20 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



ii u 111 1> 11 k' § j > n «i H >v i 11 ci i < i g 



Pertaining; to Bee Culture. 



[We respectfully solicit the ;iiil of our friends in 

 conducting this department, and would consider it 

 .1 favor to have them .send ns all circulars that have 

 a deceptive appearance. The greatest care will be at 

 all times maintained to prevent injustice being done 

 any one.] 



\fT seems at present that our old friend N. C. 

 JL Mitchell, is most active in this field, and 

 although we have already devoted consider- 

 able space toward "helping his projects along," 

 we think it best to "stand by him" still further. 



His new field seems to be scattering circu- 

 lars and asking various P. M's. to assist him 

 in getting "Agents." 



We give below, one selected from the bundle, 

 with notes in parentheses from our facetious 

 correspondent who forwarded this; said lot 

 found its way into his hands from the P. M. to 

 whom Mr. M. had written a "pathetic" postal 

 card. We copy the spelling, punctuation etc. 

 verbatim. 



SPECIAL TEUMS TO AGENTS. 



Having openod up a QUEEN BREEDING APIARY in 

 the South, we are now prepared to furnish Early 

 Queens and Bees for the Northern Market, and hav- 

 ing made arrangments to raise the coming season, 



5,000 Italian Queen Bees. 



5,000 Nucle Colonies. 



1,000 Full Colonies. 

 To sell all these, we will have to have a host of 

 Agents, and to get them we have determined to put 

 prices down to agents so low that any one can take 

 hold of it and get one full colony of Italian Bees for 

 nothing. We will send every thing named for fifteen 

 in our large circular for five dollars and for two dol- 

 lars extra will send one pure Italian Queen Bees, 

 "one bees") or for live dollars extra. Ten dollars in 

 all will send one four full sized frame Nucle Colony 

 of Italian Bees With Bees enough to soon make a full 

 Colony, or for ten dollars extra, fifteen dollars in all, 

 we will send one full Colony of Italian Bees. Every- 

 thing named will be shipped at once ("that must be 

 the 'Nucle' ") except the Bees and Queens. They will 

 be sent the first of May from our Apaiarys at Indian- 

 apolis, Ind., or Cincinnati, Ohio. Remember this 

 offer is to Agents only and will remain open only to 

 the first of February, 1874, after which the prices Will 

 be as before advertised. We will say that Agents 

 who will devote their whole time, can" make $100 or 

 $500 per month and local Agents can make from $100 

 to $500 anually and loose but little or no time taking 

 orders for us. Send at once and secure any Agency. 

 Address, 



N. C. MITCHELL, 

 Indianapolis, Ind., or Cincinnati, Ohio. 



Now if Mr. M. really is going to have 5000 

 Queens and 5000 "Nucles" (whatever the latter 

 may be) we will help him sell them with all 

 pleasure providing he will first pay up old 

 scores and send the queens already paid for and 

 so long promised. 



We are sorry to say reports do not show- 

 favorably of his business transactions , a sub- 

 scriber just now writes: 



"A Westmoreland Co., Pa. man told me that X. ( '. 

 Michell had sold five receipts for $50 in one day in his 

 vicinity." 



And again on sending the name of a new 

 subscriber: 



"He has made more out of bees than any man in 

 flic county he lives in, he uses the old box lux e but got 

 25 Queens from me. He lately purchased a $10 reel ipt 

 of X. C. Michell. I wrote him that I thought Glean- 

 ings would be worth as much as the receipt. 



1 am not sure but he ought to have a back No. of 

 Gleanings describing Mitchell." 



Another in sending us one o erous 



letters which Mr. M. is sending ' 11 part 



the country claiming he could teach any per- 

 son to take from a good colony of bees from 

 one to three hundred dollars worth of honey an- 

 nually, closes as follows: 



"I enclose a letter which speaks for itself. It was 

 handed to me by a friend. Mich nonsense should be 

 exposed, although I am sorry for Mitchell, as f learn 

 that he is in rather poor circumstances." 



We too are sorry for the man, and more 

 sorry that he does not scruple to take money 

 from his fellow men without rendering any, or 

 any just equivalent. We sincerely hope that 

 he, and every other man or woman may learn 

 that getting money by other means than fair, 

 honest days works of either hand or brain, is 

 sure to react sooner or later. 



"Bee Charms," "Patent Hives," and the like 

 have almost ceased to cast an odium over our 

 innocent branch of industry, and all that is 

 needed more is the strong A'oice of the people 

 to declare we will have all valuable informa- 

 tion free, and we will put down at once all at- 

 tempts to beguile money from the honest, and 

 unsuspecting, by the smooth tongued skill of 

 designing hypocrites. 



A subscriber asks if it were not proper to 

 consider advertisements of Queens fertilized 

 in confinement, as humbugs and swindles. As 

 the matter rests now, we should without hes- 

 itation decide in the affirmative. If there ex- 

 ists a bee-keeper who can succeed in the op- 

 eration, we invite him to come forward and 

 give a public exhibition of it to the people, for 

 nothing short can be received as evidence ; we 

 will answer that enough can be raised to . pay 

 all trouble and expense. 



More than one of our number in counting 

 the time wasted in useless experiments to say 

 nothing of the money, may be considered ex- 

 cusable in feeling indignant, and our friends 

 in Germany we have learned by private ad- 

 vices, have had their share of humilating dis- 

 appointment. The matter seems to have been 

 dropped by universal consent during the past 

 season and we cannot help wondering if the 

 very ones who gave the matter so positively a 

 short time ago, are not beginning to think now 

 tltey were mistaken. The fact that Mitchell 

 even now advertises instructions in the matter 

 is anything but flattering to the enterprise. 



[For Gleanings.] 



CAN BEE-KEEPERSAGREE ON ASTAND- 

 ARO FRAME ? 



FROM E. GALLL'F. 



BEAR NOVICE:— Please say through your 

 | Gleanings that if I were going to commence 

 . anew I should prefer about the size of the Adair 

 frame, [not the Adair section by any means.] For a 

 rapid increase of stock, queen raising etc. the small 

 size cannot be beat but when we come to other con- 

 iderations we certainly should prefer a medium be- 

 tween the two extremes, and it certainly seems to me 

 that the extremeist's ought to be willing to meet half 

 way and recommend all new beginners to adopt a 

 medium and uniform size of frame. I would like to 

 see this introduced as a resolution at our next Nation- 

 al Convention, and adopted. Of course such a resolu- 

 tion would not compel US old fogies to alter the size 

 or style of the hives we already have. Still I think 

 that t can see a gn ge that would result if 



all Bee-keepers used a unif ind style of frame. 



Many thanks friend G fo gi ' g us the aid 

 of your judgment oi ds it 



