4a 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



April, 



ABBREVIATIONS IN BEE CORRESPON- 

 DENCE. 



^pjf^ITHOUT question, it is of the utmost 



V Jl importance that every aid be given to 

 facilitate interchange of thought and exper- 

 iment, among the devotees of our present stage 

 of advanced Bee-culture, and as almost every 

 mail gives us evidence of some one having de- 

 veloped some particular feature, it is of great 

 importance that those working in the same 

 direction, exploring an unexplored region as 

 it Avere, be put in communication with each 

 other. 



As an illustration, friend Wilkin of Cadiz. O. 

 sends us a sketch of a plan for a floating Api- 

 ary to traverse our Western and Southern riv- 

 ers, and in a few days, we think it was friend 

 Klum, of Sherman, Texas, who desired our 

 opinion of a similar plan ; of course we en- 

 deavored to induce the two to open a corres- 

 pondence. Now is it not plain that by far the 

 greatest good will accrue to the greater num- 

 ber by giving the full P. O. address of each 

 correspondent ? Such is at least the view we 

 shall take of the matter notwithstanding the 

 fact that by thus giving our friends publicity 

 they may be annoyed by circulars of all sorts 

 of humbugs and even counterfeit money propo- 

 sitions etc. If we cannot keep them too well 

 informed to invest in such trash we shall con- 

 sider our duties poorly discharged indeed. 



Again, it has been said that the value of the 

 advertising department is lessened by giving 

 names in full, to which we reply, "be it so." 

 When people are so well informed that there 

 will be no need to pay for advertising, we will 

 devote the space to some other purpose, for 

 our purpose is to inform the people, not to 

 keep them in the dark, and when we cannot 

 get a liberal support for the former we will 

 consider which is best, the latter, or the huini- 

 lating admission that we have mistaken our 

 calling. 



Now for our plan, after so much of a preface, 

 and we really hope you will hear us through 

 before you object. Postal cards are a glorious 

 aid to Bee-keepers, and we had rather have a 

 postal card brief, plain, and to the point, than 

 the most elaborate letter, always supposing the 

 writer, if he can consistently will have his 

 name and address plainly printed on one cor- 

 ner. If our friends could know of the annoy- 

 ance caused us by carelessly written addresses, 

 and having to guess at the probable State in 

 winch a town is located, we are sure they 

 would be more careful. A postal card will 

 not contain a very long letter 'tis true but by 

 omitting all forms and pitching right into 

 your subject at once, they will generally do; 

 they had better be dated to avoid possible con- 

 fusion but this can be done very briefly, and 

 if your address is printed on it, even a signa- 

 ture may be omitted. In regard to privacy, 

 should every one who can, read all postal cards 

 pertaining to bee culture, we hope, he would 

 be the better and wiser and we none the worse 

 off. 



Novice has quite a laborious correspondence 

 to get over and as his right hand is not as 

 g 1 as the left, it must of a necessity be con- 

 siderably condensed. When our letters come 

 from the office they are flrst carefully examined, 



and postal cards addressed by P. G. to all 

 those requiring answers ; those containing or- 

 ders, or items for publication are distributed 

 to their respective departm?nts. Now Novice 

 many times finds the card rather small as 

 some of our readers may have observed, and 

 such long words as "extracted honey," "fertil- 

 ization of Queens," etc., fill out a line before- 

 he is aware of it, and the thought has many 

 times occurred that such frequent terms might 

 be abbreviated in such a way as to be perfectly 

 intelligible to Apiarists and yet take but little 

 room, whether they should be plain to outsi- 

 ders or not matters little, to us. In reading a 

 letter from Mr. Harrison who was one of Mr. 

 Wilkins employees last fall, we were struck 

 with a system of the kind of their own, 

 which we found perfectly intelligible, viz ; 

 using Q's, for Queens and h's, for hives. 



We would suggest the following table of 

 abbreviations to be used in correspondence or 

 in writing for this Journal, as our compositors 

 will of course understand it. We would ad- 

 vise all to punctuate, observe the proper use 

 of capitals, and in fact to omit nothing that 

 might lead to an erroneous reading of the item. 



r i 



JjHE day being fine (March 1st,) our 13 col- 

 onies sallied out from beneath their res- 

 pective manure heaps, and worked on the meal 

 in a way that was highly gratifying, as we 

 believe this is the earliest we have ever suc- 

 ceeded in getting them to take the meal. It 

 was sprinkled on the summit of these same 

 heaps to get them started. Iu the forenoon, 

 they worked on the south west side ; at noon, 

 on the south ; and in the afternoon as the sun 

 turned, nearly around to the west. The dark 

 color of the manure causes the sun to warm it 

 up quickly, aside from its own internal heat. 

 March 2nd, — We are so much pleased with 

 the manure protection that Ave hare put our 

 entire 50 hives (all there is uoav) on their sum- 

 mer stands, and are making manure heaps over 

 them as fast as possible. P. G. and Mrs. N. are 

 decidedly of the opinion that the plan is any 

 thing but neat and ornamental, Avhatever may 

 be the effect on brood-rearing; anil eA r eu little 

 "Blue Eyes," (not quite \% years old) says 

 "phfew," at the aroma giA'en off in handling 

 the steaming 18 loads, of the fermenting prod- 



