March 13, 1902. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



167 



by the fact lliat llif cxci.-i)tiun of two or tlircc whose \n\si- 

 ness liabits lead ihcm lo (k-maiid cheap honey, regardless 

 of its condition, there is no longer any objection to tliis way 

 of selling, but they prefer it as a more practical, busincNs- 

 likc and time-saving method. Not only has this been the 

 case in the local markets and surronnding towns, but I have 

 had very little trouble to sell this way in new markets. Re- 

 cently 1 took a quantity of honey to a city some distance away, 

 where ihey wore accuslomoil to buy their honey by the potnid. 

 In selling to eighteen grocers I heard no objection to my pl.in 

 of sellnig, but some coniniendcd it, saying they had been 

 making a mistake in selling by weight. 



It is true that to make this melliod satisfactory requires 

 very careful grading, together with such management as 

 will secure practical uniformity in weight and ajjpearance. 

 To show how readily this is possible, I may say that for a 

 number of years 1 have put up a large share of my honey in 

 cases that were exact and uniform in weight as well as m 

 appearance. 



This year I put up 50 cases for this trade ; 40 of them 

 weighed exactly 22 pounds net each, and the remainder 20 

 pounds net. For another purpose I put up a number of 12- 

 section cases, each of which weighed exactly 9 pounds net. 

 Notice I say these were exact weights, as exact as your 

 grocer uses when he weighs out sugar or coffee. Also, in 

 all of them the sections in each case were practically uni- 

 form in appearance, with no extra light or heavy sections. 

 Case after case of this was filled with honey just as it came 

 from rny storage-crates that without any selection tipped 

 the beam at the exact weight. Most cases of course, required a 

 little selection to make the weight come out right, but a 

 moment's work was all that was required to even them up. 



Several factors helped to produce this uniformity. This 

 article is not on the production of honey, so I cannot dis- 

 cuss these now, except that I will say that In my opinion 

 the principal of them is the use of a narrower section than 

 is common. 1 use 7-to-the-foot, which, by making a comb 

 more nearly the thickness which the bees build naturally, 

 tends to much greater uniformity. 



But even though your ijs sections will not run as uni- 

 form in weight, it is an easy matter to make each case of 

 a standard weight. Set your empty case on a double-beam 

 scale and balance it on one beam. Put the weight at 

 the required point on the other beam, and, with the case 

 Still on the platform, put in the honey. As you set it in, set 

 aside all extra-light and extra-heavy sections. Of the re- 

 mainder, put the lightest at one end of the case and the 

 heaviest at the other. If the weight does not come out right, 

 it IS an easy matter by a little selection to vary it either way. 

 When you can guarantee weights — not average weights or 

 estimated weights, but exact weights — you will have your 

 business on a sound commercial basis, and not until then. 

 It will take a little time and trouble, it is true, but you will 

 be more than paid for these. 



But, you say, what shall we do with the light and heavy 

 sections that were set aside? You can case them separately, 

 making cases of lighter or heavier weight than the standard, 

 or you can combine them, making cases of standard weight, 

 even though the sections are not uniform. 



It is better to have nine-tenths of your cases uniform 

 and one-tenth very uneven, than to have all more or less 

 uneven. Those which are over or under weight, or in which 

 the sections are not uniform in weight, should be sold, if 

 possible, to those who prefer to buy by weight. Incident- 

 ally, let me say that the surest way to cure a grocer of the 

 desire to buy honey by weight instead of by the section is 

 always to sell him your heaviest sections. 



No doubt some will say that it does not pay to be so 

 particular. It has paid me well. It has enabled me to com- 

 pete successfully with the careless and ignorant bee-keepers 

 who sell their honey for whatever they can get. Competi- 

 tion has been particularly strong during the past season, 

 as I have had to compete not only with the farmers and 

 others who keep only a few bees, who are very numerous 

 in this locality, but with some making a business of bee- 

 keeping, who ought to know better, but who have been selling 

 honey all the season for from two to three cents a pound 

 less than I have been getting. In spite of this unfair com- 

 petition, I have supplied the majority of the grocers of the 

 neighborhood and have been able to maintain my price, which 

 is always based on the top price in the Chicago market, and 

 which I never change throughout the season if possible to 

 avoid it. I fix my price in the fall, after a careful consider- 

 ation of the market, and only once in fifteen years has it 



been necessary to change ihi -. |>ricc during the selling season. 



