Beekeeping in the Buckwheat Region. 25 
MARKET FACILITIES AND METHODS OF MARKETING. 
The channels through which buckwheat honey may be sold are 
less numerous than for lighter honeys. There is usually a demand 
for this honey from the baking trade for the manufacture of cakes 
with rather strong flavor, such as spice cakes, and there is also a con- 
siderable market for it in large cities among the foreign population. 
As has been mentioned, many persons living in the buckwheat region 
prefer this honey to that from other honey-plants. Since the buck- 
wheat region is densely populated, this offers opportunity for the 
development of a good local trade, and it is desirable that as much 
of the crop be sold locally as possible. In case the producer of buck- 
wheat honey can not sell all his honey locally, he should avoid selling 
it in the general markets in competition with light table-honeys. At 
the present time the market for which there is the best demand for 
buckwheat honey is New York City, and the producer with commer- 
cial lots of this honey should get in touch with wholesale dealers of 
honey in this city. The names and addresses of such dealers may 
usually be obtained from advertisements in the bee-journals or by 
correspondence with the Bureau of Markets and Crop Estimates of 
the Department of Agriculture. It must be expected that the price 
obtained in wholesale shipments will be considerably less than for 
local sales, and every effort should be made by the producer to keep 
this honey away from the wholesale markets where it enters into com- 
petition with lighter honeys. 
Extracted honey is usually sold in the wholesale markets in 5- 
gallon square tins, but for buckwheat honey there is a considerable 
demand for kegs of about 180 pounds’ capacity. For local trade this 
honey may be put in cans of smaller capacity, such as 23, 5, and 10 
pound sizes, glass being less useful for this honey than for the lighter 
grades. 
Buckwheat honey may also be sold by parcels post through the 
development of a mail-order business, by means of advertisements 
in daily or weekly papers, but it will be well to choose as advertising 
media papers which have a circulation within the buckwheat region, 
for purchasers outside that region will probably not care for honey 
of this flavor. For parcels post shipments half-gallon and gallon 
cans have been developed and are advertised in the bee-journals and 
are usually for sale by dealers in beekeepers’ supplies. In the devel- 
opment of a local or mail-order trade, the beekeeper should take pains 
to obtain a distinctive label, and for buckwheat honey this label 
should set forth the merits of this particular type of honey rather 
than extoll the use of honey in general. All advertisements and labels 
should state clearly that buckwheat honey has a distinctive flavor, so 
that the purchaser will have no reason to complain if he is unaccus- 
tomed to honey with such a strong flavor. 
