1880 



GLEANIKGS IK BEE CULTURE. 



87 



Thank God for so much. Now what shall 

 friend (). do to have that money ready by the 

 15th of April ?• I found out, several Weeks 

 ago, that his business is manufacturing ink 

 and bluing. We are using his ink now in 

 our office. Most of our clerks use steel pens, 

 and one of them told me she had to have a 

 new one about every other day. because they 

 rust so badly. A steel pen was used in 

 friend O.'s ink, and. after two weeks, it 

 looked nearly as bright as when first put in 

 the ink. It is an absolute fact, that it does 

 not rust pens at all. Besides this, it may be 

 frozen, colored inks as well as black, without 

 injury. It is a beautiful plain black when 

 first "written, and it does not get thick if 

 left in an open bottle. These seem like large 

 claims, but I think they are none too large. 

 I asked him for prices iii quantities. Here is 

 his reply : 



I can deliver ink, in 2 oz. bottles, in Medina (if it 

 does not have to go over more than one road), for 

 £2.75 per gross, or for 80 cents per gallon, in jugs. 

 We arc selling more put up in quarter-gross boxes, 

 assorted colors, of one doz. each, black, blue, and 

 violet, than in any other way. Our commercial col- 

 lege in 1 his city, of 120 students, uses our inks in 

 preference to all others; and those who value good 

 inks are satisfied, upon trial, with quality and price. 

 I am well satisfied that the better you are acquaint- 

 ed with the virtues of our inks, the more you will 

 like them. I am also quite sure that, upon fair and 

 impartial trial, they possess more good qualities 

 than any other inks in America. The violet ink 

 from New York, used in our post-office, becomes 

 thick, and corrodes the pen, while ours does neither; 

 and a 2 oz. bottle of ink that will retain all its good 

 qualities till the last drop, is worth more than a 4 oz. 

 bottle that loses its good qualities before it is half 

 used up. The above is for quantities of not less 

 than 5 gross. We sell the assorted, colored inks, )i 

 gross, $1.00; or $4.00 per gross. If desired, we put in 

 one each of green and red, in place of the black. 



W. O. 



This would be at the rate of less than 2c. 

 for large 2 oz. bottles of better ink than any I 

 ever before saw in my life, delivered here in 

 Medina, at that. I began to think friend G."s. 

 besetting sin was in selling things too cheap. 

 It is not a very common fault, yet it may be 

 a fault for all that. I at once ordered 5 gross, 

 and a "•jug full" for our own use, and told 

 him I would pay the freight, and think it too 

 cheap even then. Here is his reply: 



I was very glad indeed to secure your order for 

 ink. It was surely kind in you to give me more 

 than I asked for the ink, and very opportune, as the 

 price of bottles has advanced 50 cents per gross. 

 Jan. 5, 1880. W\ O. 



I presume many of our readers have been 

 interested in the case of W. (). If all the 

 ink we all use were purchased of him, it 

 would be a mutual advantage to both parlies, 

 for I do not believe any of you have any 

 thing as good, or as economical. After what 

 he has written, I presume he would not care 

 to have his full address made public, but I 

 will give it to any of you who desire. Or I will 

 forward any letters to him. Many times, in 

 this world, we can give substantial help to 

 our fellow men, in the way I have suggested, 

 without its being any real loss to ourselves, 

 and God seems to delight in sending us, of- 

 ten times, rich blessings in reward for so 

 helping others. 



By this shall all men know that ye are my disci- 

 ples. If ye have love one to another. —John xiii. 35. 



W. O., we will pray for you, and we will 

 also, all of us, try to send you all the orders 



for ink we can. 



JUST BEFORE GOING TO PRESS. 



The bees in the chaff hives out-door, at present, 

 are doing very much better than those in the house 

 apiary. 



We have been selling queens, nuclei, and full col- 

 onies all through the month of January. Our apiary 

 now numbers l'JJ. 



