64 ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 

 ORGANIZING FOR BETTER PRICES ON HONEY. 



THE PRESENT UNSATISFACTOET METHOD OF PBODUCEES WOEKING AGAINST EACH 

 OTHEE IN THE DISPOSAL OF THEIE CEOPS. 



The weakest link In the whole complicated chain of modern bee- 

 keeping at the present time is a lack of practical organization. I will 

 admit that we have national. State, and county organizations, and we 

 hold many conventions; but when it comes to the most vital part 

 of our business, that of disposing of our honey, then each producer is 

 not only a competitor against all others, but, according to his circum- 

 stances, will sell at almost any price he may be offered, thereby in- 

 juring the sale of other producers far more than ten times the amount 

 he produces would if we were organized and sold at one price. This 

 spoils the market, and the speculators take advantage of it and tell 

 us and show us how cheap they can buy our honey, using the price 

 and name of every party that has sold cheap, as a lever to bear down 

 the price and enable them to buy our honey as they have many other 

 lots. 



It makes but little difference whether we count our colonies by 

 the dozen or by the hundred, if, at the close of the summer, we sell 

 our honey at cost. Then we are making no money from our bees, and 

 there is something wrong. I know that, to organize for the purpose 

 of securing better prices, would be a rather hard thing to accomplish. 

 Still, I think something might be done to improve this part of our 

 business. I have never known a season during the past 50 years of my 

 bee-keeping life, when honey was sold at such a variety of prices, from 

 ocean to ocean, as it has been during the summer and fall of 1906. 

 Speculators have been scouring the country trying to engage honey at 

 low prices. Many parties that had debts to pay sold at prices they 

 would not care to have made public, while some, fearing that they 

 would have their crop left on their bands, have also sold cheap. We 

 see manufacturers, mechanics, and merchants all over the country or- 

 ganizing for self-protection, and it does seem to me that we as honey- 

 producers might do a little in this line that would be a help to all. I 

 am well aware that, when a man has debts crowding him he Is in 

 rather poor condition to argue with a speculator as to the price of 

 his honey, which each party knows must soon be sold; but, fortunately, 

 these are exceptional cases. 



There is no doubt in my mind but that, if we could hold together 

 as a company, we might secure one or two cents per lb. more . than 

 many do, and still sell at a reasonable price. This would mean thou- 

 sands of dollars to those who sell cheap, and in doing so they spoil 

 the market price for others. We, as producers, are too indifferent to 

 this part of our business, and it is certainly high time that we awoke 

 to the importance of this subject. If some of the valuable time that 

 is usually spent over minor matters at our conventions could be spent 

 on this subject it would be much better for us all. Now that the win- 



