March 19, 1903. 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



181 





Convention Proceedings. 



Chicago-Northwestern Convention. 



Report of the Chicag-o-Northwestern Bee-Keep- 

 ers' Convention, held in Chicago, 

 Dec. 3 and 4, 1902. 



BY OUR OWN SHORTHAND REPORTER. 



(Continued from page 165.) 

 Pres. York — I would like to introduce Mr. Frank B. 

 White, of Chicago, a friend of poultry-keepers and bee- 

 keepers. He is a very white man, as you will see. 



ADDRESS BY MR. FRANK B. WHITE. 



I am grateful to your president for giving me this 

 opportunity to speak to you. I hope I am a friend of the 

 bee-keepers, the producers of that sweet which we like to 

 eat. Mr. York can testify that I eat some. I do not know 

 what I can say that would be of interest to you. I am not 

 familiar with the bee-keeping business to any great extent. 

 I might offer a suggestion or two as to how you could in- 

 crease the demand for your product, and if I might have 

 about five minutes of your time I would like to do that. 



I had the pleasure, yesterday, of addressing the State 

 Horticultural Society, at Minneapolis, and I was pleased to 

 see the interest they took in what I had to say about the 

 handling of fruit. 



I want to suggest to you that I believe, without doubt, 

 that there is an opportunity of enlarging the demand for 

 your product. If you expect to get a larger price for your 

 honey you must increase the demand in some way. I want 

 to call your attention to the fact that but few of the hotel 

 menus contain the name of the product you produce. Other 

 edibles are mentioned there, health foods by the score, and 

 any one can go into the health-food business if he has a 

 flour-mill and sawdust at hand ! You can sell your prod- 

 uct with a little advertising. Now, if that can be done with 

 something we have no faith in, why can't it be done with a 

 good, substantial sweet article like honey ? I believe it 

 can. I believe the list of things we eat should contain 

 honey as well as meat, vegetables, and fruit. California 

 found herself without a market for her oranges. They were 

 producing more than they could dispose of. At the present 

 time the only thing lacking is transportation, and the dis- 

 tribution of the product doesn't worry them at all. It is 

 simply because they unitedly, as a State, used a judicious 

 system of advertising. I maintain they might have gone 

 on and created a further demand. I have no doubt in the 

 world but what the people could sell many times what they 

 do if they would get in line. Now, you producers of lioney 

 ought to pay attention to the distribution of your product 

 along that line. 



I do not know just what the object of this organization 

 is, other than to teach each other, as you have been trying 

 to do in the discussion that I listened to for the few min- 

 utes that I was here; but it seems to me that you left off 

 your discussion at the very vital point of marketing your 

 product in a way that seems to me should be handled by 

 your organization. 



Now, I have no doubt but what many of you are ship- 

 ping your honey to Mr. York. He is making an effort to 

 create a demand for honey in this city, but there is a ^rreat 

 deal of waste energy and waste effort simply because we do 

 not avail ourselves of the opportunity afforded by judicious 

 advertising along the lines of shipping and packing, etc. 

 Now, without running into opposition with Mr. York, if I 

 were a honey-producer near a city or village of two or five 

 thousand people, I believe that I would sell every pound of 

 honey that I produce right in that community, and if I 

 could not do it with the present demand, I would try mighty 

 hard to make a demand. There is many a neighhjr of 

 yours who would eat honey if he knew how good it was. It 

 simply means he hasn't had a taste. He will buy patent 

 medicines and patronize mail-order houses, but he won'ln't 

 send away for much honey. I don't know whether any of 

 you have ever tried to acquaint your neighbors wiO.) the 

 fact that you have honey for sale. That is the thing you 



ought to do, and sell your honey at home, then any that 

 you have to send away will bring you a better price, thus 

 making a demand for your product at home, as well as 

 away from home. 