We have finally obtained a beautiful article of 

 white-clover seed which we can sell the same as Al- 

 sike. It is the iirst we ever saw. 



If all the friends having circulars of bees and bee 

 supplies will send them in during this month, I will 

 try to give them all a noiice in the March No. 



Until further notice, I will pay 25c. per lb. cash, 

 or 27c in trade, for beeswax delivered here. This 

 advance has been made since printiDg our advertise- 

 ment on the coven 



The "counter" store is crowded out this month, 

 but I will try to have room for it next time, with 

 pictures of the wonderful things that are offered for 

 a very little money. 



The lowest club price for Gleanings for 1881 will 

 be 75c. Will agents please notice that the 60c. rate 

 only extends to Dec, 1880. As we are saving plcnly 

 of back Nos., you can take them, or add to the sub- 

 scriptions that run into next year. 



Friend Bingham says, in his new advertisement, 

 that none of his smokers have ever been returned, 

 and no one has ever complained that they did not 

 give satisfaction. His smokers are of most excel- 

 lent workmanship, but is not this statement pretty 

 strong? I presume he will be glad to have you speak 

 out, if you know aught to the contrary. 



There! that is just like you all. You have gone 

 and sent me 4,207 subscribers, and it isn't quite the 

 1st of Feb. yet cither. I will tell you what we will 

 do; we will hereafter add 8 more pages to Glean- 

 ings, and thus have more room for your letters, be- 

 sides leading all the small type, so it will not be so 

 hard to read for the friends who are getting a little 

 old. 



The ABC has grown until it weighs two full 

 pounds, and I tell you it is a nice large book, for 

 only $1.25; but, for all that, we will send it and 

 Gleanings 1 year, for an even $2.00. If bound in 

 paper, for only $1.75. "Cook's Manual," same terms; 

 "Quinby's New Bee-Keeping," 25c. more; and " Bee- 

 Keepers' Text Book," 25c. less. We have a "big 

 stack" of all the "bee books," and can mail them so 

 quickly it will astonish you. 



There are now 7 bee journals published in Amer- 

 ica, and we will receive subscriptions for any and 

 all of them, as you will see by our clubbing list, but 

 I cannot be responsible for any of them, after I have 

 put your money into their hands. I have decided 

 that they are trustworthy, or I should not have plac- 

 ed them'in our clubbing list; but, if they do not is- 

 sue promptly, you are to write them, not me. Some 

 of them are not yet out for January. I would just 

 like to whisper to some of the very young editors, 

 that it would help wonderfully, if they would also 

 get some smart "school-marm" to read over their 

 journals carefully, before they have them printed. 

 It would not cost rrru much. 



Many of the articles used by bee-keepers arc still 

 on the "boom," as the saying is. Although lumber 

 has risen much, we are trying hard to hold to our 

 prices on hives, etc. Nails have advanced on an 

 average of $2.00 per keg, except the new wire nails; 

 we arc holding them at old prices, and are using 

 them entirely, in place of brads and cigar-box nails. 

 The largest size, 1 \i in., 1 to 61b., per ft)., 17c; 5tol0tt>., 

 16c; over 101b., 15c One inch nails, 2c per lb. more 

 than l 1 .! inch. Of the smaller sizes, the prices re- 

 main as in price list. The advance ontin has threat- 

 ened to "raise mischief," but 1 have finally found a 

 very thin tin for separators, called "taggers tin," 

 which is really better, because it carries off the ani- 

 mal heat less; and this I am enabled so far to buy, 

 so as to keep our prices on separators. This tin is 

 now worth $16.00 per box of 221 sheets, size 14x20. 

 Such tin as we use for corners and extractors is 

 worth $14.00 per box of 112 sheets, 14x20. Glass has 

 advanced the most of all, and the best we canuowdo 

 is $4.00 per box, for small r beets, and $4.50 for the 3 

 1-16x18 inches, which we use in our crate for the Pi 



