ILLINOIS STATE BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION 



123 



for honey that does not exist today. 

 That is good advertising. 



Pres. . Kannenberg — I guess Mr. 

 France can tell us a good deal about 

 selling honey. 



Mr. France — In regard to this subject 

 of selling honey: "We have pretty well 

 thcashed out the subject of price — but to 

 get the demand! 



Now I was detailed by our National 

 Association some years ago to come 

 here with $1,400 to advertise honey, to 

 make a demand for honey; make a 

 show at the Pure Food Show. I could 

 not see where it was going to create a 

 demand — and I have yet to see the re- 

 turn for the money so expended. 



$600 was left, and I have been cen- 

 sured sharply for waiting so long a 

 time to use the balance. 



I have been studying to know how 

 most bee-keepers sold their honey. I 

 finally went back to my indiviuual ex- 

 perience, and, if I could get each in- 

 dividual to do the same, we would have 

 to hunt for some one to supply the 

 United States with honey. 



When I have had from 50,000 to 55,- 

 000 lbs. of honey, and cannot supply 

 my customers, if more individual work 

 would be done, we would wonderfully 

 increase the sale of honey. 



Now then — to create the demand: 

 Until you get the people to know the 

 value Of. honey, get them to want 

 honey, and to use honey, they are not 

 going to buy it— same as do the peo- 

 ple in the use of the Singer Sewing 

 Machine. 



I will give you an illustration: One 

 bee-keeper in our state, with 400 

 colonies of bees, has to buy honey to 

 supply his trade. He keeps a book 

 account, same as a business man 

 would. He has the names of his cus- 

 tomers in an alphabetical list, and he 

 notifies these parties that if they de- 

 sire his honey for next year they must 

 order immediately. The result is, he 

 wrote to me in the early fall: "I am 

 sold out." 



Let the goods sell itself. The mo- 

 ment a party buys good honey they 

 want more. Their neighbors come in 

 and taste this honey and are told about 

 it, and they want some, and before you 

 know it you are sold out, and it is very 

 hard to find a place where you can 

 get more to supply your customers. 



But as Mr. Bruner has said — Don't 

 sell one ounce of honey that is un- 

 ripe honey; that will spoil the market. 



Now as to where or how I used the 

 remaining part of that fund: 



I found that honey should be used 

 not only for the table, but should be 

 used in the home in cooking, et cetera. 



And for that reason, speaking of my 

 own experience, when I had a new 

 customer, with their order went one of 

 those little booklets about honey, and 

 I found that the educational value of 

 those booklets amounted to a good 

 deal, and I bought them in a wholesale 

 way and gave them away to bee- 

 keepers — A little honey booklet of 100 

 uses for honey. True, they are pub- 

 lished by one of our Supply Houses. 



Now let me give you a little informa- 

 tion: While I ■was giving these away 

 to the bee-keepers, they only paying 

 the postage, one ^ man in Iowa wrote 

 me: "I have that little bundle of 

 booklets, have had it for two weeks 

 and have as much honey on hand as 

 I had before." 



I wrote back to him: ' "Why, my 

 dear sir, put a candle under a bushel 

 and it does not give any light." 



Let the Mrs. try some certain recipe, 

 using honey, and invite in the neigh- 

 bors, who ought to be good customers 

 and who are not. This was tried, and 

 before they left eight five gallon cans 

 were sold and a contract was made 

 with the Sunday School Superintend- 

 ent. The week following he was to 

 furnish candy -honey, a square tube for 

 each Sunday School student, on the 

 Christmas tree. 



Now, when he got the Sunday 

 Schools eating honey, his honey was 

 all sold and he wrote me: "Where 

 can I buy more honey?" He gave 

 each one of them a booklet as he sold 

 the honey; he just started an opening 

 for the goods, and each individual can 

 do the same thing in the same way. 



Mr. Wilbert — Yes, but what about 

 the price? 



Mr. France — I cannot sell at the high 

 prices that some do, from the fact that 

 that is a matter of education, but I 

 do not believe in selling at prices so 

 that there is no profit. I sell for 12 

 cents for extracted honey and 22 to 

 25 cents for comb honey, that is as low 

 as we have been selling. At wholesale, 

 that is another proposition. 



There have been some remarks on 

 the consumption being greater in 

 European countries than here. If there 

 is any one here who knows anything 

 about this, I would like to have them 



