754 



THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



December 1, 



It was his first sight of a " strictly fancy " section of honey, 

 and the price was away above what he was accustomed to, 

 but I wrote his order for 25 cases, 35 sections to the case. 



On that trip a drug drummer showed me around the city 

 (he was my cousin), and wanted to trade jobs with me, as he 

 had to bore them to buy drugs, while they tumbled over their 

 collars to buy honey. 



It's different now. Last season I went into Johnson's, at 

 Easton, Pa. (he is one of my old reliable customers), and found 

 a case of " fancy white " which was j ust a little better than I 

 could show. Basswood was a failure, and my best was only 

 Alsike clover. He informed me that it was brought to his 

 door for 8 cents a pound. That was like a .jab in my solar 

 plexus. I askt him faintly how much he had like that. Only 

 one case — it was so c)teap, he said, that we was afraid of it. 



" Well, Johnson," said I, " have you any ice ?" 



"Of course I have," said he; "but what do you want of 

 ice ?" 



"To put on your head, my dear man," I replied. "You 

 are in danger of going crazy, to let a man get away with any 

 honey like that at 8 cents per pound." And I trotted out 

 quotations from New York and Philadelphia, at 13i4 to 14 

 for such goods. "But," I continued, " you can't expect that 

 man to find ail your neighbors in a trance as you were, and 

 you will not get another chance to buy from him, so you might 

 as well give me your order " — which he did. 



The season's reports say that the honey crop is a small 

 one, tut I expect to hear hard times and low prices just the 

 same. 



Every year finds fewer people with money to buy luxuries, 

 and newspaper prosperity doesn't count in actual transactions. 

 My idea of the best way to market our honey in this locality 

 Is to combine several crops, send our salesman to the grocery 

 trade direct, take the orders from samples, giving time the 

 same as is common custom with wholesale dealers, and make 

 the second trip, when the time has expired, to collect the bills 

 and take more orders. The expenses are proportionally less 

 as amount of sales are increast. 



I prefer to sell comb honey by count instead of weight, 

 but that method requires careful, uniform grading and pack- 

 ing. The grocer nearly always sells by count, and it saves him 

 time and annoyance to buy as he sells. To pack good and 

 poor togther In the same crate under the plea that it is worth 

 as much per pound, if it Is only of the same quality and color, 

 regardless of finish (by which I mean full sections, well sealed), 

 leaves half a dozen culls on the dealer's hands unsold, and his 

 entire profit is in that same half dozen. If your crate is markt 

 " fancy," let every section be up to that grade, and also No. 1 

 the same way. I begin to think that selling " 3ulls" at all Is 

 bad practice. They are worth more to extract and use as bait 

 sections next year ; audit demoralizes some markets so that 

 only cull prices go for any grade. 



Is it too much to hope that the wisdom and experience of 

 this convention of the United States Bee-Keepers' D nion will 

 point out some better method of selling our honey than to 

 glut the market of a few large cities that fix the general quo- 

 tations which govern nearly all prices everywhere ? 



S. A. Niter. 



As the foregoing and following papers were on nearly the 

 same subject, discussion of Mr. Niver's was deferred till after 

 reading by the Secretary of the next paper, by Herman F. 

 Moore, of Cook Co., 111., as follows : 



Best Methods or Devclopiiis and maintaiiiina; a 

 market for Honey. 



On taking a second look at my subject, I confess my in- 

 ability to fill the sum of its demand. Who can say what is 

 the best method ? The one that brings a fair degree of suc- 

 cess in my hands may utterly fail with my neighbor's custo- 

 mers and conditions. So I will amend the title to "some of 

 the methods I have tried and found good." I think all the 

 good ideas on this subject as printed could not be contained 

 in a volume the size of the " A B C of Bee-Culture." The ter- 

 ritory is so various, the conditions are so different, that it is 

 impossible in a short article, such as this must of necessity be, 

 to even touch upon all the points of interest to the producer 

 of honey who is seeking a market. 



The first thing necessary to develop a market is to have 

 good honey. You will never develop a market for honey that 

 will amount to much if you supply your customers with buck- 

 wheat, or sweet clover, or any of the other three or four kinds 

 of honey that have been tried and found wanting as far as 

 family consumption goes. 



