September. loii. 



American Hee Journal 



is not so great toward the mouth of 

 the cells. And as the bees are not able 

 to elongate the cells to any great ex- 



tent when the combs are spaced the 

 regular way, the result is smaller size 

 bees if they are reared in these cells. 



Contributed 



Articles^ 



Disposing of the Honey Crop 



BV C. P. DAD.\NT. 



The honey crop appears to be small 

 throughout the country, and some 

 readers may think it is unnecessary 

 to give advice as to the disposal of 

 it under such circumstances. It is. 

 however, at such times as this that 

 the apiarist ought to realize the big- 

 gest possible price from his product. 

 He cannot succeeded in doing this 

 unless he goes as it in a practical 

 way. 



Discussions at the convention of 

 the Chicago-Northwestern Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Association last December dem- 

 onstrate the fact that in many cases 

 the bee-keeper gets only half of the 

 price at which the honey is retailed 

 by the middleman, and in some cases 

 only one-third of that amount. Many 

 articles, especially lu.xuries, cost as 

 much to retail out as to produce. 

 Even fruit, when retailed, has often 

 brought to the two or three persons 

 who handle it. more than the total 

 that the producer gets. We raise 

 grapes here in large quantities. We 

 have often sold grapes at i 'A to 2 

 cents per pound at wholesale, which 

 retailed in our own vicinity at 4 

 cents, when we were too busy to sell 

 them ourselves. 



But grapes and other fruit are per- 

 ishable goods. When they are once 

 picked, they must be sold. Not so 

 with honey. You may store away 

 your honey and sell it at leisure. 

 Moreover, it sells better late in the 

 season, about the holidays, than just 

 after the crop, for sweets are used 

 more especially in cold weather. So 

 there is no hurry to sell our honey, 

 unless we want to ship it to a large 

 center to be parceled out by others. 

 Shipping our crop away, instead 

 of retailing it in our vicinity, is re- 

 sponsible for the low prices at which 

 the honey often sells. The man who 

 has ten thousand pounds of honey 

 must ship some of it away. But the 

 man who produces a few hundred 

 pounds each year is the one who 

 gluts the markets, because his name 

 is "legion," and too often he makes 

 not the least attempt at finding cus- 

 tomers among the consumers. 



Five hundred pounds of honey put 

 up in retailing packages — jars or 

 cans — after changing hands two or 

 three times, must sell at about 16 or 

 18, or perhaps 20 cents per pound, 

 in order to be sufficiently profitable 

 to each person. This augmentation 

 of value — from the producer's orig- 

 inal price of 8 to 10 cents — has a 

 very positive tendency to decrease 



the sales. Consumers who would 

 readily pay 12 to 15 cents per pound 

 for a choice article may pass over it 

 at a glance when the increase is so 

 large. Honey, being a sweet, must 

 be to a certain extent controlled in 

 its price by the value of other sweets. 

 Our action in putting the crop of 

 honey in the hands of the commis- 

 sion men. who must in their turn 

 sell to wholesalers who will re-ship 

 it to our neighlioring grocer, tends 

 to reduce the sales by reason of the 

 increase in cost. 



.A housekeeper who hesitates to 

 put 20 cents in a glass jar contain- 

 ing a single pound of honey, might 

 readily buy from the producer a 

 lo-pound can at a little over half the 

 price per pound — say 12 cents. The 

 producer who gets 8 cents per pound, 

 in bulk, for his honey, shipped to a 

 large city, would net over 10 cents 

 per pound for the same honey sold 

 to his neighbor, and the amount con- 

 sumed ultimately would probably be 

 doubled, thus increasing the demand 

 largely, and creating a taste for the 

 product instead of canceling it, or 

 frightening it away. 



.\s I have said before, the honey 

 which we produce does not need to 

 be disposed of at once. H we arc 

 too busy in .-Xugust and September 

 to offer our crop, it is as well, for 

 the best selling time is around the 

 holidays. When the bees are put 

 away comfortably, with plenty of 

 stores, it is the proper time to offer 

 our crop. 



