Feb. 25, 1904. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



141 



It will no more take the place of honey than black molasses. 

 We want to advertise, and we want to appoint some one m 

 charge of that who can successfully advertise honey Let the 

 people know that honey is a good thing, and they will buy it. 



Mr. Whitney— I tried to write this thing up a little once 

 within the last year, but we get together in these conven- 

 tions and we talk until the atmosphere is blue. We talk 

 everywhere, but we don't publish in our local papers at all 

 anything about the good honey would do people to eat it. 

 If we advertised the good uses that honey could be put to, 

 and stopped publishing so much in the bee-papers, we would 

 get our price for our honey. 



Mr. Muth— It may be a little off the subject, but to create 

 a demand for honey might be a good point for the National, 

 and I would vote for that. Last summer I conceived an idea 

 of a showcase advertisement in a grocery like you see of 

 Maha Vita and other farinaceous goods. I told them 

 I would also put a' swarm of bees in there, a ope or three- 

 frame nucleus. To start the goods I would stock the whole 

 showcase with honey. I would get a lady demonstrator in 

 your store, and every lady who comes in and who, you think, 

 would be likely to buy a bottle of honey, you steer her over 

 to the honey stand, t put in $8oo worth of honey. I didn't 

 tell the grocer to buy one dollar's worth. I thought it might 

 pay me after it is all over for what we sold in the store. 

 We had the finest show you ever saw. One of my traveling 

 men was loo miles from Cincinnati, and at the hotel at din- 

 ner (he was known at the table by the other travelers) ; he 

 was asked if he had seen that honey display, and they just 

 thought it was the finest thing on earth, and I could have a 

 million dollars in displays in windows today, but it gets tire- 

 some. In two weeks my young lady sold over $.^oo worth of 

 honey in that ^tore. I went one point further. I sometimes 

 get a notion to travel. I have got to go, you just can't hold 

 me down. I went East where they have a great departrnent 

 store which covers one block, and it is seven stories high. 

 I said : "Let me see the manager." When we came up to the 

 seventh floor there was an exhibition of everything that they 

 had for sale. I thought, "Here is an opportunity to sell a 

 barrel of honey ; stacks of it." I showed them my bottled 

 honey. If you please, there are other fellows in the East. 

 My honey was the best honey in bottles put up. I am proud 

 to say it. It is the truth. I told the manager that I would 

 like to put up a demonstration for a couple of weeks or 

 months. "I would just like to start you off here. I have 

 the finest thing on earth." I sold him nearly $1,500 worth 

 of bottled honey. Now, the National Bee-Keepers' Association 

 doesn't do a thing like that. We are the dealers that get 

 plugged in the eye every opportunity. Now, the Saturday 

 before Easter, I went to see somebody in Chicago ; I had 

 promised to eat Easter Sunday dinner with my friend. I re- 

 ceived a telegram which came from about 700 miles from 

 home which read : "Give me the price on a carload of honey ; 

 also the price on less than car-lots." This was Saturday 

 night and I knew by Monday morning I would be there. 

 I turned to the telephone and asked my good wife to fix my 

 grip, "instead of going to Chicago I will be gone about ten 

 days." Monday morning I arrived and the fellow said : 

 "I jlist wrote you the other day." I said, "Yes, but when- 

 ever you tell me to give you the price on a carload of honey 

 I don't trust a letter, and I will go all the way across the 

 country to see you." He says, "I am awfully sorry, because 

 you came all the way here for that order, for I have prices 

 that will knock you silly." Just right; I just imagined it. 

 That's just the reason I wouldn't write a letter. To come 

 right down to business, he said he would buy a carload of 

 honey. I don't suppose yon folks know I am not a mil- 

 lionaire, when it comes down to a carload of honey. Now, 

 let me tell you while you folks are rated at $200,000, there are 

 times when I draw a draft on you for $3,000 and it is re- 

 turned. I said, "It would suit me much better if you give 

 me an order for 15 barrels, to be delivered the first of the 

 month, and 15 barrels to be delivered the 15th, and it will 

 come right along; but I ask you just the minute your honey 

 comes in the depot you fire the money in." He was surprised 

 to see me so honest. I told him I needed the money. Of 

 course, my bankers will advance more if I ask it, but I pre- 

 ferred to do that way. I knocked out adulterated honey, 

 and he paid me ^ of a cent more for pure honey than he 

 would have paid for adulterated honey. He said, "Are there 

 any more fellows in Cincinnati like you?" I told him, "Yes." 

