202 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



ing, you ■will have a remunerative market 

 for all you can raise; and, having established 

 a reputation for your fruit, as being in every 

 respect equal to sample, can then make 

 money by buying of your less careful neigh- 

 bors. If you are too busy with your honey 

 to pick and assort your fruit, if it is good it 

 will sell on the trees, and the buyer will pick, 

 assort and pack it for you. 



If you want work in the spring months an 

 acre or two of asparagus will help you, and 

 be out of the way before the bees want much 

 care. Fay's prolific currant does not re- 

 quire picking the day it is ripe, but the cur- 

 rant worm will demand prompt attention as 

 soon as the leaves are out, but this work has 

 to be done before the bees require very ex- 

 acting attention, and none of it will of ne- 

 cessity interfere with the care of the bees. 



East Saginaw, Mich., Nov. 18, 1889. 



School Teaching, Broom Making and Ped- 

 dling Honey, Mix Well with 

 Bee-Keeping. 



H. D. BUBKELL. 



^HAT business to combine with 

 bee-keeping, is an important ques- 

 tion with most bee-keepers, and 

 if the poor seasons which have 

 prevailed for so long, continue much longer, 

 it will be a vital question with many. A few 

 items from my own experience may help 

 some brother to solve the problem. 



I have beeii a specialist for ten years, and 

 during that time have kept from 100 to 200 

 colonies of bees. I do most of the required 

 work myself, yet have considerable unoccu- 

 pied time. Formerly, I taught school win- 

 ters, but a nervous trouble, which is greatly 

 aggravated by the confinement and worry of 

 the school-room, compelled me to abandon 

 that work. 



Then I tried broom-making. Competi- 

 tion is so close in this line there is not "big 

 money" in it, still, one who is quick, handy 

 and industrious can make fair wages. I 

 have no patience with people who won't 

 work unless they can get high wages. Get 

 the high wages if possible, but work for less 

 rather than do nothing. Broom-making can 

 be taken up and dropped at any time, and 

 the product is used everywhere, whether 

 times are good or bad. A week spent with a 

 practical workman will fit any ordinarily 

 handy person to do the work, then expert- 

 ness comes with practice. Most bee-keepers 

 are handy with tools, and such can make 

 nearly all necessary machinery, at a cost, 

 money out, of a few dollars for lumber, etc. 

 Then $25 to $40 invested in broom materials, 

 ■which can be bought, by a mail order, of city 

 dealers, will give one a start; or, those who 

 can plant a few acres of land can grow their 

 own broom-corn, and buy the other supplies. 

 I have heretofore been a producer of comb 

 honey, but a year ago I unexpectedly had 

 about a ton of dark extracted honey to dis- 

 pose of. I didn't want to send it to a city 

 commission house and sometime realize five 

 or six cents per pound for it. Years ago I 

 tried "canvassing" for books, and had ever 

 after been so disgusted with all peddling that 



I had never tried to peddle honey. But I 

 loaded up a few hundred weight of the honey 

 and started, though with much trepidation. 

 Well, I sold honey at nearly every house, 

 and in about six hours sold over 300 pounds, 

 at eight to eleven cents, according to quan- 

 tity. I didn't "trepidate" any more, and 

 though I didn't do so well every day, I soon 

 sold all I had, then bought more and sold 

 that. Many peoi)le who had frequently for 

 years passed by and seen my "Honey for 

 Sale" sign and never bought a pound of 

 honey, bought readily when it was carried 

 to them. At first I avoided towns, thinking 

 people there were worried more by peddlers, 

 and would have less patience with me; but I 

 did not find it so. I could there reach more 

 people in less time and do better. 



I haven't tried peddling comb honey, but 

 think I can do better with extracted. Comb 

 honey is usually on sale at the groceries, and 

 usually of poor quality and cheap. Then, 

 too, most customers would not want more 

 than a card or two at a time, while extracted 

 honey can be so put up that you cannot 

 readily sell less than five or ten pounds. 

 And one can afford to sell extracted honey 

 cheaper, which is an item with most custom- 

 ers. That we may as well have twentj'-five 

 cents for honey as half that is all nonsense 

 with Michigan people, at least, as a low 

 price does increase consumption. 



Try it, brother bee-keepers. You will 

 find selling your own product different from 

 peddling books and jim-cracks. Be gentle- 

 manly and you will be treated well. You 

 won't lose any of your dignity (?) nor the 

 good will of any one whose opinion is worth 

 minding. Carry a good article of honey, 

 get people to taste it, and, if they want it, 

 sell them some, but don't urge and annoy 

 them if they don't. That is what makes 

 peddlers a nuisance. I practice what I 

 preach, and know whereof I speak. 



Bangoe, Mich., Nov. 25, 1889. 



Don't "Mix" Bee-Keeping; but, if you Must 



Mix it, let it be in the Right Proportion 



and with the Right Thing. 



JAMES HEDDON. 



i <i r-'^OHN, don't go fishing Sunday, but 

 ^^ ' TlC ^^ ^'°" ' '^''i°S home your fish." 

 C C ^JP Well, that is about the fix you 

 have got us into now, Mr. Editor, 

 and after reading my own article in last 

 issue as well as those of many others and 

 your leader to this article, I see nothing 

 more to say. 



I should advise not to go into bee-keeping 

 at all, unless one means to work into it 

 large enoiagh so that all his time the year 

 round, except what he wisely saves out for 

 recreation, rest and visiting, will be wholly 

 employed in the business. 



I tell you, when one gets two or three hun- 

 dred colonies of bees, as he ought to have 

 even if he keeps them all in one ar)iary, he 

 will have all he wants to do in selling his 

 croj) of honey, if he does not sell it in a 

 lump: and, if he does, in getting everything 

 ready for the next season's work. "Spe- 