.\Iy light-weight, but careliilly graded, section, averaging 

 a little less than thirteen ounces, has brought as much money 

 as the average bee-keeper has received for sixteen ounces. 



.'Vdojit methods that will give you sections of unifortn 

 weight and appearance, grade your honey carefully and hon- 

 estly, sell it by the piece, and you will have some strong 

 and effective weapons in your commercial struggle against 

 the careless and incompetent. La Salle Co., 111. 



Mo. 6. Apiculture, as a Bu$lne.s.s. 



Producing' Not All ; Marketing' a Large Problem 



— Dilference Between Selling at Home and 



the Foreign Trade^Effect 



of Competition. 



BY B. C. AIKIN. 



To produce is one thing, and to market is another. To 

 produce well, and fail in marketing, means unprofitable 

 business; and to produce poorly and market well is but 

 little better. Both problems must be well considered in under- 

 taking the business. .Marketing at home — that is, where one 

 has a home demand for all his product — is not so com- 

 plicated or hard a problem as the outside marketing; the 

 home selling does not require the goods to pass through so 

 many hands or agencies. For these reasons it is evident 

 that there must be more co-operation in the outside work. 

 Should some other producer come into my field where there 

 is now a local production equal to from two to four times 

 the local consumption, he should leave out of his calcula- 

 tions the home trade, counting only the foreign. 



There is a great and wide field in which to sell honey, 

 in which to develop trade. When we consider the great 

 hosts of our population who do not use honey, the thou- 

 sands of communities who scarcely know what honey tastes 

 like, there need be no question about there being an unde" 

 veloped foreign trade. By "foreign" I mean any field away 

 from the producing point. 



These foreign markets must be reached almost exclu- 

 sively by the co-operation of apiarist with apiarist, and 

 apiarists with transportation companies and middlemen^ 

 there is no other feasible way of reaching distant points. 

 Near-by markets can be reached with only the transporta- 

 tion companies between, or possibly by wagon, and there 

 is room m that field, but the biggest field is the one to 

 be reached by the general co-operation of all concerned. 

 This co-operation question I hope to consider later on; 

 at least it should be considered, it is of very grave moment 

 to all classes of producers, and more so to honey-producers 

 than to some other branches. . 



Having decided to go into honey-production, or, bemg 

 already in, we w-ant to know how we are to get the best 

 results in honey, both quality and quantity. In each local- 

 ity one must adapt himself and management to conditions. 

 Whether you have light, amber, dark, or all shades of 

 honey; this or that flavor; slow, medium, rapid, intermit- 

 tent, or all kinds of flows; all these things are factors that 

 will' influence results, and must be understood and observed 

 in management if a good product is obtained. Just so sure 

 as we neglect these things we will drop behind. It is a 

 fact that the price of nearly every product is set largely 

 by the cost of producing by the best and up-to-date methods; 

 and he who is behind in his management is usually also 

 behind in his accounts. 



To my way of thinking, there is something radically 

 wrong in the present competitive methods; they, drive 

 out of business the common or mediocre m 

 knowledge, vigor, capital, and natural or acquired advan- 

 tages. All cannot be at or near markets, post-office, depot, 

 an'd other facilities; cannot have the same capital, the same 

 machinerv, the same materials. It is out of the province 

 of this journal to discuss the cure for general social evils' 

 but they exist and must be faced, hence I touch upon thein 

 to prepare the reader better for success in the line of busi- 

 ness he has chosen. The short- cuts, kinks, better appli- 

 ances and what-not pertaining to the science and detail, are 

 things to know in any case. So much for the imperative 

 need of much practical knowledge and understanding. 



If one has a home demand that takes his product right 

 from his honev-house, almost any kind of product can be 

 sold— crooked and bulged sections, broken comb, extracted 

 in bulk, and drawn right from a tank. If the trade passes 



