196 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



My output of honey for 1901 was 40 lbs. 

 |ier colony, which found a ready sale here 

 in Peoria at 15 cts. by the case for comb, 

 ;ind 10 cts. per lb. for extracted, put up in 

 pint Mason jars. My pasture here is 

 mainly sweet and white clover, basswood, 

 and catnip. I don't take any stock in the 

 red clover as a honey- pi ant except for bum- 

 ble-bees, and this tongue reach I consider 

 all nonsense. Why not turn our attention 

 to the "business end,'' and grow shorter 

 .stings, as hornless cattle are grown? 



Glf.anings is always a welcome visitor 

 at my home, and the Home papers are al- 

 ways eagerly scanned by myself and fami- 

 ly, and just now we are enjoj'ing a great 

 treat in the Notes of Travel by the editor, 

 .•IS I have been six times through to Califor- 

 nia, and note the correctness of many of the 

 pictures shown. I wish Gleanings would 

 come four times instead of twice a month. 



Peoria Heights, 111.. Feb. 5. 



RECORD=KEEPING OF APIARIES. 



A Modern and Convenient System. 



BV AKTHUK C. MILLKK. 



I wish to call the attention of the readers 

 of Gleanings to a very convenient system 

 of keeping the records of their apiaries. It 

 is not new in the literary or commercial 

 world, having been long in use in libraries 

 and business offices for all sorts of records 

 ;,nd indexing. I refer to the card system. 

 I have used it in business for fifteen years, 

 but applied it to ni}' apiarian records only 

 about a year ago. 



For the benefit of those who may not be 

 familiar with this system I will give a brief 

 description of it. It consists of a lot of 

 cards of vniiform size, perforated at the 

 middle of the lower edge, all arranged in a 

 drawer or tra3% and held in place by a rod 

 passing through the ends of the tra3' and 



the holes in the cards. Assorted in among 

 these cards are others having projections, or 

 "tabs," which stand above the general lev- 

 el of the rest of the cards. These tabs serve 

 as the g-uides or indexes to the cards back 

 of them. On the tabs are written or print- 

 ed letters of the alphabet, numbers, dates, 

 subjects, or any manner of sign which will 

 readily indicate to the user the matter to 

 be foinid on the cards between that guide- 



card and the next. The accompanying il- 

 Itistration will serve to make it more clear. 



As may be readily appreciated, this sj's- 

 tem lends itself to an endless variety of 

 classifications, and its usefulness is limited 

 only b}^ the skill of the compiler. When or- 

 dinarily referred to, the cards are tipped 

 back or forward like the leaves of a book: 

 and if the case is dropped, the rod holds all 

 secure. When putting in new matter, or 

 removing that which has become obsolete, 

 the rod is taken out and all cards are free. 

 It has this particular advantage over a 

 book: All "dead" or useless matter is 

 eliminated by simply removing the card it 

 is on. Any number of cards may be used 

 to refer to thintrs about a colony or strain 

 uf bees, each of these cards being filed un- 

 der a diflferent classification, so that, n:) 

 matter which of man\' titles is looked un- 

 der, the details are readily found. Or one 

 card may have records on one subject and 

 refer to many colonies by number, letter, or 

 otherwise. For memoranda in the hive, 

 one of these cards is slipped under a bent 

 pin or nail on the under side of the cover, or 

 simply laid on the mat under the cover. 

 Duplicates may be kept in the case in the 

 house, or these cards may be left in the 

 hive until filled up, when they are filed 

 away and new ones put in their places. 



If work is to be planned before going to 

 an out- apiary, the cards referring to the 

 colonies needing attention may be removed 

 from the traj', classed according to the work 

 to be done, put into an envelope, and slipped 

 into the pocket ready for instant use when 

 wanted. An outfit such as I have illustrat- 

 ed here, consisting of a case, guides, and 

 800 cards, cost me $2.00, and was purchased 

 of the Library Bureau, Boston, Mass. 



I use cards ruled only across, as on let- 

 ter paper. For all ordinary work they are 

 as convenient as speciallj' ruled or printed 

 cards, and much cheaper. 



Providence, R. I., Dec. 3. 



[We use this same system all through our 

 office; in fact, we have even gone so far as 

 to discard the heavy and cumbrous ledgers 

 in our book-keeping department, and have 

 substituted in their stead drawers of cards 

 like that shown in the illustration. The 

 great advantage of this system over the 

 book method for any kind of business or 

 any kind of work is, as Mr. Miller points 

 out, that one does not have to thumb over 

 constantlj' records that have been complet- 

 ed, or which are of comparativelj' little 

 use. The complete records are filed sepa- 

 rately, while the new and unfinished ones, 

 or those that are being- filled out, are with- 

 in finger reach. 



The time is coming when records of everj' 

 nature will be on what is known as the 

 "card-index" sj'stem ; and Mr. Miller is 

 correct in believing that such a sj'stem 

 would be specially applicable to an apiary. 

 This plan of record-keeping is respectfully 

 referred to a certain doctor of the family of 

 Miller.— Ed.] 



