14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



January. 1919 



MOST HONEY FOR THE MONEY 



A Great 'Difference in Percentage of 

 Honey ^-Received by the Purchaser Be- 

 cause of Size and Kind of Package 



By H. H. Root 



DURING 

 times like 

 liiese when 

 it is the certain 

 duty of us all to 

 economize in 

 the use of food, 

 it is almost as 

 important to ef- 

 fect a saving in 

 the cost of the package and in the labor of 

 packing as to make a saving in the food it- 

 self, for providing the package to hold the 

 food is a problem nearly as serious as that 

 of providing the food. Those who are in- 

 terested in making the shrunken dollar go 

 the farthest will do well to consider the 

 effect of the size of the package on the cost 

 of the food contained in that package. 

 While practically all foods are involved, 

 since we are interested primarily in honey, 

 we will confine our attention to the cost 

 of several different sizes of packages for 

 holding the product of the bees. 



The accompanying table gives a record 

 of the costs of honey in glass jars from 

 three ounces up to two and one-quarter 

 pounds, and in tin cans from the two-and- 

 one-half pound size uji to the gallon. Each 

 is considered in lots of one thousand, in or- 

 der to have a uniform basis for comparison. 

 Since the costs of these packages are chang- 

 ing almost constantly no importance can be 

 attached to these figures save in their re- 

 lation to each other. In other words, it 

 would be unsafe to base an estimate on 

 cost figures for any one size of package to- 

 day. The proportionate cost of the pack- 

 ages and labor for packing, however, re- 



mains about the 

 same. The honey 

 is all figured at 

 a uniform price 

 of nineteen 

 cents a pound. 



A little study 

 of this table, es- 

 pecially of the 

 ., , ^ , , percentages in 



the last column, shows conclusively how the 

 proportionate value of the honey to the 

 total cost of the package increases material- 

 ly with the size of the package. In the 

 smallest-sized jar the honey itself repre- 

 sents only 59 per cent of the cost of the 

 package. In the case of the two-and-one- 

 quarter-pound jar the honey makes up 86 

 per cent of the total cost of the package. 

 The proportion is still greater in case of the 

 tm cans. It is interesting to note the small 

 cost of the labor and overhead expense in 

 case of the five-ounce jar. This is partly 

 due to the fact that this jar was handled iii 

 such large quantities that the labor was 

 greatly simplified, but primarily to the fact 

 that no label had to be put on, the cap being 

 lithographed. 



In the accompanying diagram the shaded 

 portion represents the value of the honey 

 compared with the total cost of jar or can. 

 In other words, since in the smallest-sized 

 jar the cost of the honey is 59 per cent of 

 the total cost, therefore the shaded portion 

 is just 59 per cent of the whole diagram, the 

 unshaded portion representing the cost of 

 the package, the labor, overhead expense, 

 etc. As the size of the jar or can increases, 



Cost Analysis of Various-sized Honey Packages. 

 2 3 4 5 6 7 



•<-> O • -r^ C3 ^^ O CO 



•M '-' ^ — a oi Ci -^ ^ ^ 



" ^ o ° ° c'Sc'Ze "-^f^Poo 



m A^ o a o o ph E-| (^ *^ 



3-oz. jar 187.5 35.62 16.12 .44 8.39 24.95 60.57 59. 



5-oz. jar 312.5 59.37 21.04 ... 3.81 24.85 84.22 70. 



6-oz. jar 375. 71.25 24.24 .44 7.70 32.38 103.63 69. 



8-oz. jar 500. 95.00 31.96 .44 7.55 39.95 134.95 70.4 



14-oz. jar 875. 166.25 36.34 .65 7.69 44.68 210.93 79. 



2^-lb. jar 2250. 417.50 46.38 1.65 19.04 67.07 484.57 86. 



21/^ -lb. can 2500. 475.00 45.66 2.43 21.30 69.39 544.39 87. 



5-lb. can 5000. 950.00 63.50 2.43 32.00 97.93 1047.93 90.6 



y2-gal. can 6000. 1140.00 93.50 1.37 33.60 128.47 1268.47 89. 



1-gal. can 12000. 2280.00 170.00 2.03 63.33 235.36 2515.36 91. 



Costs of various-sized packages of honey in thousand lots. The honey is all figured 

 at 19c a pound. The first column, as indicated, gives the size of the glass jar or tin can. 

 This figure multiplied by 1000 (divided by 16 in case of the first five items') gives the 

 number of pounds of honey in one thousand jars, as in second column. This multiplied by 

 19 gives the cost of the honey alone as in third column. The fourth column contains the 

 cost of the jars or cans, including the caps or covers. The sixth column contains the cost 

 of the labor, also cost of power, heat, and other overhead expenses. The seventh column 

 is the total of columns 4, 5, and 6. The eighth is the total with the cost of honey added. 

 The percentages in the last columns are obtained by dividing the cost of tho honey iu 

 column three by the tofa] cost in column eight. 



