368 



Tmm jtM®Ki©2Ei« ®E'® j,&^mmm.'&!. 



t^*<»*<»*a>*^*^*«>*^>^»^»»*a« 



his firm, ■' There are three men ahead 

 of me selling a like article. What 

 shall I do ?" The answer came quick 

 and terse : " Go on. There are fifty 

 more behind you.'' So our product — 

 honey — must not only strive with all 

 that has preceded it, but all that is to 

 follow. 



Now, conceding the all-important 

 item is to create a demand for honey, 

 how shall we do it ? How can we do 

 it best ? Why, go to jour neighbors 

 right at the outset. " Bone " the first 

 and nearest. Ask him if he does not 

 want some honey. That is a simple 

 way, but I deem it important and es- 

 sential. To give a neighbor a little to 

 tickle his palate, may be a good plan, 

 but I have not practiced it much. I 

 simply tickle this man or that woman 

 personally, and talk them into it ; and 

 if at first I " don't succeed," 1 "try, 

 try again." 



Don't force a man — that is not nec- 

 sary ; but if there is a chance to inter- 

 est him, do it. As my grandmother 

 used to say, "Mind your p's and q's." 

 Don't try to take him by storm — just 

 outflank him if j-ou can. 



I believe I will break into the thread 

 of my essaj- here, to tell a little story. 

 I once sold a few pounds to a doctor, 

 but afterwards, when I endeavored a 

 time or two to sell him a little bit, he 

 declined — said he was too poor. 

 Nothing daunted, one evening last 

 fall 1 approached nim again on the 

 subject. Again he declined. 



" Why, don't you like it?" " O, a 

 little — not very much." 



" Where do you keep j'our honey 

 when you have any ? or do you know 

 how the honey you used to have, was 

 taken care of ?" Soon I had him 

 drawn into a litttle conversation on 

 the nature and care of honey. Said I, 

 finally, " You had better try a little of 

 mj' honey." 



" Well, bring me up about a dollar's 

 worth." 



Not very long after I took him the 

 honey, he met me with, " George, got 

 any more honej' ?" 



" Yes, sir ; 2 000 pounds of it, or 

 thereabout." 



" Bring us up another dollar's worth, 

 will you ?" 



Of course I would, and of course I did. 



About a week later, when I met him 

 again, "George," said he, "what's the 

 matter with your honey ? Somehow 

 or other, it won't keep at all. Don't 

 know what we're going to do about it." 



I said that I did not know what was 

 the matter,unless it was that the honej- 

 was just too good to keep, and that I 

 supposed we would just have to re- 

 place it with another dollar's worth. 

 We did so. 



Finally, one Sunday in February, 

 the father met me in the aisle of the 



church, and with a smile about the 

 dimensions of a two-pound houey-sec- 

 tion, said : "Mr. Robbins,the doctor's 

 folks are out of honey. The doctor 

 has been wanting to order more, but 

 he said he had not got to see you." 

 " All right," I said, " I will bring some 

 up to-morrow evening." 



There was four dollars worth to 

 a nice customer whom I found it hard 

 to gain. It was no small accomplish- 

 ment. You see I deliver my honey. 

 That is the right way. Don't ask a 

 man to bu\' some honey, and tell him 

 to come and get it. Don't be afraid 

 to peddle a little. I started out to 

 work up a trade that very way. At 

 first my sales in half a day would 

 hardly pay wages ; but I soon learned 

 where I would sell honey. Now they 

 look for me to come around, and some- 

 times send me an order. 



I do not advise hauling comb honey 

 around much, unless you have a pretty 

 good idea where you can dispose of it. 

 In that case, weigh it and wrap it in 

 about dollar packages. Be a one- 

 priced man. Treat all alike. Better 

 lose a sale now and then, than suifer 

 men to "Jew" you down. 



