548 



June 20, 1907 



American l$ae Journal 



to do with it, I know that the demand 

 for seeds, bulbs and such as he men- 

 tioned last season was phenomenally 

 large in Chicago. Every seed-house was 

 burdened with work, and they did not 

 have to burn a single pound of their 

 seed nor to throw away a single one 

 of their shrubs. It is a matter of no- 

 toriety, known throughout Chicago. I 

 am glad it happened so that I could 

 give this testimony in favor of Mr. 

 York's project, and of Mr. Burdette's 

 idea. As to just what persons shall do 

 this work, I have no doubt — pardon me 

 for saying it — that I could write an 

 article just as well as Mr. Burdette can, 

 but I have other things to attend to. 

 I think Dr. Miller could write better 

 about honey than Mr. Burdette. But I 

 think to entrust the matter to a man 

 like Mr. Burdette, who will bore Dr. 

 Miller for facts, and go to Mr. Hutchin- 

 son and Mr., York, and then sit down 

 and trim it all over, will do more ef- 

 fectual work than you can if you scatter 

 your energies. 



Mr. Whitney — I feel great interest 

 in this matter of the education of the 

 public with regard to the value of honey, 

 and it is my opinion that there is noth- 

 ing that we can say in a public way as 

 to the use of honey that will not do the 

 bee-keeper good. I have had a little 

 experience up at our place. Our local 

 editor there wanted to know if. I would 

 not write something for the local paper, 

 and I wrote a few articles, and they ap- 

 peared every week for 5 or 6 weeks, 

 and people became very much interested 

 in bees and honey, and since then I 

 have not asked a single person to buy 

 any honey: I could sell more of it than 

 I can possibly produce or get. I know 

 that publicity is a good thing for honey, 

 if you talk right, and tell the truth. 



Mr. Burdette — Some misapprehension 

 seems to exist as to the nature of the 

 articles that we sent out. It was not 

 our purpose in doing this horticultural 

 work to trick anybody. We simply filled 

 a legitimate demand for horticultural 

 information. 

 Mr. Todd — How to do. 

 Mr. Burdette — Yes, exactly. For one 

 thing, we had "the experience of Mr. 

 Keeley, Managing Editor of the Chicago 

 Tribune, who once conducted a depart- 

 ment of gardening on that paper, and 

 he told us it was astonishing the num- 

 ber of people who were absolutely ignor- 

 ant of the first principles of gardening — 

 people who would buy bulbs and plant 

 them upside down ; didn't know how to 

 plant seed or anything of that sort. The 

 papers all seemed to know that there is 

 a great deal of interest in that sort of 

 thing, and were glad to get the informa- 

 tion that we furnished, and they under- 

 stood thoroughly that we furnished it, 

 and why we furnished it. We had a 

 large number of scientists on the Na- 

 tional Council — Professor Tracy, of the 

 Department in Washington ; Professor 

 Taft, of the Michigan Agricultural Ex- 

 periment Station, and Professor Irish, 

 of Shaw's Gardens, in St. Louis. I be- 

 lieve there is also a great deal of in- 

 terest in bees all over the country, and 

 in honey, and that the papers would 

 be willing to print whatever we might 

 send out about bees and honey, provided 



it was written in the right way. Of 

 course we could not send out what was 

 purely advertising, saying people ought 

 to buy honey. Papers could not print 

 that unless we paid them for it; but 

 I have gone on the assumption that 

 there is a great deal of information 

 about the use of honey, and facts about 

 bees, that the public would be glad to 

 know, and the papers would be glad 

 to print, and the effect of those articles 

 would be to interest the public in bees 

 and in honey, and the indirect effect 

 would be to increase the sale of honey. 

 Of course, the only thing projected here 

 is an experimental series to see just 

 exactly what kind of articles can be 

 prepared along that line, and what ef- 

 fect those articles will have. I think 

 it is worth trying. Don't you think 

 that therp is material for art^'-les on the 

 use of honey and facts about bees? 

 Mr. Todd — Most people use honey 

 simply raw. You might have one article 

 acceptable about honey, but you would 

 not have a series which would give it 

 the force of cumulative advertising. 



Dr. Bohrer — what was Mr. Bnrdette's 

 question? 



Mr. Burdette — I was asking if there 

 was not material for articles of that 

 sort. I am not very well acquainted 

 with bee-keeping or with honey. I don't 

 know what material tliere may be. 



Mr. Todd — How many different ways 

 could honey be served up? 



