156 



TENTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



to object to working up customers of 

 your own instead of trying to cut un- 

 der some other fellow, and get the 

 honey sold regardless of the effect 

 upon the market. 



I have found more trouble in that 

 one thing in my market than any 

 other. There was a time when I 

 ibought jelly glasses at the rate of 50 

 barrels at a time, and put up honey in 

 jelly tumblers, and the market kept 

 working down and finally they wanted 

 them for a dollar a dozen. I got a 

 jelly glass ithat I could sell for a dol- 

 lar, it didn't hold as much honey as 

 the jelly glass did which sold for 

 $1.25 a dozen. I worked up a good 

 trade. No sooner had I a good trade 

 worked up than some of these fel- 

 lows down in Toledo and Detroit, and 

 New England, came up with honey, 

 some of it inferior, and went to sell- 

 ing for 95 cents, 90 cents, and finally 

 85 cents a dozen. The only way they 

 can do that is to buy the honey of 

 the producer for 6% and 7, or not 

 much more than 7 cents a pound, and 

 then they don't get anything for their 

 work. How can they get anything 

 out of it, buying honey for 7 cents a 

 pound and selling it for 90' cents a 

 dozen? They do business for fun, 

 that is all. The advice I want to give 

 to bee-keepers is, that your honey is 

 worth more than seven cents a pound 

 in the first place. If it is not worth 

 that, quilt the business. In the sec- 

 ond place, when you work up a trade, 

 no matter how much these fellows 

 come in to cut under you, stick to 

 your price. I never sold a dozen for 

 less than a dollar. I have gone out 

 of the business of selling honey in 

 glass tumblers. They don't sell so 

 much honey to the consumer as they 

 used to do; I sell direct to them, and 

 I get more for my honey than they 

 can get after having paid all the ex- 

 penses of transportation, putting up 

 the honey in containers, paying job- 

 bers' comniissions, etc. I don't see 

 how they have "the face," after pay- 

 ing all that, to sell for 90 cents a dozen. 



L. C. Root — In response to the party 

 who speaks, of selling the corn syrup 

 for the price they do, of course that 

 i'9 done in a large way, and involves 

 an expense that an individual bee- 

 keeper would hardly take. There are 

 two ways in which the average bee- 

 keeper should dispose of the product. 

 We have to cater to two markets. 



The kind that must have it in glass 

 to sell from the shelves of the grocery 

 store is one. But, it seems to me 

 what bee-keepers need to be urged to 

 do is to dispose of their own crop, and 

 this can be done. As some one has 

 said, bee-keepers as a rule have the 

 credit of being honest, and if people 

 are dealing with a person they think 

 honest, they will take their goods on 

 their recommendation, and more of the 

 honey that is produced should be dis- 

 posed of by the bee-keeper himself. 

 It is to me a sad thing that so little 

 honey throughout the country is con- 

 sumed. If we are wise in our discus- 

 sions it seems to me that the amount 

 of honey that will be consumed in the 

 future will be much greater than it is 

 now. I have been interested lately in 

 talking with a woman bee-keeper who 

 has just commenced this year. She 

 has had no experience until this j-^ar. 

 She has done remarkably well, and she 

 is disposing of all of her own honey to 

 the neighbors. Here is a great need. 

 We can't induce all the people that 

 ought to keep bees, to keep bees. 

 Father Quinby used to say there were 

 tens of thousands of pounds of honey 

 going to waste in every community 

 that might be had, not for the asking, 

 but simply for the taking. If we 

 could induce more people to keep bees 

 to supply their own honey it would 

 be a grand thing, but we can't do this. 

 The majority of people must have 

 their honey furnished to them by the 

 bee-keeper, and this may be done by 

 the bee-keepers themselves in tin 

 packages, but don't forget the shelf 

 goods, and the goods in glass that are 

 put up attractively, because large 

 quantities of honey in our little city 

 of Stamford are disposed of from the 

 shelves. I can assure you when such 

 honey as that is attractive, with a 

 nice label on it, it will invariably ad- 

 vertise itself, and people will come 

 back, and there will not be the dan- 

 ger of a paper or tin package. We 

 want to put up first-class goods. 

 People will come in and sell honey for 

 less, but if you, keep up the standard 

 of your honey, every section of honey 

 that you sell, high, so that when peo- 

 ple buy it they know if they want 

 more honey exactly like that which is 

 properly assorted, they know where 

 to get it, you need not fear. WTien 

 you put your card on your section of 

 honey people know that every time 



