1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURfi. 



365 



kej'- Raising' for Women," " How Much Profit for 

 Heft?" " Ciipital to IJe^an With," and so on. 'l"ho 

 book can be obtained of the publisher, K. K. Mitch- 

 ell, 69 Dearborn St., Chicago, III. The price is 25 

 cents. 



OOVKRNMENT PAMPHLETS ON ( AKP ANI> CAKP- 

 PONDS. 



Wk liave.iuKt received three <lifferent pamphlets, 

 each one nearly the size of our liook on carp cul- 

 ture, and to me they are intensely interesting. I 

 wrote ax once to the commissioner, Mr. S. F. Baird, 

 asking if they were v>i"ei)ared to furnish them free 

 to all applicants, and below is his reply. 



V. H. C<'iiiniissioii of Fish ami Fisheries'. I 

 Wa liiii>.'ton. 1). C, Apr. 25, 1887. 1 



There will always be oiii- or more kinds on hand for free dis- 

 tribution to whoever makes peisomil application therefor. 

 You (^an diiect people to write to the eommission for all nec- 

 es^iary information upon carp etilture. S. i'. Baird, 



^ Commission<'r. 



DATING PRINTED MATTEH. 



Never publish a price list, circular, tract, or any 

 thing else, without having the date with it. Many 

 times it is of the utmost importance to know just 

 when a document was sent out; and in regard to 

 new inventions, a circular without the date of its 

 publication amounts to just nothing at all in the 

 way of eviilence. In our notices of price lists and 

 circulars received, of course we do not want to 

 notice the same thing year after year; and as we 

 have no means of knowing this except by look- 

 ing at the date, I hope the friends will excuse us 

 for refitsing to notice a circular or catalogue un- 

 less there is some date on it to tell when it Avas 

 printed. In this day of progress we can not afford 

 to waste our time reading something that was 

 printed long ago, and is away behind the times; 

 besides, everybody has a right to know just when 

 each new thought was first given to the world. 



TjOng letters. 

 The hardest task now before me in life is to reaa 

 the things I ought to read. I have been obliged to 

 stop reading books entirely— even the new ones 

 that have just come out on mj- favorite subjects. I 

 glance them over and look at the pictures, and 

 sometimes read a page or two here and there, but 

 pretty soon I am compelled to lay it aside, often- 

 times with a sigh, saying to myself, "This is all the 

 time I dare give this one." Even the books on carp 

 and carp-ponds, mentioned above, that are issued 

 by the Government, have to be glanced over in the 

 same waj'. I try to read most of the letters that 

 come to me; but where there are several pages, all 

 I can possibly do is to glance over It and hand it to 

 somebody else, instructing them to give it the at- 

 tention it ought to have as well as they can, and 

 then I take up the next one. And I can not follow 

 even this very long at a time or mj- reasoning powers 

 would break down. I mention this, dear friends, to 

 let you know that, if you write very long letters, 

 the probability is I shall not be able to read them, 

 and you see you thus defeat the object you had in 

 view; namely, you get less of my attention than 

 had you written more briefly. Articles for Glean- 

 ings, if very long, are handed over to Ernest. 



A. SURPLUS CASE FOR COVERING THE EXPOSED 

 parts OF THE SECTIf)NS. 



J. W. Powell & Son, Mankato, Minn., sent us a 

 surplus arrangement, the distinctive features of 

 which are slats so arranged as to cover the tops 

 and bottoms of the sections, leaving only the side 

 edges and the inside of the sections exposed to the 



bees. Mr. Shuck has invented a super somewhat 

 similar to this, but, unlike Mi-. Shuck's, Powell & 

 Son have theirs so arranged that the sections may 

 be quickly uncovered. They ask us if we should 

 not prefer this to a T super. In answer, we would 

 say that we do not. The slats in the Powell & Son's 

 case, covering the top and bottom sections, come 

 directly in contact with the sections. If we are 

 correctly informed, it is just such interstices as 

 are made by this kind of an arrangement that the 

 bees fill with propolis. We should very muoh pre- 

 fer the Moore ci-ate or the T super, used in connec- 

 tion with the Heddon slatted honey-board. The T- 

 super arrangement leaves very few crevices, com- 

 paratively, for the bees to fill in with propolis! It 

 seems desirable to have a bee-space above and a 

 bee-space below the sections, wittunit miii thixn in- 

 tervening. 



a BEE-noOK IN THE SWEDISH LANGUAGE. 



Our friend Hj. Stalhammar, who has translated 

 the Potato-Book into the Swedish language, has 

 written a book. on bees, the title of which is " A 

 ' Practical and Theoretical Treatise on Bee-keeping." 

 The book contains 182 pages, and is copiously illus- 

 trated. We are sorry to inform our readers that 

 our " Swedish editor " is at present away on a jour- 

 ney, hence we can not give a very detailed descrip- 

 tion of the contents of the work; but as nearly as 

 we can judge from the engravings, we should say 

 that the author has collected his ideas from various 

 sources; for instance, in the scientific part we no- 

 tice some of the engravings which have appeared 

 in Cook's " Manual of the Apiary " and Cheshire's 

 " Bees and Bee-Keeping." In the practical part we 

 notice engravings of American, English, and Ger- 

 man hives, and we have no doubt the author has 

 given due credit in all cases. It is eviilent. also, 

 from the engravings, that the writer has taken 

 jiains to select the cream of the literature on bees, 

 and has carefully compiled them all into one work. 

 It will be a valuable hook for Swedish - speaking 

 people. It is published at Goteborg. Sweden, but 

 tlie price is not stated in our money. 



WANTED, REPORTS DISCOURAGING. 



Sometimes we are accused of printing only the 

 bright side of beekeeping. We have long had a 

 department of " Reports Encouraging," together 

 with occasional "Reports Discouraging;" and 

 where the writers so desired it we inserted their 

 letter under the head of " Blasted Hopes." To be 

 fair with our readers, and give them the dark as 

 well as the bright side of bee-keeping, we solicit 

 reports of a discouraging nature; and if you have 

 had " awful bad luck," and feel about ready to give 

 up the business, write us a letter for Blasted Hopes. 

 If, indeed, the candidates for the Reports Discour- 

 aging and Blasted Hopes departments are growing 

 less for want of patronage; and if, indeed, the 

 science of apiculture has so far progressed that we 

 can now expect and hope for uniform success, then 

 we can attribute this state of affairs largely to the 

 bee-journals and books. To be sure, personal skill 

 would be no small factor to take into considera- 

 tion. In the heading we have said, " Wanted, Re- 

 ports Discouraging." We are sure that none of 

 us desire to see them; but if there is any considera- 

 ble number who have had poor success within the 

 last year, either in wintering or from drought, let 

 us have the doleful story. Perhaps we can help 

 you out of your trouble. 



