358 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



satisfaction than he can derive from re- 

 tailing his own honey. It is a very easy 

 matter for a man, while making- an 

 extra hundred dollars on his honey crop, 

 to lose two or three hundred dollars 

 through neglect of his bees. This is 

 more especially true since at the very 

 time he is busiest selling his crop he 

 should also be preparing his bees for the 

 best possible wintering. I know a man, 

 who, thus selling honey, neglected his 

 bees, -300 colonies, which were light, 

 until too late for feeding; he received an 

 extra profit upon his honey but a much 

 greater loss upon his bees. Bee keeping 

 is large enough and deep enough and 

 many sided enough to afford scope to 

 the ablest talent. Salesmanship followed 

 as a specialism requires thought and 

 care, and no person can engage very 

 largely in both: if he does, the expansion 

 of either will be at the expense of the 

 other. It is only the exception, or under 

 exceptional circumstances, where this is 

 not the case. 



SELLING AT WHOLESALE. 



I would advise the large bee 

 keeper, unless under especial circum- 

 stances, to sell his honey at wholesale; 

 getting the money all at once he can 

 use it or invest to better advantage, and 

 frequently save more of it than if re- 

 ceived in daily smaller amounts; and, 

 the crop being off his hands, he can de- 

 vote his attention towards preparations 

 for the next year. 



As the selling of honey becomes 

 specialized, the price will tend upward. 

 Time was when the bee keeper was 

 almost entirely dependent upon the 

 commission house, and stocks often piled 

 up and laid for months awaiting a buyer, 

 until the owner, discouraged, would 

 direct a sale for whatever could be ob- 

 tained; and the bee keeper would finally 

 receive from two to three cents per lb., 

 after expenses were deducted, and no 

 person felt any certainty as to the price 

 he would receive; now but a compara- 

 tively small amount of honey is handled 

 on commission, and the day is not far 



distant when honey will very rarely be 

 consigned for sale. This condition in the 

 past was not the fault of the commission 

 men, but of the uncertainty of the mar- 

 ket. These men, formerly buying on 

 commission, now pay cash at an ad- 

 vance in price of one to two cents per 

 lb. over former prices. 



POSSIBILITIES AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE 

 MAIL ORDER TRADE. 



Perhaps the mail order trade may yet 

 become one of the most promising out- 

 lets and distributors of honey. Its 

 tendency is to increase the price, as 

 well as to popularize the product. I 

 places only one step between the pro- 

 ducer and the consumer, and is thus 

 enabled to pay bee keepers as much for 

 their honey as jobbers often wholesale 

 their honey at; in fact, I have had to buy 

 several carloads of honey from commis- 

 sion houses during the last five years; 

 and I have paid bee keepers as much 

 per pound, and often more, for their 

 offerings than I paid these commission 

 houses, thus eliminating the expense of 

 passing through the comm.ission man's 

 hands; and what I have done, other mail 

 order dealers have also done. 



The mail order dealer in honey can 

 safely pay more for honey than other 

 dealers, because the latter have to meet 

 the fluctuations of the market, buying in 

 the fall at a given price, to sell, if still on 

 hand, at a reduction of a cent or more a 

 pound in the spring, while the form.er 

 has sent out his price lists which remain 

 unchanged through all these variations; 

 thus, I have not changed m.y prices once 

 during the last three years. The growth 

 of miy business has been very satisfac- 

 tory, and I am convinced it is now much 

 larger than it would have been if 1 had 

 been constantly varying my price. 



The mail order business is more 

 especially adapted to those who intend 

 to take up the sale of honey as a busi- 

 ness. The average bee keeper would 

 probably meet with disappointment, for 

 two reasons; first, by placing his price 

 too low, the wholesale price of his honey 



