62 ALEXANDER’S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 
honey into general use. Then when the poorer classes get into the habit 
of using it on their bread in place of butter we would surely have a 
large demand for all we could produce. Most children are very fond 
of honey, and will nearly always prefer it to butter if they have a 
chance. This fact I often noticed in bringing up my family of four 
children. Here is a tender spot with many parents. They will buy for 
their children many things that they would hardly think of buying for 
themselves. 
This is where the sample package would count big. The child would 
have some, then it surely would want more; and the indulgent parents 
would commence to buy, and they too would soon like it and buy often; 
but don’t make your sample package too small. I would advise about a 
pound. Be sure to have it large enough to do for a meal or two. A 
mere taste would amount to nothing. Some may think to give away a 
pound of honey is rather expensive in order to induce a family to pur. 
chase some, so we will do a little figuring along this line. 
We will suppose a man has 10,000 lbs. of extracted honey for sale. 
This at wholesale will bring him about $600. Now, if he gives away 
1000 lbs. to as many families, and in so doing he finds 500 familes that 
commence to buy his honey at 10 cents, this shows his customers have 
cost him two pounds apiece or 12 cents each, and if they buy on an 
average 18 lbs. apiece during the season he comes out $300 ahead, or 
in other words, he receives $900 for the honey he would otherwise have 
sold for $600. This $300 would pay for all expenses of selling, and he 
would have a nice lot of customers to supply another year that had 
really cost him nothing. This is a case where it is necessary to sow 
before you can reap and like nearly all other cases you will reap accord- 
ing to what you have sown. So I repeat, don’t be afraid to give away 
some honey in order to advertise your business. 
There is one thing we should all bear in mind; and that is, when 
we get customers try hard to please them so as to supply them with 
whatever honey they may want year after year. No business man can 
afford to lose a customer if he can help it. First furnish a good article, 
then offer it at a fair price, and always be square in your dealings. If 
there is anything about your honey that is not as it should be, call 
the purchaser’s attention to it. Don’t wait until after it is sold, and 
then let him find it out as best he can. If you do, it is only natural that 
he will be a little careful about buying of you again. It might be of 
some help to have a circular go with each sample telling the value of 
honey for many purposes, and how the children were delighted to have 
it on their bread. 
I sometimes think that we as honey-producers have never taken 
just the right course to bring our honey into general use. It is all 
right to teach the public as to its purity and healthfulness, but that 
is not enough. We must go still further and show them that they can 
save money by using it. When this is once accomplished we can then, 
and not until then, let this question rest. I have retailed in small lots 
