

VOL, in, 



FLINT, MICHIGAN, AL'GDS? 10, 1[90, 



NO, 



More Care and "Separators" Needed; How 

 To Develope and Maintain a Home Mar- 

 ket, Making it Sure, Steady and 

 Profitable. A Good Article. 



J. A. GKEEN. 



^^ BELIEVE it to l)e a fact that there are 

 iM) few, if any, other Hues of business in 

 J^ which so little attention is paid to the 

 all-inii»ortant matter of gettiny the 

 product into the hands of the consumer, as 

 is the case with the honey producer. 



Taking it on an average, I doubt if the 

 statement of Mr. Mc. Knight, in the last Re- 

 view, is much overdrawn. When we exam- 

 ine other industries, and see how much 

 money, ingenuity, patience, skill and care 

 are employed in bringing the finished prod- 

 uct before the consumer, and compare with 

 this the way in which most bee-keejiers dis- 

 pose of their product, the iilain truth is man- 

 ifest that there is room here for a great deal 

 of improvement. 



The producers of other articles take the 

 greatest pains, not only that their product 

 may reach the consumer in as perfect con- 

 dition as ijossible, but that all, through 

 whose hands it passes on the way, may 

 handle it with as little loss and inconven- 

 ience as possible. On the other hand, the 

 honey producer often acts as though his only 

 object was to get the honey off his hands. 



As an illustration, look at the way some 

 talk about honey l)uilt without separators. 

 They say they can dispense with separators 

 and "get !);"« per cent, of their honey straight 

 enough to crate." True, but does getting it 

 into the crate, or shii)ping case, end their 

 responsibility and interest V They have got 

 it into the case, to be sure, but in somewhat 

 the condition of one of those puzzles that 

 are sawed out of a block of wood. They 

 know how that case of honey was put to- 

 gether, and they can begin in the right place 

 and take it apart and put it together again 

 just as easy as can be and not bruise the 

 honey in the least. But let some one try it 

 who does not understand the combination, 

 somebody not used to handling honey. Let 

 it be pulled out and handled over by pros- 

 jiective buyers, wrapped up in a paper by a 

 grocery clerk more accustomed to handling 

 bars of soap and boxes of starch, dumped 

 into a basket by a careles-^ delivery l)oy and 

 tumbled about belter skelter until it lands 



in the consumer's kitchen. There is break- 

 age, leakage, daubing and waste from first 

 to last, and the apiarist, as he sees his honey 

 land on the consumer's table in a condition 

 sadly different from that in which it left his 

 hands, and as he tries in vain to sell a sec- 

 ond lot of honey to the disgusted merchant, 

 realizes that the heaviest arguments in fa- 

 vor of separators do not come into play 

 until the honey has left his apiary. 



I might show how the same short sighted- 

 ness extends in other directions, but it would 

 not be keeping to the topic before us. 



In regard to "developing a home market," 

 each must be a law unto himself. Condi- 

 tions vary so widely that what may be profit- 

 able in one place may not be at all so in an- 

 other. But develope that market to the 

 fullest extent that you can make profitable ; 

 and, until you have fully tried it, you do not 

 know what that extent may be. I do not 

 mean that you need to peddle your honey, 

 although, if you have any gift in that direc- 

 tion, you will often find it the best way to 

 dispose of your crop. 



If there is much "farmer honey" raised 

 in your neighborhood, you will find the 

 effort to estalalish a steady and reliable home 

 market, exceedingly uphill work. Yet, much 

 may be done, even under such circumstan- 

 ces, and, with proper management, one may 

 often successfully compete with such honey, 

 and even run it out of the market and estab- 

 lish better honey and better prices. 



I remember once trying to sell honey to 

 the keeper of a small grocery who had a 

 case of honey bought of a farmer bee-keep- 

 er. It took him all that winter to sell those 

 twenty-eight boxes. The next winter I 

 looked after him in time, and. during that 

 winter, he paid me over ijfl'o.OO for honey, 

 buying it a case at a time, and he has been a 

 steady customer since ; although, last win- 

 ter, he was offered honey at three cents less 

 per pound than my prices. 



Perhaps I can do no better than to give 

 the exact details of establishing and 

 u:aintaining a steady market. 



In the first place, grade your honey very 

 carefully. Make at least three grades. I 

 make four grades now, but, in establishing 

 a market; there are some advantages in hav- 

 ing only three. The cases for retailing 

 from should hold about twenty-four sections. 

 I prefer a single-tier case with glass on one 

 side, showing fom- combs. The cover 

 should drop lietween the sides into rabbets 