Let me say right here, that I am only considering this 

 subject from the standpoint of the producer selling direct to 

 the consumer, the consumer being the person buying honey 



for use on his own table. That very many things can be said, 

 interesting and instructive, on marketing honey in other 

 ways, there is no doubt, but I am convinced that the solution 

 of the question of low prices for your honey lies most in the 

 direction of selling more honey to families in your immediate 

 vicinity, and thereby keeping vast amounts of honey from the 

 city markets, and preventing them from being glutted with 

 honey at any time. 



The great business centers fix the price for all your pro- 

 ducts, and if you send them 1,000 pounds of honey where 

 there is a market for 500 pounds, the price must suffer ac- 

 cordingly, and the price that honey brings there, 1,000 miles 

 away from your home, tends to fix the price you can get even 

 at home. 



Without further argument we will conclude that one of 

 the best ways to develop a market. Is to develop a home mar- 

 ket. 



If you will take a little time and examine the business 

 methods of successful men and firms, you will find that nearly 

 every trade and profession depends upon personal influence 

 and confidence. Many a man who travels for the great busi- 

 ness houses is worth to them another $3,000 a year above an 

 ordinary salary, because of his personal acquaintance with a 

 long line of customers, and their confidence in bis fairness 

 and judgment. 



The first thing to do is to get acquainted with your pros- 

 pective trade. You can't do much business until thgy know 

 you personally, and have confidence in you as a man. To 

 this end you must use cards and circulars freely, and see and 

 talk personally with every one on your route. 



I need not advocate here the necessity of fair dealing In 

 every particular with everybody. This is axiomatic. You 

 will never get far unless you are " all wool and a yard wide," 

 and your goods are the same. 



In your calls always have samples of your honey, and 

 give every one a chance to taste it. Once ray brother sent me 

 a shipment carelessly, and a fourth of it was smasht (comb) ; 

 I put it on a plate, and took a silver knife with me, and 

 little slips of white paper for plates, and gave everybody a 

 taste of comb honey — my, how It did sell I I believe It 

 will pay you to take a section and cut it, in your family trade, 

 and give the ladies a chance to eat a piece one-fourth inch 

 square. Of course, you must charge retail prices to your 

 family trade, and only offer it in case lots (12 pounds), and 

 you must work hardest In the part of your territory where you 

 can get the biggest price. 



You can ordinarily get as much in small case lots to a 

 family as the grocer gets for one-pound at a time. You may 

 wonder why; I will tell you. 



Nearly all householders are anxious to buy their supplies 

 as fresh as possible from first hands — from the producer. 

 This gives you an Immense advantage over the ordinary 

 dealer. People expect only ordinary stuff from a dealer, as 

 he sells so many different things, and sells at Wtem until they 

 are all gone, If it takes a year. With the farmer it is different. 

 He sells his potatoes right from the ground, his honey right 

 from the hive. 



As to price, the family ordinarily does not pay much at- 

 tention to price. They want something good as gold, and are 

 willing to pay well for it. 



In writing your circular, it will be of advantage to give a 

 short history of your family as bee-keepers, location and size 

 of apiary, largest crop of honey in one season, queens sent to 

 remote parts of the world, it a queen-breeder; and perhaps a 

 general Invitation to call at your home and see your bees, and 

 how you take the honey away from them. 



In distributing your printed matter, I think all general 

 distribution is loss of material. I only give circulars and cards 

 along with conversation, and when making calls on Individuals, 

 and to parties where I have addrest them on the general or 

 special subjects. As to this you must decide by your own 

 special circumstances and conditions. There are without 

 doubt millions of circulars that are too promiscuously dis- 

 tributed and are a total loss to the one who pays for them. 



When you say to a gentleman,, "Are you fond of honey 

 at your house '?" he answers " No," being perhaps busy at the 

 time, or just thinking " here is another peddler ;" now leave 

 him one of your circulars, illustrated perhaps with a honey- 

 extractor, a queen-bee, or what not, and when you are gone 

 he will read it, and next time you call you often have a cus- 

 tomer even tho months may Intervene. 



So I will sum up the first part by saying, get personally 

 acquainted, if possible, with every person in your territory. 

 Insist upon everybody tasting your samples. Tell them about 

 your bees, and yourself as related to the bees. Sell them good 

 honey first, last and all the time. Get the highest retail price 

 in your locality. Give them full weight, full measure, and 