You will say that you are not a 

 peddler, and do not wish to run 

 around with your goods. It is not 

 at all necessary to peddle. Carrying 

 honey around in order to sell it is 

 the worst possible method. We sell 

 by sample, always, and never haul 

 honey about unless it is already scdd. 

 There is all the difference in the 

 world between carrying cans of 

 honey about, trying to get rid of 

 them, and taking an order from the 

 consumer while delivering goods al- 

 ready sold. Nothing is more likely 

 to create a demand than to be able 

 to answer, when a question is asked 

 about the price of the goods you are 

 hauling: "These goods are sold on 

 orders, but I can bring you some of 

 exactly the same quality, and at the 

 same price, if you desire it. I pro- 

 duce this honey myself, and guaran- 

 tee it positively as of best ([uality, 

 and entirely pure." 



Another thing which we must all 

 learn to do is to put a price on our 

 product, instead of going to the 

 corner grocery and ask them how 

 much they will pay. The grocer is 



by nature always apprehensive when 

 offered a product, the price of which 

 the grocer is not able to set. He 

 has so often bought eggs or butter 

 at a certain price from one man, and 

 succeeded in getting the next lot for 

 2 or 3 cents less that he is, es- 

 pecially with as rare a product as 

 honey, likely to suspect that to-mor- 

 row some one may come who will 

 be willing to sell at any price he may 

 offer. It is those who do not know 

 what to expect for their honey who 

 will kill prices. If you have posted 

 yourself on the conditions of the 

 crop elsewhere, you must be able to 

 figure what is a fair, sufficient price 

 for your goods. Set that price, and 

 do not deviate from it. Place a small 

 margin between the price to your 

 grocer and the price to the actual 

 consumer, allowing 'the grocer from 

 10 to 20 percent between the two. 

 Then hold to these prices. The gro- 

 cer may laugh at you the first year, 

 when you set your price, but if you 

 persevere, he will soon find out that 

 he has to come to you, because your 

 prices will be less than those of 'the 

 wholesale houses who buy from the 

 commission merchant. 



After two or three years your gro- 

 cer will have a real regard for your 

 price. He will be guided by it. By 

 and by, if you continue as I have 

 done, for years, the grocer will order 

 honey from you, if he knows he can 

 trust you, without any discussion as 

 to prices. He will only ask what you 

 expect to get at retail, and will be 

 ruled by this price. If he finds a 

 cheap lot, from some bee-keeper who 

 does not read the American Bee 

 Journal, and who does not know 

 what the price is, your grocer will lie 

 very careful to keep that bargain to 

 himself, knowing full well by that 

 time that if he has succeeded in get- 

 ting ahead of somebody, that does 

 not constitute the real prices. 



Above all things, do not imagine 

 that your selling at home will injure 

 the business of the jobber or of the 

 commission man. They will find 

 plenty of honey to handle, and your 

 keeping away from the big market 

 will only cause a more lively mar- 

 ket, better sales in the cities, and 

 better returns all around, for you 

 will have created a demand which 

 otherwise would have been killed. 



I only wish that I could convince 

 every one of my readers of the truth 

 of this assertion, that his home sales, 

 at a more remunerative price than he 

 can get otherwise, will positively raise 

 prices. What can one man do to 

 raise prices? Oh, so little! Yes, but 

 it is the single voters who carry the 

 elections to the one party or to the 

 other, and if each of us stayed at 

 home, under the plea that our one 

 vote will make no difference in the 

 general result, where would the Re- 

 public go? 



Conclusion: If you want to see 

 honey prices more firm, try home 

 sales; not one time, but every year, 

 regularly, with a sufficient addition to 

 the price you would secure to pay 

 you amply for the extra labor, and 

 you will be astonished, in a few 



