318 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



hive will pitch in when somebody injures just 

 one of the forty thousand. Shall we not do 

 likewise ? 



One thing more : These goods that were or- 

 dered were mostly odd-sized — something that 

 nobody but friend M. can use ; and he can not 

 use those unless he has some bees. If the bee- 

 keepers of our land will give him some bees so 

 he can start in again this spring we will donate 

 .*25 on these odd-sized hives. Of course, we 

 have returned all the money he sent us. 



IS IT WORTH WHILE TO VISIT OUR FRIENDS 

 IN OTHER COUNTRIES, ETC.? 

 The following clipping from the British 

 Bee Journal of Feb. 10 hits the spot so exactly 

 that we give it entire : 



BRITISH v. AMERICAN BEE-KEEPING. 



Messrs. Editors. — On page 2 of your first issue for 

 1898 you appeal to American and German bee-keepers 

 to confiim your statement that British bee-keepers 

 have little to learn as to bee-management from their 

 friends abroad. I suppose it's a common thing for 

 British bee-keepers to think there's nothing to be 

 learned about bee-keeping outside their own island, 

 and I know it's quite common for Americans to think 

 there i^in't enough to be learned across the water to pay 

 for wetting tlieir feet by 7vading across. 1 really believe 

 both are fooled. I think if you were to be turned loose 

 among the bee keepers of this country you'd get many 

 a hint of value; and if I could spend some time among 

 English bee-keepers I'm sure I'd bring away a lot of 

 information with me. 



Why, don't you know there are a good many things 

 in which there is a practical difference, both in appli- 

 ances and management? Some of the difference 

 may be accounted for by the different conditions, but 

 many can not. Now, when you and I differ as to ap- 

 pliances or management, as no doubt we do, if we 

 were to get together long enough don't you suppose 

 each would learn something from the other? I don't 

 believe either of us is so pig-headed that we wouldn't 

 be willing to change if we saw the other had some- 

 thing bttter. Why, bless your heart, I look eagerly 

 through the pages of the B. B.J. every week to find 

 something new, and I think of more than one of you 

 Britishers as a personal friend I'd be delighted to meet. 



Now, please don't talk that way any more. Vou see, 

 we expect to keep on learning from you, and it makes 

 us feel that it's jutt a bit like .stealing if we can give 

 you back nothing in return. Yours till you .say some- 

 thing bad again. — C. C. Miller, Marengo, 111. 



\^Dear Dr. Miller: — We c'on't want to saj' " some- 

 thing bad," and tiy to avoid doing so; that is just why 

 we left it for others to say whether or not the reproach 

 against British bee-keepers of "discovering nothing 

 for themselves" was justified or not. Nor do we de- 

 spair of getting some justification for our confidence 

 in American fairne.ss in this respect, even from your- 

 self. Anyway, I (as junior editor in charge) am de- 

 lighted to hear of your hearty wish to meet one of us 

 " Britishers;" and as our senior, Mr. Cowan, is just 

 now on American soil. I cordially invite you to try to 

 get a bee-talk with him — say at Medina, where other 

 editors could join you — about our ways and yturs of 

 doing things. It would do us all good to have a "re- 

 port" of such a meeting. What say you? — W. B. C] 



The above emphasizes a point I have long 

 had in mind. The man who goes to Califor- 

 nia, or Florida either, and undertakes to dic- 

 tate to the bee-keepers better ways for doing 

 things had better go .slow; and it is just the 

 same way with gardening. I expected to 

 teach the " natives " lots of things when I got 

 over to Bermuda ; but after I had been there 

 about a week I had the conceit pretty well 

 taken out of me. My ideas were very good 

 for Ohio, but they did not fit Bermuda worth 

 a cent ; and when it comes to rapid work I 

 never saw any men anywhere who would go 

 through a piece of ground and leave it in as 



nice condition so quickly as did those Ber- 

 mudans ; and they acted just as if they liked 

 the fun of it. The onion-planters work so 

 rapidly you actually could not see what their 

 hands were doing. We see something of this 

 same thing in a printing-office when a " light- 

 ning compositor " gets to work. That is real- 

 ly rich, what Dr. Miller has to say about " wet- 

 ting their feet by wading across the Atlantic 

 Ocean ;" but it describes to a dot the conceit 

 of some people. Now, they do not all live 

 among the Yankees, nor are they all over in 

 England ; they are scattered around promiscu- 

 ously, and they are usually a class of people 

 who have never been away from home very 

 much, and do not really know what is going 

 on in this great wide world of ours. Why, 

 even your old friend A. I. Root used to think 

 America was ahead of all other nations in 

 every thing. When somebody told me that in 

 naval equipments England stood at the head 

 of the world, Germany second, Russia third, 

 and the United States — yes, the United States 

 all scraped up — stood on\y fourth, I opeLed 

 my eyes in astonishment. Then when friend 

 Morrison remarked that the English flag floats 

 over 450,000,000 people — a third of the whole 

 human race — while the United States all told, 

 according to our own figures, has a population 

 of only about 65,000,000, I opened my e} es 

 still wider in astonishment. Now, please do 

 not any of you ever again get into that foolish 

 attitude of thinking that your own country, 

 your own bee-journal, or whatever it may be, 

 contains all that is "worth having" in the 

 whole big world. — A. I. R. 



BEWARE OF MEN GOING AROUND TO REPAIR SEWING- 

 MACHINES. 



I .send you this notice of a swindle that is being cnr- 

 ried on in these parts, and no doubt will be extended 

 to other places in time. The part}' represents a sew- 

 ing-machine-repair agent; and if told the machine is 

 all right he still insists on seeing it, and then he w ill 

 declare it is in a horrible condition, as it has " lost mo- 

 tion," and is full of dirt (which may or may not e 

 true). Anyhow, he will try to convince you it should 

 be cleaned, which he would do reasonably, and tliat 

 he never overcharges, etc. — say about 75 cts. or a dol- 

 lar, also .stating that he has not a dissatisfied custom 

 er; and then he will show you a recommendation fr. >m 

 a great many you may know, but he is always care'u 

 to get that recommendation into his pocket. When 

 you ask him how much it is you will be astonished at 

 a price from two to ten times what was expected. He 

 will then begin to argue that it needed more attention 

 than he expected, and he said it would be only about 

 such a sum, so far as he could see at the time. Then 

 he will threaten to take the machine away, which he 

 does by just unscrewing it and taking only the top 

 part As he deals mostly with the women folks he 

 generally succeeds in getting his price in full, to ge. 

 rid of him, and to prevent a lawsuit which he thre.it- 

 ens. Eook out for him. G. W. I^awson. 



Centerville, Ohio. 



The above is an old dodge. It tisually suc- 

 ceeds when the man of the house is not around , 

 or where he can find a man or woman who has 

 not cheek enough to drive him off'. In the 

 first place, never let an utter stranger tinker 

 with your clock or sewing-machine. In the 

 second place, have it distinctly understood 

 that you will pay so much and no more if yoti 

 should think best to set the stranger at work. 

 Third, if you get in the predicament mention- 

 ed above, tell the man to take the machine olT 



