1880 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



155 



Pertaining to Bee Culture. 



[We respectfully solicit the aid of our friends in 

 conducting this department, and would consider it a 

 favor to have them send us all circulars that have a 

 deceptive appearance. The greatest care will he at 

 all times maintained to prevent injustice being done 

 any one.] 



MRS. COTTON. 



NOTWITHSTANDING the caution in 

 J^)] the February number, it seems that 

 — ' several persons have sent the $4.00 

 for the wonderful instructions. One friend 

 said he knew a man that had them, but that 

 he was so very choice of the valuable docu- 

 ment he could not risk it in the mails, un- 

 less we sent the money to pay for registering. 

 What do you suppose we received? Why, 

 just the simple leaf I described, and from 

 which I extracted the " bee-feed " recipe, 

 given in our last October number. I sent it 

 b tck, inquiring where the tl elaborate draw- 

 ings " made by " skillful artists," etc., were. 

 Here is his reply : 



As vet, nothing- else has been sent by Mrs. Cotton, 

 that I know of, except a model of the hive (about 

 eight inches square). None of the parties that have 

 sent to her. so far as I know, have any engravings or 

 illustrations. E.C. Newell. 



Boston, Mass., Feb. 26, 1880. 



MRS. COTTON. 



Not long since, I was in the office of the Windsor 

 Journal, Windsor, Vt., and, on relating- my transac- 

 tion with Mrs. Cotton to Mr. Franklin Butler, the 

 editor of that paper, he told me he had been bit by 

 her —that she sent her advertisement to be inserted 

 4 months, but sent no pay. After inserting it a few 

 weeks, he came to the conclusion she was swindling 

 him, and he '"took it out," — sent her his bill, which 

 amounted to $2.50, but received no answpr. Mrs. 

 Cotton had the mulish impudence to send Dr. P. B. 

 Parker, Bartonsville, Vt., another special circular, 

 saying that she would continue to send hf>r" sample 

 hives and printed directions," etc., for $4.00, up to 

 the flr«t of Oct., after which she should resume her 

 old prices, $0.00. A. P. Pletcheh. 



Reading, Windsor Co., Vt., Jan. 18, 1880. 



MITCHELL. 



It seems that Mitchell has decided to keep 

 on with his black-mailing business, for he 

 has issued a pile of new circulars. Our 

 thanks are due to friend C. T. Smith, O'Fal- 

 len, 111., for promptly mailing us copies as 

 fast as issued. It has been said by some, 

 that Mitchell does not claim all division- 

 boards to be subject to his patent, and it is 

 denied that he has attempted to obtain mon- 

 ey from those using chaff cushions. See the 

 following extracts: 



We have been shamefully denounced by a certain 

 click or ring as an imposiior. a cheat and swindler in 

 every neighborhood; this click have their minions 

 In every neighborhood; their principle stock in trade 

 is that we have no patent, and if we have, that it is 

 not on the division or adjusting hoards, and that our 

 hive don't tit our patent at all, that is. if we have 

 one; this is the way they talk, they even threaten 

 to sue our agents for selling rights and obtaining 

 money under false pretenses. Th<>se busihodies 

 bave scared many of our agents so bad that they 

 quit canvassing, and the result is that our hive or 

 Sume principle ot' it is now being used nil over this 

 entire country, by very many thousands of persona 

 who have never purchast-d a right to use the hive 

 and many of them have went so far as to defy us to 

 sue them. 



We have stood all this until forbearance ceases to 

 be a virtue, and we would say to our agents every- 

 where that you must call on every infringer or re- 

 port their names and post office address to us so 

 that we can serve a notice upon them; then if they 

 refuse to pay we will put it into the hands of a law- 

 yer. We know of many agents who have allowed 

 everybody to u*e our hive without buying a right. 



Let me say to agents who have not got sand 

 enoug-h in their craw to meet those fellows and de- 

 mand payment, for nearly all of them are infringers, 

 to say so, and we, will find some one, who has. 



There is scarcely a hive now in use but is made 

 with one or more of our patented features, for in- 

 stance a hive made with adjusting board or boards 

 without an.\ thing tacked on them to make them air 

 tight is our infringement. Any invention in any 

 way similar to ours is an infringement, and in con- 

 clusion we would sav to our agents don't fail to re- 

 port to us the name. 



It matters not whether the adjusting or division 

 boards are made of wood. tin. gold, silver, chaff, cot- 

 ton, feathers or any material — no matter what it 

 may be made of — if when set in the hive it is uspd 

 for'the purpose of enlarging or dimlnishingthe size 

 of the hive, for any purpose either in the spring or 

 summer, fall or winter management of bees, if you 

 are usinganythingof thiskind including A. I. Root's 

 chaff cushions, you are an infringer, and each of you 

 are requested to make prompt payment or suffer 

 the* consequence. N. C. Mitchell. 



Indianapolis, Ind., or Kansas City, Mo. 



You will notice, my friends, that, through 

 the influence of Gleanings, many of his 

 agents have become ashamed of their work, 

 and dropped it, and that he is having hard 

 work to ■' keep sand in their craws," as he 

 terms it. It seems unaccountable that any 

 one should be so foolish as to hand over 

 money in answer to such threats, but the 

 letters that come daily show there are those 

 who keep doing it over and over, and who 

 imagine a patent possible to cover all ad- 

 justing boards and cushions. Why does he 

 not sue me, instead of solitary individuals 

 here and there V In the following sentence, 

 he almost admits he never thought of so do- 

 ing: 



We can say we never brought suit aarainst anyone, 

 and we do hope we will never have occasion to do so. 



Had he ended the sentence, " and never 

 thought of doing so," it would have been 

 exactly the truth. 



He still rehearses the old story, that he is 

 going to rear 10,000 queens the coming sea- 

 son, and still has money sent him for queens, 

 which money he puts in his pocket, and thus 

 closes the transaction. The letter below is 

 only one of many: 



By the way, what have you done with old bragga- 

 docio Mitchell? He has been raising 3 queens for 

 about 18 months, one for R. Gohene, one for Dr. 

 Fisher, and one for his old agent, myself, all 3 paid 

 for. over one year ago. I think he is making long 

 nibbed ladies of them, to get the nectar out of the 

 red clover. That is it, surely. G.A.Jacobs. 



Boalsburgh, Center Co., Penn., Mar. 8, 1880. 



MITCHELL AGAIN. 



I have just received a postal card from the post* 

 master of Sandusky. Ohio, saying that he paid to 

 Mitchell himself the $10.00 which I sent him bymon- 

 ey order. I would like you to insert in Gleanings, 

 in my name, a few words about the character of 

 Mitchell, who receives money but does not send the 

 goods, so that others may be warned of that public 

 thief. Kkv. J. Teitcen, Victoria, Texas. 



I presume, if the proper steps were taken, 

 he could be stopped from receiving mails at 

 both of the P. O. addresses he gives. I know 

 this is now very extensively done with the 

 great masses of swindlers that have infested 

 our land of late, and all that is necessary, I 

 presume, is to furnish the department with 



