1887 



GLEANINGS FN BEE CULTURE. 



911 



tainingfive pictures of some of the prominent 

 speakers. The reporter, who was, by the 

 way, also an artist, sat at his table, and, 

 without anybody's knowing it, sketched 

 these individuals while they spoke or read. 

 The sketch was brief, and yet had so much 

 truth in it that it was a pleasant surprise. 

 Of course, these sketches are not supposed 

 to be any thing like a faithful representa- 

 tion of our friends. 'J^hey are sketched 

 hastily, and the phites to print tliem in our 

 great daily papers probably have to be made 

 with still more haste. As a sample of what 

 this work is like, we give you a couple of 

 them which we have reproduced. The first 

 one. you will know 

 uitliout my telling, 

 probably, is" Dr. C. C. 

 xMiller, llie president. 

 ^'ery likely he was 

 standing up" and talk- 

 ing to us about ivhis- 

 pt'ring during the ses- 

 sion, when the artist 

 took him. 



The other one 1 

 have selected among 

 the five was of our 

 friend Mr. M. M. Bal- 

 dridge, formerly a 

 valued contributor to 

 the pages of the^l»/er- 

 DR. MILLER, THE pREs. /can Bcc Joumal and 

 somewhat for Gleanings. 



Friend B. is one of the veterans in bee cul- 

 ture. When I first 

 commenced reading 

 on bees he was one of 

 the live men, and was 

 thoroughly posted up 

 to the "times. His 

 great specialty has 

 been retailing gilt- 

 edge honey, both 

 comb and extracted. 

 In a private note 

 just at hand he pre- 

 sents the following 

 thoughts, which are 

 in line with the pa- 

 per he read while the 

 artist sketched him. .^ ^^ baldridge. 



Friend Root:— You have no idea, perhaps, bow 

 pleased I was to learn, at the Chicago Convention, 

 that you had made the discovery that very low 

 prices for honej' do not materially Increnae the de- 

 mand, and that reasonably hinh prices do not ma- 

 terially lessen the demand. That discovery was 

 revealed to me by experience manj' years ago, and 

 it has been of verj- great value to me. 1 have 

 therefore never sold choice extracted honey to 

 consumers for less than '^0 cents per pound, except 

 in a few rare cases, and but very little at so low a 

 price as -'0 cents. My general prices have ranged 

 all the way from 20 to '-Vi cents per pound— having, 

 some 15 years ago, sold liundreds of pounds at the 

 latter price. My price two years ago was ~'tj cents 

 per pound; but owing to the alleged big honey 

 crop of a year ago I put down the price to 'il cents 

 per pound. My present price is 24 cents net per 

 pound, to consumers, for choice extracted honey, 

 and I do not find it any trouble to get it. There is, 

 of course, more or less snarling about the price; 



but this must be expected, no matter whether the 

 price be high or low. Some people are born with a 

 fault-finding disposition, and it often hangs to 

 them as long as the.N- live. 1 make it an iron-clad rule 

 never to sell extracted hone.>' to consumers, at a 

 less price per pound than for the same quality in 

 the comb. In fact, my practice is to get a higher 

 price for it. It is my experience, that the price 

 asked for extracted honoj' indicates, in the minds 

 of consumers, both its purity and qualitj-. A low 

 price for extracted honey, or a less price than is 

 asked for comb honey, i.s very apt to create dis- 

 trust on both points. As I am dealing exclusively 

 in extracted honey, and with consumers, and have 

 been for a series of years, it seems to me that my 

 practice and experience are worth a careful con- 

 sideration. M^hat have you and others to say in 

 reply to the foregoing? M. M. liAi,DRiooE. 



St. Charles, 111., Nov., 1887. 



And now, friends, while I have ever so 

 much else to tell, I think I shall have to put 

 it off till another time, and finish by saying, 

 To be continued. 



6aR 0WN JiFiMY. 



CONDUCTED BY EENEST R. ROOT. 



HOW WE KEEP THE KECORD OF OUK COL- 

 ONIES. 



HiLE we (my wife and I) were mov- 

 ing into our new house just complet- 

 ed, Mrs. Hoot, Jr., somewhat per- 

 plexed 51S to where she should put 

 this or that thing, said in the pres- 

 ence of her mother-in-law, Mrs. Root, Sr., 

 '• Oh dear ! it seems to me as if I nerer 

 should get things in their proper places. I 

 wish I knew where every thing ouglit to 

 go." The elder Mrs. Root, having been 

 through the same experience, said : 



" I would not trouble myself. Lizzie, 

 about the place of each article just now. 

 Put them away where it will be handiest to 

 you, and. after a while, things will adjust 

 themselves to their proper places."' 



Two months have now elapsed— long 

 enough to test the truth of the statement. 

 Since then I have thouglit how true it is. 

 that not only will things work themselves 

 into their proper places (those most used 

 nearest at hand), but certain lines of work call 

 for and in time develop a system whereby the 

 labor and mental force is reduced to a mini- 

 mum. Take, for example, type-setting, and 

 the arrangement of the boxes. The system, 

 as unique as it is. was not planned before it 

 was put into execution. Practical work 

 and time evolved it into its present per- 

 fect form. So I think of any practical meth- 

 od for recording the condition of the hive. 

 Our system of slate tablets, which I am 

 now about to explain, was not the invention 

 of any one of our apiaiists. but is the re- 

 sult of their combined additions and sub- 

 tractions, until time made it meet all re- 

 quii-ements. Theory first made an outline 

 of it : practici' and "actual work remodeled, 

 and made it substantially as it is. 



The same system, or es.sentially the same, 

 mav be in use elsewhere, where queen-rear- 



