442 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 



Mr. Thomas Hyde has found his frames; he is all 

 rijrht; he overlooked them. Mr.s. Hvde. 



Afton, N. Y., May 18, 1884. 



Below is anotlier, quite similar: 



I wrote you a day or two ago in i*egard to there 

 not being as many wide frames in one of the hives 

 as there should be. I find, on e.xamination, that I 

 was mistaken, and I hasten to apologize. The 

 frames were all right, and were taken out and put 

 away, supposing they were extra ones. 



W. S. Pahker. 



Pewee Valley, Ky., June 23, 1884. 



You see, friends, this is a kind of mutual 

 trouble all around. Our clerks are human, 

 and do leave goods out occasionally ; but, 

 unfortunately, our customers are human also, 

 and forget. In order to teach our young 

 lieople accuracy, they have been in the habit 

 of paying for tlicir mistakes and blunders, 

 and \ve try to liave it done in a pleasant and 

 good-nalilrt^d way ; Imt after things like the 

 ab(»ve are traced" up, and they find them- 

 selves lihimed unjustly, they get sometiiiies 

 a little l:ardened, as it were, and uncharita- 

 ble, and more ready next time to say the 

 man is mistaken; all the goods he ordered 

 were sent liim, and thus it lets tlie bars down 

 to want of faith and want of kindly feelings 

 all around. It seems to me it sliould teach 

 us some good lessons, however ; that is, to 

 l)e mild a) tout making our complaints, and 

 to be slow in deciding ourselves wronged. 



Here is a friend below who starts out as if 

 he had had some experience in the way of 

 being defrauded: 



June 16th I ordered of you 5 smokers, 2 A B C's, 

 and 1 Quinby N. B. Keeper, and inclosed P. O. order 

 for $6.00, the receipt of which you acknowledged 

 by card. A part of the goods arrived to-day; that is 

 to saj% 5 smokers, one ABC, one Quinby N. B. 

 Keeper, leaving one ABC short. The weight of 

 the package was marked 9 lbs.; I weighed it, and 

 found it to weigh 9 lbs. and one ounce. I also 

 weighed the ABC book, and found it to weigh 1\ 

 lbs. ; so that, if you had put up two A B C's, it ought 

 to have weighed 10?^ lbs. Inclosed I send you part 

 of package, jvith yours or the Express Co.'s mark 

 on. Send me the other book, with as little delay as 

 convenient. B. Dickinson. 



Hastings, Mich., June 24, 1884. 



You see, he has gone at it in a systematic 

 Avay, and proved our guilt exactly as a de- 

 tective w^ould, and evidently seems to tliink 

 he has got us where we can not get away in 

 trying to put him oif with one A B C book, 

 when he has i)aid for two. From his stand- 

 point, it looks as if he were right, and fully 

 justified. Even if there was no intention of 

 defrauding, such carelessness is shameful, 

 to send one book, when he orders two, 

 and pays for two. Suppose, now, we take 

 another view^; this is, that all this tr()id)le 

 might not have come at all, had lie waited for 

 a letter of explanation by next mail. This 

 letter Avould have given substantially the 

 following : 



"Friend D., we arc so far behind on the new 

 edition of our ABC book, that none are yet out, 

 and we are dividing around the old edition, sending 

 one with your present shipment. The other will 

 go in the course of a week, at our own expense. 

 >Ve thought you would be better pleased to have it 



this waj% than to have two old books, for the new 

 one contains about 20 pages of new matter, besides 

 fifty or more very beautiful and expensive en- 

 gravings." 



I told the young folks a few days ago at 

 the noon service, that if there was any lesson 

 in this world that I needed to learn, it was 

 to b3 slow about thiidcing I had been wrong- 

 ed, instead of acting upun the impulse of the 

 moment. You know I have told you over 

 and over again, when you get stung by a bee, . 

 to just keep right along with your w^ork, and 

 pay no attention to it. Well, I can stand 

 bee-stings first rate ; but even though I am 

 past forty, and bald-headed, I have not yet 

 accumuhited wisdom enough to go on in the 

 same way, without saying any thing, when it 

 looks as if somebodywanted" to beat me, or 

 had wronged me by unreasonable careless- 

 ness. Sometimes, it is true, I do just say. 

 "Now. old fellOAV, wait a bit; wait until 

 next mail ; " or, "Take another careful look 

 into tlie matter before you start to right 

 things." Another thing" that helps me in 

 such times is to take a view of the offender's 

 general habits and life. Is it a firm that has 

 tried to " come the cheat" onme V I stop and 

 ask myself what has been the general charac- 

 ter of" these people ; are they straight and 

 upright, or are they tricky V and after a lit- 

 tle while I get ashamed of myself. Now% 

 dear friends, I do not want to have j'ou think 

 you are not to tell us when things are wrong ; 

 by all means, ask for an explanation ; but 

 please do not be dictatorial and harsh. 



INTELLIGENCE OF BEES. 



DO THEY L(JOK FOKWAKU AND CALCULATE? 



"^ HAD quite a singular circumstance happen me 



fhere the other day. It was about ten minutes 

 before a thunder storm. It Avas then thunder- 

 ing when I noticed a first swarm of bees leav- 

 ing the hive. As I was engaged at the time, I 

 told my brother to attend to them. In about three 

 minutes I went to where they were throwing sand, 

 when I noticed they were gradually working away: 

 sol joined in with them, but soon found we could 

 not stop them. So we followed them to the next 

 block, where they made straight for a portico in 

 front of a house, and began crawling in on the side. 

 Now, the question is. Do you suppose the queen 

 knew where she was going, and how far it was? for 

 you know an old queen will never, as a general rule, 

 leave at such a time. 1 think she must, for they 

 had hardly settled when it began raining. The folks 

 say they had noticed about a dozen bees going in 

 and out of the portico for two or three days before 

 these came. F. W. Schafer. 



Eddy ville, Iowa, Juno 27, 1884. 



Friend S., I think you give the bees more 

 credit tlian they deserve. They had picked 

 out a location, it is true, and knew just 

 where they were going ; but my impression 

 is, although I may be mistaken, that they 

 Avould have started oft' in just the same way 

 had their chosen hive been a couple of miles 

 away instead of a few^ rods. I think you are 

 wrong, too, in assuming that the queen de- 

 cided when to start, and whether they could 

 make their home before the storm. I think 

 the workers managed that part of it, and the 

 queen simply followed suit. 



