702 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE, 



Oct. 



and Col. W. as well. I would regard a person cor- 

 recting a mistake thus for me as a pretty reliable 

 fellow. Now, when I offer a man my cull honey, I 

 tell him I can not sell it at a flrst-clnss price— that 

 this is why I otTer it so low. I do not tell him that 

 •' my regular price is 15 cts., but I will let j/ok have 

 it for 1."?. Please do not say any thing about it." It 

 would be just about the trick of a oertain grocer in 

 our town. He is one of the best business men in 

 the village. He is as good a hand to attract custom 

 and build up a trade as I ever saw, except in this 

 feature. This, people can not but find out, and 

 some men will not be lied to— not more than once 

 or twice. Those who trade with him will not 

 trust him, and they sometimes let him know 

 it too. How could I endure such a reputation, 

 even if nothing else wei-e involvedV To say noth- 

 ing of its moral phase, such double dealing will in- 

 jure, and often ruin one's business. It has ruined 

 the business of one man I know, who once had the 

 largest run of custom in the place. Suppose I sell 

 A a good lot of honey at l."> cts. per lb., and B, an in- 

 ferior one at i:! cts., but give him the impression 

 that he is getting a favored bargain. For even 

 second-rate honey, mine is called ".so nice." A 

 happens to inquire of R how much he paid me. and 

 B tells him. A comes to me with u complaint that 1 

 dealt unfairly, as he would have loason to do. 1 

 tell him the tnif reason I sold [J that lot at reduced 

 price; he carries it to B, and B in turn throws it up 

 to me. How would I feely Both would have jusi 

 reason never to trust me again. Such transactions 

 leak out, if practiced. Nol it will not pay to de- 

 ceive thus. I will tell the truth so plainly that men 

 will know I am dealing squarely. I do not claim to 

 stand pre-eminent and alone in the matter. I only 

 want to show that it pays to be a man whose word 

 is pure gold. 



In your talk about grading products you struck a 

 point whose importance can not, it seems to me, be 

 overestimated, and one so true that I felt prompted 

 to show by personal e.\i>erience how true it is. This 

 last subject seemed so nearly related that the 

 former appeared incomplete without it. I intended 

 to touch on some other matters, but, as usual, my 

 letter has grown so long that I must stop right here. 

 Geo. F. HoBuiNs. 



Mechauicsburg, Ills., Sept. 23, IPSi. 



Friend R.,your article is not a bit too 

 k>ng, while you teach such lessons as the 

 one given above. I have often thought of 

 these very things you mention : and while I 

 think of it, I must confess that a man low- 

 ers himself in my estimation just as soon as 

 he begins to tell iue that he will let me have 

 things so and so, if I won't say any thing 

 about it, and things of like nature. I have 

 sometimes told such men that 1 did not 

 want goods lower than other people paid ; 

 and they would look up at me in surprise, 

 supposing, of course, that all men are little 

 and small, and greedy for every copper they 

 can get or save by hook or by crook. Of 

 course. I am sometimes told that I can have 



f)rices so and so, because of the unusually 

 arge bills tiiat 1 make. That is a dilferent 

 matter. The man who is tricky, succeeds 

 eventually in tricking himself: and, worst 

 of all, the poor fellow never linds it out un- 

 til he has tricked himself out of business, 

 and oftentimes out of a home. 



PLANT-LOUSE NECTAR AND BAEK- 

 LOUSE NECTAK. 



PHOI-. COOK TALKS TO T'S ABOUT CALLING THINGS 

 UY THEIli RIGHT NAMES. 



ROr. COOK:— I send you a sample of honey, 

 or bug-juice, that the bees have been gather- 

 ing at a fearful rate for the last fifteen days. 



p Some swarms have gained oO lbs. I never 

 saw bees work faster. They drop on the 

 alighting-board by the hundreds, heavy lad- 

 en. The queens are laying as much as they would 

 in June. They have brood in all stages, and 

 plenty of it. Give them emptj- combs and they will 

 fill it right up with bug-juice and brood. 



It has been July weather all of this month, with 

 the exception of a few days. We have had two 

 frosts this month— one the Tth, and one the 22(1. 

 The bees are building new combs, and lengthening- 

 out cells as mutli us they would in June or July. I 

 have taken otf all sections, to keep them from put- 

 ting this stutl in them. 



Bees have not made much honey since the 10th of 

 August, althouKli wt- had a good yield from rasp- 

 lierry, clover, and liasswood. They are now going 

 it on this. I don't know what you would call it. 

 They get it oil blackberry, this year's growth. The 

 top leaves are all curled up in a bunch, about the 

 size of a man's fist, and there is a bug, or louse, on 

 the leaves, very thick. The hind part of them is 

 white. The hees are swarming over the briers as 

 thick as they would over a field of buckwheat in 

 full bloom. 



1 li\e near the old pineries that ha\ c grown up to 

 blackberry and i!isiiticrr\ . TIk re is one thing cer- 

 tain—we shall lia\ (■ i)lenty ol young hees to go into 

 winter (luaitms; but, how abo\it the wintering 

 part on this kind of stores/ 1 should like to have 

 youi' opinion on this. My opinion is, that it is going 

 to be bad stni! to winter on. My bees had enougli 

 to wintt'i- fin before they commenced on this. I fed 

 a few swarms upon sugar syrup. I wintered last 

 winter iucellar. Would it not be better to winter on 

 summer stands i)acked';' If it should be an open 

 winter, so they could have a dight once in a while, 

 they jnobablv would go through all right. 



Orona, Mich., Sept. 2S, 18S.5. L. Kked. 



The following is l^rof. ('ook"s reply : 



With the above letter came a half-pint bottle of 

 nice-looking honej- which, though not so light as 

 clover honey, was ctmsiderably lighter than that 

 from goldenrod or asters. I tasted of the honey 

 thoroughly; and while T do not pronounce it by any 

 means of first quality, 1 do think it is (juite palata- 

 ble. That I might have the judgment of others, 

 wholly disinterested in the matter, and Avholly un- 

 prejudiced bj' previous knowledge as to the source 

 of the honey, I a.sked three members of the college 

 faculty to sample it. All said, that, while they did 

 not consider it equal to what I had usually given 

 them, they thought it quite pleasant. As one gen- 

 tleman said, " From fair to middling." As any one 

 familiar with entomology will see at once, this nec- 

 tar is from plant-lice (family AphUhv), and not from 

 scale-lice or bark-lice (family Coccidn'). 



Plant-lice are very common, there being few spe- 

 cies of plants that do not harbor and nourish some 

 species. Their presence is often denoted by the 

 presence of ants passing up and down the plants in 

 quest of this very nectar, which thru, at least, pro- 

 nounce pleasant and wholesome. These plant-lice 

 are always active, are frequently seen to move 

 about on the plants, and in almost all colonies some, 

 usually but few, have wings. What a wise provi- 

 sion ! The development of wings is e\er at the cost 

 ol nourishing material, and so, linless needed, had 

 better be absent. Thus they are wanting except in 

 a few, which may fly away and so prepare to dis- 

 tribute and the better propagate the species. We 

 bee-keepers wisely copy from such examples given 

 us by nature; and so soon as our qitccn» have done 



