268 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



fits and produced extracted only, so 

 the "Company" went out of business a 

 couple of years after Miles Morton's 

 death. 



The editor asks for the exact and 

 minute details of that method of selling 

 honey; its good and bad points, the 

 elements that make for success or 

 failure, etc. Perhaps it will be as 

 good a way to tell exactly what I did; 

 how I improved methods each year; 

 and ivhy some ways proved good, and 

 others bad. 



SOME OF THE DIFFICULTIES OF 

 GRADING. 



My part of the undertaking grew 

 more imposing every moment, as I 

 thought out some of its details. A 

 uniform system of grading and pack- 

 ing was absolutely necessary, so I 

 packed every pound of it myself. To 

 the bee-keeper who has only a white 

 honey-flow, this would seem a simple 

 matter; just a case of white, whiter, 

 whitest — mix in light-weights and un- 

 sealed combs with the best to get rid 

 of them. But I discovered that the re- 

 tailer considered such grading a 

 beastly swindle, because it left half a 

 dozen unsalable scrubs from each case, 

 and there lay his profit. I was going 

 to meet the retailer face to face, and 

 would not risk any such fool racket. 

 Then we had four distinct colors with 

 which to deal. Early in the spring 

 we got a good quantity of sections 

 partly filled with a clear, pink honey, 

 always in the center of the section. 

 Then the clover and basswood flow 

 would account for the white combs 

 with a pink center. A weak swarm 

 might not finish entirely with white 

 but put a border of good black buck- 

 wheat around the pink and white. So, 

 it settled down to four grades (speak- 

 ing of color only) — "white, yellow, 

 buckwheat and mixed." Then came 

 the grading according to "finish," 

 that is, the filling and sealing. I de- 

 cided to make only three grades, 



"Fancy," "No. 1," and "No. 2,"— 

 and leave culls and scrubs at home to 

 be extracted, and used as "bait" next 

 year. Three grades only, with four 

 colors in each grade, made it a dozen 

 raw kinds to struggle with. 



After that I found three sizes or va- 

 rieties of sections; the 4^4^x4^x7 to-the- 

 foot; besides Morton's 3>4^x4%x7to-the- 

 foot (the tall section) while my tall 

 sections were 8-to-the-foot. Multiply 

 again, and we have 35 varieties — but 

 the end is not yet. The tall ones were 

 packed 35 in the case for the thin ones; 

 30 per case for the thick ones, and 24 

 per case for the "standards." 



I lived through it, made the trip, and 

 sold the honey at a nice advance over 

 the usual method. The orders were 

 mailed home to Morton wlio shipped 

 the honey as rapidly as orders came 

 in, and I called to collect on my way 

 home. This trip showed me the ex- 

 asperating annoyances a merchant 

 was "up against" whenever a case of 

 comb honey came into his store. I did 

 not wonder at the limited sales and 

 the general feeling of disgust at the 

 business, when I saw the kind of stock 

 usually' exposed for sale. 



DIFFICULTIES WITH WHICH RETAILERS 

 HAVE TO CONTEND — GRAPHIC- 

 ALLY TOLD. 



In one store I was waiting for an 

 opportunity to interview the proprietor 

 who was busy at the time, (and, of 

 course, that is no time to ask a man 

 to buy) when a lady customer called 

 for some honey. The clerk made a 

 motion as if to take a section from a 

 case on the counter, but an imperative 

 "No, I do not want any of that nasty 

 stuff," was sufficient. He then open- 

 ed another case, and I learned some- 

 thing right there. Mr. Clerk took a 

 big hatchet and tried to pry the cover. 

 It was nailed on solidly enough for a 

 cod fish box. When he got that cover 

 off it was in splinters, which he threw 



