208 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



June 



unkind and unjust as to wish myself or the 

 clerks to give thern the thing, and be at the 

 trouble and expense to pay express charges, 

 etc. I have no doubt but that there are dis- 

 honest ones among us, but the way in which 

 a man writes a letter shows pretty clearly 

 what kind of a man he is. The man who 

 wrote the letter at the head of this is cer- 

 tainly honest. He may be careless, or 

 thoughtless, or stubborn, or set in his own 

 way, possibly awkward, at times, like my- 

 self, but he never will want anything with- 

 out paying for it. That was my decision on 

 reading over the letter. After a while came 

 the following. 



The pound of fdn. from you, through the P. O., 

 came all right. On opening the package, we found 

 we had one just like it, which came with the hive 

 complete. This mistake of ours happened from our 

 ignorance; we supposed the former to he a chaff 

 division board, and had not opened it. To rectify 

 this, we send 80c in stamps to pay for fdn. and 



Eostage. If you had labled it fdn., we should not 

 ave made the mistake. E. N. Taylor. 



Plattsville, Conn., May 6, 1879. 



Was my faith in humanity a mistake V 

 Did I not read the man aright? And is it 

 not the better way by far, to exercise charity 

 toward all our fellows, even to those we 

 think are' the erring ones? Think gently of 

 the offender, my friend, before you accuse 

 harshly. Remember how many things in 

 this world have turned out to be mistakes, 

 and not intentional fraud. This is a great 

 lesson for us all to learn. I fear the clerks 

 will take courage from this and other similar 

 cases, to decide they are never at fault, and 

 so leave me to pay all differences between 

 customers and ourselves. A man sent by 

 the mail carrier for some goods. When the 

 goods were received, some end bars were 

 missing, and the clerk who put them up, 

 although protesting that he put them all in, 

 sent some more, and paid the postage on 

 them out of his own pocket. Months after- 

 ward, a man told us he found a bundle of 

 ''such things'' in the road. The mail carrier 

 had lost them out. I do not wish to excuse 

 myself, for I am willing to pay damages, 

 even when I am not to blame, for the sake 

 of peace and good will. I have done it in 

 the years past, and God will help me to do 

 it in the years to come ; it is not so very 

 hard to pay other peoples debts after all, 

 when you know God is with you in the mat- 

 ter, and by and by, back it conies, when you 

 least expect it, like the 80c above. '-Cast 

 thy bread upon the waters.' 1 



Moral: — When you complain, do it gent- 

 ly; remember who is above looking on. 



|PT is so long since we have had a letter 

 M suitable for this department that I came 

 — pretty near forgetting we had ever had 

 such a one, but here comes one that does 

 pretty well. 



A BOX HIVE BEE-KEEPER WHO USES FUN. 



1 wintered 76 swarms in my cellar. The last day 

 of Nov., they were juit set 3 deep, into a small room, 

 perfectly dark, with a cement bottom, and walls 

 and ceiling plastered, where they remained undis- 

 turbed until the last day of March, when all came 



out in fine shape. I have wintered my bees in that 

 room for 4 winters, and have never lost a swarm 

 that could be expected to winter any where. Two 

 very light ones starved a year ago the past winter. 



I use mostly the box hive, made nicely and paint- 

 ed, having 10 one inch holes in the top. I fasten 

 strips of fdn. in the tops of my box hives, % of an 

 in. wide, and across the whole top. I never feed my 

 bees, except to give the light swarms some boxes 

 partly filled, as they were left the fall before. 



In the summer of 1876, I hived a swarm of black 

 bees (I have no others), the 15th of June, in an 

 empty box hive, and put on caps at once, and set 

 them under an apple tree. I took off from that hive 

 126 lbs. of comb honey, and the hive was filled to the 

 bottom so that they were a good strong swarm to 

 winter, and they are working finely this day. I sold 

 my honey that year for 20 cts. per pound. How is 

 that "for high?" I have hived, the last 2 years, 98 

 swarms, and never lost a swarm by their running 

 away. I have 22 frame hives, but I use them just as 

 I do box hives, never taking out a frame or med- 

 dling with them, only to get off all the cap honey I 

 can. Last year I had 40 swarms, and sold 1812 lbs. 

 cap honey. I have kept bees 40 years. 



C. A. Carpenter. 



Pontiac, Mich., April 26, 1879. 



SELLING BEES FOR A DOLLAR A POUND. 



M T present writing, two lots of bees have 

 yffiy^ been sent us. One came from Ne- 

 ■ ' braska, but our friend thought it was 

 too much trouble to put in the bottle of wa- 

 ter, and so he sent only a good sized cake of 

 candy. Nearly all of the poor fellows died 

 of thirst, after having honey-combed the 

 candy, in the effort to extract what little 

 moisture it contained. I gave them some 

 water, and it was refreshing indeed, to see 

 the survivors drink. Our friend, Viallon, 

 sent the next lot. Here is what he says 

 about it. 



I send you this day, by express, one box of bees, 

 according to your suggestion in May No. of Glean- 

 ings. If this box reaches you with the bees in 

 good condition, I will send you some more, and as 

 many as any one else may want. The box with the 

 candy, frame of honey, water, etc., before putting 

 in the bees, weighed 13 lbs., and with the bees, 19*4 

 lbs., making it contain 6% lbs. bees, net. If the bees 

 arrive alive, you will please weigh the box after 

 taking the bees out, and let me know, so that I can 

 tell what amount of food 6 l / 2 lbs. of bees consumed 

 in so many days. Of course you will let me know 

 what day they were received. If it is a success you 

 may publish my name in your new department. I 

 did not put in any queen this time, as I wanted to 

 see what would be the result, but next time I will. 



I think your price for queens is rather low ; you 

 should pay $1. in May, and 90c. in June, then you 

 may have some to send you queens, but I see that 

 you have not received any yet. I think the reason 

 is, that you offer too little, and not that queen rais- 

 ing has been unsuccessful in the South. As for my 

 part, I have succeeded as well as ever except since 8 

 or 10 days, as it is raining, etc., and so far have ship- 

 ped over 200 queens. 



I make a candy for queen cages, which, I think, is 

 better than yours, as it keeps soft, and don't melt 

 like the candy made with honey and sugar. I take 

 lft>. pulverized crushed sugar, y 2 1t>. La. brown sugar, 

 a table-spoonful of honey, and 1 table-spoonful of 

 flour, and proceed as you direct for your candy. I 

 have had no report of dead queens sent with this 

 candy, while I have lost two tested queens sent out 

 in your last cages with the bottle. 



