THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 287 



had the ability to sell his honey. He sold it and lost his bees. 

 Did he gain or lose? 



BEE-KEEPING AND HONET-SEIiIiING BOTH SFECIAIiTIES. 



I know something of bee-keeping and I know something about 

 selling honey. My experience has taught me that either occupation 

 requires the very best there is in a person. If you are going to suc- 

 ceed as a bee-keeper you will give that work precedence to every- 

 thing else. Everything else will be neglected for your bees, and you 

 win. I am not writing this for the one who loiters or forgets. A 

 bee-keeper can never be his best, and forget. If he is sufficiently 

 alive he ought to make more from his 300 colonies than his neigh- 

 bor with all his varied interests. 



If you are a dealer the same holds. Let no man think he can 

 make any great success as a dealer in honey and not give the work 

 the very best there is in him. His business is his constant thought, 

 his ambition, his endeavor and when we have done our best there 

 are many problems ahead of us awaiting our solution. No man is 

 versatile or capable enough to do justice to both. He is a less 

 efficient bee-keeper than he might be by being a dealer; he is less 

 efficient as a dealer by being a bee-keeper, and in the honey business 

 no person can afford to be less efficient. He should be more effi- 

 cient and still more, and there is ample scope for all the thought 

 and energy and intelligence he has to spare. 



HOW BEE-KEEFEBS HAVE I.OST BV BETAIIiING THEIB OWN CBOF. 



There has been no great gain to bee-keepers in the past in re- 

 tailing their own crop. There are but few sections of the country 

 untouched by the depressing influence of the "direct from bee- 

 keeper" honey, and in some sections they have been selling it at 

 retail for less than wholesale prices, while a great many retail their 

 honey at less than a cent per pound advance over the wholesale 

 price. The depressing effect of this habit is so great that were it 

 not for it bee-keepers might now be receiving at wholesale as much 

 for their honey as we mail order dealers receive for our honey, and 

 were it not for the fact that many bee-keepers — perhaps the major- 

 ity — do not understand grading their honey, prices would be lower 

 than they are now. 

 Preston, jMinn. 



[Those of you who read Mr. Demuth's article will remember that I indorsed 

 what he said. And now I am willing to indorse what Mr. Faccy says. The fact 

 is that both of these gentlemen are together on the main point, and that is "spe- 

 cialization." 



Mr. Demuth found that when he had but little to do, he took as much time 

 to do it as when he had a lot to do. In the latter case he was obliged to systemize 

 his work, and work along definite plans. Mr. Facey started out as a bee-keeper, 

 and tinally drifted to honey selling. He finds that either job is big enough for 



