1909 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



659 



CONVERSATIONS WITH 

 DOOLITTLE 



AT Borodino, New York. 



HOW to make the bee-papers the most 



VALUABLE TO THE APIARIST. 



What do you do with your bee-papers after reading 

 them? and how do you keep track of the many valua- 

 ble thintrs they.contain? 



In order that we may profit by what we 

 read we must remember it at the time we 

 wish to put it into practice, otherwise all our 

 reading is of no value to us, as we might as 

 well not read as to read and not remember 

 what we read, or remember it when it is of 

 ro use to us. If all that was printed in our 

 bee- papers were applicable to just the season 

 of the year when it was before the readers, 

 thus enabling us to test what we were read- 

 ing by putting it in practice the next minute 

 or hour, we should have little excuse for not 

 remembering the valuable things we read. 

 But this is impossible from the very nature 

 of things. 



With this preamble we are ready for the 

 question our correspondent wishes us to 

 answer, and in answering I will confine my- 

 self to the one paper, Gleanings, for what 

 is applicable to one is applicable to all. 



I have a leadpencil with me at all times, 

 and consider it as necessary in my work as is 

 a pocket-knife, which everybody is expected 

 to carry. When Gleaninos arrives I am 

 eager to read it; and as I read I mark every 

 thing which I consider worthy of reading a 

 second time with two marks drawn on either 

 side of the column. When I come to some- 

 thing which is new, and appears like an ac- 

 quisition, or some old thing which impresses 

 me of value because of some modification 

 the writer has made, I enclose such in large 

 pencil parentheses, thus: ( ). When the 

 number has been read through I go over it 

 again, this time reading only what I mark- 

 ed; and if, on the second reading, I think a 

 certain article is not worth making a record 

 of I rub out the marks made at first, till 

 finally all the marks which are left are those 

 which I consider of sufficient value to be re- 

 corded. In some instances the marks will 

 embrace a whole article, while others call 

 attention to only a few sentences. Some 

 twenty years ago I procured a book of suit- 

 able size and arranged it similar to an asses- 

 sor's book, with the alphabet from A to Z on 

 the outside margin of trie leaves; but instead 

 of using the letters I wrote on the little 

 scjuare of the first, "Jan. 1;" on the second, 

 "Jan. 1.5;" on the third. "Feb. 1," and so 

 on, giving two leaves or four pages for each 

 half-month to the end of the year. Now, 

 when I sit down to reread the marked places 

 in Gleanings I have this book by my side, 

 and every place where I conclude those 

 places marked before are worthy of laying 

 up for the future, the parenthesis-marks are 

 left, or others made where I had marked 

 only for the second reading when first going 

 over, and a record made in the book at the 



proper plitce. Say, for instance, I found a 

 superior way for grading honey in the Nov. 

 1st issue of Gleanings for 1904. My honey 

 was all sent to market from Sept. 2u to Oct. 

 10, so this would be of no use to me till the 

 next September, and by that time, in all 

 probability, I should have forgotten all about 

 it. So I now turn to the pages under "Sept. 

 1," and write on the first unoccupied line 

 this: "Glea., Nov. 1, 1904, page 1023. How 

 best grade honey." When Sept. 1, 1905, ar- 

 rives, I would hastily glance over all that 

 was written under the place marked on the 

 little square as Sept. 1, when, presto! I came 

 across just what I wanted at that time, as I 

 was now ready to commence grading and 

 crating my honey for market. So I at once 

 put the new plan into use; and if it proved 

 better than what I had practiced before, a 

 pencil-mark was drawn under the words 

 "How best grade honey," which emphasized 

 the matter in the book while putting it in 

 practice, and thoroughly stamped the matter 

 on my memory. If, on the contrary, after 

 trying long enough to test it sufficiently, I 

 found this new plan was not as good as the 

 one I had always been using, the eraser was 

 used, and the line left blank for the entry of 

 something else valuable for Sept. 1 chroni- 

 cling. After reading the second time, and 

 jotting down in the book all which I think 

 worthy of so doing, that number of Glean- 

 ings is carefully laid away in a place set 

 apart for each number as they come (and the 

 other bee-papers I take are treated in the 

 same way) , so that at the end of the year 

 they are in perfect order, when the volume 

 is "pigeon-holed" in its place with other 

 volumes, or bound in some way, if I think it 

 better to bind them. Then on long winter 

 evenings I can sit down in future years, or 

 at any time I may wish to refresh my memo- 

 ry on the many good things Gleavings as a 

 whole contains, and, by the help of this 

 book, get the whole cream of all the volumes 

 so far published, as I have them all nicely 

 filed away, and this book tells me where all 

 the cream is to be found without further 

 "skimming." 



Different persons would doubtless make 

 different selections; and if I were located in 

 California I would make different selections 

 myself; but this need not detract from this 

 plan of helping the memory, and bringing 

 things of value to our notice at just the time 

 they are applicable for our use. 



THE WONDEKBERRY IN NEBRASKA. 



This part of Nebraska is overrun with them. We 

 have a variety of soils, and on each soil we have a dif- 

 ferent-looking and different-sized berry, but all the 

 same berry if grown on just the same soil and under 

 the same conditions. Some people think them splen- 

 did, while others do not eat them at all. Mr. Daniel 

 (see page 585i , ought to locate here, then he would not 

 have the trouble of cultivating the fruit, for he could 

 gather it by the bushel, and the people would be glad 

 to have him haul it away. The berries grown from 

 the twenty-cent seeds are just the same as those in 

 our gardens, and moist places are covered with the 

 plants. W. H. MiLLS. 



Arden, Neb., Sept. 20. 



