120 



FOURTEENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



dollar (for which he will get $2.00 back) 

 — then he will sell all the honey he can 

 produce. I thank you. 



Mr. Grabbe — Mr. President: I would 

 like to say a few words. I sell my 

 honey. I am a German. I will try best 

 to explain to you how I sell my honey. 



I am a bee-keeper since I wag a little 

 boy over there in Germany. I came 

 over here to America and I could not 

 keep bees for years. Of course now I 

 got bees and I got a sign — I keep a little 

 store out here, a little bird store, not 

 in Chicago, and if you would ever like 

 to buy a good singing bird you can 

 come to me; they are as sweet as the 

 honey. 



I keep a sign in my show window — 

 "Honey for Sale, not produced by my 

 own bees; but gathered by my own 

 bees." I have a son and, when I made 

 the sign, "produced by my own bees," 

 my son said — "Father, you could 

 be just as well a producer of young 

 ducks." 



Now the people pass by and see that 

 sign. People come into the store and 

 say — "You keep the bees referred to 

 here?" "No, I keep them about five 

 miles away from here." 



The best thing is to make the people 

 believe you sell honey. Make the ladies 

 and men believe you have that honey. 

 You can sell honey, and the people 

 come round — Is it honey? It looks 

 like honey; it tasteg like honey; it 

 smells like honey — is it honey? I make 

 the people believe that that honey is 

 gathered by my own bees. Last year 

 I had nearly 4,000 lbs. of honey and I 

 sold most every pound in my store. I 

 get 50 cents for a quart. Of course the 

 capital thing is that the people know 

 that it is honey. 



Now I never spent a cent for adver- 

 tising, even not on my cards. This 

 honey sign is outside and inside be- 

 cause my store is closed on Sundaj-, so ' 

 closing on Sunday it is inside and I 

 take it and put it on the outside. I 

 don't sell honey or birdg on Sunday, 

 I get a good price for my honey. I 

 make the people believe that it is 

 honey, and when they know it is they 

 will buy honey. Most of them are 

 afraid it is glucose. That is all I 

 have to say about my advertisement. 



Mr. Bruner — I would like to ask w-hat 

 price honey sells for by the quart In 

 Germany? 



Mr. Grabbe — We sold honey always 



over there in Germany for about a 

 mark a pound; get about $.25 a pound. 

 Mr. Bruner — The point I wanted to 

 make is this: We are selling honey 

 too cheaply in this country. We are 

 not getting enough money for our 

 honey in this country. If we ask en- 

 ough money for our honey we can af- 

 ford to pay some one to go out, and 

 pay for it. The way to do is to get 

 the money for your honey. Don't be 

 afraid to ask people $.75 to $.80 a 

 quart for your honey. They will pay 

 you for coming to tell them about the 

 honey and pay you for bringing it to 

 them. Am I correct? 



Mr. Bull — That is the whole thing— 

 that is the whole trouble — you will 

 never get any plac^ , until you put the 

 price on it. 



Mr. Ahlers — I wafit to say: I sell 

 comb honey myself but I think, when 

 you ask $.70 or $.80 a quart, people are 

 not ready to pay it now. The honey 

 that is produced in the United States 

 would make fifty miles long. We could 

 not sell such a crop of honey at that 

 price. If you go to your neighbors, and 

 farmers and ask to sell them honey 

 at this price they will say, "Oh, w'e 

 have a lot of greens we wall feed the 

 children." 



Mr. Woodman — How is it that Euro- 

 peans produce five times as much 

 honey per head as we do in this coun- 

 try, or more? People only have one- , 

 fifth as much money to buy with, and 

 yet they buy Ave times as much honey 

 and pay more than our people in this 

 country pay for it. 



Jt is lack of education. We have to 

 educate the public up to the value of 

 honey. And we have to have our pay 

 for doing it. 



People are paying for glucose; glu- 

 cose is being advertised and demon- 

 strated in every town. They are not 

 doing that for nothing. 



There are other concerns doing the 

 same sort of business. , 



The Singer Sewing 'Machine . Com- 

 pany is selling sewing machines, from 

 house to house. They decided that the 

 best way to do this was to tell each 

 individual the value of the Singer 

 Sewing Machine. They are not selling 

 sewing machines for nothing. They 

 are telling the people to buy sewing 

 machines, but in particular the Singer 

 Sewing Machine. 



If we got out and told the people the 

 value of honey, we woul,d have no 



