The Marketing of Honey 113 



ing" honey with them, giving "tastes," or small samples, taking orders 

 and having regular days of delivery. 



Of course, all men are not adapted to the retailing of honey. Mr. 

 M. A. Gill, of Colorado, who produces about two carloads annually 

 of comb honey, says he prefers to sell it in a lump to some man who 

 wishes to retail it, while lie will turn his attention to the production of 

 another crop of honey. But even if a man does not retail his crop of 

 honey, there is no reason why he should not use care and good judg- 

 ment in selling it at wholesale. If the honey is to be sold on com- 

 mission, the most important point of all is that the commission mer- 

 chant be reliable. If in doubt, consult the editors of bee journals. 

 Of course, they may sometimes make mistakes, but usually they are 

 quite well informed regarding the reliability of the principal dealers in 

 honey. After all, an out-and-out sale of the entire crop, at the end of 

 the season, is the most satisfactory, although so high a price is not 

 usually realized as when the crop is sold on commission. Some bee- 

 keepers make a business of wholesaling their own honey, that is, selling 

 it to the same class of buyers as patronize the commission men. It 

 requires some little time to work up such a trade ; but, once secured, 

 it is easily held. The first thing is to get a list of those men who use 

 large quantities of honey. A local druggist can usually furnish the 

 names of many of the manufacturing druggists ; the grocer can give 

 names of the bakers; and an advertisement in the journals will probably 

 reach all of the bottlers of honey. These lists of names should be 

 arranged systematically. Probably the card system would be as good 

 a form to have them in as any that could be found. Samples of honey 

 and prices should be mailed out to these lists ; and to those who inquire 

 for samples. Where a man has the time and ability to look after the 

 matter this is really a very satisfactory method of disposing of large 

 crops of honey, year after year, at a substantial advance over what 

 would be secured were the honey consigned to commission merchants. 



