THE BEEKEEPERS' REVIEW 455 



syrup could be made from brown sugar of the right variety. So you must un- 

 derstand that we can not build up a reliable market unless we get the general 

 public to using honey the same as they use sugar or butter. We can not do it 

 by giving them no better service than to provide them tumblers or pints sold 

 through a grocer at an exhorbitant price, when at the same time that grocer 

 is selling sugar at a profit that amounts to almost nothing. Neither should 

 we leave them at the mercy of pedlers who will buy the honey from the hard 

 working producer at about seven cents a pound and charge the housewife 

 twenty-five cents for it and then brag about it. Let there be an evening up. 

 In such cases the producer should receive more and the consumer should pay 

 less. We must do as we would be done by. Beekeepers, knowing what a bless- 

 ing honey has been in your own home and to your own little ones; should you 

 not have an ambition, a desire, to see it in general use in the homes of the land, 

 for the good of the people as well as for the good of our industry ? 



Marketing Honey 



J. C. BULL, Hammond, Ind. 



Given at the National Beekeepers' Convention, Denver, Colorado, February, 1915 



The subject assigned to me is a large one. In fact it is the largest prob- 

 lem before the American Beekeeper today. In the past we have devoted all our 

 time and attention to producing honey and have paid little or no attention to 

 making or developing a market. When we have a large crop of honey we are 

 at a loss to know what to do with it. About the first thing we do is to r,end 

 it to some honey dealer or commission merchant to sell for us. What happens ? 

 The big honey markets are flooded vidth honey while the chances are that our 

 own home and nearby market is left undisturbed, whereas If we had given 

 our heme markets all the honey th y would consume we would have to buy 

 honey to satisfy our home market. Before we start out to develop a market 

 for our product we will have to have something to market. What are we try- 

 ing to sell at the present time? Un 'pe honey, unstrained, all kinds of flavors 

 and colors put up in all kinds of packages and sold for every known price. 

 How are the famous Rocky Ford cantaloups sold ? Do they ship them to mar- 

 ket in barrels, boxes, baskets, or any old thing with all kinds, sizes and shapes 

 mixed together? No, they have a uniform size crate made to hold just so 

 many and it is packed with a certain variety of cantaloups of a uniform size 

 and ripeness. 



It is true we have grading rules for comb-honey but how about extracted 

 honey? The fact that honey is gathered from so many different sources with 

 as many different colors and flavors makes it a hard thing to get it on the 

 consumer's table so it will please her. With the average person honey is 

 honey and should be all alike. There is only one thing to do and that is to 

 sell honey that is all alike. How is that going to be accomplished when part 

 of our crop is a mild flavored white honey and part is a strong flavored amber? 

 Almost anything can be accomplished by blending. You can take a sample of 

 pure white clover honey and then take samples of other honeys and make a 

 duplicate of the clover so that an expert can not tell the difference by the 

 taste or looks. 



Another big item we have got to contend vdth, is granulation of honey. 



Only a very small per cent of the general public know anything about 

 granulation. 



