202 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 





lool 1'! fol 

 The ( t Kil 

 o led t 1 i Si 1 I 

 IJooi 



fELL, children, here it is spring again. 

 Very likely the bees are tlyiug some 

 - - witli many of you. I notice your let- 

 ters are tlying brisklv, for my drawer, labeled 

 "Juvenile Letters," has got so full that 

 "Kitty" (she is the clerk who distributes the 

 letters, you know) can hardly get any more 

 letters into it, so you see i shall have to be- 

 gin again picking'out the most valuable let- 

 ters. That seems a little hard, but I guess 

 it is a good thing. It i^ a good old maxim, 

 that " competition is the life of business," 

 and sharp competition does us good in al- 

 most any kind of work. In your case you 

 will find that, in order to see your letters in 

 print, they must be good ones ; that is, they 

 must be something new and something val- 

 uable. Yesterday one of the juveniles wrote 

 a short letter, and commenced : '• I thought 

 I would take my pen in hand to drop- a few 

 lines to let you know that I am well, and 

 hope to find you the same," etc. 



Now, little friends, there is not any need 

 of telling me that you take your pen in hand ; 

 because when I see your writing, I should 

 know that already ; and besides, it is an old 

 hackneyed phrase. I would try to avoid 

 hackneyed phrases. Don't try to copy other 

 folks. Just be \ourself. In a letter just 

 now before me, an 11-year-old cliick starts 

 out: "I thought 1 would write you a few 

 words about the bees." Now, do not think 

 that I am scolding, or finding fault; but 

 such w^ords do not tell us any thing. They 

 only tell us you thought of writing, which 

 we know already, if you write. If you do 

 not write, of course we don't care any thing 

 about it. I have had to talk quite a consid- 

 erable to some of the older ones, because 

 they were inclined to tell more about what 

 they ihouqld than what they did. Now, then, 

 woidd it "not be better to tell us more about 

 what you have done, or seen somebody else 

 do, than to tell what you have thought V 

 Thoughts are good, of course; but they are 

 seldom worth putting in print until they 

 have been worked out practically into ac- 



tions. When we get new clerks in the office 

 I have sometimes told them when they write 

 to anybody, to pitch right into business, and 

 not stop "for formalities. You will notice 

 our postal cards and letters to you go right 

 into the business before us all at once, with- 

 out any "Dear Sir," or prefaces of any sort. 

 And where room is crowded, and there is so 

 much to be done. I think it is the better way. 

 Of course. I refer to letters on business. 

 When you are writing to friends, it is a dif- 

 ferent matter. Another thing : Some of the 

 juveniles seem to think they must write a 

 long letter. JMever try to make your letter 

 long, unless you liave something valuable to 

 write. In fact, it takes a great amount of 

 my time to cross off a great part of what 

 many of you write. 



Now let the little letters come like tl>e 

 snowtlakes fiying outdoors, if you choose; 

 but let us have them short and bright. 1 

 think, as a rule they ought to be a little larg- 

 er than a snowfiake ; but one side of a small . 

 sheet of paper will be enough, as a general 

 thing. Now, then, go ahead. 



NO TOBACCO. 



We have 11 hives of bees. Papa does not use to- 

 bacco, and I aim to always let it alone. Will you 

 please send me the Giant-Killer? 



John Mitchell, age 8. 



Poplar Grove, Ind., Feb. 16, 1884. 



SAMUKL'S letter. 



1 am a little boy 8 years old. My pa keeps bees. 

 He has 40 stands. I like honey. I go to school, and 

 read in the Second Reader. I have a pig, and I have 

 one sister and three brothers. Samuel Hamm. 



Kingston, Mo., F eb. 13. 1884. 



Pa keeps bees. He has 98 colonies. He has them 

 all packed for winter. He is going to put them in 

 the cellar. Two years ago last spring we had only 

 two. Pa made a litter, I will call it, to carry the 

 hives with. Eddie Stout, age 13. 



Brighton, Iowa, Nov. 30, 1883. 



STELLA'S LETTER. 



Our bees were out all day Sunday. I would like to 

 know what they were doing. Our bees are all blacks. 

 I have a little pet lamb; her name is Julia; she is 

 the prettiest little thing I ever saw. She will come 

 whene%'er I call her. Stella Howerth. 



Pin Oak, 111., Jan. 15,1884. 



A SWAUM of bees IN AN OLD HOUSE; REPORTED 

 BY A V-YEAR-OLD FRIEND. 



I Should like to see your little Huber. I have six 

 brothers and one sister. Papa has 18 colonies of 

 bees. One of my twin brothers, Jonathan, has one, 

 which he found in an old house. I will send tlower- 

 seeds for Blue Eyes. If you think this is worth a 

 book, send me one. Lizzie Stutzman, age 7. 



Girard, 111., Feb. 19, le84. 



FRANCIS huber: 15 V ONE OF THE JUVENILES. 



Franvois Huber was born at Geneva, July 2ii, 1750. 

 When he was young he lost his eyesight; and some 

 years after, he married Mile. LuUin. Huber's first 

 work was entitled, "Lettres a Ch Bonnet." It was 

 reprinted in 1796 and 1840, under the title of " Nou- 

 velles Observations sur les Abeilles," which means 

 in English, "New Observations on Bees." Huber 



died at Lausanne, Dec. 21, ItSl. 



Mary M. Graham. 

 Homer City, Indiana Co., Pa., Feb. 22, 1884. 



