210 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



May 



i« 



• » 



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[This department is to be kept for the benefit of 

 those who are dissatisfied; and when anything 1 is 

 amiss, I hope you will "talk rig-lit out." As a rule 

 we will omit names and addresses, to avoid being 

 too personal.] 



MjlNCLOSED find one dollar for Gleanings for 

 i] the year 1880, with the distinct understanding 

 — that the subscription begins with the J anuary 

 number and includes it. If you can't comply with 

 this simple request, please return my one dollar, and 

 f will patronize a bee-journal that has enterprise 

 enough to furnish back numbers. I remember 

 something of the trouble I was put to on this point 

 last year, and hence I desire an understanding at the 

 beginning. W. O. Pierce. 



Winchester, Randolph Co., Ind., Jan. 12, '80. 



Now, friend P., are you not just a little 

 bit rough on us poor editors? How are we 

 to know just how many numbers of a certain 

 issue will be called for. especially where we 

 have to decide the matter several months 

 ahead. A year aero last January, I started 

 the year with 6.000 copies, supposing I had 

 a orreat plenty for any possible demand. 

 There happened to be a great call for the Jan. 

 No., and, before I knew it, we were out. 

 For Feb., I printed 7.000; these were soon 

 out too, and. alter that, I printed 8.000 for 

 the whole year. It happened that a good 

 many of our subscribers were for only three 

 months, and, when the season turned out so 

 poorly, a great part of them failed to renew; 

 the demand for sample copies also dropped 

 off, and the consequence was we had a great 

 stack of back Nos., for which we had almost 

 no use. This year the question came up 

 again, how many should we print? To 

 avoid the nuisance of last year, I printed 

 again 8.000 each month. A few days ago, 

 Mr. Gray protested that those old journals 

 were too heavy for the floors. He had con- 

 structed the building to bear any reasonable 

 amount of weight, but when it came to tons, 

 it would not hold it. Well, the paper on 

 which those journals are printed, to say 

 nothing of the press work, cost $270.00 a 

 ton, and the pile is cash out over a thousand 

 dollars. It is true, I could have electrotype 

 plates of every issue, that I might always 

 supply any back No., but a pile of electro- 

 types would cost more than the pile of jour- 

 nals; it will not pay for a journal having 

 the average issue of a bee journal. It is 

 somewhat of a nuisance to advertise for a 

 No. we happen to run out of, but it is but 

 an insignificant expense, compared with 

 keeping tons of back Nos. on hand. Now, 

 frierld P., do you think it is really because 

 we lack enterprise that we don't have every 

 back No. that may be called for? If those 

 who want the whole volumes would sub- 

 scribe early, do you see what a great expense 

 it would save us? And do you not see, too, 

 why I have offered little presents, to get you 

 to -subscribe early? While I think of it, I 

 will furnish any volume of our back Nos., 

 excepting Vol. ill, and the first four Nos. of 

 1879, at one-half the usual price, and pay 

 postage. 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or Letters from Those Who Have Made 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



fjjHE imported queen sent me Nov. 27th, came in 

 about 10 or 12 days, and I got her home Dec. 

 loth. The queen was all right, but nearly all 

 the bees were dead. I do not think there was more 

 than % of a pint. I put them into a larger hive, re- 

 duced by a division board, with two of the frames 

 they came on which still contained honey, and one 

 frame of sealed honey, put a burlap double over 

 them, and they flew around merrily for a few days. 

 On Ohristmas and the day before it was cold enough 

 to form ice J4 of an inch thick, and they died, queen 

 and all. I took the dead queen in my hand and tried 

 to warm her into life, but she was dead, dead, dead. 

 Charges were $5.25; so my empty, 3 frame, nucleus 

 hive cost $11.25, making $18.75 I have expended for 

 imported queens, and have no queen yet. I sent to 

 Dadant one year ago for a four-dollar queen, and 

 she came dead. I advised him of the fact, when he 

 informed me that he did not guarantee safe delivery 

 of those queens! Well, why did he not so state in 

 his circular or advertisement? 



I began keeping bees 3 years ago, and now have 

 70 colonies. For this section, 1879 was an exceedingly 

 poor year. I had no increase, and took but 80 gal. of 

 h"->ney. The first year, I worked only for increase, 

 the second increased from 10 to 65, and sold honey 

 enough to pay cash outlay to date, Jan. 1st. 1879, and 

 made a profit r>f $9.01). Last year ate up the profits 

 of the year before, and more too, leaving me noth- 

 ing for <ime and labor. 



Heretofore I have worked only for honey; this 

 year I want to sell bees and queens in addition. 

 With my limited experience, I cannot speak very 

 definitely about bee-keeping in the South ; so far as 

 my experience goes it fe» not a "Bonanza," and, at 

 present, I am inclined to think the profits will uot 

 be so great as in the North. Our honey is not so 

 smooth, a little more acid, and has a greater tenden- 

 cy to make one cough than northern honey, is dark- 

 er generally, and, when extracted, is sent to city 

 markets, and sold for manufacturing purposes, and 

 has to compete with molasses. In 1879, mine netted 

 but 45c per gal., not quite 4c per pound. Again, the 

 honey flow is more continuous, but not so great at 

 any one time, so that brood rearing goes on briskly 

 and very little surplus is stored. In working for 

 extracted honey, I am troubled by the queens going 

 into the upper story. It is annoying to 11 nd it filled 

 with drones, and not a frame fit to extract in the 

 whole hive. Shading and ventilation present differ- 

 ent phazes here, and one cannot work all day bend- 

 ing over hives with a June sun beating down upon 

 his back, as you can in the North. 

 Grand Lake, Ark., Jan. 20, '80. H. A. HarrimAN. 



Now, friend II., if you will excuse me, 1 

 would suggest that you did a most reckless 

 thing, when you allowed that queen to incur 

 any such risk; and one can scarcely avoid 

 the inference that your poor success all along 

 through may have'been caused mainly, by— 

 by— well, carelessness, and want of that 

 shrewd and dogged determination, that is 

 needed to make it sure that epieens shall not 



