1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



613 



to compile from the printed records), and 

 comb about 10 or 11. At these prices I can 

 get about 5 cents out of extracted if sent to 

 Denver, and 4 cents or less if sent to Chicago. 

 In like manner comb honey would net me 

 about 6 to 8 cents. 



I go to my grocer and find sugar of best 

 quality selling at about (> cts. Syrups sell for 

 almost any price from 2 cts. per pound up to 

 about the cost of sugar. 



Now let me ask, is it business, is it policy, 

 is it justice to all concerned? is it coiiinion 

 sense that I send my honey into the general 

 markets to compete with the products of all 

 other shipping apiarists, and get from 4 to (> 

 cts. for extracted and G to 8 for comb, while 

 the sugar and gh;cose factories are sending 

 their sweets right in here and selling them to 

 the people whom I ought to supply with a 

 wholesome sweet. Understand, my home 

 customers are a people who can not spend 

 money lavishly, and have what they most 

 want and prefer, regardless of cost, but must 

 calculate what will supply their tables reason- 

 ably well at a minimum cost. They do cal- 

 culate the cost, and furnish their tables just 

 as I and all poor honey-producers do and 

 would do if in their places. Friends, come 

 right home and ask yourself, "If /were not 

 producing honey, and had to buy sweets, 

 which would I use — 6-cent granulated sugar 

 or 8 to 10 cent honey ? Ninety-nine times 

 out of every hundred you would take the 

 sugar. 



I had numerous calls for quotations on 

 comb and extracted the past winter, and I 

 quoted cts. for extracted and 10 for comb, 

 net iveiglit. For the extracted I asked (i cts. 

 for just whatever was in the can, then added 

 the cost of a can. A 60-pound can holds 

 about 58 pounds. At (3 cts. this is $8.48, plus 

 25 cts. for cost of can, making a can of honey 

 cost .^o.To. Could I sell at this price to dis- 

 tant markets? No, sir. Neither could I sell 

 comb at 10 cts. net iveight, which means about 

 $2.10 per case. The best offer I got during 

 the winter, in Denver, was !?1.90 per case. 

 The rate to Denver is 42 cts., about 10 cts. per 

 case, leaving me $1.80 per case, ox "Yz cts. 

 per section. Counting off the cost of case and 

 the sections and foundation, I have less than 

 ^Yz cts. a pound for my comb honey. To 

 Chicago, comb would cost me, less car lots, 

 2 cts. or over for freights alone ; extracted, a 

 little less. 



Having thus figured the thing throiigh, I 

 found there was no possible chance to get 

 over 5 cts. net for extracted and 7 for comb — 

 moire likely 4 and 6, so I decided that my 

 neighbors should have my honey cheap rather 

 than to ship it at these prices. I accordingly 

 advertised my extracted at G cts. strictly net 

 weight, package extra. I would sell a cus- 

 tomer lard-pails or 5-gallon cans at cost, or 

 they could faring their own vessels and have 

 them filled. Thus I sold my extracted at 6 

 cts. net, and had at the least a cent a povuid 

 for trouble in retailing, compared with the 

 wholesale prices in the general markets. 

 Comb honey I sold at 10 cts. net, case to go 

 with it, or 7 to 9 without case. 



My crop of extracted was 5500 pounds. It 

 all sold at home, and I bought other and 

 shipped in, yet have been out of extracted 

 since about February. I had one ton of comb, 

 shipped 20 cases of it to Denver, and still had 

 a few pounds left the middle of May. 



It is now evident that I could have sold my 

 crop of extracted at 7 cts. had I held the price 

 to that; but I. did not know that my advertis- 

 ing was going to be so effective. I had bills 

 printed and scattered broadcast, and also used 

 a lot of honey-leaflets. The people found 

 that the honey was as cheap as sugar, so 

 bought it in preference to that and cheaper 

 glucose syrups. Many who had never used 

 honey now say they can not do without it. 

 Five-gallon cans that I sold keep coming back 

 to be refilled. I am so well pleased with the 

 results of selling at home that I propose to 

 make a local market for 10 to 20 tons a year. 

 I know that I can sell fine extracted honey at 

 <i cts. net to many who have been using the 

 glucose syrups that sell at not to exceed 3 cts. 

 per pound. 



Granulated sugar is a good sweet, and will, 

 /;/ spite of lis, compete with honey, and there 

 is no use ignoring the fact. My market will 

 not take enough comb honey at 10 cts. a sec- 

 tion at retail to consume two tons a year while 

 sugar can be had at $6.00 or less per 100 lbs. 

 I now have bees enough to produce this year 

 8 tons of honey at a yield of 50 pounds, and I 

 believe I can sell that much at home far better 

 than it would net me shipped out. 



EXTRACTED IN LARD-PAILS ; CANDIED HON- 

 EY DEFENDED. 



When I extract I shall put much of it into 

 lard-pails of 3 and 5 pound sizes (such pails 

 hold 4 and G to 7 lbs. respectively of honey), 

 and let it candy solid. I sold much that way 

 last winter. You, Mr. Editor, in a footnote 

 to a former article of mine, page 444, June of 

 last year, said: " I question whether we could 

 get the general public to look with very much 

 favor on a package of extracted honey that is 

 candied — one that must be brought to a liquid 

 condition before it is consumed." 



I want to say just as emphatically that the 

 marketing of extracted honey in the candied 

 form can be made a success if we will just do 

 it. I find the people very readily take up 

 with the idea when it is pui before them, and 

 last winter I had no trouble whatever in sell- 

 ing many hundreds of pails of honey candied 

 solid within two weeks after being extracted. 

 I put in the top of each pail a printed slip 

 telling how to liquefy, laying the paper right 

 on top of the honey. This way it sold right 

 along, and was about the only waj' the stores 

 would handle my extracted honey. 



I do not retract one bit from my former 

 position about the necessity of a standard 

 cheap sealing package for retailing extracted 

 honey, as told on pages 409 and 443 of 

 Gleanings for 1897. All honey will not 

 granulate solid like Colorado alfalfa, and a 

 tight-sealing package is a necessity. 



I am not alone in this experiment of mar- 

 keting candied honey. Mrs. A. J. Barber, of 

 Mancos, Colorado, has also worked out the 

 matter, and now enjoys a local trade that can 



