November, 1910. 



American ISee Journal 



larger number of workers, and a wet, 

 cold one a less number. 



When this "last litter" of worker- 

 eggs have been laid and have hatched 

 into larvae, from 10 to 30 eggs are laid 

 for drones, and a little later about as 

 many for queens. These latter emerge 

 from their cells a few days after the 

 drones do, and generally during the 

 last few days of August or the first days 

 of September, when, upon arriving at 

 mature age about 10 days later the 

 queens go out to meet the drone, and 

 upon becoming fertile they burrow in 

 the ground to commence the ne.xt sea- 

 son the same as did their mother- 

 queen the fall before. The mother- 

 queen and workers die of old age, and 

 also the drones which remain after 

 the mating season, so that by the 1st 

 to the lOth of October, in this locality, 

 all bumble-bee life is e.xtinct as far as 

 seen by the eye of man. These bum- 

 ble-bees are of great value by way of 

 carrying the pollen from flower to 

 flower in red clover fields, and for this 

 purpose were exported from this coun- 

 try to Australia a quarter of a century 

 or more ago at quite an expense to the 

 Australian government, since which 

 time their clover of the red variety 

 seeds as well as it does in this countr\% 

 if I am rightly informed. 



The drones of the bumble-bees are 

 stingless, the same as are the drones of 

 the honey-bees, as most of our boys 

 know who have caught them, calling 

 them "stingless bees." There are a 

 number of diliferent species of these 

 bees, varying in size from those little 

 larger than the drones of the honey- 

 bees up to those nearly as large as a 

 small mouse. 

 Borodino, N. Y. 



3.— Pointers on Selling Honey 



BY WESLEY FOSTER. 



When one has studied the art and 

 science of salesmanship for some time 

 he is quite liable to fall into the rut of 

 thinking it is a profession different 

 and set apart from other lines of work, 

 but the same qualities that make for 

 success in anything will win in selling 

 goods. The trouble with the salesman 

 is that he thinks of himself too much, 

 and becomes narrow in his views. The 

 true salesman is a man among men, 

 and does his work efficiently and well, 

 the same as others do. This sympathy 

 and appreciation of the value and need 

 of every human calling will make a 

 man more effective in the sale of 

 goods. Such a man does not impress 

 one as being anxious to make a sale — 

 he interests you entirely independently 

 of his business; he is a man first and a 

 salesman afterwards. I have heard 

 some farmers make the best kind of 

 selling talks, and do it all uncon- 

 sciously; they come into the store of 

 some man they know, talk crops, and 

 trade, and prices, and casually the 

 farmer mentions some of his own ex- 

 perience in raising some certain grain 

 or vegetable — perhaps he tried several 

 ki|,ds, and finally lound one that did 

 especially well in his soil— the grocer 

 or dealer, if he handled that article, 

 wo uld be in ripe condition to make a 

 sale to, and in many cases asks the 

 farmer if he could not have some of 



the produce. Confidence and knowl- 

 edge here have a free course, and when 

 there is confidence it is not difficult to 

 sell goods, if there is any demand. The 

 regular salesman has a harder time, for 

 he generally has that ever-present prej- 

 udice against " agents " to overcome. 

 In all the tasks a salesman runs up 

 against, overcoming prejudice against 

 "agents," and the persuading a man to 

 buy " right now " while before him, are 

 the two hardest things to accomplish. 

 This prejudice against agents has had 

 its rise in former experiences with 

 agents who have persuaded them to 

 buy things for which they had small 

 use. These generally come about by 

 the agent dominating the mind of the 

 buyer with his personality, or in popu- 

 lar phrase, "hypnotizing" his custo- 

 mer. Of course, people who know 

 what they want and have a mind of 

 their own, never fall into the hands of 

 an unscrupulous agent, but there are 

 many very fine people who can be in- 

 fluenced to buy things against their 

 own good. Such must be handled 

 carefully if steady customers are to be 

 made out of them, for if they are per- 

 suaded to buy too heavily once they 

 are not so easily won next time. With 

 these people it is well to go slow and 

 urge them to use their own judgment, 

 and never be in a hurryto get away for 

 fear the order will be cancelled. If the 

 one selling feels that his customer is 

 liable to cancel his order unless he 

 gets away quickly, a going over of anv 

 vague or misunderstood points would 

 better be done. 



