 these bee-keepers members of some 

 bee-keepers' association like this, and 

 they would take a good, live bee-paper, 

 there would not be any Comb honey 

 sold for ten cents a pound to the gro- 

 cers or anybody else. Now,^ I will 

 guarantee to add one extra member 

 to this association withiri the next 

 year, or I will pay his dollar at the 

 next meeting if I don't succeed in get- 

 ting him. I think that ■ is one of the 

 best ways that we can secure better 

 prices. We have talked about better 

 prices every time I have been here at 

 these conventions, and yet, if we have 

 a reasonable crop, the honey prices 

 are away down. Money has been pro- 

 vided to advertise, and yet we don't 

 get any better prices. The fact is, 

 that the ordinary bee-keeper is not 

 posted, and he needs to ibe educated. 



