issO 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



iii.:; 



less postage, in nails and brads in proper proportion. 

 Send the wire nails and brads. W. M. 



Saulsbury, Ark., Apr. 26, 1880. 



You see our friend was probably so inex- 

 perienced as to think the sheets should till 

 the frame, when they were just right. He 

 would also have seen, by the price list, that 

 no nails were sent with hives unless ordered. 

 It would seem a little hard also, that he 

 should complain when he did not send the 

 order himself. As our hives are mostly 

 nailed with common fours and sixes, we 

 thought it very strange indeed that such 

 nails could not be had cheaper than to send 

 ihcm by mail. Orders were pressing; this 

 letter was only one among a thousand, and 

 it must be decided quickly, to give place to 

 others. We sent him 1 lb. of wire nails, i 

 lb. of twos, and the balance fours, or com- 

 mon shingle nails, for these are the princi- 

 ple ones used in nailing up hives, and the 

 sixes he said he had. The postage was over 

 a dollar but what else could we do, with 

 such orders. Here is his reply, after receiv- 

 ing them : 



1 sent you an order for nails and brads, or tacks, 

 suitable for putting up Simplicity hives, crates, etc. 

 Instead of doing as requested you sent only one size 

 of tacks, a few No. 2 common, and the balance in 

 No. 4, or shingle nails, which are of no use to me, 

 and which i could get here by the keg, had I wanted 

 them. I do not care for the little money that I am 

 beat out of, but I do emphatically protest against 

 this kind of treatment. It is certainly a poor way 

 you have of building up or extending your business. 

 I am charitable enough to believe that the matter is 

 a mistake on the part of one of your employees; 

 but you ought not to entrust your business to per- 

 sons capable of making such blunders. 



Saulsbury, Ark., May 12, '80. W. M. 



Is not that a " stunner," boys? I can bear 

 blame and censure a great deal better my- 

 self than to have my faithful, hard work- 

 ing hands abused, and I confess the above 

 upset me, and I beg our friend's pardon for 

 the unkind answer I sent him. Why did he 

 not tell from the price list we sent him what 

 he did want? We did our very best to try to 

 please him, from his indefinite orders, and 

 this is our reward. True, our friend has 

 charity enough to think it was a mistake, 

 but he never dreams, it would seem, that 

 there was any mistake or any blame at all 

 on his part. From one of his former letters, 

 I can readily see that friend M. is a man 

 that means to be fair and upright. It seems 

 to me that I can tell a man's general stand- 

 ing from a very few lines of his handwriting, 

 and when I can get self and selfish feelings 

 out of the way, I find very few indeed, es- 

 pecially among our bee friends, who have 

 any deliberate purpose of wrong. Well, 

 what is to be done in the case? What would 

 the spirit of our opening text dictate? That 

 friend M. should be treated precisely like a 

 neighbor who had innocently got into any 

 kind of trouble, and help him out; forget- 

 ting entirely his unkind words in regard to 

 myself and my boys and girls. Send him 

 his order, and leave it to him to decide who 

 is at fault. If he should think I am, why 

 pay the postage, and send him just what he 

 does want, and trust God to make me good 



or not, as he sees fit according to his infinite 

 wisdom. Are you afraid to accept such a 

 doctrine? Do you say you would be "fleec- 

 ed, " right and left? tk O ye of little faith," 

 not only in God but in your fellow men — 

 your friends and neighbors— the people who 

 make up the world— made in your own like- 

 ness. Not for the purpose of gain, do I wish 

 you to take up this course of action, for 

 with such a thought in your mind, you could 

 never catch the spirit at all, but for Christ's 

 sake who died for us, and then shall ye have 

 treasures laid up in Heaven. How many, 

 many times have I been astonished, when 

 bearing these little crosses to have some one 

 come forward— perhaps one who makes no 

 professions at all— and say, u Here, brother 

 Root, we are not going to see you lose your 

 money in that way, 1 ' and almost instantly 

 God's hand was seen stretched out to en- 

 courage ; and it all came through my fellow 

 men as in the opening text. "Inasmuch as 

 ye have done it unto one of the least of these 

 ye have done it unto me." 



Please have charity for me. my friends, 

 and be lenient when you see how far I fall 

 short of my own teachings. Should I forget 

 myself and write back to you inconsistently 

 think it not me, but the evil impulses I am 

 fighting continually, and if you have caught 

 the spirit I have tried to show, pray for me, 

 even as I am praying for you all to-day. 



OUR OWN APIARY, HONEY FARM, AND 

 FACTORY. 



SELLING BEES AND QUEENS. 



^S^OU know I put the price up pretty high 



fyjv Know i put uie price up pieti/y uigu 

 on bees and queens for the early spring 

 — ' months, so that those who wanted 

 them extra early could be accommodated by 

 paying for them. I told you, March 1st, 

 that we had sold down to about 160 colonies. 

 Since then, we have sold 91 queens, and as 

 the greater part of them were sold with a 

 half pound or more of bees, we have now 

 only 80 colonies left, and many of the 80 

 have had the queens sold out of them. This 

 brings us about where we were last year, 

 and Ave shall have to purchase largely of our 

 neighbors. [Neighbor II. has a tine apiary in 

 chaff hives, the progeny all from imported 

 queens. As he is just ready to start queen 

 rearing we shall use all his tested queens, 

 and as many of his bees as he will spare. 

 Our neighbor Rice sold us about $500.00 

 worth of bees last year, at an average of 

 $ o.OO per colony for just the bees and brood, 

 without hives. This was cheaper for us 

 than to buy bees by the pound, and it seems 

 it was a good thing for him also; for he 

 says this season he would rather sell bees 

 than honey, and I have just purchased of 

 him 40 colonies to be delivered about apple 

 bloom for $200.00. You may say that I haye 

 a pretty large profit on bees ; so I have, and 

 if you think you would like to try selling 

 them lower, I should be very glad to have 

 you do so. I have had experience in many 

 kinds of trade, but I do not know that I ever 

 handled any kind of merchandise before, 

 that seemed to have so many fatalities inci- 

 dent to it as bees. I have sometimes won- 



