1884 



gleani:n'gs in bee culture. 



at once. Importimt business may be safely 

 intrusted to him, and good pay invariably 

 follows the one to whom can "he safely in- 

 trusted matters of importance. "Whatever 

 department in life you undertake should be, 

 as soon as possible," put into such shape that 

 it will go of itself. If you make a specialty 

 of any particular crop, have that article oil 

 hand, winter and summer. Have prices 

 marked on it in plain English ; have some- 

 body instructed to look after customers, and 

 take care of sales, whether you are away oft" 

 in the fields, or busy with somebody else. 

 If you sell honey, have honey always ready 

 in "every kind of ])ackages people seem likely 

 to call for. Have tlie prices on it in plain 

 English ; make every tiling so handy and 

 ready that your wife can attend to the whole 

 of it, Avithout disturbing you ; or if she is 

 busy, one of tiie children. Do not be dis- 

 couraged if they do make blunders for a 

 while. Teach them to lie useful, with the 

 end in view that you may be use-/(.s>-. es- 

 pecially when somebody wants only a pound 

 of honey or a dozen cabbage-plants". 



A few days ago a neighbctr told me tliat 

 a relative of his from a distance had called 

 to see me several times during tlie day. but I 

 was absent, and he had to go away witliout 

 making his purchase. What do you sui)pose 

 he wanted? Why. a couple of "([ueen-beesl 

 and cages of themweie [tiled up on tlie queen- 

 clerk's table, waiting anxiously for custom- 

 ers. Said r, '• Why. my friend, wliy did he 

 not tell any clerk in our whole establish- 

 ment that he wanted a couple of queen-bet s?" 



It seemed to me the mtin was greatly at 

 fault for not asking somebody for what he 

 wanted, and I was almost inclined to be 

 vexed ; but there was a lef-son for me. Do 

 vou want to know what it wasV It was this: 

 Last winter I decided that each clerk should 

 have a plain card, or sign, over his table, 

 reading like this: ''Queen-Clerk's Desk;'' 

 " Express - Clerk's Desk ;'' " Subscription- 

 Clerk's Desk," and so on, that customers 

 might know exactly where to subscribe, to 

 purchase a queen, or to ask about express 

 business. I thought of it, but never got at 

 it. Another tiling, there ouglit to be an 

 usher in our establishment during the busy 

 months, to welcome every visitor, and iii- 

 quire after his wants. If he wanted to see 

 me, this usher could tell where I was en- 

 gaged, and inquire after the nature of the 

 business. 



I was amused and pleased by reading a 

 little circular from our friends Tillingliast, 

 who advertise in this number. Two boys 

 took up a hobby of raising cabbage-plants. 

 They studied up tlie subject until they had 

 cabbage-plants at their lingers" ends. "Tliey 

 liad them out in the garden too ; and when 

 they succeeded in getting so many nice ones 

 that the neighbors all langhed at them to 

 think they were so foolisli as to suppose they 

 would ever get (customers for so many, the 

 boys got a lot of little boards, and painted 



on them, " Only U miles to , where nice 



fresh cabbage-plants can be had for ^'O cents 

 per 1(J(J." They posted these all over the 

 country ; and one rainy day when the sea- 

 son happened to be just right for them, cus- 

 tomers poured in from every direction to 



such an extent that they sold out every last 

 plant, and went to bed with so much money 

 in their pockets that they hardly knew what 

 to do with it. Another point : In building 

 up their business, these boys usually man- 

 aged so that no customer ever went away 

 empty handed. Do any of your customers 

 e\ er go away empty handed V 



Xow, then, whatever you have to sell, let 

 everybody learn, by years of experience, 

 that if they go to you for it they will always 

 tind a nice article put up in nice shape, 

 ready to set right into their wagon or bug- 

 gy, and that the article is in plain sight right 

 where they can go and get it— that is, if you 

 don't happen to be there. Keep up the rep- 

 utation of your goods or products; do not 

 get out ; if it costs you twice the value of 

 tiie article, keep it in" readiness ; and when 

 you go away, be sure that somebody is on 

 hand to wait on customers, that your busi- 

 ness may be built up without the necessity 

 of your being tied down to it individually. 



Shall I tell you what we do in the counter 

 store in this line? Each article has a little 

 box, or a division, made in tlie counter. In 

 the bottom of this box the name of the arti- 

 cle is written, price singly, price by tens, 

 and by hundreds. A printed gummed label 



: is right by the side of this article, telling 



i wliere it was bought, when, and how many. 



' As soon as the article is gone, a printed card 

 takes its place, reading, '• Sold Out.'' When 

 tiie clerk whose business it is to order the 

 goods notices this he knows how many he 

 ought to order, for tlie record in the "box 

 shows something like tiiis: '"We bought 

 100 of them of Sinitli eV: JJrown, the lOtli of 

 June." It is now the middle of November, 

 so it will be safe to t)rder about ii(.lO this time, 

 as we aim to order, as a general thing, about 

 as many of each staple article as w^e may 

 reasonably expect to sell in a year. The 

 clerks who have charge of the counter store, 

 however, are instructed to give notice a lit- 

 tle before any article is out, that the sold-out 

 card may never show itself unless some 



I trouble or delay occurs in getting a new sup- 

 ply. Clerks also have instructions to order 

 of two ditt'erent establishments when any 

 article seems to be going with unusual rapid- 

 ity, to prevent the amioyance of being 

 "out " at an inconvenient time. Thus, yoii 

 s?e, clerks exercising a reasonable amount 

 of care can carry on the business without 

 my personal or constant supervision ; and 

 the results attained by such a record are, 

 that we rarely ever order too largely of any 

 one thing, and also avoid the expensive anil 

 annoying way of being obliged to order the 

 same thing "every week or two : for by get- 

 ting enough to last a year at a time, we not 

 only get goods by freight, but get low rates 

 for quantities. 



Of course, you can not adopt exactly tlie 

 above plan in your business ; but I do think, 

 my friends, that a great many of you could, 

 with niucli i)leasure and profit, make your- 

 selves useless in many ways. Mamma, who 

 has perhaps the hardest" and most trying 

 task on her shoulders of any member of the 

 hoiLsehold, should be able, with your help, to 

 make her.self a little more useless than sfie 

 now is. The younger ones may be taught to 



