

GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



1 



EDITORIAL 



WITH THIS ISSUE of Gleanings we 

 inaugurate a new subscription policy — or, 



rather, return to 

 WHY THE the original sub- 



CHANGE scription prae- 



IS MADE tice as establish- 



ed by A. I. Root 

 at the time of the founding of Gleanings, 

 and continued by liim for years thereafter. 

 This is the practice of discontinuing all 

 subscriptions at expiration unless the sub- 

 scriber expressly directs us to continue his 

 subscription to such time as it is convenient 

 for him to pay. This plan supplants our 

 present j^lan of continuing all subscriptions 

 for six months or a year or even longer, 

 unless we receive the express order of the 

 subscriber to stop his subscription. By the 

 new plan we put the matter of continuance 

 squarely up to the subscriber, stopping a 

 subscription without putting the subscriber 

 to the trouble of writing us if he does not 

 wish Gleanings continued. 



In a word, it is the better plan of nev^er 

 running one of our subscribers into debt 

 without his definite consent. 



The old plan of continuing subscriptions 

 after expiration without order of the sub- 

 scriber has long been a common custom of 

 publishers. It is continued only because of • 

 custom. So many greedy and not-too-honest 

 publishers have abused this old custom 

 and pei'sisted in sending their publications 

 against the will and wish of the recipients 

 of thase cheai? journals that todaj' the cus- 

 tom has fallen into disrepute. Many pro- 

 claim it not only bad business but clearly 

 dishonest to continue (without an order) .a 

 subscription after expiration and then to try 

 to collect for it, and we have come to sym- 

 pathize with this view of the general read- 

 ing public which lias thus been imposed on 

 by greedy and dishonest publishers. At 

 any rate, so very many protests have come 

 to us against continuing Gleanings after 

 expiration without an express order so to do 

 that we are convinced that a large majority 

 of our readers wish us to adopt the i^lan of 

 stopping on expiration. Wlien we sav tliis 



we would have our readers bear in mind that 

 we have always notified subscribers at the 

 expiration of their subscriptions and asked 

 them to signify if they wished their sub- 

 scriptions stopped. We have never been in 

 the class of those publications that have 

 continued subscriptions without notifying 

 the subscriber. We never have knowingly 

 or intentionally continued a subscription to 

 any person who we thought was not will- 

 ing to have it continued. But now we are 

 going to be cleanly, and clearly on the safe 

 side of this proposition by knowing that our 

 subscriber wishes Gleanings continued, 

 either by his renewal or his express order 

 to continue for a definite time. 



Is there a reader of Gleanings who will 

 not agree that this is tlie one and only riglit 

 subscription i>olicy'? 



MAY WE CALL our readers' attention to 

 some thing's that have recently been said 



concerning the 



THEY SAY 



IT HAS 



HELPED 



results of n a - 

 tiional advertis- 

 ing of honey? 

 These comments 

 come from unprejudiced sources, and must 

 serve to brighten the hopes of all honey- 

 producers. 



The Domestic Beekeeper, E. D. Town- 

 send, editor, in its January number, says: 

 '' No one thing has had as much to do 

 with the advance in price of table quality 

 of extracted honey as the advertising of 

 The A. I. Root Co. They have paid out 

 as much as $6000 for a single-page adver- 

 tisement in the Ladies' Home Journal, fol- 

 lowed up with smaller space of great ex- 

 pense. W^hile it is to be expected that 

 they will get their money out of the prop- 

 osition, this advertising can not but help 

 the demand for honey, which in turn will 

 help every producer of extracted honey to 

 secure better prices with a better demand." 

 Tlio American Bee Journal, C. P. Dadant, 

 editor, in its December number, says: " One 

 of the most interesting talks (at the Illinois 



