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STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. 125 



to the grocer is 12 ounces, and that would go in a section 

 3j4x4^xi^. inches. It weighs exactly 12 ounces full — fancy 

 honey. 



Pres. York — Now, Mr. Muth, I think you would better 

 answer the question. Do you want "full" things down in 

 Cincinnati, or not? 



Mr. Muth — I have the honor to have a personal ac- 

 quaintance and friendship with Frank Rauchfuss, and I think 

 he is the best-posted honey-man in the world. I .also had the 

 pleasure of his company for about three days when he was 

 in Cincinnati some two or three years ago, and a circular they 

 issue on the grading of honey, and how they adopt their style 

 meets my notion to the dot. They favor the 4%x4}ixiJ/s 

 section, open top and bottom, and 24 sections to the case — 

 fancy, of course, is always the best. A 24-section case should 

 weigh from 22 to 23 pounds, and no more than 24 pounds. 

 We all go to the limit even if we do advertise long-tongued 

 queens ! The retail grocer or the general public is the one 

 that we cater to. What we like may not be wanted by other 

 people. If I want to buy a pound I want 16 ounces. When 

 I sell a man a pound I sell him 16 ounces for a pound, and 

 when I tell a man I will do it, I will do it. A retail grocer 

 will often telephone me, "What have you got?" "I have some- 

 thing that will strike you." He wants a case of honey that 

 has 24 sections and that weighs 22 pounds. If I tell him I 

 have a case of 24 sections that weigh 25J4 pounds he will 

 say, "I don't want it." I have that demonstrated to riie right 

 along. A man in Iowa sent me about $275.00 worth. I had 

 forgotten to m.ention when I told him to let his honey come 

 that it must average less than a pound to a section, or it 

 should not average more than 23 or 24 pounds to the case, 

 but he let it come, and it all averages 25 and 26 pounds to the 

 case. Well, there I am. I am looking for a buyer. I would 

 like to sell it for what I paid for it. I believe they are all 

 like that. I don't care; if a retail grocer wants light weight, 

 give it to him; or if he wants pounds, give it to him. If he 

 wants light weights, I have it ; and if he wants pounds I have 

 it; but the majority want to make a little money, and they 

 don't make it anyway because they cut prices. They want 

 to get the tra^de. If they are light weights, about 14 ounces, 

 that strikes a man all right. They look like a pound and they 

 can get 20 cents a piece. 



Dr. Miller — Why do they make any more money on one 

 than on the other? 



Mr. Muth — Say I buy it by the pound, and I sell to the 

 retail grocer by the pound, and they generally sell by the 

 piece. There is more short-weight honey on the market than 

 pounds, and whenever you have heavy-weight honey on the 

 market you have a proposition. The gentleman that sold me 

 this honey is a very fine one, but if I had known that the 

 honey was heavy weight I wouldn't have wanted it for three 

 cents a pound less than I paid for it, because it is a drug on 

 the market. 



Dr. Miller — If they all weigh alike, why is it that one will 



