140 



SIXTEENTH ANNUAL, REPORT OF THE 



cents is a matter of very little differ- 

 ence. 



Some of them have relations back 

 over the hills from whom they can get 

 honey for ten cents, and, when you 

 want twenty or twenty-five cents, you 

 run up against something, but that 

 is a very small part of our consuming 

 public. I am speaking about the Elk- 

 hart situation. - 



It is only a small part of the con- 

 suming public in Elkhart that knows 

 that extracted honey can be bought 

 for less than nineteen cents a pound, 

 the price I get. 



This matter of price is not a serious 

 consideration for they have got the 

 money. 



We find that our best customers are 

 among the laboring people, and when 

 times are hard they say honey is a 

 luxury. 



I believe that any one selling honey 

 who tries to make a low price an ob- 

 ject in the sale of honey to the con- 

 suming trade is making a very serious 

 mistake. 



I started a young fellow out with 

 the first honey I ever sold in Elkhart 

 — put up in little glasses that hold % 

 of a pound — for fifteen cents a glass; 

 he went around this place and that, 

 with rather indifferent results for 

 several daj's, until he got tired of that 

 job and quit. 



Later on I got hold of another young 

 fellow who had been selling honey, 

 seventy-five cents for five pound pails, 

 and he thought that seventy-five cents 

 was the limit that could be asked. So, 

 after we argued the matter over — I 

 wanted to ask one dollar and he 

 wanted to ask seventy-five cents — we 

 compromised on ninety-five cents the 

 pail. 



I have been much gratified to find 

 he has changed his price from seventy- 

 five cents to $1.00, and now he tells 

 me he is going to get $1.25. 



I believe the matter of asking a 

 small price for a good product does 

 not help the sale of it particularly. 



When you establish yourself as a 

 reputable dealer or producer, one who 

 can furnish a first class article every 

 time, the people will quit thinking 

 about the price. 



I believe we overestimate this 

 proposition of trying to put the price 

 low for the sake of selling the crop. 

 My wife and I bought some furniture 



today, and here is just a little experi- 

 ence that confirms my view along this 

 honey line: 



There were two tables there — library 

 tables — one of them was $27.00 and one 

 was $23.00; we looked them both over 

 and asked each other which we liked 

 the best, and we finally decided that 

 we would buy the $27.00 table. 



We are not any different than the 

 rest of the people we are selling to. 

 That same principle generally applies. 



There are a lot of bee-keepers who 

 are falling down by putting honey on 

 the market in such a condition that 

 within a short time it will granulate 

 in the pail — and maybe there are di- 

 rections on the pail that, if you put it 

 in hot water, 150 degrees, etc., — it will 

 make the honey all right, but usually 

 they do not read that. They call you 

 up and say the honey is spoiling; you 

 call their attention to what it says to 

 do in case of granulation, and they 

 never have read that. 



The best insurance against kicks, and 

 the best assurance that honey is all 

 right clear to the bottom of the >)ucket, 

 is to heat it before you sell it so that 

 it will stand up until they eat it. 



President Miller — Mr. Stewart has a 

 paper I am sure we will be pleased to 

 hear. (Things That Don't Pay.) 



Mr. Stewart — Bee-keepers are al- 

 ways telling the things that pay them. 

 These are some of the things that 

 don't pay me: 



The first is — It does not pay me to 

 have somltoody else make my hives. 



It does not pay me to paint my hives. 



It does not pay me to buy queens. 



It does not pay me to buy swarms 

 on full sheets of foundation. 



It does not pay me to winter bees 

 in a one story brood chamber. 



It does not pay me not to feed be- 

 tween fruit bloom and white clover. 



President Miller — Here are severa'. 

 interesting points, who is ready to dis- 

 cuss them? 



Mr. Wilcox — With me, I hardly agree 

 with him on some of those points. I 

 would not think I could have the best 

 possible success if I did not feed two 

 weeks before clover. I want to com- 

 mence a month before. I learned 

 many years ago that there was no 

 honey flow the last week in May and 

 the first week in June, and the bees 

 will kill off their drones and, neces- 

 sarily, the queen stopped laying, and 



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