1496 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1. 



care to handle it, as he could seldom find 

 many packages of the same shade or quality, 

 whereas either the belltlower honey of Cuba 

 or the sage honey of California is always the 

 same, and any can of a carload is a good 

 sample of the whole shipment. 



Another point against our clover honey 

 was its tendency to granulate soon after 

 extracting. Parties engaged in the bottling 

 business prefer honey that will keep in the 

 liquid state until bought by the consumer. 



In I'egard to our buckwheat extracted hon- 

 ey, these dealers preferred it at the same 

 price to clover. The Jews buy large quan- 

 tities of this dark honey; and the National 

 Biscuit Co. in the spring clean up the unsold 

 stock of these large dealers. This company 

 is not particular about the color or quality— 

 they look only to the price. After the large 

 dealers have had a good trade in honey they 

 are willing to sell what they have left at some 

 sacrifice rather than to carry it over to anoth- 

 er season. 



I also called on some of the smaller deal- 

 ers, but they said they liked to buy of the 

 commission men best, for two reasons. First, 

 they could buy somewhat cheaper than they 

 could of the producers, and then they could 

 get two or three months' time on what they 

 bought along with other things; whereas, if 

 they Ijought of the producer they had to pay 

 cash down. 



Now, my friends, wi-ch these conditions 

 staring us in the face this season, when the 

 crop as a whole has been a short one, what 

 are we to do when the United States and 

 Cuba have a good crop? I must say I for 

 one am not competent to solve this problem. 

 This California and Cuban honey I have just 

 spoken of, which costs only about 4^ to 5 cents 

 delivered in New York, is sold to small deal- 

 ers for from 7 to 8.^ cents per 11). You may 

 think this a good margin of profit for the 

 wholesale dealer; but when you take into 

 I'onsidei-atiou the enormous rents they have 

 to pay, and their large insurance expense, 

 together with all their other expenses, it is 

 little enough for them to have to carry on 

 their business. One of these dealers told me 

 that their postage and stationery are two of 

 their smallest items of expense, but still it 

 amounted to over $40,000 annually for each 

 of these items; so you see they must not only 

 do a large volume of business, but they must 

 have a good margin of profit on nearly ev- 

 ery thing they handle. I can see no better 

 way than to take more pains in supplying 

 our local market in the future than many of 

 us have done in the past. New York, with 

 its nearly four million inhabitants, has been 

 a good market for our honey; but with a con- 

 tinual increase in the production of honey 

 we must now look to our smaller cities to 

 help relieve this market. Yes, and even our 

 small country towns must not be overlooked, 

 for they can help in a small way to work off 

 this great surplus. 



Since I returned home I have been sorry 1 

 did not inquire into the condition of our 

 comb-honey market; but this is a part of our 

 business that I seldom think of. 



According to what experience we have had 

 in advertising our honey, there seems to be 

 no trouble in disposing of a large surplus; 

 and I am quite sure that a few dollars spent 

 in this way will soon bring the producer and 

 consumer or dealer together, and be a mu- 

 tual benefit to each. 



During the past three years we have sold 

 honey in nearly every State east of the Mis- 

 sissippi River, and in a few States west of it. 

 We have had some large orders from parties 

 in Illinois and Minnesota. These customers 

 we got by placing a small notice in the bee 

 journals. If we would all try as hard to sell 

 our honey as we do to produce it we should 

 soon find a good market for the most of it. 

 I hope to hear from others this winter on this 

 subject, for surely we can not do any thing 

 of more importance to our business than to 

 prepare ourselves for a large surplus l)efore 

 it comes, for come it will, and then we shall 

 wish we had customers ready to take our 

 whole crop. So, lose no time, but make it a 

 point to secure some customers every season. 

 The time has now come when we must ad- 

 vertise our produce in some way, if we ex- 

 pect to make a success of our business. I 

 am sure I can see no other way to work oflE 

 this surplus. Our village grocer can retail 

 (juite a quantity of extractetl honey if we will 

 furnish a keg to commence with. I know 

 one party who sells nearly 1000 lbs. a season 

 in a village of less than 000 inhabitants He 

 pays us 0^- cents, and sells for lu. His comb- 

 honey sales are not as large nor as profita- 

 ble as his sales of extracted honey. Give 

 them a chance to make three or four cents a 

 pound on what they can sell, and they will 

 work off a lot of it. His customers bring a 

 pail, anil he weighs out whatever they wish. 

 I have tried hanl to produce and teai-h oth- 

 ers how to produce large quantities of honey 

 at a small expense: but one important thing 

 in doing this is that you must have the best 

 strain of bees that can be procured, and give 

 them the best of care. 



Now a few words in regard to getting 

 good customers to buy your surplus. First, 

 produce honey of the best quality — honey 

 that is of good body and fine flavor; then 

 throvigh advertising in our bee journals let 

 the public know what you have and its price. 

 In this way we have been successful in pro- 

 curing more customers than we can supply, 

 and every season we have to return postal 

 money orders and checks sent to us for honey 

 after our crop is all sold. This season, about 

 Oct. 10, soon after our honey was all gone 

 we had an order from a party who has sold 

 over 100 tons of our honey, for a carload to 

 fill out a shipment to Eui'ope. This order 

 had to be canceled, and our only wish was 

 that we had twice as many colonies of bees. 



In conclusion 1 will say, deal honorably 

 and squarely with your customers, so that, 

 after they buy of you once, they will have 

 confidence in what you say, and send their 

 orders to you again in preference to a stran- 

 ger. In this way you will find an outlet for 

 your honey all over the United States, and 

 it will be a great satisfaction when you look 