I have read instructions to salesmen 

 in which they said to leave just as soon 

 as the order was signed. This is the 

 best course if the man is very busy, but 

 the hurrying away with the order for 

 fear the order will be cut down or 

 cancelled is poor salesmanship. It is 

 better to stay and fully explain than to 

 get away with an order for goods that 

 the customer does not fully understand. 

 It would surprise those who do not 

 know from experience the number of 

 men who will forget the selling price 

 of an article. Many a grocer has called 

 me over the phone to know the retail 

 price on some honey that I had sold 

 him. One would think that the one 

 thing that a grocer would remember 

 would be the cost, profit, and selling 

 price, but many do not remember the 

 selling price and the profit, and some 

 get confused as to the cost price. 



Dealers have so many salesmen call- 

 ing on them that prices are confused. 

 If I have a 10-cent seller that costs 95 

 cents a dozen, and a wholesale man 

 comes in a few minutes after and 

 quotes a corn syrup in tins at 85 cents 

 per dozen ; then a canned goods man 

 quotes glasses of jelly and peas at !I0. 

 the grocer is very likely to think I 

 quoted 10-cent jars of honey to him at 

 85 cents. 



The sale of any article to a dealer or 

 consumer requires that the salesman 

 must carry the thought of the customer 

 through a process of growth and en- 

 lightmeut about the goods and himself 

 until the point is reached where the 

 customer goes through several well- 

 defined stages, which are variously 

 termed, but we may call them here : 

 First, a favorable impression which 

 will command attention ; from atten- 



tion held for a little while we arouse 

 interest; and interest soon develops 

 into decision to buy. 



In my experience a man will soon 

 become interested, but I have been 

 short on the ability to carrv him over 

 the place where he hesitates to give the 

 order. The expenditure of money is a 

 serious barrier to many men, and when 

 a man is really interested it is well to 

 force home the truth that it is but the 

 investment of funds to bring more 

 money. When every objection has 

 been met ably there are not many men 

 who will hesitate in buying honey if the 

 quality is good, and the profit fair. A 

 man who intends really to sell honey 

 where it has not been handled before 

 can not know too much about the prod- 

 uct and kindred topics. There is a 

 world of difference between the man 

 who merely asks if you would not like 

 some honey, and the one who asks you 

 for several minutes of your time in 

 which to show you thoroughly his 

 whole proposition. You see the difi^er- 

 ence between the two methods. 



In the' first place, say I ask a man if 

 he does not want some honey; if he 

 does already want it I get an order, but 

 I am not then a salesman, but am really 

 only an order-taker. But suppose he 

 does not want any, or says he does not ; 

 is he not judging entirely from insuffi- 

 cient evidence, having not had any 

 time in which to find out further about 

 your proposition ? However, with the 

 careful, thorough salesman it is differ- 

 ent; he asks for a few minutes to show 

 his line, and if there is no good oppor- 

 tunity then, why he waits till he can go 

 over the whole thing carefully. He 

 does not give his customer the respon- 

 sibility of making a decision before all 

 the evidence is in. Meeting objections 

 is one of the things we who are not ex- 

 perts in selling greatly neglect. We do 

 not dominate the discussion ; we let 

 the grocer enlarge on the difficulties in 

 the way of selling honey till we are 

 half persuaded ourselves that we can 

 not sell honey in that town or territory. 

 I dare say that the selling of honey 

 to the best advantage requires as much 

 thought and preparation as the suc- 

 cessful rearing of queens, and until we 

 develop it into a science, with all the 

 valuable points gleaned from experi- 

 ence at our tongue's end, we will not 

 get the highest price possible for our 

 product. 



The sale of one's crop of honey be- 

 gins when the honey-boxes are put on 

 the hive, or the extracting combs placed 

 there. The quality of the honey bears 

 a closer relationship to a successful 

 sale than the kind, for the kind of 

 honey produced in any locality is the 

 honey that generally is in most favor. 

 A clear, thick, well-ripened table-honey 

 is the only honey that should be sold 

 in glasses or in the comb. There are 

 some honeys that never should be of- 

 fered to any market but the bakers, 

 though this principle has not found 

 favor among all bee-men. as every year 

 I see markets injured by the sale of a 

 baking honey to the'grocery trade. 



Uniform grades and attractive pack- 

 ages with labels bearing a distinctive 

 brand, sold through a well-biiilt-up sell- 

 ing plan, will help any man who goes 

 out to build up a demand for honey. 

 One thing that I have never seen work- 



