1917 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



261 



will exchange it for honey to take 

 home to the family. With an auto- 

 mobile it is an easy matter to at- 

 tend the farm sales within a radius 

 i>i fifteen to twenty-five miles of his 

 Ihiiiic, Hy following up the farm 

 .s.ilcs during the winter months when 

 he has little other work to do, Mr. 

 Hall is able to market a large part 

 of his honey direct to the consumer, 

 at a minimum of expense. 



A somewhat similar plan is that 

 followed by Mr. H. B. Morrison, of 

 Fayette, Iowa. Morrison has a very 

 nice car built especially for a deliv- 

 ery business. In order to reach his 

 customers directly, Morrison adver- 

 tises to the citizens of the small 

 towns within reach that on a certain 

 afternoon, usually Saturday, when 

 there are more people on the street, 

 he will be there with a load of honey. 

 Packages of various sizes are loaded 

 into the car, so that he is prepared 

 to supply every call, from a pound 

 to a five-gallon can. The number of 

 customers grows with each trip, as 

 the people become acquainted with 

 his product. The nice appearing car 

 is a good advertisement in itself, and 

 he is always surrounded by interest- 

 ed people who are on the watch for 

 the visit of the honey car. Within 

 a radius of twenty-five miles of Fay- 

 ette there are about twenty-five 

 towns ranging from a few dozen 

 people up to five or six thousand. By 

 making these selling trips at occa- 

 sional intervals, he is able to find a 

 direct sale for a large quantity of 

 honey. With more honey to sell it 

 would only be necessary to extend 

 the length of his trips and take in 

 other towns a little farther on. 



In Memphis, Tenn., last summer, 

 my attention was attracted to a de- 

 livery wagon with a honey sign which 

 I at once proceeded to get in range 

 of my camera. Later I learned that 

 Gakler's honey wagon is a familiar 

 sight on the streets of Memphis. He 

 sells to a large extent to the grocery 

 trade. 



There are many ways by which the 

 wide-awake beekeeper can call atten- 

 tion to his product and bring buyers 

 to his own door. The poorest way to 

 stimulate trade is by cutting prices, 

 and the man who sells at a price be- 

 low the general market does an un- 

 told injury to the business in gen- 

 eral. Such price cutting does more 

 to hold down prices than all the big 

 buyers put together could do. 



Central Grading Stations for 

 Comb Honey 



By L. A. Knemeyer. 



EVERY beekeeper has his or her 

 grading station right at home. 

 That is, all the comb honey is 

 put up ready for the market on the 

 premises. 



The grading is, or is intended to be, 

 according to the well established and 

 recognized rules of the Colorado 

 Honey Producers' Association. The 

 result should be a uniform market 

 product, a market value easy to sell, 

 to ship, and at all times satisfying to 

 the customer. 



This can be attained only when all 

 the honey is put up in a uniform way, 

 when all fancy honey is really fancy, 

 when No. 1 is really No. 1 and not 

 either fancy or No. 2, etc., and when 

 all the honey is put up in the same 

 manner. Only then the producers 

 will find a ready market. 



Every up to date beekeeper wants 

 to overcome the so-called "misgrad- 

 ing" or rather "different" grading of 

 his honey, and this can be done only 

 by having all the honey of a certain 

 locality put up by the very same crew 

 of workers, and under the same 

 working conditions as far as grading 

 rules, grading light facilities and 

 grading scales are concerned. This 

 can be done only at a "Central Grad- 

 ing Station"; that is, all the honey of 

 a certain locality should be brought 

 to a central place and there put up by 

 the same force of workers. This 

 method has not been tried yet. 



A second way would be to have a 

 grading party going from producer 

 to producer grading the honey which 

 is ready for grading. This latter way 

 has been tried and found a failure, 

 according to a statement by Mr. 

 Frank Rauchfuss, of Denver. He 

 stated that on account of the differ- 

 ent light facilities the very same per- 

 son was grading in an altogether dif- 

 ferent way at different grading 

 places. 



For the establishment of a "Cen- 

 tral Grading Station," we have the 

 following arguments : 



1. The scraping and cleaning can 

 be done more satisfactorily. 



2. The grading can be absolutely 

 uniform. 



3. The buying, nailing and storing 

 of the shipping cases is simplified. 



4. The loading and shipping of the 

 honey can be done easier. 



5. The protection against theft 

 and fire is easier obtained and se- 

 cured. 



6. The keeping of a certain tem- 

 perature for the stored honey will be 

 more easily achieved. 



Against the establishment of a 

 "Central Grading Station" are the 

 following facts, some of which we 

 can overcome and some which we 

 simply have to suffer: 



1. The almost unpreventable 

 nuisance of having more or less mo- 

 lesting bees around the place. 



2. The finding and renting of a 

 suitable place. 



3. The renting expense. 



4. The transportation of the su- 

 pers to and from this place. 



5. The keeping apart of each pro- 

 ducer's honey, supers, supplies and 

 broken-down honey. 



6. The employment of a "grading 

 superintendent," a man well ac- 

 quainted with the whole routine of 

 the "putting up" or "getting ready" 

 for the market of the comb honey. 



In case we decide on a central 

 grading station we have to consider 

 the rent of the building, the employ- 

 ment of a grading boss, the protect- 

 ing, insuring and keeping warm of 

 the honey. 



A committee would arrange for a 

 meeting of all honey producers be- 

 longing to a particular grading sta- 

 tion. Said meeting would fix all busi- 

 ness matters needed for establishing 

 the station : locating and renting a 

 suitable place, providing grading ta- 

 bles, scales, deciding on the plan and 

 manner of running the grading busi- 

 ness, etc. 



Second. The grading committee 

 would adopt certain grading rules in 

 accordance with the requirements of 

 the honey market. 



Third. A set of grading samples 

 for the grading station should be se- 

 cured. 



Fourth. Hire all the needed work- 

 ing force for doing the work of grad- 

 ing and teach the persons the right 

 way of grading and give them all the 

 instructions necessary for grading. 



THE SIGN ON GAKLER'S WAGON IS A FAMILIAR SIGHT IN 

 MEMPHIS, TENN. 



