Decembkr, 1919 



GLEANINGS TN BEE CULTURE 



775 



' ' In Ontario, ' ' F. Erie Millen reports, 

 "for the past few years the buyers have 

 realized that they can do very little with 

 the beekeeper, if a member of the associa- 

 tion, unless they offer very close to the 

 price recommended by the crop committee, 

 so that if beekeepers hold for this, they sel- 

 dom fail to obtain it." 



S. H. Burton says: "I get all the quota- 

 tions possible, study them thoroly, and then 

 make up my price in accordance with the 

 facts and what is fair and just. I never 

 would let the other fellow set a price on 

 any commodity I had to sell, be it labor, ap- 

 ples or honey; and I am known in our local 

 community as the 'price setter,' and all the 

 others follow. If we start comb honey out 

 at 35c per pound retail, then there is very 

 little offered above or below this figure in 

 our territory. The bulk of my honey is sold 

 locally. I have moved some 4,000 pounds in 

 60 days in our local market, a town of 12, 

 000 inhabitants. I create a demand for this 

 honey by judicious advertising and window 

 displays. I induced one grocer to let me fill 



the buyer moves off, and — 



up his large plate glass show window from 

 top to bottom with cases of honey. The 

 grocer made the remark that it was 'some 

 honey' but that he would not sell that 

 much honey in a year. In one week from 

 the time we made the display he had sold 

 $100 worth of honey, and still the demand 

 grows." 



Morley Pettit says he tries to get a fair 

 price as follows: "To arrive at a fair price 

 I consider carefully the honey crop reports 

 all over the continent, the sugar situation, 

 fruit crop reports — particularly the apple 

 crop — and the price of food products gen- 

 erally. The confidence born of a knowledge 

 of the situation is a large factor in enabling 

 one to hold for and obtain a fair price." 



E. F. Atwater blames the beekeeping craft 

 for getting less than fair prices, saying: "I 

 think from my own experience in producing 

 and selling tens of carloads of honey that 

 many producers sell at too low prices, and 

 are themselves the worst enemies of the 

 craft. I am sometimes ashamed to think 

 that I am numbered as a member of a craft 

 which, in the face of rising costs of nearly 

 everything required in the production of a 



crop, are so weak-kneed as to be willing to 

 sell their product at almost any price offer- 

 ed." 



J. E. Crane says: "I sell most of our 

 honey direct thru wholesale houses that we 

 have found reliable. Wholesale houses take 

 orders for our honey thru their drummers 

 that are on the road, and we ship direct to 

 the retail merchant, we setting the price. 

 This saves the wholesale merchant the trou- 

 ble of storing and any risk. Drummers 



still farther ^K. 



from a wholesale grocery house can just as 

 well take orders for honey as other gro- 

 ceries, and it takes little extra time or ex- 

 pense. Sometimes my son has gone on the 

 road but it is rather expensive where but 

 one class of goods is sold. We are very well 

 satisfied with the price we receive. Our 

 methods of sale usually save the retailer 

 one shipping expense or one freight bill. ' ' 

 Edw. Hassinger gives his method of sell- 



"Come back hera a minute." — 



ing for a fair price as follows: "I send out 

 large samples to a large number of buyers 

 and ask a fair price in accordance with the 

 quality of the honey, and always find one 

 buyer out of the large number who can pay 

 10 per cent more for my honey, considering 

 quality, than the average buyer pays." 



"Do You Think Uniform Prices Can be 



Established by Honey-producers' 



Associations"? 



"Yes, if the honey-producers' associa- 

 tions will co-operate with each other," is 



