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STATE BEE-KEEPERS ASSOCIATION. I3S 



he says, "What's honey worth?" I said, "That depends on 

 the character of it. I am not buying it, but it ought to bring 

 a good price because there is a small crop, and if I had honey 

 I would get a good price for it." He said, "I have been 

 around the city retailing mine. I have got a wagon-load, 

 and I have been retailing it at 25 cents — two pounds for 25 

 cents." I said, "My dear, sir, are you a candidate for the 

 lunatic asylum? Are you giving away your labor like that? 

 If you have the honey, and it is the kind you say, drop the 

 whole business right down here and I will give you a check, 

 and I will sell every bit, and I would just as soon have a 

 little of your money as somebody else." He says, "If that's 

 the case, I will take my honey home." He would better have 

 sold it to me and let me made 2% cents than to have peddled 

 it around the city destroying the market for a lot of other 

 people. Don't you think the middle man would have been 

 an advantage? The producer could take his ready cash and 

 go home. He seemed to be glad to go home, and not have 

 to go to the trouble of peddling it, because he didn't like that 

 kind of work. We make a mistake about these things. The 

 man who sells honey, the man who starts from Cincinnati and 

 rushes to Baltimore, and rushes to Florida, and down to St. 

 Louis, and then to Chicago, if he is selling barrels of honey 

 he is making a market for you 'and me, and we want to stop 

 this talk about killing out the middle man. " [Applause.] 



Mr. Wilcox — I have "been to this convention ever since 

 it opened and I don't recall any talk about killing off the 

 middle man. 



Mr. Abbott — It wasn't this time. 



Mr. Wilcox — I once belonged to the Farmers' Alliance, 

 and we talked middle man there. I don't believe the bee- 

 keepers of the country are trying to injure him. They are 

 looking after the industry in general, and we all recognize 

 the fact that all classes are necessary. It is impossible to kill 

 off the middle man. 



Pres. York — I think they would die awfully hard if you 

 tried it. 



Mr. Wilcox — I have seen men try awfully hard. You go 

 to producers to buy their honey and they will say, "What do 

 you make?" And you tell them you make half a cent a 

 pound, or more, and they will say, "You can't have it;" and 

 they send it to Chicago to the commission man and pay him 

 10 per cent. What I got up to say is, that we are not un- 

 friendly to the middle man, and not unfriendly to the supply 

 man, and*not unfriendly to any class of dealers or producers, 

 but we wish to promote the general welfare of all. 



OBJECTIONS TO THE T SUPER. , 



"Are there any special objections to the T super? If so, 

 what are they?" 



Pres. York — Dr. Miller doesn't know any objections to it. 



Dr. Miller — I do. It is in four pieces, and if you are not 

 careful you will have those four pieces scattered around and 

 step on one of the T tins and smash it, and if you don't 



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