JUNE 15, 1913 



ADVERTISING HONEY WITHOUT EXPENSE 



BY JAY SMITH 



Beekeepers as a rule do not realize what 

 an advantage they have in the way of se- 

 curing free advertisement — not only free, 

 but, if properly managed, one can get pay 

 for advertising his own business. We bee- 

 keepers study the mysteries of the bees, and 

 discuss them among ourselves through the 

 medium of the bee journals until to us they 

 are commonplace. The rank and file of the 

 lioney-C'onsumers never get to know of the 

 marvelous things of interest concerning' the 

 bee and its works. It is '' up to us " to 



A similar picture of Jay Smith has appeared in 

 hundreds of magazines all over the countrv. 



give them, through the newspapers and 

 magazines, live, interesting sketches of the 

 bee and honey industry. They like any 

 thing unique, original, and interesting to 

 the public. Of course a person must not 

 give the articles the appearance of adver- 

 tising or it will " queer the game." It is 

 not necessary to say that you have honey or 

 bees to sell. If you have bees they will 

 know that you have honey. I have fre- 

 quently noticed the surprise of people when 

 I tell them that I produced a ton of lioney. 

 The word " ton " seems much bigger when 

 applied to honey than does 2000 pounds. 

 So does " half a ton " or a '' quarter ton." 

 It probably seems big to them because they 

 were familiar with it only in spoonful lots 

 when colds were prevalent. 



Tlien, again, the p;;blie can not get away 

 from the belief that the principal business 

 of the be3 is to sling — that the sting is 

 something awful, and that, if you go near 

 a hive of bees, you are taking your life in 

 your hands. Some of the common stunts 

 that are pulled off among the beekeepers 

 would amaze the public. 



One of the most successful things I ever 

 did in the way of advertising was by the 

 use of the accompanying cut. If I could 

 call for a show of hands as to how many 

 readeis of Gleanings have seen this pic- 

 ture thousands of them would respond. I 

 made this photo last summer more for the 

 fun of the thing than for any thing else. 

 I made several negatives, and sold one of 

 them to Underwood & Underwood. They 

 must have made a good thing out of it, for 

 it is still running in papers and magazines 

 all over the world. Scai'cely a day goes by 

 but some one brings to me a paper in which 

 he has discovered my picture. One saw it 

 in Harper's Weekly; another in the Chicago 

 American; another in the St. Louis Demo- 

 crat, and another in a supplement to a Sun- 

 day paper. I have heard of it from Los 

 Angeles, Ual. From Texas a paper came 

 from a relative with the bee picture in. The 

 president of our univeisity attended the 

 inauguration of President Wilson, and 

 while there he mailed me a New York paper 

 with my bee whiskers in. (Underwood & 

 Underwood give it the dignified name of 

 "Bee Beard.") From far-away Idaho comes 

 word from our friend Geo. W. York that 

 he saw it in a paper. I mention this to 

 show how- the public is interested in any 

 thing unique in the bee line. 



I do not know how mucli good tlris has 

 done me in the way of selling honey; but 

 I do know that I have sold more than twice 

 as much honey this year as in any previous 

 year. 



Vinceinies, Ind. 



SELLING HONEY BY THE CARLOAD IN ARI- 

 ZONA 



A Brief Mention of Some of the Men who do it 



BY WM. LOSSING 



One of my customers, Mr. Peter H. Ben- 

 son, of Palo Verde, has sold me two ear- 

 loads each year for the last two years. He 

 is a farmer making the bees a side issue (a 

 rather good-sized issue). His equipment 

 consists of 500 colonies divided into three 

 apiaries. At each apiary there is installed a 

 six-frame automatic power extractor and a 

 1%-power engine which is conveyed from 

 one yard to another. He also has a pump, 



