TH® MTmmRicn.n bek jouRNaiL. 



471 



provcment in the writing of orders 

 ■during tlie past few 3'e:irs, and we hope 

 that the foregoing article will stimu- 

 late to greater preeision and more 

 business taet in letter-writing. — Ed.] 



SELLING HONEY. 



■low to 



Put Honey 

 i?Iarkcl. 



Upon I lie 



Read (it the Ohio State Conveiitmi 



BY H. F. MOORE. 



Marketing our honey is one of the 

 most important parts of the business ; 

 for if we fail in this, it is useless for us 

 to raise large crops of hone}', or to use 

 great care in its production. Very 

 little need be said about comb honey 

 to the representative body of apiarists, 

 and one might almost sa}' upon any 

 branch of practical bee-keeping. For 

 we have here assembled the most en- 

 terprising and wide-awake of our Ohio 

 honey-producers. 



Experience has shown, time and 

 again, that grocerymen and dealers 

 pass by any honey that is daubed on 

 the outside, or shows any broken comb 

 through the gla.ss. Yet these things 

 will always continue to be, so long as 

 freight men handle honey. The only 

 solution that seems near by is to en- 

 case each section in a little pasteboard 

 box made expressly for the purpose. 

 Take a walk with mo through the 

 commission houses of any of our large 

 cities, and you will see large quantities 

 of comb honey marketed in that shape, 

 and also that the breakage in necessary 

 handling is much less. Their cost is 

 trifling — less than one-half a cent each 

 by the thousand. 



I think if the bee-men who took his 

 honey from the hive and boxed and 

 shipped whole crates without even 

 taking them apart to see if all were 

 nicely tilled, or scraping the sections 

 to make them more attractive, could 

 have heard the conversation between 

 the commission merchant and the pos- 

 sible purchaser, and heard his honey 

 offered at three and four cents per 

 pound less than nice honey in glassed 

 cases, he would have realized the ob- 

 ject lesson more fully than by reading 

 a whole volume of bee-literature. 



Beauty in appearance is as impor- 

 tant as excellence in flavor to the suc- 

 cessful apiarist. If beauty and neat- 

 ness are necessary with comb honey, 

 they are no less important to ex- 

 tracted honey. As to the name ex- 

 tracted, I am not sure it is the best 

 available. For we must take into ac- 

 count the effect on the ear of the pro- 

 spective purchaser. On one occasion 

 the writer told a gentleman he had 

 some nice extracted honey for sale. 



and was met with the reply— that he 

 wanted the pirn: article. Now many 

 iaj' "clear" honey, 

 an improvement on 



(ierman people 

 and tliis may be 

 the old word. 



Many people are met who say " we 

 never eat strainetl honey." On being 

 asked to explain, they say it "tastes 

 like molasses." Hut when a tine, heavy 

 sample of whit(U'Iover extracted honey 

 is shown them, the instant decision is 

 — "that is line," leading to the in- 

 evitable conclusion that some of our 

 bee-men in sending clear honey to 

 market, have not always been careful 

 to select well ripened white clover 

 honey. For as a matter of fact, one 

 hundred pcmnds of thin, strong, ex- 

 tracted honey will do any market 

 more harm than one thousand pounds 

 of an equal grade of comb. Why ? 

 Because everybody supposes that comb 

 honey is made by the bees, but the ex- 

 tracted honey partly or wholly by 

 men, and any imperfection in the 

 same is immediately charged to the 

 human ageucy, whether justly or not. 

 To be plain, the general public is sure 

 that lots of manufactured honey is on | 

 market. One gentleman in particular 

 said thousands of pounds of viade 

 honey were sold every year in the 

 cities. 



When these people are asked to ex- 

 plain more particularly, they usually 

 admit they guessed about it, and when 

 the writer has explained about the 

 difi'erent causes that make honey bad 

 or unpleasant, they usually say — " well, 

 may be that is so." No greater curse 

 to the bee-keepers of our land can be 

 imagined than the much-written-about 

 wily lie. 



The question to any one who sells 

 honey is — "Do you rear bees?" and 

 the assurance which we give them, 

 that we have 150 colonies ourselves, 

 makes it all right, and is a voucher 

 for the quality of the honey. Occa- 

 sionally men are met who will say, 

 "Why, honey is made now-a-days so 

 like the real, that you cannot tell it by 

 smell or taste." Such a man is onlj' 

 worthy to be classed with one who does 

 not believe he has a heart, nor that 

 George Washington or Napoleon ever 

 lived, and is consequently beyond 

 reach of all argument. I do not refer 

 to such, but to those great numbers of 

 people who love honey, but having 

 read in the paper that somewhere out 

 West — perhaps Chicago — even comb 

 honey is made, they are afraid to pur- 

 chase anywhere for fear of getting 

 some of that mixed stuff. 



I am heart and soul with any move- 

 ment looking toward the severe pun- 

 ishment of any one who adulterates 

 clear honey, and thereby injures and 

 disgraces those who follow a most 

 honorable pursuit. 



In marketing extracted honey, glass 

 receptacles are evidently best. Those 

 holding one-half pound, three-quarters, 

 and a pound are preferred by the 

 trade, as they can be sold for a small 

 amount of money. Large quantities 

 of honey are .sold each yi^ar to the 

 wholesale and retail druggists. Most 

 druggists prefer to furnish their own 

 receptacdes, but if not, the quart Mason 

 glass jar presents marked advantages 

 on account of its holding just three 

 pounds of good, thick honey. When 

 crystallized it is far easier to melt a 

 quart than a 60-pound can. 



There is another method of retailing 

 clear honey which promises to lead in 

 the quantity that can be sold in a 

 given time and territory. Take a 

 quart Mason jar half full of white 

 clover honey, and a nice one-pound 

 section, if you please, and call at the 

 first house on any street of anj' town 

 you may mention. Rap or ring gently, 

 and on seeing a member of the family, 

 look pleasant and say, " Good morn- 

 ing" pleasantly, and without more 

 ado say, " Don't you wish me to bring 

 you some nice white clover honey this 

 day next week ?" 



By this mode of address you surprise 

 and please them ; surprise them be- 

 cause in most cases they never saw a 

 sample of honey brought to their door, 

 and an order solicited ; please them, 

 because by your words you lift your- 

 self clear from the dreaded agent or 

 peddler. Then in a few words explain 

 your price, size of package and day of 

 delivery, at the same time inducing 

 the possible customer to get a tea- 

 spoon and taste the inviting and at- 

 tractive sweet. Each family furnish- 

 ing a clean te.a-spoon for themselves, 

 even the most particular have no ob- 

 jections. On the day appointed you 

 take your load of honey and little 

 book in which is recorded the name of 

 street and family, and number of 

 house, and deliver the honey to each 

 family that has ordered. 



These days for delivering occur say 

 once a week, and are on different 

 streets each time. In four or five 

 months, or sooner, perhaps, give them 

 all a call again, and your old custo- 

 mers will greet j'ou with, "O, you're 

 •the honey man, ain't you ? Why did 

 you not come around before ?" If you 

 liappen to have a big pocket in your 

 coat, and put in a few cakes of nice 

 beeswax — which your better half has 

 kindly moulded for you in the family 

 gem-pans — so much the better, for 

 many families use beeswax to make 

 the irons smooth,and in sewing carpet, 

 and to make a salve. Also many a 

 dentist will be glad of your visit, for a 

 large amount of wax is used in mouth- 

 fitting yearly. 



