THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 333 



out, year after year. Millions of dollars are spent annually, and 

 many multi-millionairs have been created, This is all impossible 

 with honey, utterly and absolutely impossible ; therefore, we can- 

 not go into a campaign of "education." Again, people know why 

 they want honey, and would pay no attention to your arguments. 

 This I know to be true, for I have tried it out, keying my ads to 

 test results. You see people do not want honey all the time. It is 

 so very sweet that it is cloying, and with honey on the table all the 

 time it is often neglected for days at a time. I am writing now for 

 beekeepers and honey producers. The laity will probably never see 

 this article, nor would it do any harm if they did, for they know 

 that it is true, and they also know that they could not eat break- 

 fast foods without cream and milk, which like honey, are mighty 

 good without sawdust added. 



The orange producers can afford to advertise for they cannot 

 sell otherwise, and they produce dollars' worth of fruit where we 

 produce dimes' worth of honey. They are organized into a cast-iron 

 aggregation, and have practically, a constant supply. Moreover, 

 they advertise to give away silverware for wrappers and a dime. I 

 am going to try that this winter, sure. There can be no comparison 

 between advertising honey and oranges, nor, for that matter, any- 

 thing else. Manufacturers of alum baking powders, secret medi- 

 cal nostrums, karo dope and some other things can afford to adver- 

 tise, for the profits are immense, but, let me ask again — how much 

 can we afford to spend in advertising honey. Individually I mean. 



As to the "demonstration" method of advertising, it is ad- 

 mitted by advertisers to be one of the very poorest ways, because 

 extremely fugitive and expensive. Moreover, there is not margin 

 of profit enough in honey to do that, unless locally and where the 

 merchant will supply everything but the honey, as mine offered. As 

 the handle of the jug was on his side I declined. It would adver- 

 tise him more than it would me, or my honey, rather. 



There is another thing, which I fear is going to make selling 

 honey by advertising a hard proposition, and that is the high 

 prices we seem to thing it necessary to get, or must provide for at 

 retail. To enrich the middle man? With our product at two and 

 three times the price of cane sugar it is in truth a luxury, and peo- 

 ple are loth to buy. If their appetite clamors for honey they will 

 buy, just as they do candy, but I fear it is going to be up-hill work 

 to sell extracted honey at 12 to 20 cents a pound. I cannot help 

 remembering that Eastern buyers have been trying to pick up the 

 California alfalfa honey crop at three and a half cents a pound. 



