GETTING THE HONEY TO MARKET 135 



wholesale district and to the retail stores which 

 serve the best trade. 



One point that soon became very apparent 

 was that of the hundreds of commission firms 

 on South Water Street only a few handle 

 honey at all. There were hundreds of crates 

 of cabbages, celery, sweet potatoes, oranges, 

 apples, and other staple products to one case 

 of honey. It did not take the writer fifteen 

 minutes to decide that the trouble was not due 

 to over-production. 



After talking to a number of commission 

 merchants who do not handle it at all as well as 

 those who do, it began to look like the trouble 

 was of quite a different kind. It looks very 

 much to the writer like it is improper distribu- 

 tion and lack of incentive for the merchants to 

 push our product. A merchant dislikes to 

 establish a trade for a product which he is im- 

 able to supply. If even twenty per cent, of the 

 commission merchants should undertake to 



