102 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 1. 



has gone from me; but no matter. At this re- 

 sort we visited a ho ;/n'-popcorn stand where 

 the proprietors make a specialty of honey pop- 

 corn for five cents a package. 



We bought some of the crisps, and, sure 

 enough, they had an unmistakable honey fla- 

 vor; and as a delightful, toothsome confec- 

 tionery they can't be excelled. That pure 

 honey as a sweetener is used is evidenced by 

 the fact that Mr. Selser furnishes the honey, 

 and lots of it. 



Elsewhere I show a snapshot that I took of 

 the pavilion. Mr. Selser stands at the left, 

 with his hand on the counter, on which are 

 piled the crisps. That the place does a large 

 business is shown by its general appearance of 

 permanence, and the fact that there are two 

 or three clerks there all the time. It has a 

 modern cash-register ; indeed, one of the 

 clerks is just making out the change to hand 

 back to Mr. Selser. 



The crisps are, of course, made right in the 

 building, and the enormous popper is shown 

 at the right. 



I suggested to Mr. Selser that it would pay 

 him to sell these honey crisps; but he thought 

 the demand would hardly be enough to war- 

 rant him in advertising them. 



I do not know but it would almost pay us 

 to catalog some of the foods prepared with 

 honey; for instance, a good honey caramel, 

 honey cakes, honey jumbles, honey popcorn 

 crisps — all these and more might have a con- 

 siderable demand. If the sale of them ac- 

 complished nothing more it would encourage 

 the consumption of honey of darker grades 

 by the baker and confectioner. 



HONEY-LEAFLET NOT A SUCCESS AS A HONEY- 

 SELLER. 



A short time ago I asked through these 

 columns whether the honey-leaflets when 

 freely distributed helped the sale of honey in 

 the local markets. I have received quite a 

 number of responses, and nearly all confess 

 their surprise at the fact that the leaflets seem 

 to have no effect one way or the other. One 

 writer says people are so used to having cir- 

 culars in the line of patent-medicine adver- 

 tisements shoved under their noses and on 

 their porches that they pay no attention to 

 them ; and, besides, some people do not like 

 to have their premises littered up with such 

 stuff. 



There is just one correspondent out of the 

 whole number who said he found these leaflets 

 to be of material aid in disposing of his honey 

 crop. But he usually hands one of the leaflets 

 direct to a consumer, calling his attention to 

 the interesting matter that he will find about 

 honey and the honey recipes in the back part 

 of it. 



It occurs to me that the whole trouble is we 

 have gotten the leaflets up in too cheap a 

 form. Something a little more expensive, 

 perhaps, printed on a fine grade of paper, 

 bound in a tinted cover, and perhaps decorat- 

 ed in colors, with, say, some striking and 

 interesting pictures showing the art of bee- 

 keeping, and how honey is produced, might 



attract the attention of the consumer and 

 cause him to read it through. But, of course, 

 such a leaflet, or booklet, as it would have to 

 be in that case, would be considerably more 

 expensive ; and the average bee-keeper could 

 not afford to give away large numbers of them. 

 Now, then, dear reader, what are your views? 

 Should the leaflet be more expensive, and dis- 

 tributed to only a few consumers? or perhaps, 

 better still, left only with retailers and whole- 

 salers ? or is the leaflet, such as we have been 

 sending out, all right ? May be it would be 

 impossible to print all the suggestions that 

 come in, but I should be glad to get expres- 

 sions, and will then formulate them into a 

 general statement, as I have done this time. 



OUR NEW DEPARTMENT. 



Our readers will notice a new department, 

 entitled " Pickings from Our Neighbors' 

 Fields," immediately following Stray Straws. 

 This department is to be edited by my old 

 friend and co-worker, " Stenog " as he will 

 sign himself, but who is none other than W. 

 P. Root, who is at this very moment taking 

 down in pot-hooks some of my offhand sen- 

 tences. Mr. Root's writings have before ap- 

 peared in these colums in a series of articles 

 reviewing some of the old literature on bees, 

 running through most of the year 1893. Since 

 that he has had but little to say himself in our 

 columns, although you may be sure he has 

 carefully scrutinized every word and every 

 punctuation-mark that has appeared in this 

 journal, and in some of the others. Mr. Root 

 has a keen sense of the true and beautiful, 

 the good and the useful, and particularly of 

 the dry and the humorous. And in his 

 " Pickings" he is to have free swing except 

 that he is not to fling flings or sling mud. He 

 is to thrash over the gleaiings from our ex- 

 changes, and then re-dish them up properly 

 seasoned and spiced. Well, I'll let him now 

 speak for himself : 



At the outset. I deem it but fair to myself to state 

 that it is not with the feelings of a novice that I am 

 attempting this semi monthly spread of a new table. 

 For a good many years I have had exclusive control of 

 one department in Gleanings, although it was not 

 signed. No matter how crowded, the editor has never 

 asked me to cut it down. From start to finish it has 

 been all my own, even to setting the type. The gram- 

 mar has never been called in question, either by Mr. 

 Taylor or Mr. Thompson. I refer to the index — that 

 indispensable adjunct to all good journals. But in 

 taking; charge of this one, the personal factor is neces- 

 sarily larger. The design of it is well described just 

 above; namely, to state in a very concise manner the 

 conclusions of writers in other bee-journals, on some 

 subjects. 



A private letter leads me to state that if any of tVe 

 readeisof Gleanings wish to ask any questions rel- 

 ative to the mechanical \ art of writing for a journal I 

 shall be glad to answer such; and even without such 

 questions, nrobably a good many suggestions will be 

 made at this end of the line relative to the proper 

 preparation of copy for printers' use 



I rather like to give advice well sugar-coated, as it is 

 more apt to be taken in that form. The " traditions of 

 the elders" rest very lightly on me. and hence I pre- 

 sume f shall have to state things in my own way in- 

 stead of conforming to any cast-iron rules. But the 

 value of this department will be tested by time, and 

 not by any promises I can now make. It involves a 

 good deal of reading in English, certainly, and will 

 probably include a few heads of grain gathered in 

 German, French, and Spanish fields, although Dr. 

 Miller is now attending quite faithfully to that kind 

 of work. Stenog. 



