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130 



THIRD ANNUAL REPORT 



ing it by the piece. That's what Dr. Miller has always 

 claimed. I don't claim so because he says so. I would rather 

 be against him if my reason was so, for the sake of my own 

 individuality. Let us not deceive ourselves. People don't 

 know what these sections are called. Everybody, everywhere, 

 knows that they are called a pound section. That is a pound 

 section without any honey in it. You may put in one ounce, 

 or 16 ounces, or 20 ounces, but the lady thinks of a pound 

 when she asks for that. It is a pound section. The grocer 

 has bought 12-ovmce sections by the pound, and he sells them 

 by the piece, with the implication that they are a pound, and 

 he gets the pound price for it. Some of the grocers are a 

 little "green," and they buy heavy-weights and sell them for 

 20 cents a pound. This man is a little bit smoother, and he 

 buys the light-weight and he sells a section for 18 cents, and 

 he makes more than the fellow does who sells them for 20 

 cents, and the thought came to me whether if we as bee- 

 keepers had a duty in regard to selling light-weight sections 

 to the grocers and giving them a chance to make a dishonest 

 profit. Occasionally some of the grocers are ignorant. I went 

 into a grocery store and I saw some 12-ounce sections. I 

 said, "What did you pay for those?" "Why," he says, "I 

 paid 12 cents a pound." I said, "No, you didn't, you paid 16." 

 He wouldn't believe it. "You paid 12 cents a section for it, 

 but the sections only weigh 12 ounces, and that's 16 cents a 

 pound." The position that that grocer was in is the position 

 of the average housekeeper who buys this 434 square section 

 and thinks it is a pound. I don't know if there is any remedy, 

 and I don't know if it is on our consciences. If we sell our 

 honey honestly, and the grocer thinks he has to deceive his 

 customers, I don't know whether that is our affair. I should 

 like to hear this discussed, whether we should cater to this 

 light-weight section trade which tends to dishonesty. 



Pres. York — What does Mr. Moore mean by a dishonest 

 profit? What would be a dishonest profit on a section of 

 honey ? 



Mr. Moore — Any profit on anything is dishonest which is 

 gotten under deception of the customer. 



Mr. Starkey — There is one thing I think we don't all 

 consider, and that is the fact that the more prudent house- 

 wife who hasn't an unlimited use of the bank account, or has 

 trained herself to the point where she means to save every 

 cent she can (and it is proper she should, because there are 

 chances when she can), when they go to buy honey or any 

 other thing when they find something for a cent cheaper they 

 prefer to buy it. It isn't because this man has a i6-ounce sec- 

 tion of honey that he prefers to sell it; he knows the cus- 

 tomers are looking for something that costs less money, and 

 they are willing to take a smaller package, or rather the bee- 

 keepers are not supplying the demand for a small-priced 

 article. Now, I know if you put up a lo-cent package of 

 honey, that would be enough to put on the table, and they 

 would sell a great deal of that where they wouldn't sell a 

 20-cent package; yet a honey-producer cannot afford to put 

 it up that way. The honey-man cannot afford to supply the 



