1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



211 



TEN CENT SECTIONS OF HONEY. 



A I'llOTK.ST AGAINST THEM. 



fKIKND X( »V1CE: — I wish to raise my voice in 

 an hiiiiililf hilt earnest protest ag'ainst the 

 new departure. There is already an evil in 

 this line which works more niisehief than you 

 imagine. It is this catering' to the denKind.s 

 of the dishonest frroeer who wishes to sell 12 oz. for 

 a pound, either that he may get more profit or that 

 he may appear to undersell his honest neighbor. 

 The closer the bee-keeper sticks to the fundamental 

 truth, that it takes Iti oz. to make a pound, the more 

 successful will he be in increasing the sales of 

 honey, and in laying a su7-e foundation for a steady 

 demand in the years to come. Two conditions are 

 wanting to make the ten-cent comb a success. One 

 is, that all honey be of equal value; and the other, 

 that all bee-keepers and dealers be strictly honest. 

 To the honest bee-keeper 1 can see only evil in this, 

 the limit being in the wrong direction. The grocer 

 must get a certain number of combs for a certain 

 sum of money, which puts a limit to the price of 

 the finest grades of honey which the bee-keeper 

 pi-oduces. In the other direction there is no limit, 

 the greedy or dishonest grocer demanding more 

 and more ten-cent combs for a given sum of money, 

 and the producer tries to please him by giving as 

 much surface as possible; and if he be of the same 

 spirit as the dealer, he imts in all the wood he pos- 

 sibly can. The tendency all is to give as little honey 

 as possible for the ten cents; and 1 fear that, in two 

 or three years, ten-cent combs of honey can be 

 found so small that the gentleman of Albany could 

 "clean up the platter" at one meal, without the 

 help of the family. Notice, friend Novice, he sug- 

 gests 10 or 11 oz., while you suggest 8 or 9. Some one 

 else will suggest "i or 6. Where is the limit? When 

 you make a package of comb honey less than a 

 pound, I think you simply increase the cost to no 

 purpose. Where a pound of comb honey can be re- 

 tailed for 16 or 18 cts., or even 20, there is no need of 

 a smaller package. Did you figure up how much 

 the bee-keepers who sent ten-cent combs to Albany 

 received per pound for their houeyV Allowing that 

 100 lbs. net would make 1.50 combs, say the grocer 

 pays 8 cts., making $12.00; deduct commission, 60 

 cts.; expressage and dray age, not less than 7.5 cts.; 

 cost of 1.50 frames and case, 60 cts., leaving a balance 

 of .$10.0.5 for 100 lbs. net of noney — just about equal 

 to getting 9'/2 cts. for 1-lb. sections, weighing the 

 frame with the honey. Is not this making undue 

 haste to reduce the price? 



Wouldn't it be better to go slow in this matter, 

 and treat the story as a huge joke (which was prob- 

 ably intended only as such), that one man, without 

 any special effort, sold, in a little over half a season, 

 in the city of Albany, nearly If not quite a quarter 

 of a million, or between 60 and 80 tons, of a size of 

 comb which seemed to be new, to a convention of 

 York-State bee-men ? And before you settle the 

 matter, ask for the opinion of some of the bee-men 

 who sent the quarter of a million of ten-cent combs 

 to Albany during the past si.x months. In the one- 

 pound sections which you send out, the frame is so 

 light that the consumer does not object to has'ing 

 the frame weighed with the honey; but having the 

 idea firmly implanted in their minds that honey 

 should be sold by weight, they do demand, as they 

 have a right to demand, that when the3' pai' for a 



pound that at least the honey and the frame weigh 

 a full pound. 



During this winter 1 have sold several tons of 

 California honey in the comb to the best grocers of 

 this city and Pittsburgh; and although the combs 

 average nearly 2 lbs. each, it sells readily. Two 

 things they do require: That the quality be good, 

 and that the comb and frame weigh all they pay 

 for. I do not mean that there is no preference giv- 

 en to the 1-lb. section; for my experience is, that 

 the one-pound package does command in this mar- 

 ket just about one cent per pound more than the 

 same grade of honey in a 2-lt). package. When you 

 collectively, as bee-keepers, have the power to say 

 how many ounces the ten-cent comb shall weigh 

 (net weight of honey), and can compel every pro- 

 ducer to live up to your law, then, I say, go ahead 

 with the ten-cent comb; but this being the freest 

 country in the civilized world for the man who 

 wishes to defraud his neighbor in weights and mea- 

 sures, you will find neither profit nor satisfaction 

 in the novelty proposed. The class who buy for 

 every meal something to spi-ead on their bread, and 

 who demand a ten-cent comb, is the class whose 

 trade you can never get to any extent unless .\ou 

 are prepared to compete in price with the manufac- 

 turers of truck which they call jelly, and which can 

 be retailed at .5 or 6 cts. per lb. M. H. Twekk. 



Allegheny City, Pa., Feb. 24, 1887. 



Friend T., you have presented an excel- 

 lent paper on this side, stating the obje'c- 

 tions to the ten-cent package, but J think 

 you have overlooked one or two points. Tlie 

 reason why 1 proposed 8 or 9 ounces instead 

 of 10 or 11, is because the 10 or 11 ounces 

 were buckwheat honey. Tiiis. you know, 

 makes quite a difference. I admit, how- 

 ever, that there is some dilficulty in regard 

 to tlie matter of quality. One producer 

 might l)ring in a lot of very choice ten-cent 

 sections, wliiie his slip-shod neighbor would 

 have a similar lot that might liave to be 

 sold for o cents to close them out. For all 

 this, I ilo think the ten-cent package would 

 sell, a great many times, where any thing 

 costing more money would not. Your arti- 

 cle has suggested that we might, in sorting 

 om- 1-lb. sections, pick out, l»y weighing, 

 certain ones that could be retailed for a 

 dime, and crate these by themselves. In 

 our trade we find quite a good many that do 

 not weigh much more than 10 or 12 ounces. 

 Mark these, " Fofrc Choice for 10 cts.," and 

 they might go off quite readily. I did not 

 understand, while at Albany, that any one 

 contemplated short weiglits at all : it was 

 only to arrange a plan whereby sections 

 might be sold at so much, and thus avoid 

 the necessity of weighing. Some one asked 

 the question of Mr. Wriglit, how he would 

 prevent consumers from picking out the 

 most desirable se<'ti()ns first. He replied, 

 that there was no remedy. Of course, the 

 grocer would put only one case on tlie coun- 

 ter at a time, and insist on selling every 

 section before opening another one. He 

 said this same thing happens in all kinds of 

 luoduce. The last potatoes in a luirrel will 

 lie the poorest, and so witii most kinds of 

 vegetables ; but the last purchaser must 

 take what is left, for no dealer could afford 

 to open a new package of choice specimens 

 while the half-broken package remained un- 



