54 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



February 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



^ Established by Samuel Wagner In 1861 C= 



which he will sell. If he offers some- 

 thing different the sales may be a 

 little more difficult at first, but they 

 soon become easier. — F. C. P. 



The oldest Bee Journal in the English language. 

 Published Monthly at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Entered as second-class matter at the Postoffice at Hamilton, Illinois. 



Subscription Kates — In the United States and 

 Mexico, $1.50 per year; 6ve years, %6. 

 Canadian postage 16 cents, and other foreign 

 countries 25 cents extra, per year. 



All subscriptions are stopped at expiration. Date 

 of expiration it printed on wrapper label. 



THE STAFF 



C. P. Dadant Editor 



Frank C. Peliett Associate Editor 



Maurice G. Dada:.t Business Manager 



(Copyright 1931 by C. P Dadant.) 



THE EDITOR'S VIEWPOINT 



Death of Franz Richter 



Our readers will recall that in 

 April last, mention was made of help 

 sent to the Austrian publishers of 

 "Der Bienenvater" by the members 

 of the National Convention of Buf- 

 falo. Franz Richter, to whom the 

 food orders were forwarded, sent us 

 a very hearty letter of thanks, say- 

 ing that the people of Vienna were 

 actually starving. As he did not ask 

 for further help, we Concluded that 

 the year's crop was relieving them. 

 But our friend, Mr. Aeppler, of Wis- 

 consin, now informs us that he has 

 just received a letter from Editor 

 Alfonsus, of the above mentioned 

 publication, announcing the death of 

 Franz Richter, at 73, December 1, 

 and that his death is directly trace- 

 able to the meager nourishment of 

 the past few years, which lowered his 

 vitality and caused his untimely 

 death. Mr. Alfonso acknowledges the 

 receipt of $5 lately sent to him by 

 Mr. Aeppler, saying that this has 

 enabled his family to eat meat, for 

 the first time in si.x months. 



So people are still starving in 

 Vienna, while we live in plenty! And 

 this is the Twentieth Century! All 

 as a result of the World War, so 

 cheerfully declared by the late Fran- 

 cis Joseph and the self-admiring 

 Kaiser 1 



The Plagues of Beekeeping 



N'ow what would you describe as 

 the plagues of beeke-ping? Movable- 

 frame hives, honey extractors, comb- 

 foundation, artificial swarming, prac- 

 tical queen-rearing, the use of smoke 

 in opening hives, feeding sugar syrup, 

 keeping down the drones, supplying 

 built combs to avoid wax production, 

 and generally everything which mod- 

 ern beekeeping has devised? That 

 is the statement made in two pages 'oi 

 warning, condemning the "immoral" 

 practices of progressive beekeeping, 

 by a facetious writer in our contem- 

 piorary magazine, L'Apiculteur, the 

 oldest bee magazine extant. If it was 

 written for a hoax, it is well got- 

 ten up. But the man appears to be in 

 dead earnest. What next? 



Sell in Larger Quantity 



Beekeepers often make the mistake 

 of encouraging sales in too small 

 quantity. It takes little more trouble 



to secure the sale of a 10-pound pail 

 'of hioney than a quart jar. If the bee- 

 keeper will put up his produce in 5 

 and 10-pound pails and 30 and 60- 

 pound cans for the retail trade, and 

 leave the small jars of a pound or 

 less to the bottlers, he will profit 

 thereby. 



The article on marketing by Arthur 

 C. Miller, in the December Journal 

 hits the nail on the head. In my own 

 experience in building up a trade for 

 honey, I began by pushing the sale of 

 small packages, and sold large num- 

 bers lof quart jars. I also sold 

 through the grocery trade a liberal 

 amount of honey put up in jars hold- 

 ing about one pound. While these 

 small packages sold readily, I later 

 found that the ordinary producer can 

 ill afford to devote the necessary 

 time to bottling. Bottling is a busi- 

 ness by itself and the extra oost is 

 very large. The cost of labor, jars, 

 labels, etc., together with a small 

 profit to justify the trouble, makes 

 the product sell at a very much 

 higher price than is necessary in 

 larger containers. The bottler is en- 

 titled to his extra profit and the bee- 

 keeper who puts up his product in 

 such small packages should receive 

 the extra price. However, by selling 

 in larger containers the beekeeper 

 moves his honey much faster, the cus- 

 tomer uses more and everybody 

 profits by the transaction. 



