The BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



ble, even with his present capital and ex- 

 perience, to start in and build up a new 

 journal. If this be true, what can a 

 novice expect? The birth, growth and 

 prosperity of existiug journals have re- 

 sulted from a peculiarly appropriate com- 

 bination of men, time and circumstances. 

 A successful bee-keeping editor must 

 possess several characteristics. To under- 

 stand bee-keeping alone will not suffice. 

 Even a college education may not make 

 of a man a good school teacher. In the 

 making of an editor there must be edi- 

 torial instinct. To this ought to be 

 joined a knowledge of printing and some 

 taste in typograp'.iy. This last is not so 

 important, as good printers can be hired. 

 I have, however, known of a bee journal . 

 being started because the owners of some 

 job office thought they could pririt it so 

 cheaply! It is much easier to learn the 

 printer's trade than it is to learn bee- 

 keeping. 



I think that in justice to ourselves, and 

 to those who may be thinking of starting 

 a bee journal, it should be made known 

 that at present there is really no demand 

 for another bee journal- that to establish 

 one would require an outlay of time, 

 energy, skill and capital that, if invested 

 in some other business, would bring far 

 greater returns. 



Having said all this, it must be admit- 

 ted that this is a free country. If a man 

 believes that he can make a success of 

 bee journalism, he has a perfect right to 

 put his time, talents and money into that 

 business. We ought not to encourage 

 him to start; but, if he ivill do it, there 

 is a certain ajiount of courtesy due him 

 as a brother publisher. I know of an ex- 

 editor of a bee journal who would not 

 allow even tb.e name of a new rival to ap- 

 pear in his journal. We need not ex- 

 change advertising space with a new 

 journal unless we believe it to be to our 

 advantage to do so; there is no call for 

 us to pat the new editor on the back and 

 urge him on to spend his last dollar in 

 what we believe to be a losing venture, 

 but the courtesies extended to a iournal 



ought not to hi proportioned according to 

 its age or prosperity. No one ever lost 

 anything by being polite, or even kind, to 

 the new journal; and sometimes the new 

 journal succeeds in spite of predictions to 

 the contrary, and then the past favors be- 

 come as bread cast upon the waters. The 

 old, established journals can afford to be 

 magnanimous in this matter. It creates 

 a much better impression even among 

 their own readers than does a course that 

 savors of jealousy and selfishness. Don't 

 encourage them to start; but, if they do 

 enter the ranks, their position entitles 

 them to our editorial courtesy. 



EXTRACTED. 



DR. MILLER'S "GOBACKS." 



Supposing That Everybody Knows What 

 We Know. 



1 supposed that everybody, or almost 

 everybod}-, took off the supers of comb 

 honey as soon as nearly all of the sections 

 were completed, sorted them over, put- 

 ting the unfinished sections into an 

 empty super until it was full, and then 

 placed it on a hive for the bees to com- 

 plete the sections. I have written about 

 this, although I have never placed any 

 special stress upon it, as I supposed it to 

 be a general practice. The following ex- 

 tract from an article in Gleanings shows 

 how this plan struck even so well in- 

 formed a man as Editor Root. He says: 



While I was visiting Dr. C. C. Miller at 

 his home, he and his sister Emma quite 

 incidentally made reference to their 

 " goback " colonies and " goback sec- 

 tions." Said I, with eyes staring wide 

 open, "I should like to know what new- 

 fangled thing you are referring to." 



"Gobacks," said the doctor; "haven't 

 lever told about them in the journal?" 



"You have not," I said — "at least I do 

 not remember seeing any reference to 

 them." 



It seems that, in taking off their combs 

 of houey, they remove the supers when 



