1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



679 



tlon, and answering it besides. Many questions can 

 be just as efJectuaily answered by yes or no, yet tbe 

 answers to such, without the questions, would be 

 of no use to any one. When thus sent, letters ex- 

 plaining the circumstances are gladly read, ans- 

 wers cheerfullj' appended to each question, and the 

 sheet x-eturned to the writer. 



While growling, I wish to speak of another mat- 

 ter, which is about ordering queens. If you can 

 not take the advertiser's prices given in the bee- 

 papers, sending the money and waiting his time, 

 send for his circular before ordering, to see if you 

 can come to his terms of sale, as all advertisers of 

 queens advertise circulars, 1 believe. If you can 

 not conform to the rules of his circular, try some 

 one else whose terms are compatible with your 

 wants. Some things the past season have been 

 very annoying, the following instance being given 

 to show what I mean. A party orders a queen, but 

 puts in no money, saying that, if the queen can not 

 be sent by return mail, he wants the order sent to 

 another party (he naming them), no stamp being 

 inclosed for sending the order as requested. On 

 the corner of the sheet, reference is given to a 

 bank, but we have no time to write the bank if we 

 send the queen by return mail; besides, we say in 

 our circular, " Terms cash." so we write we can not 

 send the queen without the cash. The result is a 

 terrible blowing-up, telling us how much we have 

 Injured him, threatening to do all he can to banish 

 us from the business, saying he does not pay for 

 any thing till he sees it, and asking why we did not 

 forward the order to the party named, if we could 

 not fill it. I will say no more. Brethren, let us do 

 as we would be done by. G. M. Doolittle. 



Borodino, N. Y. 



Friend I)., your suggestions are excellent. 

 I would, however, bid you be not weary in 

 well doing. Perhaps one reason why you 

 get so many questions is because people 

 have learned by years of experience that 

 Bro. Doolittle is very prompt in his corres- 

 pondence. He answers everybody, reason- 

 able or unreasonable, in some shape or oth- 

 er, almost by return mail. Let me suggest, 

 that those who ask these questions that 

 have been answered so many times, very 

 often never see a bee-book nor a bee-jour- 

 nal, and they have to get started some way or 

 other. There is one point you touch on that 

 has given us a good deal of trouble. A 

 great many people we never heard of, and 

 of whom we can lind no record, order goods 

 without saying a word about pay at all, and 

 seem surprised that they do not get them 

 by return mail. A better class have 

 thought enough to give us reference. But 

 these good people a good many times also 

 ask for goods by return mail. Now, refer- 

 ence is a good thing, but it is not all-suffi- 

 cient. A few months ago a firm out west 

 corresponded considerably about buying 

 toward a thousand dollars' worth of maple 

 sugar and syrup. Finally they gave us an 

 order. It all looked business-like and 

 straight, and they gave reference in their 

 order to a well-known firm of excellent 

 standing. We were almost on the point of 

 sending the goods, as they were in a great 

 hurry tor immediate shipment. We finally 

 decided to ask this firm they referred to, 

 what they knew about the other firm.STo 



my great surprise, the reply came that they 

 had just started in business, had little or no 

 means, and that their past record was by no 

 means first class. Now, I will tell you how 

 to get goods by the first train, even if you 

 have not got the money just then by you. 

 Take your letter to your postmaster, station 

 agent, or banker, and ask him to please 

 write you a brief recommend, signing his 

 name to it. If this is too much trouble, 

 you certainly have no right to call names, 

 and write abusively to the man who re- 

 fuses to trust you. The records of our 

 ledgers show pretty unmistakably that the 

 man who takes offense because you refuse 

 to trust him is not worthy of trust, and he is 

 seldom worthy of being considered a gentle- 

 man. In writing to a business establish- 

 ment that has every arrangement for ans- 

 wering questions in regard to business, it is 

 not always necessary to inclose a stamp ; 

 but the per.son who would write to friend 

 Doolittle, asking him questions in regard to 

 bee culture, without the very small courte- 

 sy of a stamp, or, better still, a stamped en- 

 velope, hardly deserves a prompt answer. 



A CORBECTION. 



POUDER'S OPEN-SIDE SECTION NOT A NEW THING; 

 AD.JUSTABLE SIDE CASES PREFERRED. 



fRIEND ROOT:-My attention is called to an 

 article in Gleanings, page 514, headed, "An- 

 other Open-side Section," in which the ad- 

 vantages and disadvantages of a so-called 

 new style of side-entrance section are set 

 forth at length. Now, friend Root, when I tell you 

 that I have manufactured several hundred thou- 

 sand of this style of sections in the last six years, 

 and have shipped the same to many different States, 

 I think you will agree with me that it is a mistake 

 to call it a new style of section; and as I have sent 

 you my circular year after year, containing a cut 

 and description, and also samples of the same from 

 time to time, I am not a little surprised that you 

 speak of it as something new. I have used perhaps 

 fifty thousand of these sections in my own apiaries, 

 but without separators, and can recommend them 

 as superior to the common style when supers with- 

 out adjustable sides are used; but in localities 

 where bee-glue is plentiful, and especially where a 

 bee-space is not used above the sections, the side 

 passages will often be more or less filled with glue. 

 I have used the common style of side-opening sec- 

 tions to some extent in cases with adjustable side, 

 and have no fault to find with them, except that 

 the corner projections are apt to split off, and the 

 side opening to be filled with glue where the sec- 

 tions meet the ends of the super. 



There is still another style of side-opening section 

 that suits me better than either of the above, made 

 with a bottom entrance the whole length of the 

 section, and with side passages not over one and a 

 half inches wide, and with only three entrances in- 

 stead of four, for the end tiers. 



ANOTHER AD.inSTABL,E SIDE SUPER. 



In regard to supers, I wish to say that I can't un- 

 derstand how any intelligent, practical bee-keeper 

 can find use for any other than those having ad- 

 justable sides, after having once tried both sorts. I 

 will venture to give you an idea of the one that I 



