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430 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
HONEY, HOW IT SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR MARKET. 
W. H. PUTNAM, RIVER FALLS, WISCONSIN. 
I shall confine my remarks to the production and preparation 
of comb honey for the market. I do not wish or expect to impart 
much information to my fellow members, as most of them at least 
are experts in this line. The great body of beekeepers, however, 
are not members of this or any other association, and they are the 
people who need to improve in the preparation of their honey for 
the market. 
My ideal of a package of comb honey, if a twelve pound case: 
should weigh eleven pounds net; if a twenty-four pound case, it 
should weigh twenty-two pounds net. The comb of each section 
should be confined within the wood of the section, so thatifa 
straight edge were drawn across its face, resting on the edge of the 
rim, it would not touch the comb. If honey is produced in thisshape, 
each individual section can be removed from the shipping case 
without disturbing the others. Precaution should also be taken 
against leaking. These are qualifications which the market de- 
mands, and the successful business man will cater to the trade. 
People in other lines put up their goods to suit the purchaser, 
and we must do the same if we would make money. For irstance,a 
few years ago it become fashionable to color butter. The conserva- 
tive people argued against it, and there was no end of clack and 
clamor about coloring butter. One of the most successful dairy- 
men in my state favored the coloring of butter because, he said, his 
customers demanded it, and he added, “if my customers send in an 
order for butter colored blue, the next shipment will be colored 
blue.” I make this digression to try and impress upon beekeepers 
that the end of all our effortsis to make beekeeping profitable, and 
if we would succeed we must cater to the trade. I had occasion 
recently to criticise a large producer of comb honey. That man 
raised nearly four thousand pounds of comb honey in the poor year 
of 1894. I bought the whole amount at the price he asked, ten cents 
a pound. I had difficulty in disposing of that honey because the 
crates were over weight and the sections where not straight,—you 
could not get one out without tearing the crate to pieces. When I 
had sold acustomer one lot, I could not sell him another. I criti- 
cised my friend, the producer, stating the reason why the trade 
wanted the scant sections, and got the following reply: “I do 
not care to put up honey for the dealer to beat the consumer on if I 
can help it.” A long argument might be had on this point, but to 
cut it short and state my view of the point, I will say, “Don’t bite off 
your own nose to spite some one else; dealers don’t have to buy any 
man’s honey unless it suits them, and it will suit if they can make 
money onit.’ Moral:—Cater to the trade. : 
Then I may briefly state my ideal crate of comb honey to have 
four necessary requisites: 
I. It must be scant weight. 2. Combs must be straight. 3. 
They must not leak. 4. The one pound is the standard. 
