780 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1 



possess a very limited power to grasp and 

 liberally interpret what the3' read, or, to 

 use a very expressive nautical phrase, ap- 

 pear unable to "take thing's by and large." 



With the utmost care, a scholarly man is 

 not always able so to express himself as to 

 avoid misinterpretation by the latter class 

 above referred to; and when a hurried or 

 careless writer contributes an article it is 

 pretty certain to be misinterpreted by some 

 one. If every one will bear this in mind, 

 and forbear to retort until after sober sec- 

 ond thought, it will save much bitterness of 

 feeling and also much valuable space in the 

 papers. 



It is neither feasible nor desirable that 

 communications to the apicultural press 

 should be confined to scholarlj' members of 

 the profession; on the contrary, it is neces- 

 sary to encourage the eminently practical 

 though nonscholarly bee-keepers to contrib- 

 ute of their experience. But there is one 

 thing inost of us, I fear, are prone to do; 

 and that is, to express our opinions on mat- 

 ters about which we have only the most su- 

 perficial knowledge. Without entering- into 

 a discussion as to why, I ma}' assert that 

 an editor's remarks g-enerally have greater 

 weight than those of his contributors. 

 When he writes on a subject about which 

 he is ig-norant, or at best but indifferently 

 posted, and attaches that as a footnote to 

 the article of some person who may be deep- 

 ly learned in that of which he has written, 

 the editor hurts his paper and himself, and 

 inflicts a deep injury on the contributor. 

 It is idle for any one to charg-e that an edi- 

 tor would willfully do this. It is not with- 

 in the precincts of this article to say what 

 an editor should do, whose contributions he 

 should encourag-e, whose shut off; that is a 

 matter personal to himself. But when he 

 misleads us, or by a careless paragraph 

 checks investigation of new lines or profita- 

 ble researches in old, then he lays himself 

 open to just criticism from the subscribers 

 to his paper. 



In our present scrutiny of the editors it 

 should not be forg^otten that there are other 

 persons against whom the charg^e of igno- 

 rance, thoug-htlessness, or spleen may per- 

 haps often be more justly made. We, the 

 contributors, are those other persons. 



Both sides may well consider the oft re- 

 peated lines of Burns : 



oh wad some power the giftie gie.us 

 To see oursel's as ithers see us ! 

 It wad frae monie a blunder free us, 

 An' foolish notion. 



[While it may be true that an editor's re- 

 marks have g-reater weight than those of a 

 contributor, it by no means follows that he 

 knows more. It is his business to select 

 the best that is sent to him for publication, 

 and then, as far as possible, direct discus- 

 sion along profitable lines as best he can. 

 If he errs in an expressed opinion let the 

 contributor point out the mistake. I see 

 nothing- in the foregoing article to which an 

 editor or contributor should object. It is 

 all true. — Ed.] 



NOTES OF TRAVEL. 



Bee=keepers' Paradise, Uvalde Co., Texas; the 

 most Extensive Bee=keeper in that Paradise. 



BY K. R. ROOT. 



Before describing some of the great hon- 

 ey-plants of this wonderful portion of Tex- 

 as, not over 40 miles square, where a whole 

 trainload of honey has been shipped out in 

 one season, and where one bee-keeper, Mr. 

 D. M. Edwards, with 500 colonies, has se- 

 cured as high as 75,000 lbs., I desire to in- 

 troduce to 3'ou Mr. W. D. Bunting, the most 

 extensive producer in that paradise of bees. 



\V. D. BUXTIXG. 



Our friend is not over 31 or 32 j^ears of 

 ag"e, I should say; and 3'et for all-around 

 success in producing and handling a large 

 number of cjlonies. no one, I believe, excels 

 him. Vv'hen Mr. Edwards and I drove up 

 to his ranch we found him and his brother 

 at the house, doing up the dishes, for they 

 are "baching- it." Just how much long-er 

 the}' propose to continue in this sort of way 

 I can not say. This is not the first time I 

 have run across bee-keepers doing house- 

 work; and while I enjoyed the meals most 

 heartily that these fellows spread out when 

 I had the pleasure of sitting at their boards, 

 yet I most respectfully suggest to them that, 

 if there are any "best girls" left, they 

 join hands for better or for worse, and keep 

 house in the g-ood old orthodox style. I not 

 only believe in Horace Greeley's advice, 

 "Go west, young man," but I also believe 



