AUGUST. 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



593 



MANY IDEAS ON SELLING HONEY AND HONEY PRICES 



Claris and Ideas from the Producers — the Ones Most Vitally Interested in 

 the disposal of the Crop 



Little Chance for Co-operative Selling 



IT would seem an easy matter to e:et a bee- 

 keeper in successful touch with others 

 whose crop has been a failure, or with 

 those who by easy stages have built a trade 

 far in excess of their production. 



But after one season trying the game, I 

 should like to tell a few of the reasons why 

 I fail to see any bright outlook for co-oper- 

 ative selling. I began some seven years 

 ago with one colony. Four years ago I 

 found I had more comb honey than I could 

 dispose of at home. Being on a good road 

 for auto travel I made a canvas comb-honey 

 sign which I swung across the road (Glean- 

 ings, 1916, p. 849) . That season I had 40 

 sections left when the roads got bad. The 

 next season, while I secured a larger crop, 

 I did not have enough to supply my de- 

 mand; for as I stamped my name on each 

 section, I secured by mail many case orders 

 for shipment. Seeing the handwriting on 

 the wall I secured by purchase and increase 

 still more bees and began to put out feelers 

 to small producers for prices of comb and 

 extracted honey in 500-pound lots. 



Last year my troubles began in earnest. 

 I had a very large crop for this location. It 

 Avas mostly extracted, and so I began to 

 look about for comb honey. For retailing 

 I obtained from a producer a crop of No. 

 1 comb at 17 cts. This was all right ; but I 

 had been accepting orders from grocers who 

 expected to make 20 per cent; and to sell 

 at 25 cts. per section, and for this trade, I 

 found mj' margin was too small. When the 

 auto trade was over and my honey w^as 

 about gone, my sales continued to increase 

 daily and were nearly $150 per month (a 

 little later they were about $200). I began 

 corresponding with producers, and I found 

 tliey all wanted from 17 to 19 cts. for No. 1 

 sections, and expected me to pay the freight. 

 Now, at various times I had received orders 

 from a wholesale house in New York, so I 

 decided to try buying of them instead of 

 selling. I found that I could secure No. 1 

 comb at 15 cts. and quite often at 14, and 

 the fancy at $3.88 per case. The latter I 

 sold to choice trade only. I bought 25 

 cases from New York at 14 cts., twelve of 

 them being from a producer who had asked 

 me 17. Now, why the difference? If that 

 man had offered to sell at 15 cts, I would 

 have purchased his entire stock. Would he 

 not have been ahead? No wholesale house 



handles honey for its health, yet up to Dec. 

 1 I bought barrel after barrel of white clover 

 from New York at 8 cts., and many pro- 

 ducex's asked 9 and even 10. Of course this 

 season was an exception, and some of tliem, 

 no doubt, secured their 10 cts. or more. 1 

 bought one barrel from New York at 7''/'2 

 cts., and wrote immediately to the producer, 

 but found he asked me 9 cts. in Florida. 



An Ohio man quoted comb at fair prio^, 

 and I ordered a carrier. The grading was 

 poor, 29 sections being No. 2 instead of No. 1 

 as quoted. My New York shipments are only 

 two or three days on the road; but this was 

 22 days in coming; and the freight, instead 

 of being 18 cts. per hundi'ed, was 65 cts. 

 If this honey had been graded properly I 

 should have made 2Y2 cts. per section. As 

 it was, I lost money. Why can't one gTade 

 as well when selling to a co-operator as 

 when selling to a wholesaler? One man 

 kindly informed me that he could slip in 

 a few No. 2 with No. 1; and as there was 

 only 4 oz. difference between the grades, 

 these few sactions would escape notice; and 

 if I could use the honey that way he could 

 make me a price of 20 cts. flat! Even at 

 that, the! price would be above my selling 

 price in lots of five cases or more. 



Now, there may be other reasons for the 

 failure of co-operation ; but I am telling 

 only what I know to be true in my ease 

 alone; and I say that, as long as the pro- 

 ducer demands of the one who has gone 

 beyond his home market as much as or m.ore 

 than he does of a near-by wholesaler, just 

 so long will the co-operation seeds fall on 

 barren ground. 



Wading River, N. J. S. Powers. 



Careless Grading Never Pays 



" Can I get by with it?" This question 

 naturally arises in the minds of many peo- 

 ple when they are about " to put one over 

 on the other fellow." We answer, " Yes, 

 you may; but j^ou will pay in the end for 

 your tricks. Do not think that you can 

 fool all the people all the time, just because 

 you have deceived some of the people part 

 of the time. It does not pay to take a mean 

 advantage of a man just because he is not 

 standing over you with a shotgun." 



In grading comb honey it is poor policy 

 to think, " I will slip this one into the 

 fancy grade. I will put that one over on 



