1044 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



find out and report the reason of his ab- 

 sence." 



There, friends, is a suggestion for Bible 

 classes, men's brotherhoods, Y. M. C. A. 

 associations, etc. Whenever a pupil finds 

 he has been missed and is inquired after, 

 he will be pretty sure to come next time. 

 Now a word in closing. 



If you, my dear reader, have any young 

 friends or relatives, a boy or girl who 

 seems to be getting out of the straight and 

 narrow way, do not be wearied in pleading 

 or praying for that one. " Be not weary 

 in well doing, for in due time we shall 

 reap if we faint not." 



EEPORTS ENCOURAGING AND REPORTS DIS- 

 COUBAGING. 



Our older readers will remember that 

 years ago T used to have two departments 

 headed as above. Objection has been made 

 to giving these great yields of honey be- 

 cause it tends to give beginners the idea 

 that keeping bees is a ready means of 

 " getting rich quick." But if we go to the 

 opposite extreme, and give only reports 

 disc our acping, this would be manifestly un- 

 fair. Well, several times lately I have urg- 

 ed that our journal give a little more 

 space to reports encouraging. Of course I 

 do not as a rule have much to do just now 

 with the department of bee culture. Well, 

 only yesterday, Sept. 8, I was getting ready 

 for rny after-dinner nap when one of my 

 sons-in-law called out, " Say, father ! Don't 

 you want to come over to the honey-room 

 and see them unload a car of extra-fine 

 honey?" 



Of course, I went over. The first thing 

 that pleased me was that there was not a 

 trace of a leaky package in the whole car- 

 load. There was not a drop of honey on 

 the bottom of the car, nor anything sticky 

 anywhere. A screw cap was loosened from 

 one of the cans, and some slips of pine 

 wood passed around for the difi'erent mem- 

 bers of the firm to sample the 20,000 

 pounds. Just as soon as I tasted it I utter- 

 ed an exclamation of delight. In answer 

 to my question as to who produced that big 

 lot of extra-fine honey, Mr. Calvert replied, 

 "Mr. Sowinski." Well, I was pleased again 

 to be told that a foreigner (at least his 

 name would indicate such) was the success- 

 ful beekeeper, instead of some old downeast 

 Yankee whose name has, perhaps, been 

 before the beekeeping world for years past. 

 I was also told that this was only about half 

 of his crop of 40,000 lbs., and that the 

 whole yield was from between 300 and 400 



colonies. When I wanted to give the full 

 name and address with particulars one of 

 our men who makes it his business to hunt 

 up and buy honey said our good friend who 

 produced the crop would object to any 

 report being made that would give his 

 locality.* This matter has come up many 

 times before, where somebody gets a great 

 yield, and a great lot of beekeepers begin 

 to camp all around him, very likely to 

 discover later that the man and not the 

 locality gets the honey by the carload. Let 

 me digiess a little. 



A few days ago at one of our board 

 meetings the question came up as to the 

 purchase of a new printing-press to print 

 honey-labels. By the way, I think we are 

 having more orders for honey-labels just 

 now than ever before since Gleanings was 

 started toward fi.fty years ago. While 1 

 write, the new press is running off beautiful 

 labels in colors at the rate of 2800 sheets an 

 hour — the number of labels on each sheet 

 depending on their size, of course. As 

 usual I objected a little to the purchase of 

 a new printing-press. I thought we had 

 presses enough, and some that were not 

 running. But this new press takes care of 

 the label work largely. It is a self-feeder^ 

 and has already run off 2900 sheets without 

 a stop or a failure, f As I write, it is print- 

 ing 29 labels at once, or 81,200 an hour. 

 My impression is that when people get a 

 taste of this fine honey I have been speak- 

 ing about it will keep that new press pretty 

 busy printing labels to put on the bottles. 

 Just a few days ago I got a glimpse of 

 a nice little bottle of honey for only five 

 cents, and I was delighted to think one 

 could get about all the honey that is good 

 for him, perhaps at a restaurant or a lunch-, 

 counter for " only a nickel." Mr. Calvert 

 threw cold water on my speculation, how-. 

 ever, by saying that the way glass bottles 

 are advancing (on account of the war) he 

 was a little afraid " the more we sold the 

 worse off we would be." 



Well, friends, it rejoices my heart to 

 know that my prediction to the worrying 

 friends (when I first got crazy about the 

 possibilities of bee culture) toward fifty 

 years ago, is coming to pass. At that time 

 I said, " 'Now don't you worry, my good 

 friends and relatives. The time is coming, 

 and I expect to live to see it, when honey, 

 like butter and eggs, will not only be on 

 sale at every corner grocery thruout our 



* This beautiful honey is supposed to have come 

 largely from the wild red raspberry. 



t By the way, I forgot to mention the fact that if 

 any accident happens, say when a eheet gets in 

 wrong, the press stops promptly of its own accor4 

 until somebody sets the matter ri^ht. 