Out a little ways from Chicago there was a man who 

 grew one year 40 bushels of gooseberries. Gooseberries 

 were selling at the store for six cents a quart, and the good 

 wife said she was not going to prick her lingers, nor have 

 her children prick theirs, for six cents'a quart, so he went 

 to the newspaper office, inserted a small notice which cost 

 him 75 cents, and then went away for two days. When he 

 returned his good wife met him and said: " Well, I am 

 glad you came. I haven't done anything since you went 

 away but answer the telephone. I have sold all the berries, 

 and could have .sold tv^ice as many." She got 12 cents a 

 quart instead of six for them. He advertised fresh berries 

 right from the bushes, and he commanded 12 cents for them. 



Now, I believe you can create a demand for honey at at 

 better price if you will do a little advertising. If I were a 

 producer of honey I wouldn't let a pound of honey go away 

 from my place without my stamp was on it, so that they 

 would have to read that every time they took a piece of 

 honey ; but I don't know any patent that you can get to 

 have the bees to stamp it on. Mr. York doesn't offer 

 any honey that he doesn't stamp very plain. The little 

 pound box — I would have my name on all four sides, 

 all around. I don't know but what I will go in the 

 honey-business. If I do, and you see " White's Honey," 

 you will know that I am doing what I say. I would expect 

 that my bees were going to produce just as good honey as 

 anybody's. Mind you, I claim that the thing that is not 

 good is not fit to advertise. My honey is just as good as 

 anybody else can produce, and better. The article itself is 

 the best advertiser in the world. If it is good put your own 

 stamp on it, and let that stamp be big and plain. 



Dr. Miller — If you send to a commission man, or some 

 one else to sell, he will scratch your stamp off. 



Mr. White — I would have it burned in so deep that he 

 couldn't scratch it off. Don't let him come that on you. Dr. 

 Miller. 



But this is all foreign to my work. I can't go out and 

 advertise your product at all, but I do delight to see, when I 

 go to a fruit-store, something that indicates where it comes 

 from. The fact of the matter is, those of us who have to 

 buy things shipped in here, if we get hold of a good thing 

 we want to be able to get it again, and if it was marked we 

 would know what to call for. We buy our butter by name. 

 We call for that creamery butter because we know that that 

 butter is all right. The fact is, before that thing was heard 

 of all butter was alike to us who had to buy it here in Chi- 

 cago. 



Yes, this means something, and it certainly will mean 

 something to you, men, if you will follow that suggestion. 

 I wouldn't recommend that the members of this Association 

 produce anything but honey that is first-class, and then 

 every one of you affix your name and the fact that you are 

 a member of this organization — it is a stamp of genuine- 

 ness, and it will overcome a lot of this stuff talked about as 

 molasses honey. 



Something of that kind is the best thing that I know of 

 to create a demand, and those of us who want a good thing 

 will look for that article. 



Why do you let the other fellow dictate terms to you ? 

 Why not make the demand for your article at the price you 

 think you ought to have. If you ship half your honey to 

 Chicago, Mr. York will be making more money. The honey 

 you sell at home you can sell for a good, round price, if you 

 create a demand. 



I don't know whether there is anything else I have to 

 say. That is all I think of, anyway, Mr. President. Thank 

 you. 



Pres. York— Evidently / didn't tell Mr. White what to 

 say. I will explain it all to him some day, and hope he will 

 come again. We will now go to the next question. 



FEEDING BOILED GRANULATED SOUR HONEY. 



" If I boil granulated sour honey will I be able to feed 

 it to the bees ?" 



Mr. Niver — Is there any such thing ? 



Pres. York — Yes, sir. 



Mr. Wilcox -I would like to have whoever answers that 

 question say whether after the bees have stored it it will be 

 sweet honey or not. I don't know whether it will be any 

 better after the bees have taken it and re-worked it. 



Mr. Moore — There is a distinction to be drawn there. I 

 have a notion that the candii'd part is not sour, and that the 

 act of melting it, or, perhaps carry it a little farther 



