310 



THE AMERICAN BEE KEEPER. 



Norcinber 



I From Ohio Farmer). 



MAKKETING HONEY TO THE BEST 

 ADVANTAGE, 



BY L F. ABBOTT. 



A matter of considerable importance 

 to bee keepers is how to market their 

 honey to best advantage. Most of the 

 older bee keepers can remember when 

 there was no delay in selling what sur- 

 plus honey they had to spare at a good 

 price. The grocery man then easily 

 excused himself for asking a quarter 

 of a dollar a pound for honey, even in 

 broken combs and very dark colored 

 at that. 



New methods in bee keeping and 

 honey production are very much 

 changed. There is not only more 

 honey produced, but it is put upon 

 he market in finer condition and 

 more attractive forms. The facilities 

 of transportation are such that the 

 products of western apiaries and the 

 the almost spontaneous crop of Cali- 

 fornia's sage bush, find their way to 

 eastern markets and lower the price 

 for the eastern bee keeper's somewhat 

 superior product. 



But this is nothing in comparison 

 with the evils resulting from adultera- 

 tion — spurious products put up by un- 

 scrupulous venders and palmed off 

 upon the unsuspecting public as pure 

 extracted honey. Large amounts of 

 this stuff, made principally of glucose, 

 floating a small piece of honey comb, 

 have been sold in all our markets. 

 Like everything of this kind the cheat 



is sooner or later found out, but in- 

 stead of the real transgressors having 

 to suifer, the honest bee keeper who 

 sells the pure article of honey has the 

 fraud saddled off onto him. There is 

 only one thing for the bee keeper to 

 do, viz : produce a good article of 

 honey and put it upon the market in 

 nice shape, putting his name upon 

 every package of extracted honey, and 

 show the public that good extracted 

 honey is truly a reality. 



I have looked over the markets of 

 some of our cities and 1 find that 

 dealers — the grocery men — do not 

 want this glucose stuff, and I also find 

 that the prejudice of the public has 

 been so aroused that dealers are slow 

 to take hold of the genuine extracted 

 honey and pav anything like a fair 

 price for it. With comb honey the 

 case is different. This speaks for it- 

 self, in a measure, and any nice, white 

 section honey need not go begging for 

 a market. 



To hit the market — pleasing both 

 the dealer and consumer — we must 

 adopt a plan whereby our goods can 

 be handled by both without breakage 

 and leakage ; be kept clean and in 

 nice condition, and present an attrac- 

 tive appearance ; and above all, in the 

 case of extracted honey, that it be just 

 what the label on the package affirms 

 it to be. Of course every bee keeper 

 is desirous of obtaining a fair price for 

 his honey. A few years ago 30 cents 

 a pound satisfied him. After awhile 

 25 cents proved a satisfactory price. 

 Of late years California and western 

 bee keepers have set the price for 

 eastern honey producers, at first at 20 

 cents a pound for comb honey, and 

 latterly at 18 cents as the wholesale 

 price, which is low enough for the nic- 



