154 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



EXTRT^OXGD, 



PEDDLING HONEY. 



How it may be so Managed as to be both 

 Agreeable and Profitable. 



For mail)' years the demand for honey 

 was in excess of the supply; and it sold 

 readily at high prices. Movable combs, 

 the honey extractor, comb foundation 

 and bee journals gave the industry such a 

 boom that large quanties of honey were 

 produced; and prices took a tumble. 

 How to dispose of the honey became a 

 more serious problem than did its pro- 

 duction. Then came a few years of poor 

 seasons that most effectually settled the 

 marketing question — temporarily. The 

 indications are that there is to be a return 

 of good seasons; when the question of 

 marketing will again become paramount. 

 Of course, it is early in the season to be 

 talking about marketing; but it is also 

 well to lay our plans ahead. For instance, 

 a man may be so situated that it would be 

 more profitable for him to produce extract- 

 ed than comb honey if he could sell it to 

 advantage. To such a man the following 

 article may be worth many dollars. I 

 think it one of the most sensible and help- 

 ful articles on the subject of selling ex- 

 tracted honey direct to consumers that I 

 have ever seen. Just let this article linger 

 in your memory until next fall when you 

 have a crop of honey to sell. It was writ- 

 ten by Mr. H. D. Burrell, of Covert, Mich- 

 igan, and gives his experience in selling 

 thousands of pounds of extracted honey 

 direct to consumers at a good price. It 

 was published in Gleanings and reads as 

 follows: — 



How to dispose of the honey crop prof- 

 itably is becoming a serioiis problem 

 with most bee keepers. Not many years 

 ago it was easy to raise comb honey, ship 

 it to some commission house in a near-by 

 city, and realize i6 to 20 centsa pound 

 for it. Now in many places most of the 

 honey-producing timber is gone, and 

 waste lands reclaimed and cultivated. 

 These causes, with frequent poor seasons, 



render the honey crop uncertain; and, 

 worst of all, comb honey in the cities is 

 quoted 7 to 12 cents. 



Formerly I raised comb honey almost 

 exclusively, and shipped nearly all of it 

 to commission houses. But .some years 

 ago I unexpectedly had about a ton of 

 autumn extracted honey to dispose of. 

 Shipped to a commission house it would 

 probabl}- have netted 4 to 5 cents a pound, 

 soDie tiiiie. I had never tried peddling 

 honey, and was very much prejudiced 

 against peddlers and peddling; but I want- 

 ed more for that honey. I loaded some 

 of it into the wagon, put up in convenient 

 packages for retailing, and started, though 

 with nuich trepidation. I knew a few re- 

 bluifs would send that honey to the city 

 for what it would bring. But I sold hon- 

 ey at nearly every house, over 300 lbs. the 

 first day, and decided that peddling (hon- 

 ey at least ) was not such bad business 

 after all. Many neighbors and acquain- 

 tances who had passed by frequentl}' for 

 years and seen the sign, "Honey for 

 Sale," but never bought a pound of my 

 honey, bought freely when it was carried 

 to them. And they didn't buy afterward, 

 either, unless I carried it to them and 

 asked them to buy. 



The ton of honey was soon sold at 8 to * 

 II cents per poimd, according to quantity V 

 wanted, and several thousand pounds " 

 more were bought and sold at a fair profit. 

 Since that time I have raised mostly ex- 

 tracted honey, always retail it myself, 

 and am getting the same prices now in 

 these times of very low prices that I did 

 ten j-ears ago. Honey, if a good article, 

 will sell itself almost any^vhere, if given a 

 fair chance. I have never found a place, 

 in country or town, where it would not 

 sell fairly well, any time of year, though 

 in the fall is the best time to sell, in my 

 experience, after the bulk of fruit is gone, 

 and the many needs of the winter sea- 

 son have not yet taxed the pocket-book. 



But I think I hear some one say, " I 

 can't peddle;" or, "I won't .stoop to ped- 

 dling!" Now, neighbor, stop a minute, 

 and listen. When I was young and green 

 I tried " canvassing " for a book. For 

 years after, I had a horror of peddling. 

 When I came to keep bees, and have lion- ♦ 

 ey to sell, I would not even ask a mer- 

 chant with whom I traded regularly to 

 buy my honey. If any one but a com- 

 mission man wanted any of it, he had to 

 ask for it. I am not a natural salesman, 

 a poor talker — timid, difiident, and easily 

 rebufTed. I can, however, sell an average 

 of 100 pounds of honey a day in any 

 fairly good farming country, and in vil- 

 lages and towns often much more. You 



