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82 THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



bee-keepers were very unwise to publish the amount of honey 

 they had; that they were too anxious to get rid of it. I 

 havn't tried to dispose of any honey, yet I have sold it, nearly 

 all. I wouldn't give a dealer a report of the amount of 

 honey I had on hand if he should ask me. 



Mr. Longsdon — Mr. Whitney is getting down to where 

 the originator of that question wanted to get and' he men- 

 tioned the Rockford convention. Prior to that convention, 

 in our little town, surrounding us honey was selling cheap, 

 selling for 10 cents a pound for comb honey, extracted for 8, 

 and there was considerable of it being disposed of at those 

 prices after that Rockford convention. They read those re- 

 ports, and the little country papers copied them. I had parties 

 come to me and tell me that we were robbing them, that 

 honey ought to sell for 5 cents a pound; people went crazy 

 over the low price of honey. Therefore that question was 

 asked to get at whether or not we, as bee-keepers, are pro- 

 tected by some kind of a deal or trust — whether it wouldn't 

 be just as advisable to keep to ourselves these tremendous 

 amounts of honey which are generally multiplied by four or 

 five, and be selfish for our own interests. 



Mr. Wilcox — I was just going to remark that there are 

 two sides to every question. I do when I am asked, and I 

 am asked every year, and I am asking others every year. 

 I want to know, and you want to know, everybody wants 

 to know who has anything to do with it. I would much 

 rather tell these men who ask, than to have them get the in- 

 formation from someone else. If the facts are to be pub- 

 lished, I would rather give them the true ones, because I 

 prefer to be a little careful about what the reports are, was 

 my reason for not wanting that statement about getting 300 

 pounds of comb honey in a colony to be printed. There may 

 be a possibility of that occasionally, and it would be cited 

 and quoted and remembered as a common thing. I believe 

 we should withhold such large statements, especially when 

 talking before a reporter. Talk common, practical facts. 

 We can tell the truth and still tell it so it will not become an 

 exaggeration. I believe we should give tliese reports to every- 

 body who wants them, and let them publish them if they 

 wish. They will find out anyway before they will trade. 

 I won't buy until I have some idea what the crop is. They 

 must know, and will know, and I don't believe in trying to 

 conceal it from them. I am in favor of making the reports 

 myself, and having all the rest of the^bee-keepers do it, but 

 I want them to be careful and consider who they are talking 

 to, and what the facts generally are. Not one particular 

 colonv or apiary, but the crop of the country, the district iq 

 which they are living. Have some regard for consequences. 



Mr. Moore — There is no doubt at all in my mind but 

 what the bee-keepers of our country are out tens of thousands 

 of dollars each year by unwise actions. It is actually a case 

 of self-preservation. This is a little off the question but it 

 just shows how unwise we are. I will put it at 50 to 200 

 tons of comb honey was dumped on the Chicago market to 



