1903 



THE AMERICAN BEE-KEEPER 



127 



Marking Our Shipping Packages. 



Considerable has been written in the 

 several bee journals of late in regard 

 to the propriety or advisability of pro- 

 ducers marking shipping packages with 

 their name and address. The following 

 from Secretary Howard, explains it- 

 self, and is doubtless an outgrowth of 

 the discussion: 



Romulus, N. Y.. April 3. 1903. 

 Editor American Bec-Keeper: 



I hand you herewith the following 

 resolution: 



Resolved, That this, the New York 

 State Association of Bee-Keepers' So- 

 cieties, in convention assembled at 

 Syracuse, March 10, 1903, recommend 

 and urge the bee-keepers to place their 

 name and address upon the packages 

 containing their honey, both comb and 

 extracted, and that this resolution be 

 forwarded to the bee journals for pub- 

 lication. 



Yours truly, 



C. B. Howard, Sec. 



In many instances it is desired to 

 develop a trade for our individual pro- 

 duct, or for that of a certain associa- 

 tion of bee-keepers. In such cases, 

 it is important that some mark be used 

 as a designating brand, so that the con- 

 sumer may know specifically what he 

 is buying, and thus be enabled to place 

 duplicate orders for that which suits 

 him, or to avoid that which has not 

 been regarded with favor. This meth- 

 od necessitates the placing of our pro- 

 duct directly with the retailer or in the 

 hands of the consumer, and is, doubt- 

 less, the most profitable plan where 

 practicable. However, if sales are to 

 be made to the "middleman," such as 

 a wholesale grocery firm or those who 

 habitually repack the goods under their 

 own private mark, the placing of the 

 producter's name upon the package 

 availeth naught, for neither the con- 

 sumer, nor the retailer will be permit- 

 ted to look upon that name. 



Under existing conditions, many 

 producers find it advisable to avail 

 themselves of the ready cash market 

 afforded by the middleman, and thus 

 divide profits and labor of seeking bet- 

 ter prices. While this plan is often the 

 most expeditious one of realizing? up- 

 on a crop of honey, it is rarely the 

 most profitable. The resolution of the 

 N. Y. S. A. B. K. S. is obviously in 



line with the best interests of the pro- 

 ducer, and if closely adhered to, and 

 some effort put forth in the direction 

 of developing a more direct outlet for 

 their product, will surely result in 

 greater profits to the producers of that 

 state 



Last season The Bee-Keeper em- 

 phatically protested against the ab- 

 surd practice of advertising queens the 

 chief merit of which was that they were 

 bred from a mother upon which the 

 vendor had placed an almost fabulous 

 valuation. Our complaint was regis- 

 tered solely in the interest of the inex- 

 perienced buyer; and, be it said to the 

 credit of those who first made the mis- 

 take of thus attempting to express 

 merit, the practice was discontinued, 

 as a result of our protest. We shall 

 not renew the subject now, and hope 

 to be spared the necessity of ever hav- 

 ing to renew it. In view of some mis- 

 understanding now abroad, however, in 

 regard to our former position in this 

 connection, we beg to say that it was 

 never our intention to intimate that a 

 "raiser" of queens might not possess 

 a breeding queen which might be in 

 fact worth hundreds of dollars to him, 

 as a breeder. We do not believe we 

 have a single reader financially dis- 

 interested in the queen-rearing business 

 who has misunderstood our argument; 

 but some of those whose financial in- 

 terests may have suffered to some ex- 

 tent as a result of our plea for its dis- 

 continuance are prone to deliver left- 

 handed swipes at this journal, even to 

 this day. Advertising stock from a 

 thousand-dollar queen deceives only the 

 ambitious tyro, often a beginner with- 

 out means who is honestly struggling 

 to establish himself in a business which 

 he loves and looks forward to, fre- 

 quently, with fondest hopes, as a life 

 vocation. The American Bee-Keeper 

 has, perhaps, a thousand such read- 

 ers; and in the interests of these, we 

 repeat our only objection to the prac- 

 tice, that it is taking an unfair ad- 

 vantage of those who are by reason of 

 inexoerience unable to comprehend the 

 advertiser's point. We do not worry 

 for the old, experienced "bee-man." 

 He'll look out for himself; never fear. 



While it is doubtless a fact that bees 

 left entirely to themselves often prove 

 more profitable than do those which 

 have been the victims of constant dis- 



