February, 191 1. 



American Vee Journal 



N0.5.— Points on Selling Honey 



BY" WESLEY FOSTER. 



So many ways of making a success 

 of selling one's honey crop have come 

 under my observation that I am almost 

 persuaded that any method will bring 

 success if the man who produces and 

 sells the honey is of the right sort. 

 And of course the honey will be right 

 if the producer is up-to-date in his 

 methods. 



But there is one method that seems 

 to meet with more failure than any 

 other, and that is selling through com- 

 mission men. Probably not over one 

 commission house out of ten handle 

 honey in an intelligent manner, and 

 they are never able to sell it for as 

 high a figure for this reason. After 

 they have had the honey for a while 

 they sell it for 10 to 20 percent under 

 the market in order to get rid of it. I 

 am speaking now of the commission 

 men who are honest in their transac- 

 tions, but who have so many different 

 things to handle and focus their atten- 

 tion on these that the honey does not 

 get the attention it would have from a 

 house that made honey its specialty. 



I know an old man in Denver who 

 makes his living selling honey in pails 

 to the men in the office-buildings — he 

 is not a bee-keeper, either. Then here 

 in Boulder, a fruit-man and gardener 

 who has nothing much to do in the 

 winter months but sell his butter and 

 eggs, sells honey for me. He canvasses 

 every house in Boulder, and gets around 

 about every 6 weeks. It is work that 

 he can do when the weather is good, 

 and he can stay in when it is not fit. 

 He does not make more than $2.00 a 

 day on the average when working, but 

 he has his horse to feed anyway, and 

 he can sell his butter and eggs at the 

 best of prices, for he can have the pick 

 of his honey-customers to whom to sell 

 the butter and eggs, and so he gets a 

 somewhat higher price than the mar- 

 ket. By calling from house to house, 

 you see that he is cultivating every 

 possible honey-customer, and it has a 

 mighty effect on the amount of honey 

 sold in Boulder, I can assure you. 



This same man canvassed the town 

 last winter, and when he started in last 

 fall many a lady would remark with 

 pleasure that her "honey-man" had 

 come around again. Grocers might 

 think that this would limit their sales, 

 but I think it has stimulated them, for 

 I have been selling honey wholesale to 

 the grocers also, and I know that the 

 grocers have no cause for complaint 

 as to the amount of honey they are 

 selling. 



Here is some of my experience on a 

 two-days' trip I made recently: 



A Bee-Keepers' Selling Trip. 



The price that the bee-keeper gets 

 for his honey from the commission 

 house is from 10 to 20 percent less than 

 the price the retail grocer pays the 

 commission house. 



"Commission House" is now almost 

 a misnomer, as few consignments are 

 received or desired by the commission 

 men. They tell me that more can be 

 made by paying cash for produce, and 

 the producer is better satisfied. In 

 other words, the producer is getting 

 less for his product, but he has the 



money in hand, and is saved the anxiety 

 of waiting and not knowing what he 

 will receive for the consignment. 



With the knowledge that the price 

 the grocer pays is 10 to 20 percent 

 higher than what the commission house 

 would pay me, and the belief that I 

 would sell honey to the grocers in 

 near-by towns as well as, if not better 

 than the commission-house road-sales- 

 men, I decided to make a trial trip. 

 The towns selected range from 3000 to 

 10,000 in population, and I visited 4, 

 covering a distance of 70 miles from 

 home. These towns are all in bee-ter- 

 ritory, but the crop this year was an 

 entire failure, so that there was a good 

 demand for honey, the market having 

 been developed in previous years. 



The first town with 3000 to 4000 peo- 

 ple has 8 stores; these I called on. The 

 first store was one of the largest, and I 

 sold 4 cases of light-weight No. 2 

 honey at $3.00 per case of 24 sections, 

 and 4 cases of No. 1 comb honey at 

 $3.75 per case. 



The next store had already bought a 

 good supply which had been shipped 

 in from a distance. 



My next sale was to a large grocery 

 which had some comb and extracted 

 honey, but they took 4 cases — 2 of No. 

 2, and 2 of No. 1 comb honey. 



Next I sold one case of No. 1 and 2 

 dozen pints of extracted at $2.70 per 

 dozen. 



My last sale was for one case of No. 

 1 comb, and 24 half-pints at $3.30 per 

 case, or $1.65 per dozen. 



