1901 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



13 



Now, I've no quarrel with you for selling 

 candied alfalfa honey at whatever price you 

 can in Colorado ; but just wait till I catch Dr. 

 Miller. He talked about selling candied hon- 

 ey in Ohio. Editor York said he ought to 

 keep his fingers out of the pie, and I am afraid 

 for our pie, for he looks as though he might 

 have a bad mouth for it. 



Now, Bro. Aikin, no doubt I am but a bun- 

 gler in the use of language, and that is proba- 

 bly the reason I did not make myself under- 

 stood in my article on page 304, and I want to 

 make it plain now that I do not now and never 

 did intend to criticise your methods of mar- 

 keting in Colorado ; and the opinion express- 

 ed by the New York man you mentioned is 

 his sentiments and not mine. But when it 

 comes to applying your methods, that are per- 

 fectly proper in your section, where the sup- 

 ply always exceeds the demand, to our sec- 

 tion, where the demand exceeds the supply, 

 then I protest that such a policy would not 

 help us, but would be a real damage to our 

 market. And now that we are discussing the 

 subject I want to call attention to some mis- 

 conceptions in your article. I did 

 not say that your alfalfa honey 

 would bring 25 cts. a pound in 

 Oberlin, but I did call attention 

 to the fact that Mr. Selser's fine 

 bottled honey was selling for 

 that ; but that was clover, if I am 

 correct, and I do not think that 

 alfalfa honey would sell here or 

 anywhere in this section at the 

 highest price ; and in saying this 

 I mean no reflection on the qual- 

 ity of alfalfa honey, but just 

 this : While alfalfa honey would 

 bring the highest price in your 

 market, clover and basswood 

 would sell higher here, as the 

 people are accustomed to the fla- 

 vor, and regard with suspicion 

 any thing different ; so you see 

 I could not buy your honey, for it would not 

 do for my trade at all. I tried alfalfa honey 

 of the best quality years ago, and know that 

 nine out of ten of our people will take clover 

 and basswood, even at a higher price, and I 

 have been paying 10 cts. per pound for the 

 latter in ton lots when I could get alfalfa honey 

 at8>^. 



Now a word about selling prices and com- 

 missions. I want you to understand. that that 

 " pesky stingy Fowls " is not getting rich bot- 

 tling and selling honey — not by a long shot, 

 but I am just making wages in buying and 

 bottling honey in off years, with the idea of 

 holding trade so as to have a good market for 

 my honey when I do have a good crop ; and 

 if I had to sell at prices at which candied hon- 

 ey sells for, or such prices as obtain a thou- 

 sand miles west, I should be in a worse fix 

 than the Irishman in your cartoon, for I should 

 not be able to get even bread for my Molly. 

 Now it's my turn to do a little figuring. 



The A. I. Root Co. and myself are selling at 

 the same price to the trade; viz., $2 25 per 

 dozen for the No. 25 jar (one-pound size), and 

 the grocers retail them at the uniform price of 



25 cts. each. The best honey is worth 10 cts. 

 per lb. at Medina (see p. 794); Root's No. 25 

 jars are f7.00 per gross, about 5 cts. each, or a 

 little more if you allow for breakage ; then al- 

 lowing, say, % cent more for labels and freight 

 from Medina on honey and jars makes 15^ 

 cents ; cost of selling, 10 per cent of $2.25, 

 or nearly 2 cts. more, makes 17 X cts. I will 

 explain that I pay a drummer for a wholesale 

 grocer 10 per cent to take orders for me in 

 near-by counties, and I also sell some to 

 wholesale grocers at about the same discount. 

 But the largest share of my honey is sold to 

 the grocers in my own county ; and when 

 hauled to the neighboring town and delivered 

 from my wagon at each store I am sure that 

 the extra 10 per cent is honestly earned. So 

 in either case there is the cost of selling to 

 be deducted, which makes it about as follows: 

 Net price to grocers, 183/ minus 17^ equals 

 \yz — a little over xy^ cts. per lb. for hauling 

 the honey and jars from the depot and back 

 again ; unpacking and washing jars, liquefy- 

 ing, filling, sealing, and labeling, as described 

 in the Dec. 15th Gleanings, after which the 



FOWLS AND HIS FOWLS AFTER THE OWL(d) MAN. 



jars are to be wrapped and boxed, tagged, and 

 stenciled " Glass, this side up," so as to ship 

 safely, and then there are the bills to make 

 out before I can get my money back, and 

 there is interest on the capital invested yet to 

 account for, and, say ; am I getting too much 

 for my work ? 



It might be figured a little more in my fa- 

 vor, but not much. Perhaps you will say that 

 your arrangement of prices would be better, 

 as you would give the retailer only about half 

 as much, and allow me 5 cts. a pound, which 

 would give me a good profit after allowing for 

 the work. But I will explain that, after try- 

 ing both ways, I am satisfied that it pays to 

 arrange it so that the retailer will have a good 

 profit. If his margin is too small he will not 

 care to handle it, but will very likely take 

 glucose mixtures that will bring him 40 or 50 

 per cent profit. No doubt some would say 

 the retail price, 25 cts. a pound, is too high ; 

 but it is no higher than comb honey when put 

 up in the No. 25 jars, as the buyer gets a very 

 fine self sealing fruit-jar worth 4 or 5 cts. ; be- 

 sides, the price of pure honey should be high- 

 er than glucose mixtures. To illustrate : Be- 



