164 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



blacks and Italians in the same apiary that gave only 

 2800 lbs. of surplus. The hybrids in question seemed 

 to live nearly all summer, and their colonies became 

 immense. The queens, of course, were no more 

 prolific than my other Italians: but I believe it is a 

 tact, these American-Italians have greater wing 

 powt r to bear their load against the wind than either 

 race in its purity. 



I have been forced to these conclusions, for no 

 man ever thought more of his gentle bees with their 

 golden rings than I; but I have found out that those 

 pestiferous hybrids wear only one and two rings; 

 but they are IS karat fine. I wish 'twere not so, for 

 I do not like ihem; but while they lill my barrels 

 with honey and my pockets with money, I will put 

 up with their dirty completions and dyspeptic dis- 

 positions. I have at present J2fl colonies under my 

 control, 80 of which are my own. They have win- 

 tered thus far without the loss of one, and are in 

 fine condition, all in cellars. 



A GOOD CELLAR FOR WISCONSIN. 



I was going to close, but will supplement another 

 observation, and that is, that a well-arranged cellar 

 "gets away" with any other system of wintering, 

 anywhere on the 45th parallel. M. A. Gill. 



Viola, Kich. Co., Wis., Feb., 18S4. 



HALF-HEAKTEDNESS, ETC. 



IS IT ONLY GOOD PEOPLE WHO ARE WHOLE-HEARTED? 



*jfj[;s|RIEND ROOT:— Some people have a queerway 

 Jp^ of thinking over things that they spe in print, 

 — ' and have to ventilate once in a while. "That 

 is I." I have thought about that piece which you 

 call "Half-heartediiess," and as 1 have noticed lots 

 of people that way, and some of them good people 

 too, and other people jast the reverse, and some of 

 them you would call very wicked, I have come to 

 the conclusion that ihe organs of "order" were 

 omitted in their make-up to a very large extent, and 

 they need to go through a course of training to give 

 strength to that faculty, and it makes very little 

 difference with many whether 1 hey are converted or 

 not, as it does not change their organization. 



Friend J., you are right about the matter 

 of half-heartedness. There are halt-hearted 

 good people, and half-hearted bad people, as 

 well as the reverse. Energy does not al- 

 ways belong to godliness, althnugh godliness 

 should give us energy. I have often mused, 

 and mused sadly, too, on this fact that you 

 so clearly bring out. You say that conver- 

 sion d()e.s not change a man's organization, 

 but that he needs to go through a course of 

 training to strengthen that faculty. You 

 are correct there too ; but when you say that 

 it makes little difference whether they are 

 converted or not, I should want to put in a 

 word. 



Conversion ought to be a starting-point of 

 the training you have just alluded to. If a 

 man should say before his friends, that he 

 had given the matter much thought and 

 study, and had deliberately decided that he 

 would not have a weedy garden any longer, 

 he might be likened to a man who is at the 

 point of conversion. He has decided to make 

 a change of purpose, or has made a change 

 of purpose. JSow, if this change is not last- 

 ing, it does not amount to much. It he does 



not roll up his sleeves and pitch right into 

 that garden, and stick to it, his friends 

 would be very likely to decide there was no 

 change in the man— nothing but talk. A 

 man may change his purpose in a minute ; 

 but to change liimsdf is a matter that takes 

 long weary mouths and years. 



WHAT CONSTITUTES A FRAUD? 



Another thing on my mind is the reference to Mrs. 

 Cott)i), as charging more lor her tl.xtures than what 

 you call i-egular dealers, and that ^he has a patent 

 on thcni. Now, people need not buy if iticy do not 

 like her prices: and about patents, 1 notice you tell 

 us that the publishers of the " Story of the Bible " 

 oblige you to sell the book for more than what you 

 had deemed a fnir profit, and I can not see any more 

 harm in a patent bee-hive thMn a patent Bible, and 

 some have expressed themselves as well pleaeed 

 with her goods. Daniel H. Johnson. 



Danielsonville. Cojn., Feb. 11, 1881. 



You say that people need not buy things 

 at high prices, if they do not want to. Sup- 

 pose a man should get some eggs at your 

 country store, and recommend them so high- 

 ly, as being the product of a new breed of 

 fowls, that he sells them all over the neigh- 

 borhood for a dollar apiece. You might 

 claim that people need not buy, if they don't 

 like the price, and it is true too ; but for all 

 that, what does the world generally think of 

 men who do such things ? I believe they 

 call them frauds. Mrs. Cotton gets S8.0U, as 

 I have explained on another page, for what 

 is printed on one single sheet of paper, or a 

 leaf of paper, if you choose. She gets it be- 

 cause she claims to have something new in 

 the way of bee-hives, and vastly superior to 

 any thing in common use ; whereas all in- 

 telligent bee-keepers admit, that her special 

 method is not new, nor unknown. Is it right 

 or is it wrong for her to take people's money 

 in this way V If the price she charges for 

 this leaflet were 10 or even 25 cents, probably 

 no one would complain, even if he found 

 that hives made in the same way were de- 

 scribed in books on bee culture. The point 

 in question, you see, is the price she charges, 

 and the amount of information she gives. 

 Some little time ago, friend Alley claimed 

 to have a valuable secret in regard to rearing 

 queens. 'J'here was talk of having it patent- 

 ed, and selling the process for a dollar or such 

 a matter. 1 urged vehemently that he put 

 it in the form of a book, and add enough 

 other matter to it to make a fair-sized book, 

 such as is usually sold for a dollar. lie has 

 done so. and nobody complains who buys the 

 book. I think, too, he is making a good deal 

 more money than he would have done had 

 he charged S I .W for the contents of a leaf or 

 two, or perhaps for a little i)amplilet. In 

 our JM ovember number, friend Fletcher wrote 

 pretty vehemently in regard to selling re- 

 cipes for jueserviiig eggs, in the December 

 number of the JjK-kceyjcrs' Maijazinc, friend 

 Quinby, of White Flains, N. Y., takes 

 Gleanings to task for what is said there, 

 and declares that he can preserve eggs six- 

 months so that it would be hard to tell the 

 difference between them and eggs a week old. 

 JNow, with such autiiority as friend Quinby, 

 we shall have to conclude that eggs may be 

 preserve^, and that profitably, with a reasoji-- 



