340 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



and to his customer, because it is his and 

 is known to be strictly gilt-edged, a con- 

 sumation more easily reached in the 

 honey business than in almost any other, 

 and a very valuable asset when acquired, 

 but it must be slow. On account of the 

 nature of our flows, quite often the label 

 should merely designate the goods as 

 "Pure extracted honey." as some years 

 it is difficult to secure a honey which can 

 properly be labeled as strictly gathered 

 from any especial bloom. 



In this line, I would say that much of 

 the discussion relative to honey dew has 

 been injurious to the bee keeper. The 

 agitation was started under the as- 

 sumption that all honey dew was the 

 excretion of insects. Ten per cent, is 

 supposed to be permissible under the 

 pure food test. If honey dew is unfit for 

 food, ten per cent, admixture is too much, 

 and if ten per cent, is permissible, and 

 the product be wholesome, more might 

 be present and the product would still 

 be wholesome; for it is either a pure 

 food product or it is not. 



The fundamental fact remains that 

 much of the honey dew is a wholesome 

 food-product, and often of very fine 

 flavor and quality. Mr. Morgan, of 

 Vermillion, So. Dakota, informed me that 

 he sent a number of samples of honey 

 dew to the Pure Food Department for 

 tests, and in every case the returns were 

 that it was pure honey. It candies as 

 does honey, and is often very difficult to 

 distinguish from honey from flowers. 

 Many grades of honey from flowers are 

 less palatable than a good quality of 

 honey dew, therefore 1 see no reason 

 why it should not be sold as honey ac- 

 cording to its flavor and grade. 



This digression is perhaps foreign to 

 this article but its treatment and 

 recognition are so intimately associated 

 with the marketing problem that I 

 thought it wise to speak of it. I plead 

 for common sense in its treatment, 

 rather than a technical treatment which 

 will prove a boomerang and eventually 

 impractical. 



It was the common opinion only a few 

 years ago that no bee keeper or honey 

 dealer could advertise his product except 

 at a loss. I spend several hundreds of 

 dollars a year in advertising. I have 

 compared results with advertisers in 

 other lines, and have always found them 

 greatly exceeding the average, and very 

 satisfactory. Successful advertising is 

 always judiciously placed. Honey is a 

 product appealing with the greatest 

 force to the home, therefore, our mediums 

 are the home-papers which are read by 

 the wife and the children, rather than by 

 men. A successful advertisement need 

 not be long. It should have no 

 excess of language and should convey 

 the unwritten evidence that you believe 

 in your readers as well as in your goods. 

 It should not be crowded, however and 

 should be so designed as to catch the 

 eye promptly. The localities where we 

 should cultivate our trade should, of 

 course, depend upon our location. Our 

 orders often come from the most unex- 

 pected places. Living here in Minnesota, 

 you would hardly expect me to cultivate 

 an Eastern trade, yet I have found it to 

 my advantage to place a large share of 

 my advertisements in the East, and I 

 have a greatly valued trade there, but 

 whether we advertise East or West, 

 North or South, our money will be thrown 

 away unless we properly care for our 

 customers and secure the reputation for 

 square dealing. We pay our money to 

 tell people we have the goods but we stand 

 or fall according to the quality of honey we 

 send out, and the way we do business. 



This is why Friend H. could sell his 

 10. OCO or 20,000 lbs. of honey at 10 

 cts. per pound, where another man could 

 not have sold the same honey at 8 cts., 

 or even less. 1 buy honey of many 

 people whose word is all the guarantee I 

 would ask for; I have dealt with others 

 whose written guarantee would be 

 worthless, since they would, while follow- 

 ing it according to the letter, evade it in 

 the spirit of its performance. 



Preston, Minn., July 14, 1910. 



