1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



771 



labels were too common, and the " dear pub- 

 lic " would hardl}' notice them ; but the liquid 

 honey in glass would at once excite admira- 

 tion. Then the small tin boxes looked bad, 

 reminding one of ointment or "rat pizen." 



To the bee-keeper who wants to rush his 

 honey off the hives as fast as he can, and get 

 it on the market with the least labor, the plan 

 of putting it up candied has much to com- 

 mend it. He can extract before it is capped ; 

 for when candied it will not show how thin it 

 is ; and if a little off color or flavor it will not 

 be noticed as quickly. But in my opinion 

 such slipshod methods should not be encour- 

 aged, as it is well known that lowering the 

 quality of any commodity will damage the 

 market for all grades. I would suggest to Dr. 

 Miller that this might tend toward " lower 

 prices for us all," and will also offer the fol- 

 lowing in addition: 



Candied honey is a poor seller on account 

 of its unattractive appearance. Few would 

 buy except those who had previously acquired 

 a taste for it. " Well displayed i? half sold " 

 is a maxim that any live grocer will indorse. 

 With candied honey it is not possible to meet 

 this requirement. With less sold at retail 

 there will be more left in the producers' or 

 jobbers' hands, which must be sold to manu- 

 facturers at a lower price ; this would mean 

 lower prices all around. 



Then too, by putting up our goods in an 

 unattractive way we should play into the 

 hands of our enemies, the glucose-mixers, 

 who would not be slow to take advantage of 

 our imbecility by making a fine display to 

 captivate the eye of the public. 



This point of making an effective display of 

 our goods ive can not afford to ignore if we 

 would keep abreast of the times. Go into 

 any well-equipped grocery where they have a 

 fine stock and notice how many different lines 

 of goods are displayed in glass. I have just 

 counted twenty different kinds of fruits and 

 vegetables put up in glass jars, and displayed 

 on a large pyramidal stand in one of our gro- 

 ceries. This did not include jellies displayed 

 in glass elsewhere, besides nuts, dried fruits, 

 cakes, confectionery, and, in fact, almost all 

 kinds of groceries were displayed in drawers 

 or boxes with glass fronts, and all kept polish- 

 ed bright so as to attract attention. Even the 

 old cheese-box, covered with wire screen, had 

 to give place to a beautiful natural-wood case 

 in oil finish with two cylindrical glass fronts 

 that revolve on ball bearings whenever opened. 



Our grocers say that, a few years ago, hard- 

 ly any thing was put up in glass. 



I agree with Mr. Fred Muth in believing 

 that only a small amount is now sold at retail 

 to what might be if the masses could be made 

 to understand that they could get liquid hon- 

 ey that was pure. 



Now I think that, if we ever reach the mass- 

 es with our product, we should put it on the 

 market so that it will advertise itself ; and to 

 do this I would follow nature as closely as 

 practicable by sealing the honey up while 

 warm and liquid ; and, as we must use a bot- 

 tle several hundred times larger than that used 

 by the bees, we should use only thick well- 



ripened honey weighing 12 pounds to the gal- 

 lon. I know the bees sometimes seal up thin- 

 ner honey than this, but the case is somewhat 

 different. I saw some honey in one of our 

 groceries, put up by The A. I. Root Co. It 

 weighs only about 11^ lbs. to the gallon ; but, 

 as it is put up liquid, and is of nice flavor, I'll 

 let you off this time. Oh, yes ! It is with " no 

 little pleasure " that I count you on my side 

 (see footnote, p. 644). 



Say — if you don't stop calling me " the man 

 who sells his honey at double prices " I shall 

 call you the man who sells hives at double 

 prices. I think, though, that the finest and 

 best finished article, be it honey or hives, 

 should be recognized as the standard, while 

 the man whose goods bring only half as much 

 might be stigmatized as the man who sells at 

 half price. 



Oberlin, Ohio. 



[This whole question, when simmered down, 

 stands about this way : The general public 

 are suspicious of candied honey. Now, hon- 

 ey will candy. Considering this fact. Dr. Mil- 

 ler, R. C. Aikin, et al., argue that the public 

 may be and can be educated to the whole- 

 someness and purity of honey in the solid 

 form ; then if perchance the liquid article 

 while in the market or in the home shall turn 

 cloudy or solid, no suspicions will be aroused 

 as to its purity or wholesomeness. In Mr. 

 Aikin's locality, consumers will take the can- 

 died honey as quickly as they will that in a 

 liquid form, and pay as much money for it. 

 Why ? Because he has educated them on that 

 point. You, friend Fowls, have educated your 

 trade to nothing but the very best of liquid 

 extracted. Your practice and belief have al- 

 most been forced on you by the fact that your 

 customers will have nothing but ripe thick 

 extracted honey ; but methinks you might 

 personally show to some of the consumers 

 that here, for example, is a honey candied sol- 

 id that is of the same lot as that in the jar, 

 beautifully transparent, and so tempting to 

 the eye. If you went one step further, and 

 said some people like the candied article bet- 

 ter, you might be able to get them to buy 

 some of both. If I mistake not, Mr. Aikin 

 started out on this very plan until now a large 

 part of his retail trade not only receives but 

 expects candied honey, for they know they 

 can easily reduce it to a liquid condition by 

 following the directions on the pail. 



Now about the man who sells at double 

 prices. At the time of making the statement 

 I tried to place emphasis upon the fact that 

 Oiie can, if he has gumption enough, get dou- 

 ble price providing he takes pains to sell 7-ipe 

 thick honey of first quality and no other. 

 When the consumers learn that Fowls always 

 sells a fine article, and that Jones sells the 

 cheap disagreeable twangy stuff at half of 

 Fowls' price, they will patronize Fowls every 

 time, even though he does ask "double 

 prices." Of course, the phrase sounds bad ; 

 but the man who is alive and awake to the op- 

 portunity presented, and who puts out a first 

 quality of thick honey, has a right to charge 

 for his honey twice as much, for it is really 



