34 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Jan. 1 



name •• VauDtniscu-Ncllis Simplicity Hive."' It 

 is a great convenipncc to use short names ; and 

 as we can't verv well give credit to all in a 

 name, whv give credit to (iini/ \ sJuirt name 

 wliich sliail indicate some i)redomiiiant or 

 sti'iking feature has i)retereiice and utility. 



E. R. 



TAKING A PAKTNEK. ' 



In our work of following and studying the 

 habits of many thousands of individuals on our 

 ledgers, as the years pass by we learn many les- 

 sons. For instance, we see a young man start- 

 ing in business, and we rejoice to see him stead- 

 ily, year after year, build up a name for being 

 prompt and reliable. We have also chronicled 

 others who have their ups and downs, and a few 

 who seem to be alwavs in trouble. There is 

 another class \\'ho start right, and do well for a 

 time, but thev have evidently become weary in 

 well doing, and tinally go all to pieces; and 

 this lattt'r class is what prompts this editorial. 

 A good many, when they begin to get uneasy, 

 or perhaps feel cramped for the time being, 

 take in a partner, when the amount of business 

 does not need any partner at all. but just the 

 contrary. In fact, we have had so many letters 

 telling sad stories as a consequence of going 

 into partnership, that I have felt prompted to 

 give this warning. When you 'take somebody 

 in as a partner, vou trade oft a part of yourgofx? 

 name— at least, you place it in somebody's 

 power to spoil the good name you have worked 

 hard for, for years. And a great many times, 

 like partnership in bees, or bees on shares, both 

 parties feel so sure they have each been swin- 

 dled by the othei', that they stick to it for the 

 rest of their lives. When you have a great 

 business— more than one man can control— it 

 ?n((i/ be best to go into partnership. Uut even 

 then I think it is far better to .frr.sf employ your 

 contemplated partner at a salary. When you 

 have proved by experience that you can work 

 together in harmony, then, but not before, go 

 into partnership. liy the way. why not make 

 your ivife a partner— yes, and children too? 

 Friend Terry most earnestly enjoins t]iis sort of 

 partnership in his talk at farmers' institutes. 

 Now, remember Uncle Amos "told you so."" 



SHAIX I'KFUODICAI.S HE COXTINt'ED AFTEK THE 

 TIME I'AII) FUI!? 



It seems to me, dear friends, that there has 

 hoA'U a great deal of useless discussion in regard 

 to this matter. Most things of this kind are 

 settled on the rule of the greatest good to the 

 greatest numlier. Now. we can not decide 

 what other pul)lishers ought to do; but as we 

 have found that at least nine out of ten of our 

 subscribers prefer to have GLEANiN(is kept go- 

 ing, we think we secure the greatest good to the 

 greatest number by so doing. The tenth friend 

 can easilv be accommodated in two ways. 

 First, he can say. when subscribing, " Send it 

 only so long as the money pays for it.'" If he 

 does this, and the publisher disobeys orders, he 

 does it at his own risk, for he can not collect 

 pay for sending it longer. If, however, this 

 tenth brother omits or foi'gets to say any thing 

 about stopping when he subscribes, and wishes 

 to have it stopped, he can do so by writing on a 

 postal card. " Please discontinue Gleanin(js." 

 That will stop it. A good friend writes us that 

 people are sometimes wi'onged in this way: 

 Somebody makes you a present of a certain 

 periodical. If the pulilisher keep-* right on 

 sending it. this friend is calh'd upon to pay for 

 something he never ordered at all. What shall 

 you do in such a cas(> ? Weil. I should say it is 

 the publisher's loss if he continues t\)send his 

 pai)er to anvbody who never orderi'd it at all. 



The principal reason why we have been induced 

 to send (tLeanincis longer than the time paid 

 for is this: A great part of oui' readers mean to 

 have Gi>EAXiX(iS kei)t going; but they neglect, 

 and put it off. and then in the same way neglect 

 and put off having it started after it Ims been 

 stopped. vSuch people always thank us very 

 kindly for having it kept going without orders 

 — that is, they do when they get around to it, 

 say when they are ordering bee-hives or some- 

 tliing of that sort. The world is full of people 

 who neglect and put off things they meant to 

 have done. Now, this weakness of humanity is 

 a large and prevailing element in all kinds of 

 business. Please note: If we stop the paper for 

 everybody at the time paid for, this weakness 

 harms the publisher and harms the subscriber; 

 but by keeping th(> paper going until we have 

 orders to stop it, this same unfortunate ele- 

 ment is then on the other side of the scale. It 

 then operates to the advantage of both publish- 

 er and readei'. The only trouble about it is. 

 the man who does not want the paper any long- 

 er must say so. If he continues to take it out 

 of the office, and does not say so. the law, and it 

 seems to me good common sense, dictates that 

 he must pay for it. I omitted to say. in the 

 proper i)lace. that he does not even need to 

 take the trouble to write a postal card. Let 

 him just leave his journal in the office, and in- 

 form tiie postmaster that he does not wish to 

 take it any more. The postmaster is then re- 

 quired by law to inform tlie publisher that so 

 and so does not want the periodical any longer. 

 So in reality no one is obliged to pay for a peri- 

 odical unless he takes it out of the postoffice 

 regularly; and exactly the same way you would 

 be required to pay for any kind of goods you 

 take regularly of the common carrier. If you 

 or any of your family take a pint of milk of the 

 milkman every day when he comes past your 

 house, you are bound to jiay him for it; and I 

 believe'it does not matter whether you ordered 

 it or not. If you receive it out of his hands, you 

 are responsible for its value. I have several 

 times thought of mailing a postal card to each 

 of our 10,000 subscribers, this postal card to be 

 plainly addressed to us. On the opposite side 

 we would have printed in large letters. "Do you 

 want Gi>EANiNGS continued?'' All that bur 

 negligent friends will have to do in that case 

 will be to write "yes" or "no" opposite the 

 (luestion: then we could go ahead with a fair 

 understanding all around, and we should have 

 all orders in black and white. The difficulties 

 are that it would cost over siOO for the postal 

 cards. Then it would cost over another hun- 

 dred to place them in the hands of our readers, 

 besides the large amount of laborious work on 

 the part of our clerks and book-keepers, and 

 very likely nearly half of our postals would 

 never get dropped into the postoffice at all. 

 But we do this, which is the next best thing to 

 it: In every expired journal is put a circular 

 letter, together with an order-blank and an en- 

 velope addressed to ourselves. Th(> circular 

 letter gives notice of expiration of subscription, 

 and says, if you want the journal continued, 

 till out the blank and inclose it with one dollar 

 in the addressed envelope. If you desire to 

 have till' journal stopped, write on the blank. 

 " I'lcase discontinue." If no notice is taken, the 

 journal is continued, and in thr(>e months' time 

 another notice is sent. If that doesn't " fetch 

 'em," another, in the course of time, is sent; 

 and if still no response, we stop the journal, 

 and send another notice to that effect, with a 

 request to remit for the time not paid lor. If 

 our dropped subscribe]- still won't pay any at- 

 tention, we don't trouble him further, as we do 

 not care to waste more time. If we can afford 

 to dro)) it there, he surely can. 



