lSi)7 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



843 



l)roachiii<:;. The suniiner had been fine, view- 

 ed from a bee-keeper's standpoint, and a good 

 crop of cotnb honey was nearly ready for the 

 market as a reward for time and hibor expend- 

 ed. My thonghts had been runnins^ in the di- 

 rection of a fi.shing-excnr.Mon now that a httle 

 leisnre time seemed to be in si^i^ht, when Mor- 

 ton broke in with somethins,^ like this : 



" I am not sorry to see the last of this pesky- 

 scraping ; but the tug of war is yet to come — 

 the one part of the bee- business, and one of 

 the most important parts too, which we bee- 

 keepers don't seem to imjirove upon any. In 

 fact, we go on from bad to worse ; and that is 

 to sell our honey after we get it." 



" Well," I said, as he paused to lift over 

 another super, ' ' no one could expect you to 

 sell it before you get it," which obviously 

 sensible remark he disdained to notice, but 

 continued : 



" I can get honey ready for market in style 

 that I am not ashamed of ; take care of my 

 bees all right, and even attend the conventions 

 and picnics without flinching ; but when it 

 comes to selling the honey for a price which I 

 am entitled to in all fairness for such nice 

 honey as that lot is — why, I don't know how 

 it is to be done. We producers keep sending 

 our honey to the big cities, where the commis- 

 sion man sells it to a customer that he wishes 

 to please 7?;-.^/ — the bee-man last. The dealer 

 may be honest, of course ; but the man who 

 buys of him has the best of the situation 

 every time. Then we send so much honey to 

 two or three large cities that they are over- 

 stocked ; the market is glutted ; down go quo- 

 tations ; everybody who sells or buys honey 

 governs himself accordingly ; and after a hard 

 summer's work we get it where the chicken 

 got the ax ;" and, going out to the grapevine, 

 he picked the largest bunch of grapes he could 

 reach, and went to see if the bees were all out 

 of those last few supers over the escapes. 



Said I to myself, "Who is this customer 

 that the commission man is so anxious to 

 please?" and the reply was easy enough — the 

 retail grocer. He sells the great bulk of comb 

 honey, without question. But how does the 

 city commission liouse catch that retail grocer 

 in the first place ? By drumming the trade, 

 sending out that knight of the grip, "talking 

 like a blessed angel, eating like a blasted 

 tramp." 



"See here, Morton," said I, as he came in 

 with a super full of sections, without a b »e left 

 in it (who would keep bees without using es- 

 capes, anyway?) " I've got a scheme." 



"Don't doubt it,"- was his reply; "you 

 never seem to V^e ovit of stock in that line," 

 and he went after another super. 



Such a little bluff as that never disturbs me. 

 I'm used to 'em ; and my thoughts cantered 

 on in that same channel. 



Now, if the grocer is to be patted on the 

 back, liis feathers smoothed the right way, 

 wh} don't we honey-producers do it ourselves 

 without paying any city commis.sion man to 

 do it for us? Isn't it the best way to please 

 him, to so pack, grade, arrange in attractive 

 shape, and, above all, give him a margin of 

 profit, without any ' ' unexplained residue of 



facts " in shape of unsalal)le goods to make 

 him wish he had never .9<V';/ any honey? Mor- 

 ton had resumed scraping sections, and now 

 wanted to know what my scheme was. To 

 state it briefly, it was to skip the commission 

 man in the city, and sell directly tothegrocer. 



We talked over the plan at length, and could 

 see good reasons for and against ; but, on the 

 whole, we thought it would pay a trial ; and 

 after three seasons' successful sales you can 

 put us down to vote in favor of the jilan. 



Our locality is about oOO miles from New 

 York, with a dozen or more cities and towns 

 between. What nonsense and waste to send 

 our honey to the big city, pay freight, dray- 

 age, connnissions, exchange stealings ( ?) 

 drummers' wages and expenses, to come half 

 way back and sell that same honey to the gro- 

 cer ! — more draj-age, freight, etc., and the con- 

 sumer must foot all these bills. On the other 

 hand, the retail grocer seldom buys more than 

 five or ten cases, and it is more trouble to take 

 care of so many customers than the one com- 

 mission man. The expense of going over the 

 route with sample case is considerable, and 

 bad debts are nearly always in evidence ; but 

 by selling some of our neighbors' honey (this 

 year I sold for six apiaries), and dividing the 

 expense, it brings it down to reasonable limits. 



The next question was, ' ' How shall we 

 pack, grade, and advertise to best please our 

 prospective victim, the grocer? " Morton and 

 I were partners in the retail-grocery business 

 for several years, and that experience helped 

 us to some points, one of the most provoking 

 of which is the ease and certainty with which 

 a clerk will punch a big hole in one nice sec- 

 tion of honey with the sharp corner of the 

 one he is trving to put back in the case. Can't 

 we fix something, some way, so that he can 

 not do that ? Sure ! Slip veneers ( or sliced sep- 

 arators) between the rows of sections in the 

 shipping-case — they are good for nothing else, 

 and cost but little ( and have proved a drawing 

 card with our customers). Always have new 

 neat shipping-cases with the non-drip cleats in 

 the bottom, and the veneers. So our grocer 

 now has his case to retail from that is neat, 

 tasty, hand)', and convenient. 



Next comes the grading ; and again the 

 memories of old-time grocery days put a "bee 

 in my bonnet." 



" How much do \ovl ask for that honey ? " 



" Eighteen cents per pound, madam." 



Let's see. Thirteen and a half ounces at 

 eighteen cents per pound — uni, um ! Where 

 did I lay that infernal leadpencil? um — um ! 



" Oh ! call it fifteen cents;" and then I won- 

 der if my customer got cheated out of a frac- 

 tion of a penny or whether I did. Then that 

 last half-dozen unsalable sections, sure to show 

 up where they pack all weights and styles in 

 one case ! The grocer's profits are right in 

 that half-dozen. As the days go by, and the 

 dust settles on them more and more, with 

 more holes punched in them as they are han- 

 dled over, the profits grow beautifully less. 

 vSee? Why not do the square thing by that 

 grocer, and put in all nice full well-sealed 

 sections, so that there will be nothing left to 

 drag on unsold at the last end of that case; 



