88 



SEVEXTEENTH ANNUAL EEPORT OF THE 



The Secretary — I believe twelve cents a 

 pound at the present time. 



The President— It depends a good deal 

 on whether you canvass or simply take 

 the order that comes in. Mr. Bull can- 

 vasses for his. What honey I sell I receive 

 orders for as they eome over the telephone, 

 by mail, or otherwise. I deliver in my 

 own town, which is not a very large one, 

 and it doesn't cost me as much to sell 

 honey as it does IMr. Bui!. 



Mr. Smith — Perhaps you are not count- 

 ing the expense you had in building up 

 this trade. There is a cost there, that is 

 permanent.. It costs to get your customers. 

 About the first season I i^rew any honey 

 to sell, I would rather produce the honey 

 than to sell it at retail. 



The Secretary — I would too. 



Mr. Smith— So would anybody else. I 

 think r hit on a plan that was quite econom- 

 ical, in selling honey. It cost me an 

 hour's work to get one hundred names and 

 addresses of people living in the locality 

 around me. There are fifty thousand peo- 

 ple living within a mile and a. half of me, 

 and then it took about two hours to get 

 the telephone number. Then it would take 

 some two or three minutes to get them on 

 the telephone and sell them a quart of 

 honey, then the honey had to be delivered. 

 I believe I sold to half of the people I 

 called. Of course, it cost me probably 

 fifteen cents a pound to sell that honey, 

 and next year it won't cost so much, for 

 that work is done. For about four years 

 repeat orders come in, and th.at doesn't 

 cost so much, but I believe it costs as 

 much labor and effort to go out and retail 

 your honey as it does to produce the honey. 



The Secretary— Fifty-fifty. 



The President — We have some more 

 questions. What is the best form of adver- 

 tising for local retail sales? 



Mr. Stewart — In your town paper. 



The President — Has anyone tried adver- 

 tising in the papers or journals that have a 

 large circulation all over the country? I ' 

 see there are a few people who are adver- 

 tising in journals of various sorts. The 

 Airline people of course advertise. I have 

 usually been able to sell most of my honey 

 locally. Once in a while, when I feel like 

 it, I put a few lines in our local paper. 

 Everybody in our town knows I sell honey. 

 They call up, and it keeps me pretty busy 

 through ^he fall. Sales sometimes run 

 as high as two hundred dollars a week 

 through the fall months, just the orders 

 that come in without any canvassing or 

 soliciting, with very little advertising. 

 Advertising probably for the whole season 

 wouldn't cost me over five dollars. I have 



a mailing list that is gradually increasing. 

 People buy honey and tell their friends 

 about it, and then they send for it. I 

 sell probably half my honey that way. 

 sending it out by parcel post and express 

 and freight. 



Mr. Al^cNeill — We keep a mailing list, 

 and send them a letter at the beginning of 

 the season. 



The President — I have a circular letter 

 that I send out, naming the prices for 

 different packages, five-pound pails, ten 

 pound pails, six and twelve poTind, gallon 

 and half-gallon, screw top cans, also prices 

 for cases of six, and the price for the 

 sixty-pound cans. > 



]\Ir. Wheeler — If you can get a pail that 

 doesn't leak. 



The President— Five pound pails are not 

 apt to leak in transit. The ten-pound 

 pails should be soldered: I put a little solder 

 on each side of the cover. 



Mr. MacNeill — Can you send those let- 

 ters for one cent under the new postal 

 regulations? 



The President— Excepting first-class 

 matter, the rate remains the same. 



The best honej^ advertisement is the 

 honey itself. Put out a good quality, 

 put it up in good shape, and the orders will 

 continue to come in and increase in num- 

 ber. 



Mr. Stewart— Doesn't a man's trade 

 advance as fast as his knowledge of bee- 

 keeping advances? 



The President — Well, yes. Mine has. 



Mr. Stewart — The majority of them 

 will, a man's trade will come up as fast as 

 his knowledge of bee-keeping advances. 



The President— Some years I have more 

 honey than I can sell, other years not 

 enough, but it averages up that I sell 

 just about what I can raise. I have ne^wer 

 made a practice of buying to any grpat 

 extent; I never have sold very much ih a 

 wholesale way. If no c/ne has anything 

 and you would care to hear it, I migfit 

 give you a little talk on feeding bees, get- 

 ting off from the present subject for a 

 time. How many would like to hear some- 

 thing concerning feeding bees? 



There are two purposes in feeding bees. 

 One is to give them food to prevent their 

 running short of stores, and the other is 

 to stimulate them to breeding. I believe 

 that the majority of the most advanced 

 bee-keepers agree that it doesn't pay to 

 feed bees in the spring for the purpose of 

 stimulation, that the better way is to give 

 them plenty of stores in the fall, so that 

 they will have enough to' last them over 

 the winter, but when rearing queens it is 

 necessary to feed for the purpose of devel- 



