132 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW, 



provided with a map of the city, systemati- 

 cally canvassed, with samples of honey, tak- 

 ing orders and marking upon the map the 

 location of each sale. The other man, guid- 

 ed by the marked map, delivered the honey. 

 When not delivering honey, he assisted the 

 woman in liquifying and putting up honey 

 for delivery. Here was a work entirely dis- 

 tinct from honey production. Here was 

 specialty. Not only the specialty of selling 

 honey, but each had a special part to per- 

 form, learning it to perfection. 



Much, both wise and unwise, has been said 

 about developing home markets. Much de- 

 pends upon the kind of home market there is 

 to develope, and the kind of honey there is to 

 be sold ; yes, and upon the man. When the 

 market is supplied with " farmer honey " — 

 that raised with a lick and a brush — that is 

 selling at retail for two-thirds what a iirst 

 class article will net when sold by a commis- 

 sion man in a distant city, how much en- 

 couragement is there to " develope the home 

 market?" Very little of our own comb 

 honey has been sold in the home market. 

 Many a time have we taken a case of our 

 nice comb honey to some grocer and " show- 

 ed it up," with the hopes of making a sale. 

 "Yes, that's very nice," would be the com- 

 ment. "How much do you ask for it?" 

 "Seventeen cents." "Whew! Why, we are 

 retailing honey at a shilling. We buy it for 

 ten cents, nnd pay in trade at that." We ask 

 to see the honey. Then some rough pine 

 sections, daubed with propolis and stuck 

 fast in the receptacle in which they were 

 filled, are brought forward. We call atten- 

 tion to the neater and more tasty manner in 

 which our honey is put up. " Oh, yes, your 

 honey is put up very nicely, but it isn't any 

 sweeter than this." And the man was cor- 

 rect, too ; the honey itself was probably as 

 good as ours, but it lacked the dainty sur- 

 roundings. If we ventured to say that such 

 honey as ours was selling for eighteen cents 

 in Chicago, he would look as though he 

 rather doubted our word. If honey were 

 selling at such figures in Chicago, it didn't 

 seem reasonable that anyone would be fool- 

 ing around home with it. 



The most of our comb honey that has been 

 sold in the home market, has been of a low 

 grade — either dark or unfinished combs. 

 These lower grades of honey bring almost as 

 much in many home markets as the choic- 

 est white honey put up in " gilt edge " style ; 

 while the commission market of a large city 



is a poor one for off grades of honey. To 

 many grocers in country towns, honey is 

 honey, much the same as butter is butter. To 

 us, it seems that there is a class of consumers 

 in large cities that concerns itself very little 

 about the price of an article, provided the 

 fancy is struck. 



The point is just here : the best honey pro- 

 ducing fields are far distant from the best 

 markets ; the best place to produce honey is 

 not the best in which to sell it. Such being 

 the case, we have never seen any great encour- 

 agement to try and develope our home mar- 

 ket, particularly for the finer grades of comb 

 honey. When a man can send off his honey 

 all in one shipment, and done with it, and get 

 an advanced price, with the money all in a 

 "lump," again we ask, what encouragement 

 is there for him to develope his home market? 



We are not writing in this way to try and 

 discourage the developement of home mar- 

 kets, we are simply stating facts as we have 

 found them, and as we believe many of our 

 readers have found them. It must be admit- 

 ted, however, that no set rules can be given 

 upon the choice of a market. All must be 

 greatly governed by circumstances. No 

 doubt there are many excellent home mar- 

 kets, and many more that might be " devel- 

 oped" until they were good, if a man with 

 plenty of time and patience should take hold 

 of the matter in the right way ; in fact, we 

 have often felt that we should like to see what 

 could be done in this line here in Flint. Our 

 plan would be as follows : In the front win- 

 dow of some leading grocei-, one making a 

 specialty of fancy goods, we would build a 

 large, square, or circular, pyramid of white 

 poplar shipping cases filled with white honey. 

 Upon the little shelves formed by the pro- 

 jecting ends of the cases, we would place 

 square bottles filled with extracted honey, 

 and ornamented with tin foil caps and neat 

 labels. We would make this pyramid as 

 large as the surroundings would admit. We 

 would also have a single-comb nucleus of 

 golden Italians standing in the window in 

 front of the pyramid of honey. There should 

 also be some convenient arrangement for 

 giving each interested visitor a "taste" of 

 honey, accompanying it by a " Honey Alma- 

 nac." That a large trade in honey might be 

 "worked up" in this manner, seems more 

 than probable. 



After all, an out and out sale of the entire 

 crop, for cash, at the end of the season, is the 

 most satisfactory method of marketing ; but, 



