January, 1917 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



33 



FROM THE FIELD OF EXPERIENCE 



differ to a great extent, even when only a 

 few miles apart. ]n an average or some- 

 K'liat of an " off year," enough will be 

 gathered by all of the apiaries to " make a 

 living;" and when one good year follows 

 another, as quite often happens, enough 

 can be laid away to build a home and lix 

 for a comfortable old age. 



Borodino, N. Y. G. M. Doolittle. 



Letters from a Beekeeper's Wife 



Home, January 1, 1917. 



Dear Sis : 



The Christmas box that came- the day 

 before Christmas from your house could not 

 have been more enjoyed. Billie has been 

 out on liis skates every day since, and the 

 girls are delighted with their mutfs. They 

 liave always wanted furs but we thought we 

 couldn't afford them. Now that they have 

 muffs we are going to take the money out 

 of our private I. P. T. A. fund and get 

 them neck pieces to match. 



Have I ever told you about the I. P. T. A. 

 fund"? It stands for "It Pays To Adver- 

 tise " — and it certainly does. We never 

 realized how much it pays until our road 

 became part of the Jefferson Highway. A 

 year ago last autumn, just after the con- 

 crete road was laid, we found that we had 

 considerable fall honey which was very good 

 but it was what the buyers call " off color." 

 Rob conceived the idea one day as we sat 

 watching the ante s whiz past that we might 

 be able to sell that honey to passersby. 

 That is an undeveloped trade, so if we 

 can sell to them it means just that much 

 more honey disposed of. 



He talked about it all winter off and on, 

 but, man-like, never did anything until 

 spring. One day he painted a big sign, 

 " HOXEY FOR SALE," and nailed it to 

 a post at the gate at the east end of the 

 lot. It wasn't a sign painter's job, and 

 may be that convinces the city folks that we 

 have " bee honey." Mother was here at 

 (lie time and may be she told you how 

 scandalized she was by that sign! T don't 

 see just why she thought it so much wor'se 

 to sell honey at our door than to send it 

 away to be sold, but in her mind it " lower- 

 ed " us in the social scale to have the sign 

 up. I don't take much stock in social 

 scales. They aie never balanced, are (hey? 

 So 1 was just as eager as Rob to see wliat 

 would lia])pen. I had a little honey in 



quart Mason jars — not the green ones, of 

 c()urst> — all ready and had ])reviously or- 

 dered some ])lain labels. I don't believe it 

 was more than an liour after tiuit sign went 

 up before an auto stopped and a man came 

 up to the door. To be sure, he didn't buy 

 — he wanted comb honey — but he was in- 

 terested and even went out to look at the 

 hives. The next day another auto stopped 

 at the sign — a Ford this time — and those 

 people took a quart of honey. It's queer, 

 but we seem, to sell more to Fords, perliaps 

 because they can stop more easily. We put 

 the 65 cents in a Mason jar, and Mother 

 assui'ed us that we'd never have any more 

 to put in from that source, but we felt 

 elated. If only one person a day was halt- 

 ed by the sign and bought one quart of 

 honey we would be getting twenty cents a 

 pound for that much honey instead of seven 

 or eight. There's a big difference between 

 wholesale and retail prices! 



Well, do you know that scarcely a day 

 passed after that but some one stopped to 

 buy? and as the warm weather came on, 

 bringing tourists by the score, we could 

 scarcely keep up with the demand. That's 

 why I have so little canning done for this 

 winter. We actually had to buy more 

 honey to sell to our auto trade, which 

 makes Rob sore when he remembers that 

 most of our ci'op last year was sold at 

 wholesale. 



We noticed that machines coming from 

 the east stopped frequently but that those 

 going the other way got too far past before 

 they could slow down, and we usually lost 

 their trade, so Rob put another sign at the 

 west end of the lot, to " catch them coming 

 and going " It's tremendously interesting 

 to watch the machines come flying by — 

 then come to a halt. There's a little con- 

 versation, some hesitation, then (particular- 

 ly if there are children aboard) some one is 

 almost sure to get out and walk up the line 

 of basswoods. Our Mason jar bank was 

 outgrown long agO' — ^on Labor Day we took 

 in $35. With tliis weather of course auto 

 traffic is at its lowest ebb, and yet I dare 

 not have less than a iialf dozen jars ready 

 on (he shelf. There are so many calls for 

 comb honey that we will buy .some next 

 summei- to have on hand. Rob says he 

 can buy that cheaper than he can ]")roduce 

 it, but may be that's true of the extracted 

 too, for selling honey is more profitable than 

 producing it. 



The iMcest part of all is (hat so many 

 come back for more. Rob has visions of 



