1252 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15 



ingfrom house to house, showing my product (or, 

 rather, the bees'). My brother was helping too, 

 he taking one side of the sireet and I the other. 

 When we got to the end of the street we would 

 compare notes and hold a miniature salesman's 

 conveniion. Father used few separators at the 

 time, and many of the sections were \ery fat. 

 My price was one cent an ounce, and each sec- 

 tion was weighed and the weight marked on the 

 wood Often my cakes of honey weighed 20 

 ounces. If I sold two dollars' woith in an after- 

 noon I was satisfied. 



When I was fourteen my father moved his 

 family to Colorado, and alter that I used a wag- 

 on for my trips and went further from home. I 

 sold honey, mostly extracted, in several coal- 

 camps. I had a pair of scales in the wagon, and 

 weighed out the honey in the customer's own 

 package. Visits were made twice a month; and 

 on one trip, in a town of about twenty-five 

 houses, I sold honey at every house but one, and 

 there was no one at home there. The people in 

 this little town would eat from two to four hun- 

 dred pounds of my honey every month; and one 

 boarding-house used nearly a hundred pounds 

 every thirty days. My price was ten cents per 

 pound, and it cost me about seven, so my per- 

 centage of profit was good. I believe honey- 

 selling may be made to compare favorably with 

 the selling of goods in other lines, and salesmen 

 as a rule are better paid than office workers. 



One forenoon when out with some of my own 

 honey I sold fifty dollars' worth — fully ten per 

 cent above what I could have secured in any 

 other way — and saved two or three per cent more 

 on freight. 



Any man who knows something about honey, 

 bees, and the flowers that bees work on, can put 

 up a convincing talk to a grocer. Convince him 

 that you know how to take care of bees and how 

 to raise honey, and usually his foolish fears of 

 adulteration will vanish before your bee-and- 

 honey talk. I get their confidence by answering 

 as best I can all the questions they ask. Then I 

 enlarge on the wisdom of handling the best hon- 

 ey, and also on the fact that my prices are so 

 they can make a good profit on the article. Do 

 not try to get grocers to handle any thing on less 

 than 20 per cent. If you have a line of comb 

 and extracted honey, try to let the profit on some 

 run up to 30 per cent, and then the grocer will 

 not hesitate to handle some for 20 per cent. 

 Honey is not as yet a necessity, and luxuries 

 usually bring the largest profits. 



The best sale I have made so far was about a 

 month ago. I called on The Blank Grocery 

 Co. and told them I had new comb honey, and 

 judged that they could use at least a case a week. 

 Mr. Blank took me back and showed me a pile 

 ©f seven or eight supers full of nice comb honey, 

 but last year's product, and all candied. I 

 frankly told him that he had that honey on hand 

 late in the season, and that the best thing to do 

 was to render it and have it put in bottles for his 

 trade. In a short time I had sold him two cases 

 of new honey, and took the old to render for him 

 at a cash price to pay for my time. One week 

 after finishing the rendering of his honey I sold 

 him 100 cases of new honf y — fully fifteen per 

 cent above what I could have sold unless I con- 

 signed it, and it is a question whether I would 



have obtained anywhere near the price I re- 

 ceived. 



In every town of any size one will find little 

 stores where it is hard to sell honey, as they car- 

 ry a very small stock. I find that these are good 

 places to sell honey, though I often have to leave 

 the honey and let the grocer sell it and pay after- 

 ward. Honey will sell in any place if displayed 

 in a prominent place, and in all these consign- 

 ment cases I require the dealer to make a special 

 effort to sell, and give him 25 per cent, so it is a 

 virtual guarantee of that much, or I take back 

 the goods. I have never been asked to take back 

 any honey yet. Sometimes I am able to do 

 even more for the storekeeper, such as fixing up 

 a window display of honey and beeswax, etc., 

 for him. It is more to my interest that the gro- 

 cer should succeed and make money by selling 

 my honey than that he be overstocked. I try to 

 get into the confidence of the grocer; and if I 

 am his true friend he will often tell me his real 

 trials, and I must understand his busness well 

 enough to offer some suggestion that will often 

 help him out. It will at least show him that he 

 has my genuine sympathy. Under such circum- 

 stances a selling-trip will be nothing but a round 

 of pleasant calls. This is real salesmanship, 

 which is easy after the first plowing is done. 



Salesmanship is diplomacy, for a man must be 

 persuaded to part with his money, which is a 

 most painful procedure with most of us. The 

 wire to pull is the mention of the profit he will 

 receive in addition to his first cost. 



Here is a sample talk. I never gave one just 

 like this, perhaps, although the substance of it 

 has passed over the counter several times before 

 my honey followed suit: 



" Good morning, Mr. George. My name is 

 Foster. I live down on Arapahoe St., across 

 from Lincoln School. I am a bee-keeper, and 

 raise honey to sell to grocers like you. I never 

 met you personally before, but have known you 

 by sight for some months. May I tell you about 

 the way I put up my honey, and the generous 

 profit the grocers are making who handle it.?" 



Generally I am encouraged to go on. " Now, 

 I have comb honey put up in cases of 24 sections, 

 graded according to the rules. " Then I tell him 

 about the rules so he can judge comb honey him- 

 self. " My extracted honey is thrown from the 

 combs by centrifugal force, the cappings being 

 removed with a knife made for that purpose. The 

 honey is then heated to 150 to 170, and bottled 

 at about 110. Honey thus put up will not gran- 

 ulate so quickly as when put up cold. My hon- 

 ey, both comb and extracted, is gathered by the 

 bees from alfalfa and also from sweet clover. You 

 can make 20 to 30 per cent on this honey; and as 

 all pure honey will granulate in time, I can re- 

 place any that candies, before being sold, with 

 new fresh goods. 1 see you ha>e a few jars on 

 hand, in which the honey is candied. If / had 

 sold you that honey you could call me up and 

 have liquefied honey in its place. If you will 

 take ten dollars' worth of me I'll liquefy what 

 you have on hand, frre of charae. " 



"But," says Mr. George, " I have few calls 

 for honey, and do not care to handle the extract- 

 ed any more 1 can use a case of the comb if 

 you will replace any that candies." 



" You have brought out another point. Your 



