1910 



(J LEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



529 



trade is usually hard to handle. We pre- 

 sume that most small producers are weak 

 on the selling end of the game, and we can 

 imagine that their idea would be to have 

 some good man to whom they could take 

 their honey and receive twenty cents or 

 more a pound, or sit at home and write a 

 few postals to real nice people who would 

 promptly send Sambo with a check for the 

 honey. It is not thus that success is won. 

 Daring the last three years we have had con- 

 siderable experience in selling honey to the 

 family trade, and the only way we ever suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining a customer was to go 

 right after him. The personal face-to-face 

 interview captures the trade. From this 

 form of selling most small producers shrink; 

 or, if they do try it, one or two rebuffs send 

 them back to the postal cards. To sell any 

 thing by the personal-contact plan you 

 must know all about your goods, and use 

 every effort to arm yourself with answers to 

 all questions. 



First, we insert a small well- worded adver- 

 tisement in our local weekly paper, costing 

 about 10 cents an insertion, laying particu- 

 lar stress upon the fact that our honey is of 

 superior quality, being left on the hives un- 

 til thoroughly ripened. The advertisements 

 served their purpose, for they certainly did 

 great work. Quite frequently, when called 

 u)>on the people would say, "Yes, I'll lake 

 some; we saw your advertisement in the pa- 

 per." It can be readily seen that the peo- 

 p e had more confidence in us and our prod- 

 ucf, and all on account of a small ten-cent 

 advertisement. With a little advertising, 

 face-to-face talk, the use of the circulars, 

 " Food Value of Honey," by Dr. C. C. Mil- 

 ler, and only first-quality goods, a good trade 

 can be worked up. 



We presume that many Gleanings read- 

 ers (through the advertising of Farm Jour- 

 nal, of Philadelphia, in a campaign to get 

 subscriptions) are aware of the fact that two 

 nu n on a New Jersey farm selling eggs made 

 a profit last year of over $12,000 from 19.58 

 hens, or $6.41 profit per hen. The secret of 

 this big profit is not so much the method of 

 production as the impressive fact that the 

 two men (one of whom must be that rare 

 type of producer who knows how to sell) 

 so'd their eggs as high as sixty cents a doz- 

 en — never less than forty cents, and at an 

 average of fifty cents. We know the two 

 New Jersey men would not make $6.41 profit 

 per hen selling to a grocer at Lititz; but we 

 admire them for finding the sixty-cent mar- 

 ket among the high livers of New York city. 



The honey-producer should take these 

 facts home, and post in plain sight. It is 

 the price at which he sells his honey that 

 makes his success great or small, or puts 

 him out of business entirely. Any one who 

 is intelligent enough to get twenty cents a 

 pound or more for his comb honey is intel- 

 ligent enough to keep bees properly. Abil- 

 ity to sell is nine-tenths of the business. 



In conclusion we will say, bee-keeepers, 

 don't forget that no one is interested in 

 your getting good prices for good honey but 



yourself, and also remember that the only 

 way to get good prices is to refuse to sell at 

 low ones. 

 Lititz, Pa. 



HEREDITARY INFLUENCES, 



The Swarming Tendency Can Not Be Eliminat- 

 ed Any More than Lambs' Tails 

 Can be Shortened. 



BY M. E. PRUITT. 



Geo. W. Williams, referring to swarming, 

 in Gleanings for May 15, page 321, says: 

 "What a boon it would be if we could elim- 

 inate this troublesome tendency! But can 

 we do it? " I should say, no, not any more 

 than sheep-men can cause ewes to produce 

 lambs with short tails. Haven't they chop- 

 ped them off for generations and genera- 

 tions? Aren't they just as long as they al- 

 ways were? 



I fully agree with Leo E. Gately, pages 

 322, 323, May 15, and I can't for the life of 

 me see where the editor gets the ''external 

 conditions" from. Mr. Gately refers entire- 

 ly to '■'internal conditions" when he says 

 "surrounding influences," I think. 



For the last several years we have kept 

 down swarming by raising the major part 

 of the brood and giving frames with starters 

 in the place of it, so arranging the upper 

 frames of brood that they do not come ex- 

 actly over the lower ones. We do no "dump- 

 ing on the grass," as Mr. Gately so comical- 

 ly puts it. 



CHICKENS, AS A RULE, EAT DRONES ONLY. 



Now, I don't see that it is so remarkable 

 that a chicken eats drones and not workers. 

 What is remarkable is the fact that they 

 have sense enough to learn the difference. 

 Nearly all our incubator chickens will go to 

 the yard to get a meal. We used to feed 

 drones daily to them when they were little 

 tots. In their greediness to gobble every 

 thing that fell they would occasionally grab 

 a worker and get stung. That lesson was 

 learned right there and then, that some of 

 those juicy morsels had fire in them, and 

 that some did not; and they soon learned to 

 distinguish them by the sound of the hum. 

 Little chicks can be easily trained. One 

 lesson or two at the most is enough to teach 

 them any thing that is within bounds. 



WHEN TO DRIVE THE END-SPACING STAPLE. 



Everybody seems to have trouble driving 

 the staples in the frames; and it seems to 

 me they must put them in after the frame 

 is built. We put the staple in the end-bar 

 first, and then build the frame. The saw- 

 kerf block sent with the knock-down frames 

 is placed on the end-bar, the open end of 

 the saw-kerf being flush with the bottom of 

 the notch made for the top-bar. We are care- 

 ful always to have the \' edge of the end- 

 bar toward us, holding the same in the 

 left hand with the top end of the top-bar 

 pointing to the right hand. The shorter 

 l)oint of the staple is placed toward the right 