Mr. Abbott — I want to say, without 

 any egotism, that I can sit down here 

 in an hour's time and write an article 

 on honey that will go into any paper in 

 the United States. There isn't a paper 

 in the United States that would not 

 publish it. 



Mr. Todd — And a second one? 

 Mr. Abbott — Yes, sir, and a third one, 

 and I can write a fourth one that any 

 paper in- the United States will print, 

 and pay me money for doing it, and 

 I can write a fifth one that the papers 

 will take and pay me for it, and there 

 won't be any nonsense in it. There 

 won't be any bees following their mast- 

 er to the grave or anything of that 

 kind. But you need not talk about any 

 body that does not know the honey-busi- 

 ness from A to Z and has not been in 

 it 25 years, as I have, because they 

 can't do it. You don't have to tell 

 people to buy honey. You .have to tell 

 people to eat honey, and then if they 

 haven't got the honey they will come 

 to you and buy it. 



Dr. Bohrer — Isn't it also important, 

 and of greater importance at this time 

 than anything else, to satisfy the people 

 that what they are getting is absolutely 

 pure? 



Mr. Abbott — Yes, sir. I could write 

 on the purity and the probability of be- 

 ing adulterated. There is no doubt 

 about the facts. The papers will pub- 

 lish that. 



Pres. York — I do not think I could 

 write many articles on photography, as 

 Mr. Todd could do, but I think I could 

 write a few articles on honey. 



Mr. Clarke — Probably I might give 



an illustration in a small way of what 



people want to know about honey. I 



have conducted a bee-department in an 



. agricultural paper for 7 years in Iowa. 



I have undertaken to answer any ques- 

 tion anybody asks me pertaining to bees 

 or honey, and I do not know exactly 

 the number of inquiries that I have 

 had in 7 years, but I think it is over 

 7000 in regard to bees and honey. 



Mr. France — I would like to get the 

 expression of the honey-producers on 

 this subject. They are interested in the 

 disposition of their product. Various 

 ways have ben suggested, and this means 

 of advertising is a good one. There 

 was a fund transferred over to the Na- 

 tional Association, and it has been wait- 

 ing for effective work until we could 

 get a system and something that would 

 give satisfaction. To get a committee 

 that would be satisfactory to the pro- 

 ducers and to those who had transferred 

 this fund to the National has been a 

 diflicult matter. That, I think, is aDout 

 through with, and the next question 

 came up wherein or how we shall be- 

 gin the use of that fund to advertise 

 and create a demand for more honey. 

 This proposition that has just now been 

 discussed will be one of the first that 

 that committee wiJJ consider. Two at 

 least of the three I know are favorable 

 to starting such a move in the near 

 future. Other ways have been suggest- 

 ed, and the more that you can suggest 

 to this committee the better, and save 

 your time for the convention. I be- 

 lieve one of the things we have got to 

 employ, as has been done in- other lines, 

 is telling the usefulness of honey to 

 the public. When they realize the value 

 of it as a food, then enlighten, in some 

 way, the public, that when they are buy- 

 ing honey they are getting Nature's pur- 

 est wholesome sweet for their stomachs, 

 and you have established a demand for 

 honey. 



Dr. Bohrer — And that what they, will 

 buy will be honey. 



Mr. France — Yes, sir. ^ 



Mr. Burdette — I want to say I do 

 not know anything about honey. I 

 would not attempt to write these articles 

 myself. The horticultural articles were 

 all of them prepared under the direc- 

 tion of experts. Most of them were 

 prepared by Professor Irish, who is in 

 charge of Shaw's Gardens at St. Louis, 

 one of the largest botanical gardens in 

 the country, and they were sent to me. 

 I simply took them — most of them were 

 too long — I made it a rule not to send 

 out any article of over 300 words — di- 

 vided them into appropriate lengths, 

 and re-wrote them so as to get the "fea- 

 ture." as we call it in the newspaper 

 business, at the top ; simply put them in- 

 to shape so that the newspaper editors 

 would not have to revise them ; and 

 that is all I did,- simply to distribute 

 these things to the newspapers in the 

 proper form. As has been stated here, 

 they should be written first by men 

 who know honey; that is, the material 

 should be supplied by those men, and 

 all I could attempt to do would be to 

 put that material into the form for 

 the newspapers. There are a good 

 many things to consider when you do 

 that. I am a newspaper man. I think 

 I know the way to do that, although I 

 don't know anything about honey. That 

 is all that I would do, and the estimate 

 I made for this experimental work was 

 simply putting it into shape and send- 



