1885 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



107 



Gleanings in Bee Ccltdre. 



Published Sftni-Monthh/. 



.^. X. T^OOT, 



EDITOR AND PUBLISHER. 



MEDINA, O. 



TERMS: $1.00 PER YEAR, POSTPAID. 



Per Cltttting Sates, Seo First Paga of Eeadhs Matter. 



RUSSIA BASSWOODS. 



Friend F. L. Wright intimates in some of the bee- 

 papers, that the extravagant claims made just now 

 for Russia basswoods originated with the party in- 

 terested in propagating the trees. May be we had 

 better wait a little until somebody has Kussia bass- 

 woods blooming in our own country, before we in- 

 vest largel.y. 



ANOTHER WEEKLY BEE-.IOURNAL. 



Friends Scoville & Pond have started a weekly 

 bee-journal, at a dollar a year. As they did not is- 

 sue their monthly promptly, I hope they will excuse 

 us for having a little misgiving about their being 

 able to manipulate a weekly so as to have it come 

 out promptly on time, for so very small a sum. It 

 is to their credit, however, that they have given.us 

 four or five numbers, any way, on time and in good 

 shape. We extend to them our best wishes. 



bee-keepers' BADGES FOR THE EXPOSITION AT 

 NEW ORLEANS. 



We can furnish a badge with a golden bee, and 

 the words " International Bee-keepers' Congress," 

 plainly printed, for 10 cts. Sent by mail on receipt 

 of price. I expect to be in Cincinnati on Monday 

 evening, Feb. 2M, according to the instruction.s on 

 page !)5. I shall be at the Louisville vV Nashville 

 fUiilroad depot with my badge on, and all that are 

 on hand with their badges will probably have no 

 trouble in finding our crowd. 



ICE AS WELL AS CAHP. 



This ^2d day of January we are having fun cut- 

 ting ice from one end of our carp-pond, furthest 

 away from the deep places where the fishes hiber- 

 nate. The blocks are almost as clear as glass, and 

 i)'i inches thick. We made a wooden frame that 

 goes into our refrigerator in the lunchroom, and 

 the blocks are made so as to fit this, so a solid lump 

 can be put in each time, thus avoiding chipping up 

 the ice, which makes it waste badly, and saving 

 time as well. We store the ice in an unused shed, 

 by putting in some studding and an extra lining, 

 and then putting in sawdust so as to have IS inches 

 or 2 feet between the walls, all around the ice. 



CALIFORNIA MOUNTAIN 8A0E. 



We are again told that our specimen of the moun- 

 tain sage shown in the ABC book " ain't right." A 

 specimen was sent us when the ABC book was first 

 started, and from it we had made an expensive en- 

 graving. After a while friend Pryall said it wasn't 

 correct— it wasn't mountain sage at all, but some 

 other kind. To be sure we were right we went to 

 the expense of more engravings, and now friend J. 



P. Israel, in the January Ma{)azinc, says they " ain't 

 i-ight." Well, friends, I begin to feel as Dr. Franklin 

 did when they told him his ax was gi-ound only 

 enough to be " speckled." He replied, " Well, on 

 the whole I think I like a speckled ax best." When 

 the doctors will agree for a year or two what speci- 

 men of the mountain sage- is genuine, we will, if 

 necessary, go to the expense of more engravings. 



COMPLICATIONS IN BUSINESS. 



Since writing the article in another column on 

 this subject, I have noticed in two of our bee-jour- 

 nals an offer of premiums to every tenth subscriber, 

 or something like that. This will not only result in 

 complications, but it ofi'ers something to a small part 

 of the subscribers that the larger part does not get. 

 If the friends will excuse the liberty I take, I would 

 suggest that past experience has been pretty 

 strongly against any thing of this kind. I have 

 watched it for many years, and especially among 

 bee-journals have such ventures been unfortunate. 

 Another thing, it borders closely on the lottery 

 business. The tenth man who gets a swarm of bees, 

 or whatever it may be, renders no sort of an equiv- 

 alent for them; he is simply a lucky man, because 

 he has drawn the prize. Any sort of an inducement 

 to get people to subscribe, aside from the old ortho- 

 dox way of getting them to invest because of the 

 intrinsic worth of the journal itself (shown on its 

 reading pages) sooner or later seems to have met 

 with reverse rather than success. Paying the one 

 who takes the journal to go around and solicit sub- 

 scriptions is, of course, another thing, for that is a 

 regular channel of business. The agent receives 

 pay for explaining and selling goods. 



PUT LP YOUR (JOODS IN OOOD STYLE. 



Seed catalogues, and catalogues of small-fruit 

 plants, etc., arc getting to be amazingly thick now- 

 adays, but the number of dealers who put up things 

 in nice shape, and do all they agree to, and a little 

 more, is not so very large, after all. Last July my 

 attention was attracted to a vender of cabbage 

 plants, who said he could put them up so nicely 

 they would go anywhere, and with the instructions 

 sent with them they could be planted safely just as 

 well in dry weather as when it was rainy. This lat- 

 ter consideration was what mainly induced me to 

 send to him. The plants came wrapped up in an 

 old spool-box, and said box looked as if the baby 

 j had had it for a week or two for a plaything, before 

 I it was used to mail plants. The plants were badly 

 ; wilted, and I could not see that they were packed at 

 j all. If any directions were ever sent to tell how 

 to make them grow in dry weather, I never 

 saw them. Soon after I sent for strawberries to A. 

 T. Cook, Clinton Hollow, Dutchess Co.. N. Y., whose 

 catalogue was noticed in a late issue. The plants 

 came packed in a new wooden box, so pretty that it 

 I was a wonderment all around. When the box was 

 opened, a neat slip of paper, nicely printed, gave 

 explicit directions for putting the plants out, and 

 ' the plants themselves looked so fresh and hand- 

 some that almost anybody would have gladly taken 

 the package off my hands at cost. May be friend 

 I Cook did this because he was sending to an editor, 

 and pei-haps ho knew my weakness for nice things 

 1 nicely put up. Any way, if he always puts up his 

 stuff in that way, I shall expect him to build up a 

 J great business. You can tell by sending a trial or- 

 I der, or sending for one of his nice little catalogues, 

 1 of which we have just shipped him 10,000. 



