1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



959 



good and will sell at a fair profit. This is a 

 fact ; and it is also a fact that the selling of 

 goods to the retailer is a fine art ; and the man 

 who does it commands a good salary, though 

 it's hard, nerve-tiring work. 



A year ago this present month, comb honey 

 being hard to obtain in this section, I thought 



I would try my hand at selling some extract- 

 ed. I accordingly ordered of F. H. Leggett & 

 Co., of New York, two cans of California 

 white sage honey. One reason I ordered the 

 sage honey was that, in an old edition of the 

 A B C, I found these words : " One striking 

 peculiarity of this honey (sage) is that it does 

 not candy, but remains limpid during the se- 

 verest winter weather. ' ' Nevertheless the sage 

 honey I got did candy in very mild weather. 

 When the honey arrived the house had mis- 

 taken my order ; and instead of sending two 

 cans they sent two cases of two cans each, or 

 240 lbs. I thought at first I would send half 

 of it back ; but upon examining it I found it 

 to be a fine article, and made up my mind to 

 sell it. I bought a gross of white glass fruit- 

 jars, pint size, and found they held about 1 lb. 



II oz. At first I filled the cans with the cold 

 honey, but it candied too quickly. I remem- 

 ber selling to an intimate friend of mine a can 

 that had candied. The next day he brought 

 it back, called me aside, and very solemnly 

 said, " Shiber, that's made stuff ; there is no 

 honey about it." Well, I knew better than 

 that, as it was bought and billed to me as 

 " strictly pure honey," and I knew the rep- 

 utation of the house I was dealing with. 

 This man afterward became a good customer. 

 I converted him with the bee-books. I kept 

 the ABC, Cook's Guide, Langstroth, etc. ; 

 showed him pictures of extractors, etc. After 

 that I stopped trjing to sell it after it had can- 

 died. I would then convert it to the liquid 

 form with hot water in the regular way. I 

 then sealed it up while h<jt, and that did not 

 candy again — that is, before I sold it. From 

 this I took a hint and afterward put one of the 

 60-lb. cans in a wash-boiler filled with hot wa- 

 ter. When it got heated through it was pour- 

 ed into the cans, sealed air-tight with the rub- 

 ber fruit-jar rings, and remained liquid until 

 sold. I will say further, that, by the holidays, 

 it was nearly all sold, and I had educated my 

 trade to use extracted honey, and call for it, 

 and had made money doing it. 



Another thing that made it sell was that I 

 kept it always in sight, right under everybody's 

 nose who came into the store. I want to 

 whisper into every bee-keeper's ear, when you 

 sell a grocer extracted honey, insist on his 

 keeping it right on his counter, or at least a 

 part of it there, so that it will be impossible 

 for one to come in without seeing it. Seeing 

 it will lead to inquiry and often to a sale ; and, 

 gentlemen, it will surprise you how much even 

 one store can sell in a season. Sealing it when 

 bot (the editor says 180 degrees is the limit, 

 and I think he is right), keeps it from candy- 

 ing for a long time. And then I like the 

 fruit-jar for a package. It is useful after it is 

 empty. Bottles are as expensive as jars, and 

 they are of very little value to the buyer. 

 The cost of them has to be added to the price 



of the honey, and so does the jar ; but it is 

 worth the price to the average family, and 

 sells far more readily. 



Another point in bottling is to fill the pack- 

 age full, sealing it while hot. This is an ad- 

 ditional preventive of early candying. This 

 point I learned from Gleanings awhile back, 

 and have since found it to be valuable 



One more more in regard to the word " ex- 

 tracted." When people would come in and 

 ask what that stuff in the jars was I would in- 

 stantly respond that it was honey taken from 

 the combs by a machine called an extractor, 

 thrown out by centrifugal motion, hence the 

 word "extracted." When you sell extracted 

 honey to a person who does not know what 

 that means, don't let the word stay in his 

 mouth long without following it up with an 

 explanation ; for before he gets the explana- 

 tion his mind is forming an opinion, and we 

 want that opinion right. This can be obtain- 

 ed by following quickly with the explanation; 

 then we are ready to make the sale, for we 

 have said the right thing in the right place. 

 In selling a new article it's what the seller 

 says, and how he says it, that sells the article. 

 Then if the buyer likes it he buys more. If 

 the buyer happens to be a dealer he will buy 

 some more to sell again. That's the knack 

 in a nut-shell. 



Franklinville, N. Y. 



BOTTLING HONEY. 



Reasons for Heating the Honey and then Bottling; 



How Hot should the Honey be Made? Style 



of Glass Packages to be Used ; Mixing 



Various Honeys. 



BY CHAtON FOWLS. 



In giving my method of bottling honey I 

 do not claim that it is the best one. Indeed, 

 it is quite likely some one else may have some 

 better plan ; and if so I hope he will bring it 

 out at this time so that we can all learn how 

 to do the work in the best and most expedi- 

 tious way. The plan given by Mr. Ponder, 

 on page 801, may be better than mine in some 

 respects ; but, not having tried it, I could not 

 say. Though he does not say so, I infer he 

 would run his whole crop into the bottles be- 

 fore it has candied, and then liquefy and seal 

 only as fast as needed for his orders. Witb 

 me this would make too much work in the 

 summer, when other work is pressing. Oth- 

 erwise, if the honey is left in bulk until it is 

 candied it would look as though it would have 

 to be heated twice to finish the job. I should 

 suppose, too, that it would be difficult to put 

 in just the right amount when cold so that 

 the bottles would be full when heated, and 

 not too full, so as to run over. Perhaps Mr. 

 Ponder will explain those points more fully 

 in another article, so I will now proceed to 

 give you my own method. 



In the first place, I aim to put up none but 

 first-class honey, weighing not less than 12 

 pounds to the gallon, and the same kind year 

 after year. When I have to buy to supple- 

 ment my own crop in a poor year like this, I 



