142 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAi^, 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY, 



Beeville, Texas. 



PROFITABLE BEE-KEEPING. 



I^e^son No. 7. 



(Continued from page 111.) 

 MARKETING HONEY. 



As it is one trade to produce a crop, 

 and another to sell it, I will give you my 

 plans for disposing of our own honey, 

 and I have never in all nay life produced 

 more honey than I could sell at a fair 

 price, and, in fact, I never had as much 

 as I could sell. 



Now, if you are a beginner, you can- 

 not afford to have any middle-men or 

 commission business. When I say you 

 cannot afford it, I mean from the stand- 

 point of making your bees pay their own 

 way, and something left to pay you for 

 your trouble. You may be worth a 

 million dollars, but I discuss this matter 

 from a business stand-point, and I re- 

 peat, you cannot afford to put a small 

 crop of honey out on commission, for 

 you need every cent it will bring to start 

 you off next year. 



Well, to do this, take your honey right 

 to the doors of the consumers, and weigh 

 out just what they wish— from 5 cents 

 worth up. Find out what honey retails 

 at in your town, and always sell goods 

 at the same, as I do not believe in run- 

 ning down a honey market. 



Then you can tell your customers who 

 you are, where you live, and that your 

 business is producing nice honey like 

 this ; and all this can be told while you 

 are weighing out the honey, so no time 

 is lost either by yourself or customer. 

 And, bear in mind that it is no harm to 

 ask a big price, but awfully bad to give 

 light weight or measure. So say to each 

 customer : " See, there ; I give you big, 

 full weight, all nice, fresh honey right 

 from thebee-hives— my own producing !" 



You know it to be pure, so you need 



not be afraid to talk, and I tell you it 

 will be but a short while until your mar- 

 ket will hunt you up, and you will be 

 planning how to best enlarge your api- 

 ary to accommodate your trade. 



Now, I knoiv all this is true, for it is 

 pure, undefiled experience that I am 

 giving you ; and if you will follow my 

 advice, I will insure you a market for 

 all of your honey. If you have no town 

 near you, go to a town to sell your 

 honey, as people in towns and cities de- 

 pend upon buying about all they get. 



When you have run your apiary up to 

 where you are a big bee-keeper, and can 

 ship out honey by the ton, and have 

 more honey than you have time to sell 

 yourself, then hunt up a good, honest 

 commission firm, and make arrange- 

 ments to ship them ail the honey that 

 you do not sell at your own door, or by 

 going to town and back. 



Will you bear with me a little, when I 

 tell you the way for a bee-keeper or 

 farmer to do? If he or she wishes to 

 mount above the obstacles of life, they 

 should never go to town without taking 

 something along to sell, unless when 

 they go to church on Sundays. 



All the little necessaries can be pur- 

 chased for our tables, such as soda, 

 pepper, spice, coffee, etc., and save the 

 money to fit us up for another year. You 

 will soon learn that you can sell almost 

 anything you can raise on a farm — 

 honey, eggs, butter or vegetables, 

 chickens, etc., and as I said before, peo- 

 ple that live in town will watch out for 

 you, and as they buy all they get, they 

 will soon become acquainted with you, 

 and will know your team and wagon as 

 far as they can see it ; and by just a 

 little trouble on our part, a trade can in 

 this way be built up to take our honey 

 or anything else we have, with'but little 

 time being lost. 



Study your honey market as you do 

 your bees and honey-plants, and learn 

 how or in what shape your customers 

 like their honey, and put it up to suit 

 them, and you will soon be moving on as 

 smoothly as heart could wish. But if we 

 do not put forth an energy to get our- 

 selves started out in the world, we had 

 better not start at all. 



Now, if one of you follows my instruc- 

 tions and fails to sell all your honey, 

 will you please write nie, and tell me 

 on what part you made a failure '? I 

 will then see if I can suggest a remedy 

 Jennie Atchley. 

 (To be continued.) 



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