THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



to turn out nothing until it was as good as I 

 could make it, not only as to ideas, but in 

 penmanship, style and spelling. What la- 

 borious re-writings I had at first ! But grad- 

 ually, the copyings became fewer, until at 

 length, I could do my best at one stroke. 

 Your experience with the twins is very sug- 

 gestive. I do not wish you a frequent recur- 

 rence of it, — one at a time is quite enough to 

 keep two pairs of hands busy,— but that 

 patient cogitation of subjects, and jotting 

 down of ideas, is the true method of literary 

 composition. I never allow myself to write 

 on any subject until I have thoroughly 

 thought it out, and got the whole thing ar- 

 ranged, so that it is like looking through a 

 roll of paper. Habits of thoroughness can 

 be acquired with very little more trouble 

 than habits of slovenliness. 



I shall be asked if those who are conscious 

 of educational deficiency are to abstain from 

 writing for the press until they are duly 

 qualified ? By no means. If you ache to 

 say something in a bee journal, or any other 

 journal, and are conscious of inability to do 

 it fairly well, get some one to write out your 

 ideas for you. -Tot them down as well as 

 you can, and have them put into proper 

 shape before sending them to the editor. 

 You have a son or daughter, it may be, at- 

 tending school. It is part of his or her duty 

 to study grammar and write compositions. 

 Give them an exercise at home by engaging 

 them to write out what you wish to say. 

 Get a friend to do it for you ; or pay some 

 one to do it. But do not inflict on an over- 

 worked editor the trouble of re-writing an 

 article for you, especially if he has to help 

 take care of a pair of twins. 



Some people when they write for the press 

 hunt up the back of an old letter, or the 

 worst bit of crumpled paper they can find. 

 It is too small for the purpose, so they crowd 

 things, and put a lot of bad composition, 

 bad spelling, and bad writing into such a 

 limited amount of space, that it needs a 

 microscope to decipher it. Paper is cheap. 

 Use a liberal quantity of it. Write big. 

 Leave plenty of margin for corrections. 

 Use only one side of the paper. Carefully 

 and critically scan what you have written. 

 If any word has a doubtful look, write it 

 plainer. Avoid repetition of the same word 

 too often. Have a dictionary and book of 

 synonyms at your elbow. Study grace and 

 euphony of expression. Never say, " Oh ! 

 that'll do," if you can make it any better. 



Yes. let us take the editor's good advice 

 and " boom " the Review. There are various 

 ways of doing this, and one of the best is to 

 help it maintain a high standard of literary 

 excellence. I have offended some of the 

 editors by saying that our bee journals are 

 behind the leading newspapers and other 

 periodicals in journalistic ability and finish. 

 The blame does not lie wholly at the doors 

 of the editors for this. Their correspondents 

 must take a liberal share of it. I suppose I 

 shall displease some of the writers for the 

 bee journals by certain parts of this article. 

 Dear friends, I cannot help it. Flattery is 

 out of my line. A good medicine may be 

 unpleasant to take, and yet help to cure the 

 patient. My interest in apiculture, bee 

 keepers and bee journals makes me anxious 

 that all of them should reach the acme of 

 perfection, or get as near to it as possible, 

 and I hope my plain-spoken talk may con- 

 tribute in some humble degree toward this 

 most desirable result. 



GuELPH, Canada, Dec. 28, 1891. 



How Much it Costs to Produce Honey. 



E. L. TATLOE. 



(Read at the Mich. Convention.) 



JTTl NOTHER year 

 XI has come, scat 

 tering its blessings 

 where it listed, 

 and is gone ; and 

 whether it has fa- 

 vored us as we had 

 hoped and desired 

 or not, we may 

 well look, and in 

 no complaining 

 spirit, to discover 

 if we may by what 

 rule its largesses have been bestowed, and 

 why our expectations have not been met. 

 To the country at large its bounties have 

 been unexampled, but to those who pursue 

 that vocation which this convention is met 

 to promote, they have been, we will pretty 

 generally agree, in one point at least rather 

 meagre. But are we altogether right in our 

 estimate ? Are we not too much given to 

 cultivating a feeling of disappointment that 

 we do not get a heavy crop rather than to 

 accepting an average crop with gratification, 

 or to making the most of a small crop ? 

 Relatively we have of course had a bad year ; 

 some have even had no surplus at all, but on 

 the average has the year been necessarily an 



