104 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



dozen, the price is still 5 cents ; and so on 

 for any number. Nearly the same is true of 

 cotton cloth, flour, and a host of other 

 staples. Gleanings is now getting to be 

 a staple that a great many people want, and 

 it is your duty to furnish it as low as you 

 can, to all alike, making the retail price so 

 near the wholesale, that those who work for 

 large clubs will not be tempted to take sin- 

 gle names for less than you do." 



I thank you both, my friends, for pointing 

 out to me the errors in my business, and 

 hope you, friend S., will accept an apology, 

 if, in our last number, I seemed uncourteous 

 to a customer. I assure you, I mean to dis- 

 cuss all these matters, even in the Growlery, 

 in a friendly and neighborly way. It is so 

 natural to be a little selfish, I am afraid it 

 will always crop out with me more or less. 

 You see Gleanings is enlarged, and the 

 lowest club price 75 cents. If that don't do, 

 we will enlarge again and make it 85 cents; 

 and so on until everybody charges $1.00 

 for it, as they do 5 cents for a spool of thread. 



ik "im^m" 



This department was suggested by one of the 

 clerks, as an opposition to the " Growlery." I think 

 I shall venture to give names in full here. 



Wrf AM just in receipt of the much prized Glean- 

 j°|[ ings, and 4 papers of seeds ordered; also your 

 postal bringing your liberal offer, which I do 

 not think it right to accept, as the law provides 

 postal means of safety to all parties sending money, 

 and I cannot see why you should suffer for my 

 neglect; so I send, by postal order, $1.20, and if the 

 other turns up, place it to my credit, and it will 

 come right when I order again from you. I cannot 

 refrain from saying that it is a pleasuro to do busi- 

 ness with a man who tries to have all satisfactory, 

 though it costs some money. Upson Bqshnell. 

 Gustavus, O., Jan. 28, 1880. 



Well, I declare, friend B., I can most 

 heartily return the compliment. It is cer- 

 tainly a pleasure to do business with a man 

 like yourself, who insists on bearing the 

 whole of the loss, when money never reaches 

 us. I try not to be very hard to get along 

 with, but when some of the friends say they 

 have sent the money once, and won't send 

 any more, not even half of it, even though I 

 did send the goods without having got even 

 a copper for them, I have felt just a little 

 discouraged. I dislike to say right out posi- 

 tively that I will not be responsible for any 

 money hereafter sent in unregistered letters, 

 and your kind letter helps me to feel that I 

 shall not have to say so. I am sorry to be 

 obliged to say it. but it looks now, my f riends, 

 as if there is another brother somewhere so 

 lost to all good impulses, as to be appropriat- 

 ing our money again. 



I would have written before this, but was anxious 

 to inspect the hives and fixings before I wrote, in 

 order that I might tell you how T was pleased. It 

 certainly ought to make you feel glad indeed, when 

 you All an order so successfully as you have mine. 

 I have had my hives all put up, and not a stroke of 



any kind was hit upon them, with any tool except 

 the hammer. No planing was needed; all parts fit 

 to perfection. The carpenter that put mine togeth- 

 er, I am satisfied, could put together at least 25 in a 

 day. I am very much pleased with your packing 

 arrangements. The freight, I think, was reasona- 

 ble, especially on the hives. J. D. Fooshe. 

 Greenwood, Abbeville Co., S. C, Jan., 1880. 



THE FAKI-V AMBER SUGAR CANE. 



WHEN SUGAR IS REQUIRED TO FEED OUR 

 BEES, SHALL WE BUY IT, OR RAISE IT? 



rap HE following letters indicate the wide- 

 J! spread interest in this new industry, 

 and also that the cane seems to succeed 

 all the way from Canada to Texas. It seems 

 to produce sugar, too, in all the localities, 

 and almost without an effort. 



You asked me to send you a sample of my "Amber 

 Cane" seed. I will enclose a small sample, and also 

 a sample of the sugar that is gradually forming in 

 the molasses. I made no attempt at making sugar. 

 I had the cane made into molasses by another man, 

 in August, during the hottest weather. I got my 

 seed from the north last year. We have no ma- 

 chinery here for making or clarifying sugar, other 

 than sorghum mills, and pan. The sugar sent is 

 taken from the molasses, and pressed in a cloth to 

 dry it. I have about 3 pks. of seed. I can supply 

 seed at 8c. per ft., the purchaser paying postage or 

 freight. J. G. Fitzgerald. 



Brookston, Tex., Feb. 10, 1880. 



The sugar received is beautiful, and will 

 answer for feeding bees or anything else. I 

 would take all your seed, friend F., were it 

 not for the expense of shipping so great a 

 distance. I presume our readers will take 

 all you have by mail, at the price you men- 

 tion, very quickly. 



BEES AND SUGAR CANE MILLS. 



I have read the articles given from time to time in 

 Gleanings, about cane sugar, and bees visiting 

 sorghum mills. I am interested in the subjects 

 mentioned, as I own a mill, and have run it two 

 years, working several different kinds of cane, and 

 among them the Early Amber. I have noticed that 

 this kind wjll grain more readily than any other, but 

 I have never tried to make sugar of it. My experi- 

 ence differs greatly from that of J. L. Wolfenden 

 (seep. 57, Feb. Gleanings); for, in my short expe- 

 rience of two years, I have not seen bees to exceed 

 25, about the mill, and my apparatus is not over 200 

 yards from the apiary. I have also visited several 

 other mills, and have seen no bees about them. I 

 have seen yellow jackets, and a kind of large miller, 

 by the thousands, much to my discomfiture, or dis- 

 gust rather. I don't boast that my experience will 

 be the same the coming season, for I may have to 

 shut up shop and leave. T. J. Cook. 



Newpoint, Ind., Feb. 7, 1880. 



I presume your bees, friend C, would not 

 go near the cane mills, because they were 

 gathering honey at the time, and this makes 

 all the difference in the reports. Our bees 

 will not notice the cider mills, when they are 

 getting honey from natural sources, and I 

 have known them suddenly desert the grapes 

 and cider mill, when honey began to come 

 again. 