One of my best customers refused 

 last fall to pay me my price, and I left 

 him. I afterwards decided to do what 

 perhaps I should have done at first — 

 tell him if he would take 13.00 worth, 



1 would let him have it at his price. 

 He bought two installments on these 

 terms. I then adhered to the rule 

 with others. Not many, however, will 

 stick at the price, or take so much at 

 a time. 



I dispose of considerable honey in 

 trade for articles which I desire. 

 Workingmen men especially will often 

 exchange their stock in trade — labor — 

 for honey, when they would not ven- 

 ture the cash. 



I have put my honey on sale in local 

 stores, but I cannot do it with the best 

 success. There are three villages from 



2 to 5 miles from home. The most 

 distant market is my best one, in this 

 respect ; the nearest one is the poorest. 

 The latter I can generally supply 

 directly with better satisfaction to all 

 parties. In disposing of honey in this 

 way, my practice has been to select 

 sections as nearly even and equal 

 weight as possible, put them into a 

 glassed shipping-case, fix the price 

 myself, and pay the merchant a com- 

 mission. The sections of irregular 

 weight I use to supply private custo- 

 mers. I have never paid more than 

 10 per cent, commission. One great 

 rub seems to be to find just the right 

 kind of an agent. 



Fiuallj', let us remember that honey 

 is largely a luxury, and must be pro- 

 duced for luxury seekers. Produce a 

 good, however, as well as a nice article 



of honey. It must be made to please 

 both eye and palate. I grow less and 

 less disposed to sell an inferior article, 

 without telling my customers. When 

 my clerk came to live with me recentlj' 

 I put some honej' on the table that I 

 had left on the hives until fall. It had 

 acquired the dark color and pungent 

 fiavor that such honey always does. 

 He thought he liked it pretty well at 

 first, although I could not eat it. But 

 pretty soon he began to tire of it. 

 When I put a section of good honey 

 on the dish, and he tasted thereof, he 

 said, "Now this tastes fit to eat. This 

 is good." I had not told him there 

 was any difterence in quality, either. 



Whatever I do, I always grade my 

 honej', and sell the different grades at 

 what they are worth. I have some- 

 times sold a very poor article at a very 

 low price — and the purchaser seemed 

 to like it. You know some folks have 

 not the keen perception in taste that 

 others have — just as it is with all the 

 other senses. But folks will grow tired 

 of poor honey sooner than they will 

 tire of a good article. Indeed, judg- 

 ing from my own experience, I am 

 confident that the distaste of so many 

 to honey, is very largely (it may be 

 principally) due to eating a poor 

 article. 



The care of honey does not belong 

 to this subject, but the quality of honey 

 does, for very obvious reasons, and, 

 hence, I take it upon myself to urge 

 upon this convention, if you would 

 build up your home market, or any 

 other market, study j'our best to pro- 

 duce first-class honey. 



Geo. F. Robbins. 



Mr. Cooper — Do you give any hon^j- 

 away to induce the recipient to buy ? 



Mr. Robbins — No. If you do that, 

 he will expect more. 



Mr. Stone once asked a man if he 

 wanted some honey. He replied, "No, 

 I don't care much for honey." The 

 next time he was in town, he gave the 

 man some honey, and sold to him 

 afterwards. 



Mr. Draper placed a hive with 

 "Pure Honey" in large letters on it, 

 in his wagon, and sold lots of honey. 

 He soon became well known. "They 

 even call me ' Honey,' " he said. "Peo- 

 ple salute me with, ' Hello, Honey,' or 

 'How-do-you-do, Honey?'" 



Mr. Becker had some broken comb 

 honej' that he oft'ered for sale. Once 

 he was met with : "It is too late. It 

 will not keep. I bought some extracted 

 honey of you, and it did not keep." 

 He sold to another man, who started 

 into the cellar with his honey. He 

 was stopped, and told not to put it in 

 the cellar. 



Mr. Van Doren — I never peddled 

 any honej' until last year. I got started 



