ALEXANDER'S WRITINGS ON PRACTICAL BEE CULTURE 63 



but very little honey; but I have always noticed that, if rightly done, 

 it is sure to bring good results. If we get a family to commence using 

 honey they are sure to continue as long as we supply them with a 

 good article at a moderate price. We have several customers who buy 

 a 160 lb. keg of dark extracted honey every year for their own family 

 use. They have got used to having It on their table, and they tell 

 me they don't see how they could get along without it. They started 

 by buying a ten-pound pail once a year. One man in particular bought 

 six kegs this fall to retail out to his neighbors. This man never bought 

 any honey until four years ago, when a friend of mine sold him a pail- 

 ful. I speak of these incidents to show how easy it would be to start a 

 large demand for our honey it each one went to work in the right way 

 to bring it about. 



Now in connection with the selling of honey let me say a few words 

 in regard to producing. For some time there has been an almost un- 

 limited demand for light extracted unless it is water-white and can 

 compete with the water-white honey of California. This white honey 

 Is a hard thing for us to compete with and for this reason I would 

 suggest that we try hard to have all our light honey put in sections, 

 and sold as comb honey, and all our dark honey extracted. This 

 would relieve the comb-honey market to quite an extent, and cause those 

 who prefer dark honey, as many do, to buy dark extracted for their 

 table use. I am often asked what our dark extracted honey is mostly 

 used for. I find out from those who handle large quantities that the 

 Jews are our best customers for this grade of honey. They not only 

 eat a great deal, but use it extensively to make a certain drink which 

 they like during their holidays. One of the largest dealers In New 

 York told me last summer that these people used more dark extracted 

 honey than all other classes put together. Then our large bakeries use 

 considerably more dark extracted than they do light, and it is the 

 same with all manufacturers who use honey. A very intelligent Jew 

 once told me that their people were suspicious of all light honey, but 

 had confidence in dark honey being what it claimed to be. 



Personally we have been very fortunate in being able to sell all 

 the honey we could produce, at a good price, as soon as it was ready 

 for market; but I know that many others are not so fortunate, and it 

 is for them that I hope some way will be devised so they may turn 

 their surplus honey into ready money. 



In attempting to write on this subject I fully realize that I am not 

 competent to do justice to the question; but I hope you may find in 

 the above some little thread that, when woven in with the knowled^f- 

 of others, will be the means of bringing a better market to us all. 



