90 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



HOW TO BUILD UP A KEPUTATIUN. 



Question.— Is it any advantage to put your 

 name and address on cases of honey which are 

 to be shipped on commission to commission 

 men? If so, what ? 



^nsM;er.— Each year, from 1871 to 1877, I sold 

 my honey to a dealer in Syracuse, N. Y., deliv- 

 ering it there by wagon, so that it always ar- 

 rived in first-class condition. As the merchant 

 always took all the honey I had, both extracted 

 and comb, together with all the dark honey, I 

 considered it a good thing for me, and would 

 still think so if I could thus sell my honey now ; 

 but death removed him in the early part of '78; 

 and although I have several times tried to have 

 other parties in this city take his place, yet not 

 one was willing to do so, as regards buying and 

 selling honey. However, there was one thing I 

 did not quite like, which was that he insisted 

 on my bringing the honey to him in cases hav- 

 ing nothing on them except the gross weight, 

 the tare, or weight of the crate, and the net 

 weight of the honey. When 1 asked him the 

 reason for this he showed me stencil-plates 

 bearing his own name and address, and said, '• I 

 put my name and address on every case of real- 

 ly fine honey which I buy, so as to build up a 

 trade in honey, thus securing a name second to 

 none; for with all inferior honey I leave this 

 stencil-mark off, so that none but the very best 

 bears my name, and thus 1 am gaining a repu- 

 tation year by year which is growing constant- 

 ly to my benefit. If I allowed you 10 put your 

 name on the cases it would not help me a bit; 

 and as long as you sell to me each year it could 

 be of no benefit to you." After a year or two I 

 saw that his line of reasoning was correct; for 

 every year gave him a larger range of custom- 

 ers, until, at the time of his death, he handled 

 honey by tons to where he handled it by the ten 

 pounds when he began. After his death I began 

 shipping honey on commission, and wrote my 

 commission merchants, asking them if they 

 would allow me to put my name and address on 

 each case. To this they objected; but a few 

 said they had no objection to my putting my 

 name on the sections inside the case if I wished 

 to do so. I accordingly procured a rubber stamp 

 with the words "From G. M. Doolittle, Borodi- 

 no, N. Y.," on it, as well as a dating-apparatus 

 which would remain good for ten years. I 

 could now, in a moment, put my name and ad- 

 dress on any thing I wished, from a postal card 

 up to a bee-hive, and give the date of so putting 

 on, if desired. Outside of the first object, as 

 originally intended, I have found this stamp of 

 great benefit to me in many ways, and I would 

 advise everybody who reads this to procure 

 such a stamp and see how much in time, money. 



and temper it will save them. I believe The A. 

 I. Root Co. can furnish such stamps to any who 

 may desire. To return: 



Taking the hint given me by the honey-mer- 

 chant, I put my name on only all really nice 

 honey, and let all "off grades" go without it. 

 And right here I wish to throw in a suggestion. 

 We have heard much in the past from commis- 

 sion men and others about some sending them 

 honey, putting all sorts of inferior honey into 

 the same case with fancy honey, putting the 

 fancy on the outside, and the inferior in the 

 middle of the case where it would not be seen 

 till the case should be opened. I never blamed 

 commission men for being out of patience with 

 those who would work against the interests of 

 every one concerned, enough to do this thing ; 

 and the suggestion I would make is this: If you 

 will procure a rubber stamp, and use it as did 

 the honey-merchant spoken of above, no on3 

 will ever have a chance to say aught but words 

 of praise for the even appearance of all honey 

 which you put in any case. To return again: j 



After the sections were all in the shipping- 

 case, and before the cover was put on, it took 

 only a moment or two of time to stamp all the 

 sections in that case, thus letting the consumer 

 know by whom such fine honey was produced, 

 while the commission merchant received all the 

 credit with the retailer, unless, perchance, such 

 retailer desired to deal direct with the produc- 

 er. And thus it came about that I got many 

 letters from different parts of the country read- 

 ing something like this : " I purchased of Mr. 

 So and So a splendid article of honey bearing 

 your address. As it gives the best of satisfac- 

 tion, for how much could you send me cases 



of such honey?" And so it has often come 

 about, that, after my honey was all disposed of, 

 I would have many calls for honey which I 

 could not supply, but which gave me a "lever- 

 age " for the next year. So it will be seen that 

 the plan of a shrewd merchant has not been 

 lost, even if he did keep me where he wished 

 while he was living. Why I said in the fore 

 part of this article that 1 should be glad to sell 

 as 1 formerly did was that there is an advantage 

 in selling the whole crop to one person, for cash 

 on delivery, not gotten by selling the crop out 

 in small lots, or by shipping it on commission. 

 All will think of some of these advantages, 

 without my enumerating them. However, it so 

 happens that the most of the large producers 

 can not sell to one party each year, and for this 

 reason I give the above plan, as I believe it to 

 be a good one, and just the one to work upon 

 when we can not sell our whole crop to one per- 

 son, or all of it in our home market. And by 

 this plan many are induced to eat honey who do 

 not generally buy by the advertising done by 

 those who are pleased by a really nice article of 

 honey. It takes all of these little kinks as go- 

 ing toward a whole to make successful bee 

 culture. 



