414 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 



time." The one who has kept " strained honey " in 

 the house all winter, and knows it is natural for 

 honey to granulate in cold weather, and those we 

 have succeeded In educating, think that you have 

 adulterated it. It will not do, generally, to rely on 

 the groceryman to explain to the customer. Gen- 

 erally he is not asked to; and in time the story gets 

 old, and he can not spare the time ot> an article 

 that sells as slowly as honey does. As Mr. B. says, 

 we bee-keepers must solve the problem ourselves. 

 If I had an unlimited amount of time 1 could sell 

 extracted honey for 10 cts. where comb honey sells 

 at 12; and it need not be in liquid form either. 

 Thinking that I must change from producing ex- 

 tracted to comb honey two years ago, I purchased 

 some comb honey to peddle with my extracted 

 granulated honey, and found, to my entire satisfac- 

 tion, that the trouble in selling extracted honey at 

 the price named was less than selling comb honey. 

 I sold .5 lbs. of the former to one of the latter. 

 When comb and extracted honey are placed in a 

 store, generally the result is the reverse of the 

 above. The groceryman gets tired of talk, and sells 

 what is " called for." Now, how shall we solve the 

 problem of selling extracted honey? for with me in 

 this market it must be solved or given up. The 

 groceryman does not succeed in disposing of any 

 worth mentioning, in the granulated form, and 

 the task of melting and sealing hot in small 

 glasses, and remelting what granulates again, and 

 keeping the groceryman supplied with it in at- 

 tractive form, is too great a task where you have 

 a large crop to market and take it to grocerymen 

 in other towns. 



Waverly, la.. Mar. 11. J. B. Colton. 



Eriend C, the honey business is full of 

 contradictious, like almost every thing else. 

 I know it does take a deal of talking. The 

 best way to get rid of the talking, however, 

 is to give your customers a real nice article ; 

 and when they call for more, give them a 

 real nice article again. 



THE HONEY MARKET OF BUFFALO. 



HOW THE DEALERS THERE CALLED THE LIQUID 



ARTICLE '* STRAINED," MANUFACTURED (?) 



COMB HONEY. 



During March I was, owing to my mother's ill- 

 ness, suddenly called to Buffalo, N. Y., and remain- 

 ed there about two weeks. I took a room, and pre- 

 pared my own breakfast and supper. You know a 

 German is saving, and can live where other people 

 starve. There is one thing I always feel breakfast 

 is incomplete without, and that is honey. The en- 

 tire year, when able, I like either extracted or 

 comb honey for breakfast. So I ventured out, and 

 at the grocers' made inquiries about extracted hon- 

 ey. The clerk or proprietor asked, " Do you mean 

 strained honey? " and told me they had none. The 

 remark led me to think whether It could be that, in 

 the same country, and in so large a city as Buffalo, 

 and within so short a distance of that great apicul- 

 tural light, Dr. Mason, people did not know extract- 

 ed from strained honey. I then and there deter- 

 mined to sift the matter thoroughly. I visited about 

 fifteen stores, and in every case found they called 

 it strained. I would say, " Have you comb honey? " 

 and then would ask for "the other" kind, and in 

 one way or another I led them to name the honey 

 first, and the name given was always strained. In 



the largest grocery store (so far as I know) in Buf- 

 falo, in Yerxi's, they called it strained; and when 

 the young man in attendance found out I kept 

 bees, and knew honey, he asked me if the comb 

 honey in their store was really genuine. I then 

 read him your offer about the manufacture of 

 comb honey, and the efforts of the American bee- 

 journals to stamp out the erroneous idea that comb 

 honey could be manufactured. 



Surely a man can not attain to the greatest suc- 

 cess in the sale of goods if he has no confidence in 

 them; and surely in that large establishment on 

 Main St., Buffalo, a man understanding his goods, 

 and selecting them judiciously, could surprise the 

 proprietor by the amount of sales which could be 

 effected in comb and extracted honey alone; and, 

 on the other hand, what an outlet would be secur- 

 ed for the bee-keeper's honey ! The extracted hon- 

 ey shown by this store had been packed in a large 

 packing-house. I will not say it was impure, but it 

 was not good ; and owing to the fact that it had 

 passed through several hands, the price was higher 

 than would be necessary if it had passed from the 

 bee-keeper direct into the hands of the retailer. 



This matter is surely important. The next ques- 

 tion is, " How shall it be remedied? " The question 

 is a difiicult one. If a store could be induced to 

 subscribe for a good live bee-journal, much could 

 be done to educate the salesman. Bee-keepers, 

 too, should be wide awake, and instruct the parties 

 to whom they sell their honey, and place them in a 

 position to refute statements injurious to the sale 

 of honey. An instance: A customer comes in and 

 says, " I would buy that honey, only there is so 

 much manufactured at the present day, I fear 

 yours may be." The clerk, who is doubtful himself, 

 will, if he is conscientious, shut his mouth; if not, 

 he may say, " This is not manufactured," etc. But 

 if he can say with confidence, "It can not be manu- 

 factured," and show there is a reward of $1000 of- 

 fered for the manufactured article, which has nev- 

 er been claimed, then he is likely to convince his 

 customers, and effect a sale. 



I saw friend Hersehiser in Buffalo, and he stated 

 they even called honey " evaporated," and that if 

 people could only feel sure that honey is pure, 

 much more would be sold. R. F. Holtermann. 



Romney, Ont., Apr. 23. 



Eriend H., what you tell us is truly as- 

 tonishing, and, I might add, discouraging. 

 By the way, you did a good thing when you 

 started out to find out about honey. I have 

 often done the same thing when waiting 

 for a train in a large city, and I believe it is 

 well worth while to canvass our towns and 

 cities thoroughly whenever opportunity of- 

 fers. It is not only on honey that clerks are 

 often deplorably ignorant, but on many oth- 

 er things they handle. And here is a hint 

 for those who are out of work, or think they 

 do not get as much pay as they ought to. 

 They do not read and inform themselves, 

 and keep posted. Just talk with some of 

 our runners for the large manufacturing es- 

 tablishments, and see how thoroughly they 

 are posted, not only in regard to the goods 

 they sell, but also in regard to the current 

 gossip of the day, not forgetting manufac- 

 tured comb honey. By the way, when you 

 start out in a city, do not forget our reward 

 cards. 



