606 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



Dec. 



BUILDING UP A BUSINESS AND A BEPUTATION. 



I am one of your ABC class of 1880. I com- 

 menced with 4 box hives, and I have now 34 full col- 

 onies and 13 three-frame nuclei. I have a queen 

 from a pure Italian mother, in all full colonies, and 

 about ?i are purely mated. I have raised about 50 

 nice queens this season. I am Italianizing all of my 

 neighbors' bees. I have them nearly all done now, 

 so next season there will not be a black queen with- 

 in over two miles of me. Now, if I were to buy one 

 of your best selected imported queens, and rear 

 some good queens from her next season, will j^ou 

 buy some of me? I would like to keep about 26 or 30 

 nuclei going next season. My colonies are very 

 strong. I wish I could sell 20 lbs. of bees by the 

 pound. A. H. Squier. 



Nicholville, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., Aug. 8, '81. 



I dare not promise to take queens next 

 season, so long ahead, but I have this year 

 purchased nearly all that Avere offered for 

 sale by reliable paities. You Avill have to 

 build up a reputation, as all the rest do, 

 friend S.; and the way in which it is done, 

 you can see by the reports in almost any 

 number of Gleanings. Strive hard to 

 please all your customers, and they will not 

 be slow in letting others know that they are 

 pleased. You may, any of you, at almost 

 any time send me a few queens as samples 

 of what you can furnish, and I will allow 

 you the regular price for them I am paying 

 at the time. If, after they are introduced, I 

 find too many of them turning out hybrids, 

 I shall not be slow in telling you of it. You 

 will probably find a demand in your own 

 neighborhood for all the queens, bees, and 

 honey, you can raise for some time. Of one 

 thing rest assured : we shall pretty quickly 

 find out just what kind of a person you are, 

 and there is just now an immense call for 

 straight, square, faithful men. 



I see by last Gleanings that you hold yourself 

 responsible for those who advertise with you. I 

 want to state a case to you, and have your opinion 

 on it. 



Last September I saw an advertisement of H. Al- 

 ley, Wenham, Mass., in Gleanings, Cyprian queens 

 for $1.50. I gave a neighbor $1.50 to send for one; 

 he sent; received a dead queen; returned it, and 

 could get no satisfaction till last month. Alley said 

 he would "book" him for one queen. Now, we in- 

 tended to raise queens from her had we received her 

 in time, but we received her only yesterday, the 9th, 

 nearly a year after sending the money. We have 

 lost the use of her this season, which is quite an 

 item. I wrote Mr. Alley that I would be satisfied if 

 he would send me two Italian queens, and have re- 

 ceived no reply. My experience and his flattering 

 ad. in last Gleanings do not harmonize. I find a 

 most marvelous contrast between bis actions and 

 the treatment I received from W. W. Cary, of Cole- 

 rain. The latter I find will do more than you ex- 

 pect of him: the former will "hardly" act hon- 

 est. I do hope bee-men will gain a good reputation 

 for honesty. Do you think I expect too much when 

 I think Alley ought to send another queen to make 

 up a little loss? C. Neads. 



Lindsay, Oat., Can., Aug. 10, 1881. 

 If I am correct, friend N., you got a queen 

 right back. She came dead, unfortunately, 

 but this is nothing very unusual. Of course, 



Alley should not have kept you waiting a 

 year ; but still, the case is far different from 

 a deliberate and prepared fraud. You have 

 both been unfortunate ; but can you really 

 claim any thing more than the loss of the 

 use of the moneyV I know, expecting a 

 queen all the time is an annoyance ; but by 

 the expenditure of another $1.50 you could 

 have had one promptly from some one else, 

 could you notV Friend N., I wish to be a 

 friend to both you and Mr. Alley, and I 

 wish, too, you two to be friends. It may be 

 said the above is pretty hard on our friend 

 Alley; but last month I allowed a very 

 strong letter in his praise to go in print. 

 See page 540, Nov. iSJo. Friend Alley has a 

 good many warm friends, as well as a good 

 many who complain much of his want of 

 promptness. lie has lately written us to 

 send in all complaints, and he would fix all 

 satisfactorily, and I think he is doing so. 



FIREWERD. 



The firewced comes up itself here wherever there 

 has been an old chopping in the forest where flre 

 has got in and burnt the brush and tree-tops up; 

 hence the name, fireweed. It comes up in the latter 

 part of Maj' or first of June ; has a leaf resembling a 

 species of lettuce I have seen that came from St. 

 John's, Canada; the leaf is 4 or 5 inches in length, 

 and perhaps one inch wide. The stalk grows very 

 rapidly, and blossoms in about 4 weeks after it comes 

 up. The stalk is all the way from 3 to 6 feet in 

 height, and branches out about midway of the stalk 

 into several branches, each branch having more 

 branches on it, and at the end of each branch is a 

 blossom resembling a long bud, the bud-like blossom 

 being from li lo U of an inch in length, and remains 

 in blossom until the latter part of September; and 

 while some buds are in blossom, the seeds will be fly- 

 ing from others through the air like so many bees, 

 only white, resembling somewhat the cotton that 

 grows in the Southern States, only not so large. I 

 must say that it is as good a honey-plant as I ever 

 saw. The bees are working very thick on the blos- 

 soms during the three months they are in bloom. 

 The honey is nice and pleasant to the taste, as al- 

 most any other kind. I have never seen any of the 

 plants growing en sandy soil, although it may grow 

 there for all I know. Had I known before that any 

 one of my brother bee-keepers would wish for some 

 of the seeds, I should have gathered some. How- 

 ever, any one wishing the seeds, to give flreweed a 

 trial, can get some from me any time after the 15th 

 July, 1883, for ten cents per ounce. This will sow ?i 

 of an acre. G. Phillifs. 



Romeo, Marthon Co., Wis., Oct. 29, 1881. 



MY BEE AND HONEY REPORT FOR 1881. 



After uniting a few weak colonies I had 136. Sold 

 61 flrst-class colonies and 3 nuclei ; had 73 colonies to 

 begin the season with; worked 37 colonies for ex- 

 tracted honey; have taken an average of 311 

 lbs. per colony. Put boxes on 30 young colonies; 

 have an average of 40 lbs. each of comb honey. Run 

 the rest of them for increase; have this fall 147 col- 

 onies. Our bees had 18 acres of alsike clover, new 

 seeding, and 4 acres of second crop to work on. 

 They gathered most of the hodey from the alsike 

 clover. Basswood did not yield much honey this 

 year here. C. M. Woolver. 



Hallsville, Mont. Co., N. Y., Nov. 6, 1881. 



