122 



THE AMERICAN APICULTURIST. 



box and set it on the counter to be handled 

 until it becomes broken, danby and dusty. 

 I have seen some sitting disconsolately in 

 a store in Sprinjiflekl for two months and 

 I do not wonder at it, especially as the 

 price is 25 or 30 cents. I furnish 

 glassed retailing cases, and when one be- 

 . comes empty I take it home and clean it 

 up. Put your extracted honey in small 

 .packages. I find that it sells more readily 

 in not larger thau 2 11). lots. Glass pack- 

 ages I believe to be the best as a rule. 

 Strive to have the best quality of honey. 

 This is most important. For example: 

 A buys a section of beautiful, well-ripened 

 clover honey. It is good. It tastes like 

 more. He gets ai)out two more boxes 

 that look Just as nice but are not ripened 

 so well. Terhaps it has set too near to the 

 wall or floor of the honey house. It is 

 thinner and lacks the ravishing flavor 

 of the other. He does not realize that 

 there is any essential ditt'erence. He only 

 .knows that it does not taste as good to 

 him and he concludes that he is growing 

 tired of it and buys no more. !See that 

 your honey is good. Take it to folks' own 

 doors. 



Shipping on commission. 

 Generally sliipping on commission is 

 one of tlie best methods in the world of 

 breaking down prices. It accuuiulates 

 great stacks of honey at a few pcjints, 

 which has the eflect to depress any produce 

 market and certainly it must that of so 

 precious and delicate an article as honey. 

 It consigns the houey to men who cannot 

 devote the attention to, nor take the in- 

 terest in, the matter that the producer 

 could or should take himself. No doubt 

 the commission business is often an ad- 

 vantaiie to the beekeeper. After his own 

 market is worked to the best, the com- 

 mission man can often dispose of the sur- 

 plus much better than he can himself. 

 But the practice of lumping ort' a crop to 

 a commission merchant or wholesaler can 

 scarcely be too severely condemned. Take 

 into account the profits of two, often three 

 middlemen, transportation charges one 

 way sometimes two, the honey, it msiy be 

 going back, near to, or past where it 

 started from, and other items before it 

 reaches the consumer, and the proceeds 

 to the producer ai'e below all proportion 

 to what they should be, even though the 

 retail price be fair. If honey must be dis- 

 posed of in this way it shoulil be done 

 through men who are themselves inter- 

 ested in honey production, such as Muth 

 and others who might be named. But we 

 should be on the lookout for any channel 

 through which we nuiy reach the retaihr 

 direct. I have sold honey through the 



medium of correspondence 400 miles 

 away. 



Importance of the home market. 



The importance of a home market can 

 not be easily overestimated. I like to 

 talk on this point. It is one of my hob- 

 bies. The oltjections agiinst the com- 

 mission and lumping business all argue its 

 importance. Having enumerated them I 

 need not repeat, them. It will take time 

 and work to build up this market, and it 

 may not seem to pay at first. I have found 

 it so. But in a few years I have gathered 

 a custom that takes a large share of my 

 crop every year. I include in my home 

 market Springfield, 111., fourteen miles 

 away. I have worked hard to do it, but 

 now her merchants know me as a pro- 

 ducer of nice honey, and they will often 

 approach me, instead of waiting till I go 

 to them. And I get as good prices from 

 them as, or better than, I can ever get in 

 Chicago, to say nothing about expenses. 

 One of the best points about this system 

 is that you are not dominated l)y the 

 general market. Here Chicago prices de- 

 termine those of hogs and cattle. But 

 honey is quite indepentlent of any such 

 rule. I sold none of my extracted honey 

 of the crop of 1886 at less than eight cents, 

 plus the cost of the package. Had I shipped 

 it I might have obtained five cents miims 

 cost of package. Liy all means let us 

 develop a home market. Let us bei-in with 

 our next door neighbor, and cultivate our 

 field outward as far as we can reach per- 

 sonally. 



Best foundation and its use. 



I sec no necessary cause for. alarm in 

 the use of foundation in sections. Some 

 think it gives encouragement to the 

 "Willey lie." If we use i'or that purpose 

 h(nivy dark foundation, so that thei'e will 

 be a strip of tough, thick, black wax at 

 the top of the cake when it is cut out of 

 the box, it may do so. But very thin 

 foundation made out of the lightest, purest 

 wax, running about 11 to 12 sq. ft. per 

 lb., is, I think, pretty safe. Sell your 

 houey yourself near home, and folks are 

 not so apt to think it manufactured. The 

 lightest foundation is a little tough it is 

 true. r>ut comb built in the heat of sum- 

 mit' melts in one's mouth rather too freely 

 anyway. Such foundation gives the houey 

 a little more body, and its presence will 

 hardly be noticed by one out of a thou- 

 sand. The use of full sheets imiy nnike 

 it less noticeable, yet I generally use only 

 starters. One supply dealer recommends 

 full sheets because they make the honey 

 weigh heavier, but that is hardly honora- 

 ble." 1 use Dadaut's extra thin and fasten 



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