As time passed and I became more 

 experienced in selling the product of 

 my hives, I was surprised to find that 

 it was far easier to sell the same 

 amount of honey in 10-pound pails 

 than in the smaller packages. It is 

 easy to sell one quart of honey by it- 

 self, but much harder to sell 1,000 

 pounds of honey in quart jars than 

 to sell 100 lO-pound pails. One cus- 

 tomer living on a large ranch in the 

 west bought seventeen 60-pound cans 

 at one time. There were numerous 

 customers living in adjoining States 

 who bought their year's supply in 

 60-pound cans. City customers in 

 Chicago and Dcs Moines took 30- 

 pound cans, which were shipped by 

 express. 



The consumer usually buys in the 

 kind of packages tso which he has 

 been accustomed, and the beekeeper 

 in building up a trade can determine 

 for himself the kind of packages in 



Adulterated Honey 



The Chicago Evening American of 

 December 18, carried a signed arti- 

 cle by Brice Belden, M. D., which 

 makes the charge that honey is very 

 generally adulterated. We quote Dr. 

 Belden as follows : 



'"Honey is one of the things most 

 extensively adulterated, and it has 

 become almost impossible to obtain 

 pure honey in city markets. Glucose, 

 flavored with a minimum amount of 

 honey, is the substitute sold in this 

 case." 



This newspaper goes into the homes 

 of many thousands lof people who 

 should be customers for the beekeep- 

 ers' products. If the facts are as 

 stated, it is high time for the bee- 

 keepers to take action to place their 

 product in a pure state before the 

 city consumers. If they are not as 

 stated, then the American owes it 

 to the beekeepers to place the infor- 

 mation before its readers as promi- 

 nently as it has given the information 

 concerning adulteration. If pure 

 honey is not to be had in Chicago, 

 the beekeepers of America should 

 know it as well as the people of Chi- 

 cago. If an adulterated product is 

 not generally offered there, such a 

 statement will do untold harm to the 

 beekeepers' market by making con- 

 sumers afraid to buy, for fear of be- 

 ing imposed upon. 



Dr. Miller's Memorial 



The mere mention of a campaign 

 for a permanent memorial to Doctor 

 Miller, will enthuse many of our 

 readers, especially the older ones who 

 have learned to love him, and dozens 

 of whom have been aided by his 

 timely and kindly advice. At the 

 suggestion of Mr. E. R. Root, the 

 editor of this journal, C. P. Dadant 

 has been made chairman of a com- 

 mittee of five to formulate plan . The 

 other four members of the commit- 

 tee are Dr. E. F. Phillips, of Wash- 

 ington, D. C. ; E. R. Root, of Medina, 

 Ohio; E. G. LeStourgeon, of San An- 

 tonio, and B. F. Kindig, of East Lan- 

 sing, Mich. 



The end in view will be to get the 

 ma.ximum number of subscribers to 

 the fund, and anything from a dime 

 up will show a fellow's heart is in 

 the right place. The campaign will 

 start soon and find its maximum point 

 on or about June 10, which is Dr. Mil- 

 ler's ninetieth anniversary. 



Likely we should await the commit- 

 tee's action before proceeding, but the 

 "boss" is on a southeastern trip, hob- 

 nobbing with the beekeepers down 

 there, and we're going to risk his dis- 

 pleasure by opening the campaign 

 right here. Come on, beekeepers, I'm 

 putting the first dollar in; who's go- 

 ing to match me? — M. G. D. 



