450 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Sept. 



I thank you for your kind words, friend 

 K., the more just now, because I have a let- 

 ter before me that has troubled me a long 

 time; the letter has been answered, but I fear 

 it was not answered in the proper spirit. I 

 have been trying to show you that the spirit 

 Christ taught would enable us to get along 

 pleasantly with almost anybody, or under 

 any circumstances; but it seems as if there 

 are those who have a cool way of saying un- 

 kind things that are more exasperating, al- 

 most, than direct blows; especially, when we 

 have been trying hard to conciliate. By 

 way of introduction, I would remark that 1 

 have often found it best to ask what amount 

 of money would make the matter satisfactory, 

 before going into details, as it often trans- 

 pires that the amount is only a trifle, and 

 consequently can be easily adjusted. I di- 

 rected the clerks so to write to this brother; 

 here is his reply: 



Your last is received, and so like you, too. You 

 ask questions as of yore. If I should send you a bill 

 for damage, you would doubt it, and be obliged to 

 ask a lot of questions, and keep up a correspondence 

 for another season or two. You know what you 

 ought to do as well as if a bill was made. I have 

 never had anything from you that was as you repre- 

 sented it; not a thing. Gleanings does very well, 

 but I have not had 12 Nos.; only 10. You ask why I 

 do not cut your acquaintance, etc. I have, you bet. 

 You now say you never said a pound of Italians and 

 a queen would make a swarm in one year. Look in 

 Gleanings and you will be obliged to acknowledge 

 that you lie a little, through mistake perhaps. Now 

 it is not the loss of what I have been swindled out of, 

 but the way it has been done. Take the pound of 

 young Italian bees for an illustration. They were 

 not Italians; there was not any queen with them; 

 I paid you $2.60 for them, and as far as you are con- 

 cerned it was a fraud. And this is a fair sample of 

 my deal with you, friend R. Don't call me friend 

 M., as I am not your friend and don't wish to be. 

 Preach less, and do as you agree, and you will do a 

 sight better I think. M. 



Below is the reply I directed to be sent him : 



I beg pardon, "friend M.", but the subscription 

 clerk says your subscription expired with March No. 

 If it is a mistake please correct us. Your Aug. No. 

 was certainly sent. If lost in the mails how could 

 we make it g-ood unless you told us of it? We send 

 another. You seem to forget that you are one of 

 a multitude so large that we cannot recall these 

 things to mind only by hunting up back letters. If 

 you decline telling us what will make the transac- 

 tion you allude to satisfactory, I do not know how 

 we can do anything further in the matter. 



I presume the most of you will say it was 

 all right, but I do not feel quite satistied with 

 it. It is true he would not say what amount 

 would make the transaction satisfactory, but 

 he did say that he had paid out S2.60, and 

 the goods were not as they should be. Com- 

 plaints that queens are missing has been 

 quite a source of trouble. With the queen 

 cages, we have got over it, by having a clerk 

 who makes it her especial business to look 

 up every queen the last thing before she is 

 mailed, corroborating and checking the man 

 in the apiary. With a pound of bees, this is 

 impossible, and we have no means of in- 

 specting the queen, after the apiarist lets 

 her in with the bees, as he always does the 

 last thing. An imported queen was reported 

 not with the bees last year, and to-day a 

 $13.00 Holy-Land queen is reported not in 



the package. She is not in the hive she was 

 taken out of, for they have queen cells start- 

 ed, and our friend who received her said he 

 looked the bees all through before he opened 

 the cage, and could not find her, and then, 

 to make sure, he let them out one by one on 

 a window, and no queen was among them. 

 Had he sent the cage back unopened, the 

 apiarist would have been responsible for her 

 absence; but, after it was opened, the 

 trouble lay between the one who put her up 

 and the one who opened it. I should dislike 

 to insist that either one was at fault, so the 

 blame and loss will have to be mine. In the 

 matter above, I do not know who is to 

 blame ; hut, if I am right, I have always, ev- 

 er since I have been in the business, replaced 

 every queen that could not be found. Our 

 friend may be mistaken in pronouncing the 

 pound of bees hybrids, as you know, from 

 what has been said on the subject. He says 

 the whole package cost him $2.60; I do not 

 know whether this includes express charges 

 or not, or whether he made any use of the 

 bees or not, so he is willing to allow any- 

 thing for them. It seems to me he might 

 just say how much he thinks I should pay 

 him, but, if he declines, I think I will send 

 him the full amount, $2. HO, and tell him if it 

 is too much, to return what he thinks prop- 

 er. In this way I can feel at peace with 

 him, and everybody else, and should I ever 

 meet him I can put out my hand to him 

 without coloring unpleasantly, at the memo- 

 ry of the transaction, and I can also preserve 

 that spirit of meekness I have talked to you 

 about in the Home Papers, and, like our 

 friend Billy Bray, keep on singing " Praise 

 the Lord, praise' the Lord. 1 ' 



hntynlkng. 



Notices of Conventions, condensed so as to occupy 

 not over two lines, will be inserted free of charge. 



CONVENTION DIRECTORY. 



1880. 

 Sept. 



Sept. 

 Sept. 



Sept. 

 Sept. 



Oct. I 



TIME AND PLACE OF MEETING. 



2.— Southern Michigan Bee-Keepers' Associa- 

 tion, at the residence of B. Salisbury, Battle 

 Creek, Mich. Special meeting. 



14, 15. — District Convention, composed of 

 Northwestern states, at Chicago, 111. 



14—17. — Bee-Keepers' Convention, in con- 

 nection with Industrial Exhibition ut Toronto, 

 Canada. 



25.™ Northern Indiana Bee Kee-Keepers' Asso- 

 ciation, Valparaiso, Ind. 



29, Oct. 1.— North American Bee-Keepers' So- 

 ciety, Eleventh Annual Meeting, in Pavilion 

 Hall of the Bellevue House, Cincinnati, O. 

 !0.— Southwestern Wisconsin Bee-Keepers' As- 

 sociation, at the residence of E. France, 

 Platteville, Wis. 



THIEVES IN THE APIARY. 



I would advise W. Z. Hutchinson to build a barbed 

 wire fence around his apiary, say about six wires 

 high. Thieves will not get over that very easily, 

 and it will not obstruct Ihf view. Bees have done 

 pretty well this season. Late Buckwheat is now in 

 full bloom. W. H. Frederick. 



Maximo, Stark Co., O., Aug. 27, 1880. 



SEVEN TOP TURNIP; SOW IT NOW. 



The only honey plant I know of that can be sown 

 now, is the seven-top turnip; and, that it may have 

 a good root to withstand the frost, it should be sown 

 at once. 



