176 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



absolute purity of all honey bearing his 

 label." 



The dealer cannot very well refuse to 

 take the card, and may say: "Well, 

 yes ; I have seen that place in passing 

 on the cars. You must have quite a lot 

 of bees there." Then he will look on 

 the other side. "That is the reason, is 

 it, that extracted-honey is cheaper than 

 comb. I always thought that it was 

 because it was doctored up in some way, 

 and I have always been afraid of 

 candied honey. I do not care if I do 

 have just a few, to see how they go. I 

 will take two or three dozen this time ; 

 and, I think you had better leave me 

 some of those cards, too, for I believe 

 that they will help me out with my 

 customers." If he should not say so, I 

 would suggest it to him myself. 



HOW TO KEEP THE TJRADE. 



By square dealing first, last and 

 always. Do not sell to one party a part 

 of your load, and then, because it is 

 getting towards night, and you want to 

 get home, sell to his neighbor across the 

 way for a few cents less per pound if he 

 will clear out your load. Do not put 

 nice sections against the glass, and dark 

 ones in the center. Do not put poor 

 sections in cartons, thinking that they 

 will not be seen until they are carried 

 home, when purchasers cannot help 

 themselves, for they will be sure to tell 

 the grocer of it the next time they call, 

 and say that they do not want any more 

 such honey as that, and that they paid 

 twice what it was worth. 



This will not make the grocer feel 

 very good, for he will probably have to 

 " throw in," in trade, much more than 

 the profit on that one piece of honey, 

 and, of course, he will care much more 

 about pleasing that one customer than 

 he will about trading with you ; for he 

 paid you just as much as he would any 

 one, and the next time you call on him 

 he will be either " too busy to attend to 

 it," or supplied with all the honey he 

 wants. 



Do not put your extracted-honey in 

 packages that are not good for some- 

 thing else .when the honey is used up, 

 for notwithstanding the fact that honey 

 is called a luxury, the bulk of extracted- 

 honey, at least, which Is sold for table 

 use, is consumed by persons of limited 

 means, and the careful housewife has an 

 eye to the future in buying lard, baking 

 powder, or even honey ; be careful that 

 the packages are not reminders of 

 patent medicine, or something else dis- 

 agreeable. I heard a lady say, not long 

 ago in Clevelandj that she had often 



seen what she Tiad for a long time 

 supposed to be bottles of castor oil, but 

 on examination she found that they 

 contained extracted-honey, but she did 

 not forget first impressions, and could 

 not be persuaded to purchase any. 



Do not put unripe honey on the 

 market in any kind of package, for It 

 will surely sour and be " a snare and a 

 delusion." Do not forget to put labels 

 on all packages of extracted-honey, 

 stating that it will granulate or candy, 

 and telling how to restore it to liquid 

 form without injuring the flavor. Do 

 not put on sale any leaky packages of 

 honey to smear the hands and the 

 counter, to the disgust of every one 

 connected with the establishment. 



Having told you what not to do, I will 

 mention some things to do to keep the 

 trade : Extend little courtesies — show 

 dealers how to handle honey carefully, 

 and advise them not to have any leaking 

 honey around the store in bee-time, but 

 tell them how they can manage if any 

 accident should occur in that) line. Leave 

 some extra labels for honey in case those 

 in use should become soiled before the 

 honey is sold. Sometimes it is well to 

 furnish a glass show-case, or a set of 

 shelves for their use, and arrange the 

 honey in an attractive form for them 

 yourself, and if you had a large photo- 

 graph of your place nicely framed to 

 hang up with the goods, so much the 

 better. Do not fail to ask the dealer to 

 come out some fine day, and look 

 through your apiary, and give him some 

 cards to distribute among his customers. 



In these ways you will have made a 

 friend of him, and while you have any 

 stock on* hand, he will not think of 

 looking elsewhere, even if he has to 

 notify you himself that he is about out 

 of some particular style of package of 

 honey, and would like some more at 

 your earliest convenience. And I warrant 

 you that he will not have a huge placard 

 in his window bearing the inscription, 

 " New Strained Honey," placed over a 

 bottle of honey, as I saw last season in 

 the nicest grocery store in Cleveland — 

 because both dealer and customers will 

 know better. 



I think that I have fully explained 

 hov/ the trade may be reached and 

 retained, although as Mr. H. F. Moore 

 read a very exhaustive essay on the 

 subject of going from house to house, 

 before our convention last Winter, I 

 have not thought best to speak of that 

 feature of the trade. 



Mr. E. France buys 1,000-mile tickets, 

 and travels on the railroads, stopping at 

 all towns and cities along the line one 