 I travel to sell that honey. You folks have more prestige. 

 I would talk about the National Bee-Keepers' Association. 

 Inspire everybody. If you did this you wouldn't be selling 



your comb honey *or 10 and 12 cents, and your extracted for 

 i; cents. The demand would be greater than the product. It 

 would be true, and the National Bee-Keepers' Association 

 membership— you wouldn't have to advertise it the way you 

 do to get your dollars. They would run for you. That would 

 be the best thing. [Applause.] . ■ . , , 



Mr. France— I hate to take any time here as it might look> 

 as I am in a position with the National Bee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, that it would be better to keep still. There are two 

 sides to all these things, and I admit that I have thought 

 very many times of the discussions you had here years ago, 

 and one that rang in my ears a year ago at the National con- 

 vention, which means united efforts. There was a talk given 

 here a year ago, that the best thing for the National Asso- 

 ciation to do v/as to use printers' ink. But a little while ago 

 there was a paper in Sioux City, that published that comb 

 honey was being produced and manufactured without bees. 

 The "writer said he knew for he had been in the business for 

 years. He made statements that did thousands of dol- 

 lars' worth of damage to the United States honey market. 

 The editor refused to put in my reply. Within five days I 

 had, through the Minneapolis Daily Journal, made my reply 

 to it. It was the only one. I think that as soon as the mem- 

 bers of the National get together more harmoniously, there 

 is a great opening right along that line of advertising. We 

 have the subject of adulteration to face, but with the vast 

 amount of literature, and those of you who .get my report 

 may think I am exaggerating the amount of postage— I have 

 circulated "Bee-keepers' Legal Rights," 4,000 of those have 

 gone out. I also sent out copies of "Bees and Horticulture." 

 We have been saved many conflicting lawsuits by the litera- 

 ture that has gone out, and I have air-castled that we would 

 have another leaflet before 1904 was gone on, "Honey and 

 Its Uses, and Conveniences." 



FIRST DAY— Evening Session. 



The evening session was called to order by Pres. York, 

 who introduced General Manager France. His subject was: 



THE NATIONAL BEE-KEEPERS' ASSOCIATION. 



I hardly know how to take up this subject, there is so 

 much to it; it is so broad that my hands have been at the 

 pen trying to answer correspondence and keep the machinery 

 in order as best I could. There are so many sides to it; as 

 I said, I hardly know how to take up the subject, and there 

 are so many parts to it that I have not taken up this year 

 for the lack of means and time. It takes a great deal of 

 time ; and, as I said this afternoon, you will find that my 

 Annual Report will seemingly have consumed postage un- 

 necessarily,but it has been in the distribution of literature.pay- 

 ing postage on that, and the correspondence to keep peace and 

 harmony among our members and fellow men. 



While we were on our Western trip attending the Na- 

 tional Convention last August, we had opportunity to see— 

 those who were favored by that trip— the effect of coopera- 

 tion locally. We had had considerable correspondence in 

 that line— articles written in our bee-papers. To see and 

 investigate some of the workings of cooperation in Cali- 

 fornia, Colorado and Utah was a part of my privilege while 

 on that trip. I do hope the day is not far distant when we 

 not only will boast of our numbers and the good we have 

 done, but that the subjects of marketing honey, cooperation, 

 furnishing supplies to the various members, and this other 

 subject which we rather run to at length this afternoon, 

 the subject of marketing honey — creating a demand for our 

 product. There is in Colorado, a honey-producers' association, 

 backed by its members with a guarantee. Any purchaser get- 

 ing honey of that brand, with the stamp and seal of the Asso- 

 ciation, is guaranteed that it is pure, and that has created 

 a surprising demand. I thought to myself. Could we have a 

 stamp or a seal upon the honey of the members of the Na- 

 tional Association that the world over would know there was 

 no question about, what a door there would be open for us ! 

 I hope that day is not far off. 



There are conditions that favor this cooperation in Cali- 

 fornia, Colorado, Utah, New York; but when we come to 

 make it National, our interests, climatic conditions, the sea- 

 sons — we are so scattered that it will take a little time. 



There is another point I might mention that was brought 

 up this afternoon, as to telling the amount of honey we have, 

 or advertising it, if you please, what we have received each , 

 year. I rather am of the opinion, as a business, we do not 

 boast on what we have. I think it has been tried several 

 times, to get from the subscribers of certain bee-papers a 

 statistical report, that we might know what the honey crop 