I had counted on making a sale to 

 the largest store which I called on 

 last, but they had bought heavily at a 

 distance, and I missed a sale. So my 

 sales were 4 in number out of 8, and 

 amounted to $60 45, or $11.50 more than 

 I would have received had I sold to 

 commission houses. I yet had half a 

 day, so I took the train for the next 

 town of about 3000 inhabitants. Here 

 I made 3 sales — 2 of $12 each, and one 

 of $14.40, making my day's work foot 

 up $08.85, or $18.94 above what I could 

 have possibly received from a jobber 

 or commission man. 



I reached 2 towns the next day, and 

 made 2 sales in one and 4 in the other; 

 these orders amounted to $74, and 

 figured up $11.10 above what I could 

 have received from a jobber. So my 2 

 days' work brought me $172.85 in or- 

 ders, and $30.04 above commission- 

 house possibilities. My expenses were 

 $5.10 for car-fare and hotel bill. I was 

 gone from home one night, and had a 

 pleasant trip ; made the acquaintance 

 of about 30 grocers, and made 14 sales, 

 with good possibilities of more. I gave 

 30 days' time, though some remitted 

 before the month was up, and I have 

 collected every bill. I looked up the 

 credit of each one before shipping the 

 honey, so that I was safe. The credit 

 ratings can not always be relied on, 

 and one should size up the stock and 

 the man, and also go to one of the 

 banks and inquire. I have received 

 valuable " tips " on a man's standing in 

 this way, though several times 1 found 

 out that the bank had an account 

 against the party, and gave a good re- 

 port in hopes that they could get their 

 money. 



The two important matters to be con- 

 sidered in this private salesmanship 



are, therefore, due care and delibera- 

 tion over credit ratings; and watchful 

 guard ov.er the shipments. All comb 

 honey shipments should be packed in 

 straw and carrier crates. 



One month after making this trip I 

 went over the same ground, and found 

 about half of those that I had sold to 

 were already sold out, and I got orders 

 from these, together with several from 

 those who had quite a stock on hand 

 the month before. My last trip was 

 not quite so successful as the first, but 

 I secured $135 in orders, and when I 

 figured out the prices the Denver com- 

 mission houses would pay, I found that 

 I was ahead a little over' $23. My ex- 

 penses were just about the same as the 

 first trip around— close to $5.00. So 

 that I was $18 better off than if the 

 honey had gone through the regular 

 channels. 



I can not help thinking that it would 

 pay many a bee-keeper to look into the 

 honey consuming possibilities of his 

 immediate territory. If things go well 

 close to home, may be you could go 

 farther away, and make the difference 

 between what the consumer pays and 

 you receive, materially less. 



We individual bee-keepers can keep 

 working away at getting a fairer share 

 of the consumer's dollar through some 

 of the methods that I have mentioned, 

 and when the time comes that the Na- 

 tional Association gets organized for 

 handling our honey on as economical 

 and efficient a basis as some more local 

 associations do, there will be some 

 well-cultivated territory that will help 

 the National to make a success of 

 marketing right from the start. 



Boulder, Colo. 



Will 



Bees Cure Foul 

 Themselves ? 



BY HENRY STEWART. 



Brood 



I would like to review Mr. C. P. 

 Dadant's article on page 379 (I'JIO). I 

 take his criticism and note of warning 

 to bee-keepers perfectly good-natured, 

 and believe him sincere, but just a little 

 over-conservative. 



In writing these articles, I did not 

 base my authority upon what some 

 good authors have said, or upon one 

 success, or one failure, but I had this 

 system in operation on quite a large 

 scale for 5 years before I gave it to the 

 public, and was absolutely positive of 

 my position. 



Mr. Dadant produces a lot of evi- 

 dence to show that I am incorrect up- 

 on the basal principle of my treatment, 

 that bees can and do clean out Ameri- 

 can foul brood. He starts in with the 

 broad assertion of Dr. E. F. Phillips, 

 that the bees have no power of remov- 

 ing the ropy matter or the tightly-glued 

 down scales, without tearing down the 

 wax-walls. He drops a notch with Mr. 

 N. E. France, who, by the use of for- 

 maldehyde, succeeded in having foul- 

 broody combs containing no honey or 

 pollen cleaned up by the bees, and in 

 having healthy brood reared in them. 

 He cuts another slice off his argument 

 by quoting Bertrand, who (because he 

 is a careful bee-keeper and uses a dis- 

 infectant) destroys but few combs (and 



