328 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



CUTTING OUT ONE MIDDLEMAN AND IM- 

 PROVING THE GENERAL MARKET. 



The great majority come on the last 

 list. They are perhaps a long- vva^'s 

 from market. After they have taken 

 pains to produce a crop of fine honey 

 and if it is the best grade of extracted 

 honey for table use, it is put in 60 

 pound cans; if dark in color, or "off" 

 in flavor, so it must g-o to the baker, 

 perhaps barrels are best. If it is 

 comb honey, case it up early, and be 

 honest in grading. If there is any 

 question in your mind about a section 

 grading No. 1, put it in No. 2. 

 Make each grade a little better than 

 your competitor's. Don't think for a 

 minute, that 3'ou will not get paid for 

 it. You see, we are going to try and 

 tell you how you can get a good price 

 for your honey, and, at the same time, 

 build up a reputation that will never 

 leave you. "Once a customer alwa^'s 

 a customer," should be your motto, in 

 all 3'our honey deals. Produce a good 

 article, put it up in good shape for the 

 market, then last, but not least, ask a 

 good price for it. Of course if you get 

 your price too high, it may sell slow; 

 perhaps so slow that you will have to 

 lower the price before it will move, 

 but before you lower the price do a 

 little hustling. We will suppose you 

 have been letting some one else sell 

 your honey for you in the past, but 

 have decided to change for the better 

 price method. You are not acquainted 

 with the honey trade, and you will 

 need the addresses of the manufactur- 

 ing druggists, the honey bottlers, and 

 then there is the baker. Your local 

 druggist can likely furnish you the 

 addresses of the druggists, and your 

 groceryman those of the bakers, and 

 the bee journals reach probably all of 

 the bottlers, and most of the bakers 

 and druggists, so a little notice there 

 will likely bring you orders. 



don't CHARGE FOR SAMPLES. 



You will need some sample mailing 

 blocks, as most of them buy extracted 



honey b3^ sample. Now a sample 

 block and postage will cost you about 

 lOc, each sample you send out, and 

 there will be a temptation to charge 

 for this sample. Don't do it. You 

 want to place a sample in every deal- 

 er's hands, who is interested enough 

 to ask for it. The few that order 

 samples out of curiosity will not 

 amount to over 5 per cent., so this ele- 

 ment is not worth considering. 



Instead of charging for our samples, 

 we figure to get our pay out of the ad- 

 vance price we receive for our hone}'. 

 We have been making a little mental 

 calculation, and have come to the con- 

 clusion that we received about $15 

 each, for the samples sent out last 

 year, above what would have been re- 

 ceived had we sold our honey through 

 a commission house at the market quo- 

 tations. 



CAUTIONS TO BE OBSERVED IN SHIPPING. 



We will suppose the orders are be- 

 ginning to come in. A few of the 

 small orders will be accompanied by 

 money to pay for the hone}'. Then 

 there are others that you know by rep- 

 utation, that you will ship to without 

 money in advance. The probabilities 

 are these known dealers will simply 

 say ship so an:l so, depending on their 

 good name as sutScient security. 

 Thus far e\ erything has worked lovely, 

 but you will probably receive orders 

 from parties that are perfect strang- 

 ers; some of them will furnish refer- 

 ences. Just a word now, in looking 

 up these references; do not fail to en- 

 close a self addressed stamped envel- 

 ope, and leave margin enough below 

 your inquiry, for their reply. If, 

 after looking them up, you conclude 

 they are all right financially, you can 

 ship them. But, if you have any doubt 

 of their integrity, or if they do not 

 furnish reference, the better way will 

 be to ship C. O. D. Then there are 

 others who prefer to pay on delivery; 

 so it will be well to describe this 

 method of shipping goods. It might be 



