416 THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW 



Books Necessary in Record Keeping. 



LEO ELLIS GATELEY. 



'^^^K BOUT semi-annually, there may appear in some of the bee 

 ^-^"X journals a brief article urging the importance for some 

 system of accounting or record-keeping of colonies. Un- 

 fortunately, however, these are, as a rule, more intended to arouse 

 general interest upon the subject than to outline any formulated 

 plan or superior method. If an improved method is given, the 

 chances are that its supposed superiority will be based chiefly upon 

 the doubtful grounds of ease and rapidity, with an utter disregard 

 for the more essential feature, ef^ciency, and running generally all 

 the way from a small note-book down to a tag, stick or stone. Is 

 this an improvement? Or, would it not be better and more profit- 

 able to devote considerably more time and patience to an accurate 

 and more comprehensive system that covers fully every detail? We 

 have found that it does. 



SOME SVSTEMS OF RECORD ASSUME GIGANTIC PROPORTIONS. 



In our efiforts to keep a complete record of all that transpired 

 in the apiary, we for many years struggled through oceans of marks, 

 signs and ponderous volumes of bookkeeping, testing about all of 

 the various schemes in existence. This work would, in fact, often 

 assume gigantic proportions, that it would seemingly overshadow 

 all other duties. No doubt there are others now making the same 

 mistake. 



When unimportant details keep one until late at night and the big 

 things get put off till some future time, there is something ivrofig with 

 the system of oceounts. Again, it is not always neglect that delays 

 and tangles balances and reports. The fault often lies in the systern 

 itself; the complicated, cumbersome, inadequate method, spread 

 over too many pages and opening up innumerable loopholes for 

 misjudgment and mistakes. 



At present this labor has in our apiaries been brought down to 

 a dream of ease and simplicity, yet covering absolutely every detail 

 of work, profit and expense. 



INSTEAD OF ONE BUIiKY VOI.UME, SEVERAI. SMAIiIi SIZED BOOKS 



ARE KEPT. 



Instead of one bulky volume, into which it was once our custom 

 to enter long notes in regard to our operations, we now keep a 

 complete set of several medium-sized books, bearing such titles as: 

 "Day Book," "Weekly Queen-Rearing," "Monthly Bought and 

 Sold," "Annual Colony Record," etc. The pages of these are ruled 

 ofif and the separate spaces headed according to the character of the 



