270 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



August 



these must be selected with some dis- 

 crimination in order to return the re- 

 sults that should be expected from 

 them. 



The "stuffer," which to the unini- 

 tiated may be described as a printed 

 slip the proper size to be inserted in 

 an ordinary commercial envelope, is 

 one of the cheapest forms of good 

 advertising . It is not far amiss to 

 say that every letter written on 

 fairly good business stationery, costs, 

 with the postage, in the neighbor- 

 hood of 5 cents. Good stuffers may 

 be had at $2 to $5 per 1,000, according 

 to their style and the amount of 

 matter they contain. This is a range 

 of from one-fifth to one-half cent 

 each. They add nothing to the ex- 

 pense of postage, and their efficiency 

 is abundantly established. 



So when you pay S cents to send a 

 letter in which it would perhaps be 

 entirely inappropriate to include the 

 least bit of "business puffing," by the 

 expenditure of not more than one- 

 half cent additional you may, in the 

 most appropriate and artistic man- 

 ner, add your business message. 



These are but elementary observa- 

 tions on the subjects treated. The 

 subject of advertising is a large one, 

 and one in which the inexperienced 

 should take the advice of the best 

 counsel available. 



Co-Operative Efforts 



By John Hendricks. 



Read at the Annual Meeting of the 



Colorado Honey Producers' 



Association. 



I HAVE experienced, first hand, 

 this year some of the difficulties 

 of the manager of a co-operative 

 society. As business manager of our 

 local farmers' union I was asked to 

 find a market for the farmers pota- 

 toes. This business was entirely new 

 to me. I procured a list of commis- 

 sion houses that make a specialty of 

 handling potatoes in car lots, and 

 got into communication with them, 

 I then asked the farmers here who 

 had potatoes to sell to list their crop 

 with the union. This they were per- 

 fectly willing to do. Next I tried to 

 learn what the farmers wanted for 

 their potatoes. I succeeded in get- 

 ting a buyer who said he would take 

 all the potatoes the community had 

 to ofifer at the price the growers had 

 given me. As soon as I acquainted 

 the farmers with this fact the value 

 or potatoes rose in their estimation, 

 and they then wanted 10 cents more 

 per hundred weight. I again set to 

 work to find some one who would 

 pay the additional 10 cents. When I 

 made it known that we had secured a 

 buyer who would take the potatoes 

 at this advanced price, other buyers 

 were coming in who naturally met 

 the price. 



The farmers had required that the 

 purchaser send an agent into the 

 community to inspect the potatoes 

 and pay for them when they were 

 loaded. By the time my man arrived 



practically all the potatoes had been 

 sold to other buyers, who would not 

 have paid the farmers the price they 

 received had it not been for the 

 work the union did. When the buyer 

 I secured reached our community 

 there was only one car of potatoes 

 left for him to pick up. 



These farmers had listed their po- 

 tatoes with the union for the union 

 to sell. When the union found a 

 buyer at the highest price asked, and 

 other buyers began offering the same, 

 the farmers who had listed their po- 

 tatoes sold to the first buyer that 

 came along offering this price. What 

 complicated matters still more was 

 that they did not report to the union 

 the sale of their potatoes. 



After having had this experience, I 

 feel that I want to urge the members 

 of any co-operative association to be 

 more loyal in their support of the 

 manager of the association. Success 

 in co-operative effort cannot be 

 achieved simply by having a shrewd 

 man as business manager. The man- 

 ager cannot attain the utmost suc- 

 cess possible without 100% loyalty 

 on the part of every member of the 

 society. If the manager is anythiiig 

 like a competent man I feel safe in 

 saying that he will strive to be per- 

 fectly just to all members, regardless 

 of personalities, and the members of 

 the association make a mistake, 

 therefore, if they allow personalities, 

 tempting offers, or anything else to 

 stand between them and the associa- 

 tion. When large buyers come we 

 should do what a fellow member of 

 the Colorado association in this lo- 

 cality did this season when a travel- 

 ing man for a wholesale house came 

 to negotiate for his crop. Instead of 

 trying to make a sale, this party re- 

 ferred him to our manager, 



I consider it our duty to keep the 

 business manager fully advised as to 

 what we expect our crop to be, and 

 when the crop is harvested to report 

 to him at the earliest possible mo- 

 ment the exact quantity of all 

 grades. Then in case the quantity is 

 reduced by local sales, we should 

 keep him advised of the reduction. 

 Not only should we keep him fully 

 informed as to our crop for market- 



ing, but we should also let him know 

 promptly what our requirements in 

 the way of supplies will be for the 

 ne.xt season. On the day that the 

 honey flow stops, any one of us could 

 take a few moments to get together 

 our needs in the way of the next sea- 

 son's supplies. If we would do this 

 and send our estimate promptly to 

 the manager it would surely be help- 

 ful to all concerned. 



Any co-operative society as large 

 as the Colorado Honey Producers' 

 Association will usually have a vol- 

 ume of business to ta.x to the limit 

 the ability of its manager. If we as 

 members do not do our part prompt- 

 ly, we handicap the manager, and to 

 that e-xtent injure the association. 

 .\nd since we members are the asso- 

 ciation, when we do not do promptly 

 and faithfully our duty toward the 

 manager, we injure ourselves. 



The Work of the Bee Division 

 of the Dominion Experi- 

 mental Farms 



By F. W. L. Sladen. 

 (Continued from Page 229). 



IT is possible to find locations 

 where all these three principal 

 sources of honey — clover, fire- 

 weed and goldenrod and aster^ 

 abound. Such locations have from ten 

 to twelve weeks of possible honey 

 flow, and should be ideal for honey 

 production. It seems probable that, 

 taking one year with another, select- 

 ed places in these regions of succes- 

 sive honey plants may produce larger 

 crops than the districts where the 

 white honey flow is confined to 

 clover and lasts only three or four 

 weeks. In order to find out the value 

 of these and other promising regions, 

 I am starting co-operative e.xperi- 

 ments with enlightened beekeepers 

 located in them, a colony of ascer- 

 tained strength being kept on scales 

 and the gain or loss in weight every 

 day during the season being noted, 

 together with the daily weather and 



Down in Texas the heat in summer is intense. C. B. Bankston has rigged an 

 umbrella holder for his convenience in the bee-yard and field. 



