1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



425 



printed upon one (Jtifjc*, and I would g-ive more for 

 the paper if the information were all on one page, 

 and that tliat were all there was to it, as I should 

 then have been spared wading' through the froth." 

 Have you never felt this way? Am I not right? 



Well, when it came to publishing, the only first- 

 class publishing house near here was at Flint, and 

 that one was overburdened with work, and could 

 work in a " form " only occasionally, and I had to go 

 to Flint, and go to Flint, for another montli, until 

 it almost seemed as though 1 lived there. Then the 

 getting-up of that cover, which has received so 

 many compliments, was an experiment, or, rather, 

 the result of a good many e.xperiments; but then 1 

 put my whole heart into the work, spared neither 

 time nor expense, used new type and the best of 

 paper, and was determined that the book should be 

 a little typographical ticin; and how I did enjoy the 

 work! but when it was finished, and I had figured 

 up the cost, I found that T could not sell the book 

 at less than 25 cts. and have a fair profit left. But 

 1 will say this much: If any purchaser is dissatis- 

 fied, and thinks the book is not worth the money, he 

 may return it, unsoiled, and I will cheerfully re- 

 fund the money. 



I am more than willing to give friend Doolitlle, 

 or any one, all the credit that belongs to him; and 

 if having given him credit in " two places " is not 

 suflScient, I will continue to do so until everybody 

 is satisfied. W. Z. Hutchinson. 



Rogersville, Genesee Co., Mich., May 20, 1887. 



Friend IL, if you think there is nothine: 

 in your book that can be made clearer by 

 the use of engraving's, then you and I will 

 have to agi-ee to disagree. On page 12 you 

 speak of one section of Mr. Ileddon's hive. 

 I would l>y all means show what said section 

 looks like; and then under the picture I 

 woidd name it, '' One Section of Mr. Hed- 

 don's Hive." I like pictures, and I always 

 want a title to them— something to tell 

 what the pictui-e is intended to represent or 

 explain. It always vexes me wlien I am 

 compelled to read a couple of pages to tell 

 what the pictures in any book are intended 

 for. On the next page yon speak of spring 

 protection, and mention a rim 2x3 feet in 

 size by 18 inches deep, made of cheap thin 

 lumber. Well, it requires a mental effort on 

 my part to build up in imagination some- 

 thing 2 X ;; feet in size and 18 inches deep. 

 In the first place, I have to study over the 

 matter somewhat to know whether you 

 mean a box of the above dimensions, with- 

 out top or bottom, or whether it is some- 

 thing else. You say, again, its front edges 

 should rest on the end of a little bridge. 1 

 would have a i)icture of said bridge. A few 

 lines further you speak of a shade-board. 

 Show us a picture of the shade-board also. 

 A while ago Mr. Heddon and myself wrote 

 a column or more in regard to a misunder- 

 standing about the flat cover of liis hives. 

 When I came to see a picture of the cover, 

 however, it was as plain as could be. He 

 had one thing in mind, and I another. If I 

 am correct, some of the rest of the brethren 

 dipped into our controversy too, all for the 

 want of a picture. On page 14, you say. l)y 

 tacking a strip across the two boards used 

 for sides of the rim, they maybe united and 

 used for a shade-board. I should say, by all 



means give a picture of said shade-board, 

 put together as you describe. I can not 

 even conjecture now what it would look^like. 



It is not worth while for me to go through 

 the whole book in just that way; but I 

 think I should want at least a cut for every 

 page. These cuts cost money, of course, 

 and it re(iuires tlie i)ersonal supervision of 

 the author of the book to get the engraver 

 to understand exactly what the writer has 

 in mind. But, suppose it does— what of 

 that y And now to the other point. You 

 say your time on the book amounted to so 

 miich that you could not afford to sell it 

 for less than 2.5 cents. I know a great many 

 people differ with me right here. But I 

 presume no one will object if I again tell 

 the w.ay I feel about such things. In de- 

 ciding what to sell a book for. I would not 

 pay any attention to what it cost. I woidd 

 put it like this : What will ijeople be will- 

 ing to pay for the book, comparing it with 

 other similar books V Last summer a man 

 sold me some pears. I tried to pour them 

 into our own bushel boxes; but his bush- 

 els were so large! I couldn't get them in. 

 I asked him if he was not giving too many 

 pears for a bushel. He said he always lik- 

 ed to give good measure in every thing. 

 There may be extremes in this, but I think 

 it is a pretty good plan to go on. 



There are three things we sell that people 

 are always pleased with. In fact, this has 

 been so invariably the rule in yenrs back, 

 that we send any one of these three things to 

 anybody, without pay. The reas<;n is, be- 

 cause we give so much for the money, that 

 even a dishonest man feels he has got a bar- 

 gain, and remits with a " thank you."' The 

 three things are, the ABC book, the cold- 

 blast smoker, and Gleanings. Practically 

 speaking, nobody ever has to be dunned to 

 get him to pay up for these three. Where 

 you say you will return the money to any- 

 body who is dissatisfied, we come practically 

 on to the same ground ; for after a man has 

 read the book througli, you give him his 

 money back, providing he" simply pays post- 

 age. Now, 1 do not mean by the above that 

 one is to continue selling a book he has put 

 out, at a price that will not pay cost. I 

 mean simply this : Give good measure com- 

 pared with what the world usually gives in 

 a book, and the large sales that \vill result 

 from so doing will eventually pay you a bet- 

 ter profit than the other way with smaller 

 sales. The book is surely valuable. It is 

 l)oiled down in the way you state ; but if, in 

 addition to this, you could have made the 

 pages attractive with nice pictures, right in 

 line Mith the valuable suggestions on every 

 page, the book would have started out with 

 a great boom, and this boom could be kept 

 up by additions in the way of an appendix 

 or otherwise, as fast as improvements come 

 up. 



I have taken some space for these sugges- 

 tions, becausf^ I know they will be valuable 

 to many of our book-makers. I have pub- 

 lished books that have been quite a success, 

 and I have also published some that have 

 never realized a tenth of the money put out 

 upon them. I was thinking a day or two 

 ago. that if I ever felt called upon to write 



