1882 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



395 



will last 40 or 50 years at the least. We contemplate 

 buying a few acres of land and planting it with 

 young locust-trees. Land here can be had for $10.00 

 per acre, and 15 years' growth ought to make it 

 worth $2000 per acre. Every farmer ought to re- 

 serve the most inconvenient and barren spot on his 

 farm for a locust grove. In Monmouth Co., N. J., 

 we see just such groves on farms. Locust seed, I 

 pi-esume, can be obtained from seedsmen. S. J. H. 

 SpotswooJ, N. J., June 17, 1883. 



AVe have before pretty well discussed this 

 matter of honey and fence-posts from a lo- 

 cust grove, and the facts brought out fully 

 justify, I believe, the investment. The hon- 

 ey usually comes a little before white clover, 

 and the yield is about as certain as mostoth- 

 er sources, while the honey, when well ripen- 

 ed, is fully equal to clover, although it may 

 be a shade darker in color. As our 4000 

 basswoods were not planted as closely to- 

 gether as they might have been, I have 

 thought of putting locusts between them. 

 Will somebody tell us when is the proper 

 time to sow the seeds, etc.V With the facts 

 that have been brought forward, an adver- 

 tisement of seeds or small trees, if anybody 

 has them, would, I think, now be in order. 

 A great deal of wire fence is now being put 

 up, and serviceable posts are soon going to 

 be in great demand. Small trees, like the 

 little basswoods friend Morris has been send- 

 ing out by mail, are about what the most of 

 our bee-keepers need. 



AVASHINGTON TERRITORY, ETC. 



AliSO SOMETHING ABOUT SENDING BEES TO OREGON. 



I SAW in Gleanings your kind offer to give any 

 one a free ad. who would raise queens for the 

 friends in Oregon. Now, what is the use of ad- 

 vertising? they would send to you any waj'. " Far 

 brought and dear bought" is the best, always, and 

 everybody knows A. I. Hoot to be square and punc- 

 tual in his dealings, and, of course, will send their 

 orders to him in preference to an advertiser here in 

 Washington, or in Oregon. I have corresponded 

 with several parties in Oregon in reference to 

 queens. I have ofEered to furnish tested queens 

 raised from natural cells, under the swarming im- 

 pulse, for f2.00 each, and I have not a doubt but 

 that each party sent to you, and paid very near that 

 price in expressage for their queens. So much for 

 being popular. 



And now, friend Hoot, I want to tell you what 

 Gleanings has done for me. You have nearly 

 5000 subscribers, and probably 10,000 readers; they 

 stretch from the north pole to the jumping-off 

 place in Australia. Well, they haven't all written 

 to me, but by the looks of the pile of letters wian- 

 swcred that I have, one would think the most of 

 them had sent a letter or postal card. 1 have re- 

 ceived as many as 17 letters in one day. It would 

 take all my time and two clerks to begin to answer 

 them; they all found my address In Gleanings, and 

 all ask about the same questions. Now, as Glean- 

 ings got me into the tcrape, I think it's no more 

 than fair that j'ou answer a few oC the questions. 

 They can see by the answers what the questions 

 were. 



1. Washington Territory is as healthful a country 

 as mankind ever lived in. 



3. Water Is very good — none better. Speckled 

 trout in all the streams. 



3. Plenty of government land untakcn yer, mostly 

 timbered. 



4. All fruits do well, except peaches and grapes. 



5. Bees do fairly, especially the Italians; the 

 country is rather new yet ; not clover enough. 



(5. Climate No. 1. The coldest day at ?;ooJilast win- 

 ter was 30° above. The coldest morning at daylight 

 was 1(5° above. I had 3000 cabbages winter in the 

 ground without hurt. Cabbige-plants sown in Sep- 

 tember winter out of doors without any protection. 

 Our summers average from 70° to 80° in the shade; 

 8t° is the highest that I ever saw it In the f-hade. 



Now, friends, come one, come all, and bring your 

 families, and we will make you welcome. 



II. A. Mauch. 



Fidalgo, Wash. Ter., June 19, lo83. 



Friend March, you are a good friend of 

 mine, and therefore do not see my faults, or 

 perhaps wouldn't tell them if you did ; but I 

 am sorry to tell you, all do not agree with 

 you in the high compliments you pay me, 

 and, as an illustration, I would refer you to 

 the Growlery of this present number. If it 

 were not for a sprinkling of such letters, I 

 do not know but that I might be tempted to 

 get vain. There has been so much trouble 

 about promptness in the queen and bee 

 business, I have tried hard to set a good ex- 

 ample for the brethren, and I decided that 

 high prices, with prompt shipments, would 

 be better than low prices and delays ; but it 

 seems, as you say, that we hold the trade, at 

 least a portion of it, in spite of the high pric- 

 es. Well, the moral to all your remarks is, 

 friend March, that you and others must 

 build up a reputation in the same way. It 

 takes only a little while to win the confidence 

 of the people, and when the current once 

 sets your way, it is not a very hard matter 

 to hold your customers, if you have the 

 spirit of fairness in your heart. Will our 

 Oregon friends, and those in that remote 

 vicinity, give friend March a trial V And 

 now, friend M., get a smart girl or boy who 

 writes a good plain hand, and teach him to 

 send an acknowledgment of some kind for 

 every letter received ; then as soon as you 

 can, pencil your answer hastily on the back 

 or margin of every letter, and let the boy or 

 girl put it in nice shape at her leisure. This 

 clerk can have a postal guide, make sure the 

 addresses are correct, attend to the stamps 

 and stationery, wrap up and mail queens, 

 while you only do the pleasant part of 

 scratching off the main points of the an- 

 swers. In this way you can please people by 

 giving them to understand that every thing 

 that goes to you will have some sort of an 

 answer right back again. — AVitli your glow- 

 ing account of Washington Territory, I am 

 afraid there will be a regular stampede for 

 it, unless there are some unpleasant features 

 that you haven't yet mentioned. What is 

 the reason you can not raise grapes and 

 peaches, with a climate like the one you 

 have described V Perhaps it doesn't rain, 

 and you have to irrigate, as they do in Cali- 

 fornia ? 



