200 



EIGHTH ANNUAL REPORT OF THE 



any lover of honey will supply his 

 needs to the limit at 10 to 15 cents 

 per pound in bulk inasmuch as 10 to 

 15 cents is a popular price. Lovers 

 of fresh butter in the cities and vil- 

 lages satisfy their wants at 25 to 30 

 cents per pound, simply because that 

 has come to be the popular price. 



If you have honey to sell, but keep 

 still about it, disposing of it will be 

 slow and tedious. There are various 

 ways of directing public notice to the 

 fact that you have honey to sell. If 

 you imagine that a bountiful crop is 

 to be a burden, remember that the 

 local fairs bring together large 

 crowds, among which are many lovers 

 of honey, who will be as glad to 

 learn where they can get it in its 

 purity, as you are to sell to them. 

 Be on hanJ at these fairs with an 

 exhibit of bees and honey. Show 

 how it is extracted, and impress upon 

 the willing listeners that honey pro- 

 duction is your business, and that 

 being a specialist, you are able to 

 produce it of a quality as fine as bees 

 can make it. Allow prospective pur- 

 chasers to sample it. Many of you 

 who have exhibited at fairs will bear 

 me out in the statement, that a taste 

 of the honey, to a somewhat doubtful 

 inquirer, will almost always result in 

 a sale, if the quality is what it should 

 be. Have some attractive cards with 

 your address and an announcement 

 of your business of honey production, 

 ready to hand to all inquirers. Cus- 

 tomers gained in this way are likely 

 to purchase of you year after year, 

 and after you have established a 

 tra'Ie at a fair price, you will not 

 need to lower it, even if you and 

 others have a bountiful crop. If you 

 think you could take naturally, to the 

 temporary occupation of a show man 

 or slight of hand performer, operate 

 a colony of bees in a cage, a la root, 

 to attract a crowd, and have your 

 salesman ready to sell the honey as 

 the performance proceeds, and while 

 the on-Iookers are spell bound. 



If you have a good crop, remember 

 that your brother bee-keeper in other 

 localities may not be so well favored. 

 All bee-keepers who have been in the 

 business for years have a certain 

 steady demand, sometimes reaching 

 into thousands of pounds. They do 

 not wish to lose their trale, and if 

 they allow some other person to pick 



it up, even for one season, that other 

 person has gained the customers for 

 the future, and you have lost them. 



No better advice can be given to 

 bee-keepers who intend to make api- 

 culture a business, and who have had 

 a short crop, than to purchase honey 

 of reliable bee-keepers to carry them 

 over seasons of failure. There is no 

 better way of reaching this class of 

 customers than advertising through 

 the journals. Write up a neat ad- 

 vertisement that will catch the at- 

 tention of those in need of honey, and 

 have inserted in two or three of 

 the leading bee journals for three or 

 four months, and your honey will be 

 sold with little effort. K you are 

 unaccustomed of v^riting advertise- 

 ments that will catch the attention, 

 remember that the publishers are only 

 too glad to help you, or write them for 

 you, and they have a vocabulary well 

 stocked with expressions, words an! 

 synonyms that will express in the 

 superlative degree the quality of the 

 goods you have to offer. "Smooth oily 

 finish," "thick, rich deliciousness" 

 and the like, are expressions descrip- 

 tive of the highest quality and catch 

 the eye and thought very readily. 

 There is no copyright on words that 

 will beautifully describe your honey, 

 and their use should be freely resorted 

 to— only remember that the state- 

 ment should be invariably in accord- 

 ance with the fact, or their use is a 

 positive injury to you by way of the 

 loss of every customer who purchases 

 on the assumption that your goods 

 are really superior. There is no 

 secret in connection with the pro- 

 duction of honey of superior quality. 

 Just leave it with the bees, until 

 thoroughly capped over, or until the 

 end of the season, and the quality 

 will be perfectly satisfactory. 



A few bee-keepers have built up a 

 good business in selling honey by 

 canvassing from door to door direct 

 to families. This method is to be 

 .highly commended, as it gives an op- 

 portunity to educate the public in 

 reference to bees and honey. Having 

 such an excellent food product of his 

 own production, no bee-keeper should 

 hesitate as to the propriety of this 

 manner of . selling. I am informed 

 that a number of bee-keepers of more 

 than ordinary business capacity have 

 made a good success of this manner 



