Vol. LVI.^No. 6 



HAMILTON, ILL, JUNE, 1916 



MONTHLY, $1.00 A YEAR 



GETTING YOUR HONEY TO MARKET 



What Happens After the Honey Leaves the Producer and What 

 is Necessary to Insure a Good Price? 



THERE has been some complaint on 

 the part of honey producers of 

 late that honey is not moving as 

 it should and that prices are too low. 

 It is the policy of the American Bee 

 Journal to render assistance to its 

 readers if possible and accordingly 

 the staff correspondent was sent to 

 Chicago to see if he could find out 

 where the trouble Is and give the pro- 

 ducers some hints that would assist 

 in marketing next year's crop. Feb- 

 ruary is usually the dullest month for 

 honey sales and the dullest possible 

 time ought to be the best time to find 

 where the trouble lies, so this was 

 done in February. 



In order to learn as much as pos- 

 sible about conditions an effort was 

 made to follow the honey from the 

 producer to the consumer. This in- 

 volved a study of the conditions of 

 transportation by freight or express, a 

 visit to the wholesale district and to 

 the retail stores which serve the best 

 trade. 



One point that soon became very ap- 

 parent was that of the hundreds of 

 commission firms on South Water 

 street only a few handle honey at all. 

 There were hundreds of crates of 

 cabbages, celery, sweet potatoes, 

 oranges, apples, and other staple pro- 

 ducts to one case of honey. It did not 

 take the writer fifteen minutes to de- 

 cide that the trouble was not over- 

 production. 



After talking to a number of com- 

 mission merchants who do not handle 

 it at all as well as those who do, it 

 began to look like the trouble was of 

 quite a different kind. It looks very 

 much to the writer like it is improper 

 distribution and lack of incentive for 

 the merchants to push our product. 

 A merchant dislikes to establish a 

 trade for a product which he is un- 

 able to supply. If even twenty per 

 cent of the commission merchants 

 should undertake to establish a trade 

 in honey and should succeed to the 

 extent that a few have done the sup- 



ply would not last one third the year. 

 If a man orders honey from his grocer 

 and is unable to get it, maple syrup 

 lor corn syrup will take its place and 

 the next order will be for the substi- 

 tute. 



Some beekeepers are forever talk- 

 ing about overproduction and lack of 

 demand. When corn flakes first ap- 

 peared on the market there was no de- 



Ed. Swenson, of Minnesota, Has No 



Trouble Selling His Honey. He 



Advertises. 



mand but the manufacturers proceed- 

 ed to create a demand by extensive 

 advertising and to fix the price at a 

 point which would pay for their pro- 

 duct and pay for the advertising in 

 addition. In our March issue Mr. 

 Gano tells how the orange growers 

 have increased their output more than 

 three hundred times and how they 

 have increased the demand for 

 oranges and the price at the same 

 time. 



Competition is very keen, especially 

 in the large market centers. One firm 

 visited, handled three million dollars 

 worth of produce last year. This 

 amount would make a pretty big hole 

 in the honey crop for last season. 



As it now stands there is no effort 

 to supply honey at all seasons of the 

 year. The crop is moved as quickly 

 as possible after it is harvested with 

 the result that the market is either . 

 crowded with honey or bare. A deal- 

 er who would build up a trade must 

 depend upon buying large quantities 

 long in advance and anticipate the de- 

 mand of his trade for several months. 

 The honey producers seem to be in 

 about the same condition that the 

 orange growers were in 1895 before 

 they perfected their marketing or- 

 ganizations. 



WHY freight rates ARE HIGH. 



To get back to the beginning, the 

 first thing that confronts the honey 

 producer who would send his honey to 

 market is the matter of high fi'eight 

 rates. Too much care cannot be 

 taken in packing honey for shipment, 

 not only to guard against damage in 

 shipment but also to keep the number 

 of broken packages down to the point 

 which will enable the railroad to car- 

 ry honey at a low rate and still make 

 a profit. Too many beekeepers take 

 the attitude that it matters very little, 

 for in case the shipment is damaged 

 in transit the railroad company will 

 pay for it anyway. This is a mis- 

 taken viewpoint as was pointed out 



