662 



We beekeepers must, therefore, try to 

 produce as cheaply as possible. This is a 

 point very much overlooked, and most bee- 

 keepers don't like to hear it. Everybody is 

 crying for a living price, and thinks the 

 other fellow should pay him an easy living, 

 but he will do nothing himself. Work hard 

 and try to produce cheaper, so you can sell 

 cheaper and still make a good profit. What 

 did you do last winter to be better posted 

 on your business this season ? Do you knoAv 

 all 'the tricks of the trade? If you catch 

 only one new idea in a bee-book, is it paid 

 for ten times over? 



Having produced cheaply we must try to 

 bring our product cheaply on the market. 

 I think it is wrong to put up our honey in 

 the finest flint-glass jars so that the con- 

 tainer costs just as much as the contents. 

 Very few housewives care for more jars 

 when they don't need them. The canning 

 time is gone when the honey comes on the 

 market. It would be better if the container 

 were so cheap that little would have to be 

 added to the selling price of the honey. We 

 must avoid as much as possible the small 

 packages — the smaller the package the 

 greater the comparative cost. 



The attractiveness of honey in flint-glass 

 jars is lost in cheap tin cans; but we must 

 make this up by very nice labels. In none 

 of the catalogs could I find a label that I 

 wanted. I looked for an attractive label 

 which at the same time would advertise and 

 show the superiority of honey over artificial 

 products. 



The label printers should bring out new 

 ideas, and not use the same cuts indefinite- 

 ly. If a new label costs a little more, I am 

 willing to pay it, and I think most beekeep- 

 ers would do the same if they could get 

 what they want. 



In supplying our customer the year 

 round with honey he will not think of 

 buying syrup if he is once accustomed to 

 honey. If the honey supply is cut of¥ we 

 force him to do this very thing. After 



GLEAN]NGS IN BEE CULTURE 



using syrups regularly ten months in the 

 year, very few are willing to buy honey the 

 other two months. They regard honey as an 

 extra luxury to give to the children in tea- 

 spoon doses as a cough remedy rather than 

 as a food. The market problem for honey 

 is for the most part a distributing problem 

 which could be better solved if we would 

 try to distribute our product over the whole 

 year. The trouble is that nearly every bee- 

 keeper is eager to dump his honey on the 

 market as soon as harvested, to get rid of 

 any further trouble. 



WHERE AN ASSOCIATION CAN HELP. 



Most of the smaller beekeepers, and many 

 of the bigger ones too, will wonder how they 

 can keep some of the honey over to the next 

 season in order to sell it the year round. 

 The honey will candy, and they have neither 

 time nor proper equipment to liquefy it. 

 All this trouble would disappear if there 

 were a well-founded and well-managed as- 

 sociation which could take over every pound 

 of honey and grade and blend it so that 

 there will be a uniform article the whole 

 year round, so that every buyer knows 

 exactly what he gets when he asks for 

 California first-class light-amber honey or 

 Michigan first-class water-white white-clo- 

 ver honey, etc. Hitherto there has not been 

 the right spirit in an association. Every 

 beekeeiDcr should be a member, even if he 

 has only two colonies of bees. Now, the 

 big fellows overlook the small ones, and the 

 small ones spoil the market in selling off 

 grades of honey (sometimes big fellows do 

 the same). We must try to get those little 

 fellows, and teach them. The wise guy 

 who knows everything you can't teach. 



Local associations must federate into 

 state associations, and they in turn must be 

 federated into the national association. The 

 national association can't manage local af- 

 fairs, and the local association can't do 

 national work. 



Chico. Cal. 



DROPPING FRUIT AND POULTRY TO TAKE CARE OF HONEY TRADE 



BY INEZ A. DEALS 



A hustler in the honey business, and a 

 man whom some beemen and honey-dealers 

 know, and others should know, is Mr. Her- 

 bert B. Phillips, of Auburn, Me. Mr. Phil- 

 lips keeps but a few colonies now, alt ho he 

 is increasing his number. He devotes his 

 time almost wholly to the bottling of honey 

 for his trade at home as well as elsewhere. 

 His business is mostly with extracted honey, 

 altho he handles a good de^l of cpmb honey 



and some beeswax. There is nearly always 

 a call for good comb honey. 



Mr. Phillips' home is situated about two 

 miles from the business section of the city, 

 and it is there that he keeps his bees and 

 his storehouses. 



His liquefying is done by steam. At the 

 time we visited him he had about seven tons 

 of honey on hand, and four or five more 

 en mite. His packages are very attractive. 



