350 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1. 



ponder and consider whether it does not hit 

 you somewhere; and when you get through I 

 shouldn't wonder if it would be a good idea to 

 write our friend a postal; and if you have not 

 time to put anything more on it. just write 

 "Thank you for the home hints."— A. I. R.] 



A CRITICISM ON GLEANINGS, 



ON THE HOME OF THE HONEY-BEES, ON THE 



A B C OF BEE CULTURE, AND ON THE 



ROOT OF ALL,. 



By J. W. Porter. 



For many years I have been a fairly careful 

 reader of Gleanings, and such an admirer of 

 The A B C of Bee Culture that I have, to no 

 small extent, lionized its author. During the 

 last two years, however, I have read Glean- 

 ings, as well as other literature from the Home 

 of the Honey-bee, with more critical attention 

 than I formerly did; more particularly so, as to 

 the phraseology, typography, and style of the 

 reading-matter sent out from that institution. 

 In doing so I have, very naturally, formed 

 opinions as to the morals, nature, merit, ability, 

 and motives of persons connected with that 

 establishment, as well as correspondents and 

 advertisers in Gleanings, where their acts and 

 sayings came near enough to the surface to 

 allow me to form an idea as to their individual 

 characteristics. 



Readers of Gleanings will remember that, 

 on several occasions, that journal has invited 

 criticism from its readers, and yet I remember 

 that no extended criticism has been published. 

 Mention has been, made, probably by the 

 associate editor, that the intention was to make 

 Gleanings compare favorably with the best 

 periodicals of the day. I take it for granted 

 that he meant that the comparison should 

 relate almost wholly to the typography of 

 Gleanings. I should like to see such inten- 

 tion carried out, for I see abundant evidence of 

 the ability of the publishers of Gleanings to 

 warrant success in that undertaking. But to 

 make the necessary changes to bring Glean- 

 ings up to that standard means quite an addi- 

 tional expense; and can the editors afford to 

 make the change? The readers will be better 

 able to judge of this after reading the following: 

 The Century is published twelve times per 

 year, and is sold at the news-stands at 35 cts. a 

 number. The twelve numbers contain about 

 3,500,000 words. Gleanings is published twen- 

 ty-four times per year, and contains about 

 2,016,000 words, and is furnished to subscribers, 

 with postage prepaid, at about 4J cts. per num- 

 ber. The Century has a circulation of more 

 than 200,000; Gleanings has a circulation, say, 

 of 12,000 to 14,000, and uses over a ton and a 

 half of paper every month. It appears, then, 

 that Gleanings has to put up fully 1300 every 

 month for paper, postage, and freight. Let 

 every delinquent subscriber to Gleanings fol- 



low out the bill of expenses in publishing it, the 

 cost of skilled labor, the use of costly ma- 

 chinery and type, then add to this the yearly 

 loss of $3000 on unpaid subscriptions; and when 

 the estimate is made, conscience will prompt 

 them to pay up for past favors. 



The majority of mankind do, to a certain ex- 

 tent, form an opinion of their fellow-creatures 

 by their dress and personal appearance; so also 

 does the reading public form opinion of books 

 and magazines by their dress and general make- 

 up. Commencing a review of Gleanings in 

 accordance with that primitive method I shall 

 have to speak first of its outside dress. 



The cover of that journal has now a modest 

 and very fashionable color, but it is not a good 

 color for print nor for cuts where black ink is 

 used. The design for the front cover has con- 

 siderable expression, but it can not be classed 

 with first-class designs. I should say the floral 

 display is too "loud," and that there are too 

 many bees in flight; yet it is an improvement 

 over the former cover. No doubt a good deal 

 of pains was exercised in the selection of the 

 present design, and it is certainly modest and 

 tasty, taken as a whole. The design cost con- 

 siderable, and was not a thing of chance. When 

 Gleanings takes the next step in improvement 

 I hope it will embrace the whole makeup of 

 that journal. And for the next cover, I would 

 suggest some design without a very pronounced 

 floral display, and without any bees in flight — 

 perhaps queen-bees at rest on the four corners 

 of the border lines, and the cover, say, of pale- 

 blue tint, the ink for both the outside of the 

 covers to be very dark blue and light red, the 

 design for the first page of the cover to be se- 

 lected from as many designs as would be offered 

 in a prize contest for the best design. 



The advertising pages of Gleanings look 

 fairly well during the winter months; but dur- 

 ing the summer months, when Tom, Dick, and 

 Harry begin to advertise their wares with 

 stereotypes of their own designing, these pages 

 begin to take on a ragged appearance, not at all 

 conducive to patronage from firms and individ- 

 uals who make advertising a business and a 

 study. When Gleanings shall conclude to 

 control its advertising department in respect to 

 the style of the advertisements, it will at first 

 create a little trouble with some of those now 

 advertising; but in the end it will be advan- 

 tageous to all parties concerned. Display type 

 used in show-bills and gutter-snipes look very 

 well in a newspaper, but are seldom used by 

 first-class journals in advertising. Turning 

 now from the advertising department, and pass- 

 ing on to the core, or reading-matter, of Glean- 

 ings, I will first speak of the type used. 



If I should place The Cosmopolitan, Tlie 

 Arena, and T7ie Century in the hands of almost 

 any one of the many readers of Gleanings, 

 and tell him to compare the typography of 



