1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



507 



the eastern market, counting the loss from 

 having to pay the freight on the cases, is 

 about 2>4 cents for freight, if shipped in car 

 lots. Less carload, if we care to take the risk 

 of breakage, the cost per pound, with the ex- 

 tra crating necessary, is 4^i cents. This ex- 

 tra 2 cents, with the accompanying risk, shuts 

 us out of any markets except those that can 

 handle honey in car lots, and this leads me 

 to emphasize the point that the smaller cities 

 should be supplied from the surrounding ter- 

 ritory, and the city markets largely left to 

 those who are of necessity compelled to use 

 there. 



Now, my reader, if you have a crop of comb 

 honey of from 20 cases anywhere up to 200 or 

 so, I suggest that you sell it to the grocers in 

 your surrounding territory. You may answer 

 that you are not a salesman; that it takes 

 time and ability to push off your crop a few 

 cases at a time; that you would prefer to take 

 less for it and see it all go at once than to get 

 more in smaller sales. Of course, you would 

 if the difference were not too great; but the 

 difference is too great for you to afford if you 

 v^ash to make the l)est success from your pur- 

 suit. Suppose it does take time to sell a crop; 

 if it pays you well for your time, can you not 

 afford to take it ? I wish to urge you stren- 

 uously to make a brave trial and see if you do 

 not get along better than you expected. 



I am going to give some experiences and 

 suggestions, and will say at first that you 

 might make a score of calls and not use many 

 of the ideas; but if I give you the idea of how 

 it can be done, your tact and good sense will 

 suit your talk to the right person. I can not 

 map out a minute program for you, but I can 

 give you some insight of a plan that has 

 proved very profitable to me, and incidentally 

 you will learn something about my ideas of 

 having a crop in such readiness for market 

 that it will command the highest price the 

 grade will bring. 



You probably know all that is to be known 

 about your own home market. You often go 

 to town to do your trading, and know as well 

 as any man in the community about how 

 much honey your grocers have on hand, and 

 what the possibilities are for business. As an 

 almost invariable rule you will never make a 

 large sale in the town where you are best ac- 

 quainted. Your merchant will say, "I might 

 take one case of you. You are in town often, 

 and I can get more of you almost any time.'' 

 Therefore I urge you to make a longer drive, 

 get out of your own immediate community^ 

 where you will have a fighting chance of sell- 

 ing several cases to one customer. 



Start with a load of 10 to 20 cases, accord- 

 ing to the size of the place you are going to 

 visit. Put on the best suit you have; collar 

 and necktie; if you ever wear cuffs, do not 

 leave them off this time; give your shoes an 

 extra good shine, and look just as neat as pos- 

 sible. You are not a farmer or bee-keeper now; 

 you are a business man, and are going out to 

 do business in a businessHke way. Take along 

 your horse-feed if you wish ; but go to a mod- 

 est hotel where you can get a meal for 25 

 cents, and have the almost as desirable point 



of being able to wash, and to brush the dust 

 thoroughly from you, from hat to shoe-sole. 

 I do not think I overestimate the value of 

 your personal appearance. While clothes do 

 not make the man, they do, very largely, 

 make the estimate that people place upon youj 

 especially among strangers. You will walk 

 with a firmer tread and feel more like busi- 

 ness, if your appearance is not being criticis- 

 ed, but, instead, is helping vou to appear as 

 though you meant business.' I trust my read- 

 er's good sense to understand me aright, and 

 not think I advocate unreasonable extremes. 



You know what your honey is worth, and 

 the price you ought to get, which should be 

 enough above the price at which you hold the 

 entire crop to pay for the time you put in dis- 

 tributing it. Adopt your prices for your dif- 

 ferent grades, and stick to them, treating all 

 alike. It is all right to miss a sale occasion- 

 ally on this account, as it will save you so 

 much time, and be such a help in makino- 

 sales to these parties in the future. ^ 



Being all in readiness to be your own 

 "drummer," go to the leading grocer, and be 

 as pleasant and polite as possible. Make 

 your business known at once, for busy men 

 do not care to talk much with strangers about 

 the weather, crops, condition of roads, etc. 



' ' I have driven over from Blankville with 

 comb honey, and this case is a fair sample of 

 my best grade. I take a great deal of care in 

 producing a good article, and casing it up 

 fair, and I think, if I could sell my load to 

 you, you would find it to give good satisfac- 

 tion to yourself and to your customers. ' ' 



Of course, he will look at the honey, and 

 likely pass his opinion upon it, comparing it 

 with the honey he has handled. You will 

 soon know whether he is at all interested or 

 not, whether he is well stocked, whether or 

 not he is supplied regularly, as his trade de- 

 mands, by some home bee-keeper who is his 

 regular customer, and who may put an article 

 on the market that compares' favorably with 

 yours. If there is no chance at all for a sale, 

 bid him a pleasant good-day and tell him you 

 will probably see him again some ti^aie when 

 he is nearer ready to buy. Then if he wants 

 to visit a little with you, and start an acquaint- 

 ance, meet him half way, letting him make 

 the advances; but make it short, and leave 

 him with the impression that you are out for 

 business, a^d that your business is just as im- 

 portant to you as any other man's business 

 can possibly be to him. 



The next grocery j^ou call at, the man vou 

 take to be the proprietor is busy. After w'ait- 

 ing a little, and you see he is not apt to be 

 through with his customer very soon, you 

 start out. Likely he or one of the clerks will 

 inquire if you wish to get any thing; but you 

 reply that you have a little business with the 

 proprietor, and that you will call again in a 

 little while. Thus you save your own time, 

 and impress the grocer that you are a man of 

 business, and too much of a hustler to waste 

 your time waiting for some independent chap 

 to give you a little of the time he wants you 

 to think is so extremely precious. 



At another grocery you see at once that the 



