NOVEMBER 1, 1912 



687 



Conversations w^ith Doolittle 



At Borodino, New York 



DISPOSING OF A HONEY CROP; THE COMMIS- 

 SION MERCHANT NOT TO BE DESPISED. 



"I want you to tell something about dis- 

 posing of a crop of comb honey to the 

 best advantage." 



"The first thing is, to put it up nicely 

 for market, so that it will attract the eye 

 of every person who happens to see it. 

 Years ago I used furniture tacks, with 

 large shining metal heads, using one over 

 the head of every nail that was in sight 

 on each ease containing the honey. Then 

 I used a dark wood, a sort of yellow 

 brown, with lighter shades all through, 

 showing the 'grain' of each year's growth. 

 The name of this wood is sumac. This was 

 for the side cleats, which held the sec- 

 tions in the cases, these cleats being only 

 3-16 inch thick, II/2 inches wide, which 

 allowed two-thirds of the 'face side' of 

 the sections to show their nice white faces 

 to the public. To say that I enjoyed get- 

 ting out the sumac poles, which grew on 

 father's land, sawing, planing, and pre- 

 paring them in my own shop on winter 

 days, hardly explains the fun I had in 

 fixing up these fancy cases. Cases thus 

 fixed up, filled with the nicest snow-white 

 combs of basswood honey, were admired 

 by hundreds at my home. I sold much 

 of it at home, and what was not so dis- 

 posed of I sold with the remainder of my 

 crop to a dealer in Syracuse. A case of 

 this was set outside his store near the 

 walk, and he told me that almost every 

 one who passed by was sure to stop and 

 look at it, making many exclamations re- 

 garding its beauty, and then would come 

 in to purchase some. 



"But having the crop all put up nicely, 

 what next? No matter how good one may 

 feel over a crop of the most attractive 

 honey, he must have no thought of holding 

 this crop permanently. One can not live 

 on honey alone, and he must exchange this 

 beautiful crop, in which he has taken so 

 much delight, for money to buy the things 

 another has produced. 



"I remember, as yesterday, when my 

 father, more than half a century ago, ex- 

 changed all the box honey he could pro- 

 duce (and he had nearly three-fourths of a 

 ton one year) for boots, shoes, stockings, 

 clothing, furniture, etc., doing this to as 

 good advantage as would be the case if we 

 received 40 cents a pound to-day. 



"The disposing of one's crop of honey 

 seems to be the one thing which puzzles 

 the beekeeper — not that it is difficult to 



sell it, but to sell it advantageously; that 

 is where the trouble comes in. Beekeep- 

 ing is an industrial pursuit, while the dis- 

 posing of the product is purely commercial. 

 Few men are born equipped for a com- 

 mercial life; and where they are, if they 

 should start out with an industrial pur- 

 suit they would soon work out of this into 

 the commercial, where they rightfully be- 

 long. Not one man in five thousand is 

 equally fitted for both the industrial and 

 the commercial. I knoAv that farmers sell 

 their own products quite generally; but 

 their hogs, sheep, cattle, butter, cabbage, 

 grain, etc., are things which are sought after 

 by dealers in every city and at every rail- 

 road station throughout the country. But 

 it seems to be different with honey, especial- 

 ly in this day and age of the world. Fifty 

 years ago, occasionally a dealer would go 

 through these parts buying up what honey 

 he could; but this method now would be 

 a surprise. Honey does not seek its level 

 in the markets as do flour, meat, sugar, 

 etc., and it does not have a standard quo- 

 tation as do these things. It is not uncom- 

 mon to find the price quoted in one market 

 from twenty to thirty per cent higher than 

 in another city, when it would seem by the 

 scarcity of nectar-secreting flowers that 

 the latter should be the one that would pay 

 the higher jDer cent. 



"In view of these disadvantages which 

 the apiarist labors under, and after trying 

 most of the many plans given for the dis- 

 posing of a good crop of honey, after it 

 is nicely put up, I have come to regard 

 the commission merchant as the best friend 

 of the one who does not care to try his 

 hand in a commercial way. By devoting 

 oneself to the si^ecialty of beekeping, the 

 bees may be made to give greater crops, 

 and thus one may, to a certain extent, save 

 the commission charged for the selling of 

 his product. There are many commission 

 merchants who are as upright as they of 

 our own household; and by using the 

 proper care one can find such as are proved 

 to be reliable by a reputation founded on 

 a long-established business. Having found 

 the righteous man (Dun's or Bradstreet's 

 commercial reports will help in this mat- 

 ter), then one should get his product into 

 their hands so they can have sufficient 

 time to take advantage of the market in 

 selling it. I find that the best time to 

 have it reach these merchants is from Sep- 

 tember 20 to October 15, in order to give 

 them a chance to obtain the best price." 



