1918 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



117 



public demand for honey. Under 

 conditions such as now prevail this 

 increasing of demand will be the sim- 

 plest matter imaginable. It will not 

 call for national advertising, but it 

 will call for some sort of advertising, 

 sorts that have been done already to 

 some extent, for instance, and even 

 more ambitious local campaigns. 



Let us suppose, for example, that 

 members of such an organization as 

 the Colorado Honey Producers' As- 

 sociation set to work and doubled 

 their output, and that, on trying to 

 market it in the usual way they 

 found that yields had also been in- 

 creased in many sections and the 

 market was dull. With their or- 

 ganization it would be a very simple 

 matter to assess the members a 

 small amount per case of honey and 

 to do a little newspaper advertising 

 in Denver. Remember, honey is not 

 a generally used product. It is treat- 

 ed more like fruit or candy than like 

 a staple. A recent article in the 

 American Bee Journal stated that it 

 ought to be easy to double the con- 

 sumption of honey in this country. 

 But that is a very conservative esti- 

 mate of what could be done for 

 honey with the right kind of adver- 

 tising. Especially at this time a very 

 modest campaign in Denver should 

 easily quadruple that city's consump- 

 tion of honey. How many house- 

 wives know more than two or three 

 ways of using honey? Yet a Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture Bulletin gives 55 

 different uses for honey in the home, 

 and every one of them would appeal 

 to the patriotic housewife desirous 

 of conserving the sugar supply. They 

 would also appeal to the palates of 

 herself and her family. 



What has been supposed in the 

 case of the Colorado organization 

 would be almost as easily accom- 

 plishable by any county, sectional, 

 or State beekeepers' association. It 

 might be a little outside of the regu- 

 lar routine of such association, but 

 war times call for unusual decisions. 

 Many of the existing associations — 

 and no doubt associations exist in 

 nearly every State — have already 

 among their objects the influencing 

 of market conditions. One of the ob- 

 jects of the Western New York 

 Honey Producers' Association is 

 given as "to promote the most mod- 

 ern methods of packing and market- 

 ing its products." 



Again, the Chicago Northwestern 

 Beekeepers' Association, at its 1917 

 convention, passed a resolution urg- 

 ing the greater advertising of honey 

 as a food. 



Such campaigns in selected cities 

 or sections can be put on very quick- 

 ly, especially if handled through an 

 advertising agency. Such agencies 

 are to be found in all fair-sized 

 cities. They have the facilities for 

 prompt action, know how to make 

 the appeal, and attend to practically 

 all the details. Their services cost 

 next to nothing also, as the publica- 

 tions allow the agencies a fixed per- 

 centage of the cost of the advertising 

 space, as they find it most conven- 

 ient to handle business coming from 

 experienced agencies. 



Appetizing copy, accompanied by a 

 recipe book offer, could not fail of 

 the desired result. And the plan has 

 the double virtue of both promoting 

 a great national industry and serving 

 a truly patriotic purpose. The effects 

 of such work would be lasting — per- 

 manently salutary to the industry. 

 New users of honey would continue 

 to be users for the rest of their lives, 

 and the effect of the marketing co- 

 operation on the associations would 

 be to concentrate their attention on 

 the possibilities in co-operative mar- 

 keting, with the result that perma- 

 nent marketing programs like that 

 of the Colorado organization would 

 be adopted. 



Chicago, 111. 



Faults of the Express Compa- 

 nies 



By J. F. Archdekin 



ALLOW me, in the first place, to 

 say that the express compa- 

 nies of the United States, as 

 they are at present operated, are one 

 of the greatest impositions that the 

 people put up with. It is to be hoped 

 by everyone that the time is at hand 

 when this really useless and at the 

 same time indispensable organization 

 will be put out of business and sup- 

 planted by a special form of parcel 

 post. There is absolutely no excuse 

 for the existence of the express com- 

 panies since the usefulness of the 

 parcel post has been demonstrated. 



In view of the urgent need for the 

 people to economize, I feel that this 

 is a form of waste that can and should 

 be eliminated as soon as possible, 

 that it is a form of waste is plain to 

 anyone who has had much dealing 

 with the express companies. Espe- 

 cially do the shippers of pound pack- 

 ages of bees understand this. 



A package of bees should be sent 

 by the shortest and most direct route 

 between the point of origin and the 

 point of destination, and should not 

 be subject to delays at transfer 

 points. In a word, bees should be 



treated as perishable property, which 

 they are, and handled accordingly. 



Instead of this, the company re- 

 ceiving the shipment will endeavor to 

 transfer it over its own lines as far 

 as possible. This is done in order 

 that the receiving company may get 

 the largest share of the charges. By 

 this means shipments are frequently 

 carried hundreds of miles off the di- 

 rect route, delayed at transfer points 

 and only turned over to another line 

 after the receiving company has car- 

 ried them as near to the destination 

 as it can, if the destination is on an- 

 other line. Especially is this true in 

 the case of a long haul. 



Then there is the carelessness of 

 the express employees and their utter 

 disregard of instructions on the pack- 

 ages. 



A railroad depot platform would 

 not appear natural were it not for 

 the express trucks piled high with 

 packages waiting for a particular 

 train. These trucks will often stand 

 for hours, or perhaps all day, in the 

 glaring sun and woe be it to any 

 luckless shipments of bees that are 

 on that truck. It is the most heart- 

 less thing that can be imagined and it 

 is the death of countless bees and the 

 cause of numerous disappointments. 

 By the direct point of origin to point 

 of destination route most of these 

 difficulties could be overcome. 



The express men seem to regard 

 packages and other matter which 

 they handle as they would deadly 

 enemies with whom they are engaged 

 in mortal combat. This frame of 

 mind, in the case of bee shipments, 

 has a tendency to reduce them to 

 junk. 



Shipments which are injured by 

 rough handling and leaking bees are 

 probably kicked out of the car door 

 after the train pulls out. Such ship- 

 ments are known as "lost," and after 

 a complaint from the customer and 

 some more time passed by, a second 

 shipment is sent out. These are 

 some of the perplexities of the pack- 

 age man versus the express compa- 

 nies. 



Evolution in beekeeping may still be practiced ir 

 split-log hives, with entrance at the end. Ther 



modern times. Notice the ti 

 are many of these in Russia 



