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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



ADDITIONAL EDITORIAL 



THOSE OLD BEE -BOOKS. 



As promised in our last issue, we begin the 

 first installraenl of articles reviewing some old 

 (or, ratiier. ancient) bee- books. Tiie first one 

 of the series is from the pen of our proof-reader, 

 and will be found on page 43.5. Its perusal, we 

 feel sure, will be found to be interesting and 

 profitable; for, as our proof-reader says, " It is 

 often as profitable to know what those old 

 writers did nof find out as it is to know what 

 they did; and a piece of negative information 

 is frequently as useful as that which is posi- 

 tive." We hope to have this series continued 

 for some little time; and knowing the writer of 

 them as we do, his intense enthusiasm for the 

 work, we feel sure that he will be able to give 

 us something as readable and spicy as would 

 come from the pen of Mr. Emerson E. Hasty 

 himself — the one who is conducting a series of 

 bee-paper reviews for the Bee-keepers'' Review. 



THE GAMBLING CKAZE AND COUNTERFEIT 

 MONEY. 



In my remarks in our issue for April 1 I 

 omitted to mention counterfeit money. That 

 was brought to mind by a printed circular and 

 pretended newspaper clipping, mailed to us by 

 our good friend C. J. Baldridge, of Kendaia, N. 

 Y. The circular is not very much different 

 from those coming from the venders of green 

 goods for some years back. They pretend to 

 have plates stolen in some manner from the 

 United States Treasury Department. These 

 plates are taken over to Canada, and used to 

 print genuine United States money. The cir- 

 cular is very confidential, of course. We quote 

 just one paragraph from the bogus newspaper 

 clipping: 



As the government only is the loser, and is so 

 well able to stand it, the average citizen has no 

 conscientious scruples whatever In taking adA'an- 

 tage of the offer of these men, especially as there is 

 no risk or danger in handling these bills, if they 

 use proper precautions and keep their business to 

 themselves. A close mouth, as tliey tell you, is the 

 secret of success in this nefarious scheme. 



The whole thing is very ingeniously gotten 

 up to work upon the feelings of any person who 

 begins to think and talk to the effect that mak- 

 ing money by honest day's work is altogether 

 too slow and humdrum, and that very few ever 

 acquire any competence in that way. It ap- 

 peals to the" average young man who thinks he 

 is not getting as much pay as he deserves. 

 This period is very likely'to come to most of us 

 somewhere in the teens. If it were only boys 

 in their teens who have such notions, it would 

 not be so bad. I hope every reader of Glean- 

 ings is by this time well aware that these men 

 never have any counterfeit money at all. If it 

 is exactly the same as good money, and no ex- 

 pert can tell the difference, why should they 

 want to swap $4000of itfor |400of other money ? 

 What is the use of swapping at all? And yet 

 more or less people are falling into their snares. 

 and swapping their money for dear-hought 

 experience right along every day. Beware of 

 the tempter. . 



RECEIVING PERISHABLE GOODS, ETC. 



At this season of the year it is almost inevita- 

 ble that there should be more or less losses in 

 shipping and receiving perishable goods. How 

 shall we make these losses as little as possible? 

 and when they come, how shall we adjust them 

 in a Christianlike way? I will give you my 

 ideas of the matter by one or two illustrations. 

 A few days ago we received a barrel of pine- 

 apples, and more than half of them were more 



or less decayed. Nine out of about 7.5 were ut- 

 terly worthless, and went directly to the com- 

 post-heap. The order was a personal one. giv- 

 en a runner, and he agreed to send me good 

 sound fruit. I might have sent them back, per- 

 haps; in fact, there are people who do just that 

 thing, or refuse to receive them from the rail- 

 road company. In this case they would have 

 been nearly or quite a total loss, for refusing to 

 take them from the railroad company would 

 have finished up the decay that was going on so 

 rapidly. Without any instructions from the 

 shippers. I took the worst of them and had them 

 canned for sauce. It is rather expensive sauce, 

 but it is better than to have them lost. Then I 

 sold the rest of them, some for half price, some 

 for three-fourths price, and the good ones for 

 full price, reporting to the shippers, of course, 

 at once, their condition, and what I proposed to 

 do. They rebated the price of the nine spoiled 

 ones, but said that, as I had made use of the 

 rest of them, they did not think they ought to 

 make any reduction. When I pointed them to 

 the fact that their agent agreed to give me 

 sound fruit, they said the agreement was only 

 that sound fruit should be sent. I do not think 

 they did right; that is. I think they should have 

 given me some encouragement for trying to save 

 their property from loss; but I am glad I helped 

 to save them, even if I did not make any money 

 by it. 



Again, we sent 1000 Wakefield cabbage-plants 

 to a friend in Kansas. When they reached the 

 express ofifice, as he lived some miles away they 

 remained there some over two days before he 

 saw them. Then he refused to take them. I 

 wrote at once to take the plants, and do the best 

 he could with them, and what did not grow we 

 would try to make good. But by this time it 

 was too late. We presume they were thrown 

 away. Now, the express company was an inno- 

 cent party to this transaction. They carried 

 the plants all the way to Canton, Kansas, in 

 three days or a little less; and yet our friend 

 leaves them on their hands. This matter of re- 

 fusing to receive goods because they do not hap- 

 pen to reach destination in good order, has. per- 

 haps, made more trouble between express com- 

 panies and their customers than any other one 

 thing. Somebody, of course, has got to pay 

 the charges. If the express company is made 

 to lose it, you may be sure thev will be pretty 

 careful in the future about carrying perishable 

 stuff unless they have charges advanced; and 

 where the goods go over different lines, especial- 

 ly through the South, it may be difficult for 

 them to say just what the charges will be; 

 therefore the only remedy is to be sure to charge 

 enough. We have for years been in the habit 

 of guaranteeing the charges on any goods we 

 ship. Well, here is' what our friend in Kansas 

 gives as a reason Jor refusing the plants: 



The roots looked all right, but the tops were all 

 all yellow; and it just looked to me, if I should set 

 them out, I should have all my work for nothing. 



Canton, Kan., May 23. Henry Martin. 



Of course. I would not expect anvbody to go 

 to the trouble of putting out plants in the field 

 unless there were a reasonable prospect that 

 the greater part of them would live. "Every 

 gardener should be familiar with the common 

 practice of " heeling in " plants. Take them to 

 a little spot of good mellow earth, right out in 

 the open air. Separate the plants just enough 

 so the soil can be packed around the roots of 

 each individual plant. A thousand cabbage- 

 plants can be nicely heeled in. say in two square 

 yards of ground; and they can stay there, if 

 circumstances require, two or three weeks. 

 When the plants are received in poor order, the 

 proper thing to do is to try to save them in this 



