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134 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



most of us can sell more than we do. 

 I think I see the tendency among bee- 

 keepers to do that more they used to. 

 The Home Market for the local bee- 

 keepers seems to me like the very best 

 of market we can get. We can get a 

 little better price, and right at home, 

 and when we all get to doing that it 

 will relieve the market wonderfully. 

 Mr. France's way of selling would not 

 suit me at all. We raise comb honey 

 and what little I raise I always sell 

 before October. I am in no hurry but 

 it just goes. 



I was amused one time — we had a 

 neighbor who had bees in box hives; 

 had five of them; he came down to my 

 place one time and said, "Williams, 

 can't you fit me out with some patent 

 comb?" I said, "Maybe;" I let him 

 have five hives. It was a good year — 

 he made some honey, and came and 

 got a second set of cases; he got a 

 little honey; he came to see me one 

 day and I was not at home. My wife 

 said to him: "Maybe I can help you 

 out. What is the matter?" "Well," he 

 said, "I have so much honey I came to 

 consult Mr. W^illiams about it. I have 

 got 125 pounds of good white honey. If 

 I should throw that all on the market 

 at one time it would break the market 

 down." And she took him out to the 

 shop. I happened to have about 3,000 

 pounds, and she showed him that, and 

 he threw up his hands. "I did not 

 know there was that much Jioney in 

 the world. I guess my 125 pounds won't 

 make much difference." He asked me 

 how to sell it. I said to him: "Mr. 



M , get a little board about that 



long and put "HONEY FOR SALE" on 

 it, and if you do not sell your honey 

 inside of two weeks I will take it off 

 your hands. He came to my house in 

 about ten days and wanted another 

 case of honey. He said, "That is all 

 gone and my neighbors want more. I 

 guess I won't break the market." 



He did not have any idea his home 

 market would consume 125 pounds. The 

 Home Market, in my opinion, should be 

 cultivated. When everybody gets to 

 doing it there will not be complaint of 

 low prices. 



President Miller — I find the chief 

 difficulty in selling a 60 pound can — 

 the person gets tired of it; the next 

 year when I try to sell that same per- 

 son 60 pounds, he says, "I have got 

 some I bought of you last year." If I 

 sell him a ten pound pail he will come 



back for more. In dipping into a 60 

 pound pail they are apt to get tired of 

 it before they finish it. 



President Miller — Mr. Bruner has a 

 paper on the "Selling Prices of Honey." 



Selling Prices of Honey. 



(E. H. Bruner, Chicago, 111.) 



Friends, I have no paper and I do 

 not know much about selling honey. 

 The question of price has a whole lot 

 to do for a great many of us w-ith this 

 sale of honey. The two numbers. Mar- 

 keting of Honey and Selling Prices, 

 were put together closely on the pro- 

 gram. 



The question of price usually comes 

 up when we have honey to sell but that 

 should be merely incidental; that is 

 the last thing one thinks of when he 

 has good goods to sell; first, he gets 

 people to want the goods. 



The price on honey should be 

 always thought of as one of three dif- 

 ferent things: 



If we are going to ship our honey to 

 the market, or sell it in a lot to some 

 one — send it to a commission house — ■ 

 that would be a wholesale transaction. 

 That price of necessity must be differ- 

 ent than if we were selling it to re- 

 tailers, and, if we sell it direct to the 

 consumer, the price must be still dif- 

 ferent than if selling it to retailers. 



If we are fair to ourselves — to our 

 customers — you cannot sell honey re- 

 tail at wholesale prices and be fair to 

 yourself; you cannot sell it to the re- 

 tailer at wholesale prices and be fair 

 to yourself. We forget that sometimes. 

 We have a crop of honey and want to 

 unload it. We want to get our money 

 out of it and we let the other fellow 

 do the worrying about it. That is not 

 business. The wholesale or commis- 

 sion man would pay us certain figure 

 for honey depending on conditions, but 

 he has to find a place to put it; he has 

 got to sell it to the wholesale grocer 

 or bottling house or some one else. He 

 has got to be paid for his trouble and 

 time, clerk hire, rent, and his charges 

 are not unreasonable. 



The man who buys honey and puts 

 it in storage before he unloads it is .- 

 entitled to a return on his investment. 



There is a difference between the 

 price to the wholesaler, and the com- ^ 

 mission man must sell it to the retailer 

 so that the price must be different; 

 but if we see in bee papers that the 

 price of honey is, for extracted, eight. 



