1884 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



16o 



able degree of freshness. lie adds, tliat the 

 ])rocess is not and never has been for sale. 

 AV'e shall have to conchide, then, one of two 

 things : That he is going to give, tlie ])iocess 

 to the public, or else withhold it If it i^i 

 valunble, what would be the proper tiling to 

 do with it V What would mankind in gen- 

 eral deera a fair way of disposing of such a 

 recipe, if the owner wanted to dispose of it V 

 If it could all be printed on a single leaf of a 

 book, it seems to me it ought to be sold for 

 something like 10 or 25 cents, but the latter 

 price usually pays for a pretty fair little 

 book, on almost any of our industries. If 

 that would not p;iy Ihe owner nf the secret 

 for spending his time with it, I would sug- 

 gest he write a nice little book on the care of 

 eggs, and perhaps something about poultry- 

 breeding ; and if the secret were a valuable 

 one, the book woidd probably have a large 

 sale, and we all know that a good book is a 

 good thing to have. 



You might say that I am dictating in this 

 matter. Well, the matter has been pretty 

 well discussed, and most people have made 

 np their minds in regard to selling recipes. 

 Did you ever pay a dollar or five dollars for 

 something printed on a single bit of paper, 

 say the size of a common l)ook-leaf V If so, 

 how did it turn out. and what do you think 

 of the man who sold it to you V Is valuable 

 information sold in that way on any subject 

 whatever V or is it in accordance with the 

 spirit of this day and age, when knowledge 

 on any subject is so freely given and as free- 

 ly received V Now just a word about the 

 Story of the Bible : 



I have never meant to dictate what peo- 

 ple ouglit to charge for their own ])roperty ; 

 in fact, I believe 1 have always stopped sell- 

 ing any thing at a low price when I found 

 the manufacturer objected to my so doing. 

 I have protested against selling recipes, or 

 charging great prices for a small amount of 

 information, in the way I have told you 

 above. But in these cases the prices were so 

 extravagant, it seemed to me they approach- 

 ed nearly to the character of a fraud, if not 

 quite a fraud. The Story of the Bible is a 

 book of 700 pages and 274 illustrations, and 

 would ordinarily be considered very low at a 

 dollar. Tlie publisher gave me a very low 

 rate to jobbers, because 1 used so many of 

 them. But he felt hurt when he found I 

 was selling them at 7-5 cents singly. He did 

 not say L should not sell them so, but he said 

 he should be very sorry to have me continue 

 doing it. and gave good reasons. Is tlie case 

 parallel with that of Mrs. Cotton's ? It is 

 true, quite a good many have expressed 

 themselves as pleased with Mrs. Cotton's 

 method of management, and I have taken 

 pains to publish every such expression I 

 could lind, just as 1 have been pleased to 

 publish reports from those who had tried 

 Doolittle's method, or friend Ileddon's meth- 

 od, with lots of others. Doolittle sells a lit- 

 tle pamphlet, telling how his hives are made 

 and used, f(n- 10 cents, if I am correct. In 

 Mrs. Cotton "s case, you pay SI. 00 for a rath- 

 er .^mall-sized book, and Sh.OO for a sample 

 hive, or .S;3.00 for directions for making it. 

 Perhaps I should add, that I am not posted 

 in the matter of preserving eggs, and am 



glad to be corrected w^hen I make mistakes ; 

 but 1 am pretty well posted in the matter of 

 buying recipes, for I have tried buying them 

 with the view of getting something valuable 

 for Gleanings ; and ever since the time 

 when I was a boy, when I gave my watch, 

 and all the money I could scrape up, for a 

 recipe for making a wonderful burning-duid, 

 up to the present day, I have never seen a 

 recipe so sold, of any value; in fact, the 

 more dollars I have paid for a recipe, the 

 more worthless it proved on trial. 



At one of our bee conventions, it was said 

 a man had a secret for curing foul brood ; 

 that he would do it for ifo.OO or such a mat- 

 ter, but wouldn't tell it to anybody. Dr. C. 

 C. Miller and Prof. Cook both declared that 

 their invariable experience had been in hor- 

 ticulture and other industries that men who 

 made such claims were ignorant or bad, and 

 that no valuable information ever came to 

 light in that shape. This seemed to be the 

 sense of the convention; and, dear friends, 

 is it not the sense of this enlightened age of 

 the world. 



f;IlE Florida Dispatch is guilty of . the 

 following : — 



WHY PEOPLE SHOULD E.\T UONEV. 



Thousands and tens of thousands of children are 

 dying all around us, who, because their ever-devel- 

 oping nature demands sweetness, crave and eagerly 

 demolish the adulterated "candies" and "syrup" 

 of modern times. If these ould be fed on honey In- 

 stead, they would develop and grow up into healthy 

 men and women. 



Children wouhl rather eat bread and honey than 

 bread and butler; one pound of honey will reach as 

 far as two pounds of butter, and has, l[)esiiies,the ad- 

 vantage of being far more healthful and pleasant- 

 tasted, and always remains good, while butter soon 

 becomes rancid, and often produces cramp in the 

 stomach, eruptions, sourness, vomiting, and diar- 

 rhd^K Pure honey should always be freely used in 

 every family. Honey eaten upon wheat bread is 

 very beneficial to health. 



The use of honey instead of sugar foralraost every 

 kind of cooking is as pleasant fur the pjilate as it is 

 healthful for the stomach. In preparing black berry, 

 raspberry, or strawberry shortcake, it is inUnitely 

 superior. 



It is a common expression, thai honey is a luxury, 

 having nothing to do with the life-giving principle. 

 This is an error— honey is food in one of its most 

 concentrated forms. True, it does not add so much 

 to the growth of muscles as does beefsteak, but it 

 does impart other properties no less necessary to 

 health, and vigorous physical and intellectual action. 

 It gives warmth to the system, arouses nervous en- 

 ergy, and gives vigor to all the vital functions. To 

 the laborer it gives strength — to the business man 

 inental force. Its effects are not like ordinary stim- 

 ulants, such as spirits, etc., but it produces a healthy 

 ajtion, the results of which are pleasing and per- 

 manent—a sweet disposition and a bright intellect. 



if it is not all true, it is a good deal true; 

 and besides, it is very pleasant reading for 

 bee-keepers. If the last paragraph does not 

 provoke a smile on your face, I am inclined 

 to think that you do not smile very often. 

 By the way, 1 want to add that honey is food 

 for me, and a pretty good kind of food also ; 

 especially when good bread and butter are 

 alongside, and a good-sized pitcher of milk 

 aud a large goblet iu immediate proximity. 



