REGULATING PRICES OF HONEY* 

 W. D. Weight, Altamont, jST. Y. 



The question, " What method can be adopted to maintain 

 prices on honey ? " has been put to me. This is a difficult problem 

 nnd T do not expect to solve it. The question appears to me to 

 be somewhat in the abstract and not covering the matter fully. 



It certainly will be no trouble to maintain present prices for 

 this season, and the beekeeper is inclined to consider them fairly 

 good for the reason that for a couple of years a slight advance has 

 been experienced, attrilnited, no doubt, to the reduced production 

 caused by adverse weather conditions. 



The prevailing high prices of other food products should have 

 an influence on the price of honey, which as an article of diet 

 stands far above many other higher priced commodities, but 

 it is not yet evident. 



I deem it essential to not only maintain the present prices but 

 when conditions warrant it, to work for a gradual increase until 

 honey producers receive adequate returns for their strenuous labor, 

 and for the capital and brains expended in the business. 



The question of price rests to some extent, especially in the 

 retail trade, with the producer himself who frequently sets entirely 

 too low a value on his products, and fails to consider the actual 

 cost in time, labor, investment, etc., with a reasonable margin of 

 profit added. 



To many producers, the middleman is a necessity, but without 

 regulation by the producer he is a parasite that is sapping the 

 resotirces of the business. 



The critical period of honey production is at the commencement 

 of the marketing season when the price is established, and instead 

 of the producer and dealer working in harmony, the dealer acts 

 as a bear on the market and places prices at the lowest point that 

 tiie producer will stand, so that he may readily move large quan- 

 tities of honey at a good profit to himself. After prices are estab- 



* Delivered to the Kew York State Association of Beel<eepers Societies at 

 Rochester, N. Y., December J9, 1912. 



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