abz 



GLEA^^INGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



ence of auy human being, no matter what the color, 

 sex, or social condition. II wo are seeking first the 

 kingdom of God and his rig-hteousness, is there any 

 need of secrecy anywhere in this wide universe ? 

 Shall we not so live that Ave shall never be afraid to 

 have the all-seeing- Eye look down into the inner- 

 most depths of our own hearts ? and shall we not 

 also so live that we need never tear to have human 

 eyes look into the business of our lives, and even 

 scan closely the work of our hands? "In secret 

 have I said nothing," are the words of our Savior. 



HAND-BOOKS 0^f RURAT^ INDUSTRIES, AND WHAT 

 THEV SHOULD COST. 



One of the things to rejoice about during this 

 nineteenth century is the fact that almost every 

 thing is taught in books; that is, a whole book is 

 written in regard to potato culture, and another on 

 cranberry culture, a third one on broom - corn, 

 etc. Not only have we jwultnj -hooks, but we have a 

 book written specially in regard to the Liyht Brah- 

 man; and these text-books are a wonderful help in 

 their respective lines of business. But what I want 

 to protest against in this brief notice is, ;he fashion 

 of advertising a "book," charging 2.5 or .50 cts. for 

 it, and sending, in return, a brief pamphlet that 

 should be sold for a nickel or a dime. Three books 

 are now being advertised extensively in the agricul- 

 tural papers, on celery culture. One is 35 cts. ; the 

 other two, 50 cts. each. Now, a book on celery cul- 

 ture is very much needed, and I have sent for 

 every thing that has come out, just as soon as I saw 

 it advertised. The 25-cent one is by .1. N. Stearns, 

 Kalamazoo, Mich. The title is, "Celery Culture." 

 Said book has a cover 4X6 inches. Inside it are si.x 

 leaves, 4X6' inches. One of the 12 pages is occupied 

 by an advertisement of something foreign to the 

 subject. The type is large and widely displaj'ed. 

 Every thing in the book would not make a single 

 page of Gleanings, and yet it is advertised and 

 sold for 25 cts. The other two, at 53 cts. each, are 

 entitled respeetivcli', " Kalamazoo Celery," and, 

 " How to Grow Celery." One contains 23 pages; the 

 other, 30; size of the books, 4'cX7 inches. The 

 matter is tolerably fair, what there is of it; but 

 there is not a single illustration to explain the op- 

 erations of celery culture, in any one of the books. 

 Ten cents would, in my opinion, be an ample price 

 for them. Of course, these books will be short-lived, 

 and the sale of them limited. Instead of being 

 treasured up as something of vaiue, they will be 

 torn up or lost, or go into the waste-i)aper basket in 

 a week or two. It is true, they may be worth all they 

 cost to many of the purchasers; but to my notion 

 it is not i'i(ilit, and it is not fair. If the advertiser 

 should, in his advertisement, say how large his 

 " book " is, and tell the number of pages it contains, 

 he would find hardly a purchaser. Large books are 

 not needed on many of these subjects ; but why 

 can't wo have something like a uniform price, even 

 on industrial pamphlets ? And why not call them 

 so, instead of i;alling them hooks? Pei'haps you urge 

 that it would not pay; but I reply, it will pay a fair 

 and reasonable profit to get out a good book, full of 

 pictures, illustrating the subject, and sell it so as to 

 furnish the purchaser, say a good-sized page (the 

 size of GLEANijvqs, for instance), at the rate of a 

 cent a page, or not to exceed that price. Indus- 

 trial hand-books can be furnished at the above 

 figures, so as to pay reasonably iycl|.. 1 Hnow, 

 because I have tried jt. 



BeOK-l^EYIEW Dep^rtj^e^t. 



does it take TWENTV pounds of HONEY TO 

 MAKE ONE I'OUND OF W.\X ? 



R. P. L. Vf ALLON, 13ayou Goula, La., criti- 

 cises somewhat my conclusion in this de- 

 partment of May 15, as regards the original 

 cost of wax, as adduced from the conse- 

 (luent consumption of lion:"y. As he men- 

 tions some of our time-honored experiiui'iilers and 

 writers who have given the matter some attention, 

 I insert it below, that we may togothtjr considir 

 what he has to say: 



Mr. Erufixt Runt: — In ymir l>o(ik-rcview of May 15, 

 you say: " From the tact, i hat jMcLain's estimate of 

 the cost of wax' is backe<l by tornier e.\i)eriineiits 

 some years ago, it woulil seem that 20 llis. of honey 

 to 1 li). of wax is very nearly correct." Don't .\ ou 

 think that xou are rather premature in coming to 

 this conclusion, for McLain's estimate. Imsed only 

 on opinion, as far as I can see, is given as such 'i 

 You also refer to the paper read by me at the con- 

 vention in New Orleans, and say that 1 "gave as my 

 opinion," etc. I think that it would have been 

 better to say that I gave my modus operandi and the 

 results of my experiments, etc. Now, >is you have 

 put me in evidence showing the great dltference be- 

 tween Prof. McLain's oiiinion and the result of my 

 experhnents, which will, no doubt, cause critical 

 reflections, and wishing to verify my experiments 

 to a certain extent. I would call your attention to 

 the experiments of Berlepsch and others in Eu- 

 rope; and among our i)rominent bee-keepers here, 

 Mr. C. Dadant says about 10 lbs. of honey is re- 

 quired, basing his opinion on the amount of grain 

 required to produce 1 U). of fat in animals. If 

 you read friend Doolittle's article in the C. B. J., 

 May 2B, you will see that he says that it takes less 

 than 5 lbs. of honey to make 1 lb. of wa.x, when 

 tjees are not confined, and have access to plenty of 

 pollen and water from the fields, etc. If I am not 

 mistaken, Mr. J. Heddon's estimate is not far from 

 the above. P. L. Viallon. 



Bayou Goula, La., June 3, 1880. 

 I am very glad, friend Viallon, that you have 

 spoken so freelj', if I do seem to be "waxed pretty 

 bad;" but as nearly as I can discover, McLain is 

 backed by former experimenters, and it was the 

 most natural thing in the world to conclude that the 

 old estimate was nearly correct. You say I ought 

 to have given the results of your experiments. If 

 you will look again, page 392, you will see that I did 

 put it as the results of your experiments; namely, 

 7 lbs. of honey to 1 lb. of wax. From the reading 

 of McLain's report I had supposed that the pro- 

 fessor had arrived at his conclusions from experi- 

 ments; quoting from his report we find the follow- 

 ing: "Estimates can easily be furnished to prove 

 that the production of every pound of wa.x costs 

 the bee-keeper ten times the sum realized from its 

 sale." I take it from this that he had made some 

 experiments as regards the cost of wa.v. 



On consulting several of the bee-books I find it 

 seems to be presupposed that it takes from 15 to 25 

 lbs. of honey to make one i)ound of wax. Whether 

 these data were obtained from actual experiment 

 of the authors, I am not prepared to saj-. If the 

 results of your experiments, friend Viallon, arc 

 correct, then these books need revising on this point. 

 As we have here on file all the bee-journals since 

 started, I took a little search in some of them. 

 Turning back to the American Bee-Journal of 1861, 

 Vol. I., page 88, we find there recorded the experi- 

 ments of Gundelach and of Baron Berlepsch. In 

 the second paragraph we find: "Gundelach made 

 some minute and careful experiments, the details 

 of which are given in the ' Natural History of the 

 Honey-Bee,' and the result^ ghowcd that about 20 



