AUGUST 1. 1916 



667 



awake and alert, some chap who is will 

 ciowd you oul. The scramble for a living 

 is just about as cold, heartless, and unfeel- 

 ing' in trade as it is among the animal^. 

 Sentiment, good fellowship, good will, 

 kindly feelings, may be expressed, but or- 

 ders are what the salesmen are after, and 

 tlie cliap who gets them is the one who 

 counts. 



When the competition gets keen, and 

 prices drop and drop, what are you going 

 to do? Hang on, drop prices and sell, or 

 give up the business altogether? It depends 

 on what you know of your business. If you 

 are not thoroly informed, you are not in 

 position to fight successfully for your liv- 

 ing, and sooner or later you will go under. 

 We have had all sorts of producing schemes 

 and all sorts of appliances, and we have 

 discussed these things until our voices are 

 husky and our ink used up, but precious 

 little have we heard of the cost of using said 

 appliances or methods. We shall have to 

 know pretty soon, for this honey business 

 is getting down to brass tacks. 



As consumption increases, prices will 

 drop. Why? Oh! well, that is one of the 

 economic laws which we have so far bpen 

 unable to repeal. To explain it a bit- -a 

 lawyer would charge you for the explana- 

 tion, but I won't, because I an already 

 overburdened with the profits from the bees, 

 and want you to be. To continue, when the 

 demand for things increases, the production 

 increases; more people enter the business, 

 and very soon down go prices. Some fine 

 day the dear public's fancy changes, de- 

 mand falls off, and — well, only the strong 

 and the astute weather the storm. And 

 when you are put up against such condi- 

 tions you will either holler for help or sit 



down to live on the interest of your wealth. 

 The strong and astute are those who have 

 prepared themselves to meet the storms of 

 competition, low prices, changing demands, 

 etc., by piling up a reserve of capital, by 

 learning all the arts of selling, by anticipat- 

 ing the consumers' demands — in a word, by 

 being " forehanded." That term was given 

 by our good old New England ancestors to 

 the successful, thrifty, hardheaded ones 

 among them. The homely virtue is as good 

 today as then. Torehanded means more 

 than the acquisition of worldly goods. It 

 means the knowledge and thoughtfulness on 

 which such thrift is based. I repeat, to 

 get the knowledge of markets, of the kind 

 of honey wanted, of the best packages, etc., 

 go into the market, buy honey, taste it, 

 study the packing, ask questions, follow the 

 conventions, ask more questions, stop, look 

 and listen, then move on and do it some 

 more. 



"They have eyes but they see not, and ears 

 have they but they hear not." If you are 

 both deaf and blind to what is about you, 

 for your own sake and for the sake of the 

 rest of us hire a salesman. Do you say that 

 you cannot afford to? Then pool your issues 

 with your fellow-craftsmen ; go into a mar- 

 keting association as sojue of the Colorado 

 beemen have done, and as so many fruit and 

 other specialists have done. To be sure, you 

 will have to yield to the majority ; but most 

 of the time the majority is pretty nearly 

 right. Co-operation is a sadly overworked 

 word, but a very much underused fact. Be 

 as willing to yield to others as to express 

 your own views ; get together and pull to- 

 gether. Perhaps you are doing very well 

 going it alone; but in the long run you may 

 do a lot better " running with the pack." 



Providence, R. L 



THE NECESSITY FOR ADEQUATE GRADING 



BY JOHN W. LOVE 



The attitude expressed in the bromide, 

 " We are beekeepers, not salesmen," is all 

 very well for the man who keeps bees as a 

 backyard hobby; but the honey-producer 

 who depends on his colonies for a living 

 cannot afford to neglect the principles of 

 marketing farm produce. Some very im- 

 portant developments have taken place in 

 this new science of selling, and more impor- 

 tant advances are due in the near future. 



The preparation of a package has long 

 been recognized as a basis of success in 

 business of any kind. It would be impos- 

 sible for manufacturers to deal with distrib- 

 uters without having between them a clear 



understanding on sizes, grades, and pack- 

 ages. Yet farmers have been slow to grasp 

 the significance of this principle. They 

 have continued to send to market apples of 

 different sizes in baskets of varying capac- 

 ity, strawberries in crates of odd dimen- 

 sions, and comb honey of widely different 

 grades in the same lot. 



If the dealer is to quote a price he must 

 know exactly what he is getting; and before 

 transactions can be placed on a permanent 

 basis of confidence he must know that what 

 he receives will be strictly true to grade. 

 It is impossible to make much progress 

 until the buver and seller discuss the com- 



