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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 15 



was an out-and-out fabrication. The other 

 was from a man who used to preach, but is 

 now an imbecile. They took advantage of 

 his infirmity, and got his consent when he 

 did not know what he was talking about or 

 what they wanted. 



CONTINUING PERIODICALS WITHOUT HAVING 

 ORDERS, FROM THE ONE WHO SUB- 

 SCRIBES, TO KEEP THEM 

 GOING. 



A few days ago the following letter was 

 handed me because I have expressly request- 

 ed to see all severe criticisms in regard to 

 the way The A. I. Root Co. does business: 



Gentlemen:— LiSist spring, when I received a sample 

 copy of your journal, I was pleased to see you agreed to 

 stop it when my time was out, and my subscription was 

 sent in i n good faith, and a request to be sure to have it 

 stopped; but, lo! not a stop. Now I suppose it will 

 take months to stop it, but I am equal to the occasion, 

 I never have failed yet, and I will succeed in this. I do 

 not allow any paper or magazine to come to my address 

 unless it stops as soon as its time is up for what I have 

 paid for. I consider it a sneaking way to get my pa- 

 tronage to continue to send me your paper or journal 

 contrary to my orders, regardless of its value, and I will 

 lend my might to persuade all to shun all literature that 

 does not stop as soon as time is out. It will grace the 

 roadside by my mail-box from now on, and passers-by 

 would learn the cause. It will be explained as a creep- 

 ing, sneaking nuisance. Robert Green. 



Earlham, la., Jan. 5. 



Just as soon as I went over the above I 

 called for his former letter where he order- 

 ed Gleanings, and here it is: 



Gentlemen:— Find 25 cents in stamps inclosed for six- 

 months' trial subscription to Gleanings. Stop at ex- 

 piration unless otherwise ordered. Robert Green. 



Earlham, la., Mar. 28. 



You will notice that our vehement friend 

 sent only 25 cents for a six months' trial 

 subscription. He does say in his letter, 

 ' ' Stop at expiration, ' ' and I am very sorry 

 to say that the young lady who attended to 

 the subscription, for some reason I can not 

 explain, failed to put on the mark, "To be 

 stopped at the end of six months." She is 

 a comparatively new clerk ; but I think after 

 this she will not be likely to overlook this 

 part of her work. 



Now, our friend is undujy vehement, and 

 certainly it is very unreasonable to write 

 such a letter as his first one before he had 

 politely asked for an explanation. But his 

 letter seems to indicate that he has had 

 trouble before in getting periodicals stopped 

 when the time was up; and from what I 

 read in different publications I am inclined 

 to think there are periodicals the publishers 

 of which try to force them on the people at 

 large; and the worst part of it is, that, aft- 

 er having done so, they hand accounts over 

 to various collection agencies which, it 

 seems, get quite a little money by frighten- 

 ing good people into paying for something 

 they never ordered and did not want. I ex- 

 plained the matter to friend Green, and 

 asked him if he did not owe us an apology, 

 but I have not received one yet. 



And now let me say, as I have been say- 

 ing all along, that, while it is true we con- 

 tinue our journal without orders, where par- 



ties do not say any thing about having it 

 stopped, it is also true we never expect any- 

 body to pay a copper for Gleanings that 

 was sent without orders and was not want- 

 ed. In other words, if we send it without 

 orders it is our loss and your gain unless, 

 when the circumstances are explained to 

 you, you decide it has been of some value 

 in your home and family, and therefore you 

 can afford to pay us something for it. 



HATCHING hens' EGGS IN A BEE-HIVE. 



I suppose the story is still going the rounds 

 of the press. One of our subscribers sends 

 us a clipping containing a picture of some 

 hives. One of them has the cover removed, 

 showing the eggs in place under the chaff 

 cushion. We can not tell the name of the 



faper from which the clipping was made, 

 t reads as follows : 



farmer finds bee-hive good incubator. 



The common honey-bee is the latest kind of an incu- 

 bator. That may seem a foolish statement, yet it has 

 been practically demonstrated by an Ohio farmer. 

 Hereafter the patient hen may have a rival in the 

 industrious little insects, for they can be used to hatch 

 hens' eggs as well as the most improved pattern of 

 incubator. 



What is more, the bees can outstrip the mother hen 

 by two days. It takes the hen twenty-one days to hatch 

 a setting of eggs. A colony of bees can do it in nineteen. 



Henry Decker, an old resident of Rome, Ashtabula 

 County, Ohio, is the first person to utilize the heat gen- 

 erated by bees in the hatching of chickens. He is able 

 to hatch 100 chicks from 100 eggs in nineteen days. 



Mr. Decker said: " I was transfering a swarm of bees 

 one day, and noticed the temperature was about the 

 same as I always had it for my incubator, so I got my 

 thermometer and tested the heat that night. 



"My wife wanted to know whether there was not 

 another hen that we could set. I told he r that I thought 

 so, and I put twenty eggs in the bee-hive that night. I 

 said nothing to any one, but waited to see what would 

 be the result. 



" In just nineteen days I happened around the hive, 

 and heard a funny noise. Upon hearing it I found 

 eighteen chickens out of the twenty eggs. 



' Since that time I have tried different numbers of 

 eggs, and have always done as well according to the 

 number of eggs that I put in." 



Mr. Decker has been deluged with letters of inquiry, 

 requests for illustrative drawings, photographs, etc., 

 but this is the first time that his likeness could be 

 secured. He is in the act of removing the covering 

 from the eggs inside the hive. The cover is an old 

 chair-cushion. The eggs lie on a cotton cloth, which 

 separates them from the bees. Another cu=ihion made 

 from a quilt, is placed around the edge. Mr. Decker 

 has received letters from nearly every State in the 

 Union, also from Germany and other foreign countries. 



Among several communications in regard 

 to the matter we give the one below. I 

 have written Mr. Decker about his success, 

 but have as yet received no reply. 



HATCHING hens' EGGS OVER BEES. 



I have tried it once over a strong colony of bees, two 

 thicknesses of burlap under the eggs, and over the 

 frames a frame of common lath just large enough to 

 rest on the outer edge of frames; burlap between the 

 lath and eggs; a good big warm cushion nicely tucked 

 down all the way around, eggs turned over every day or 

 every other day. At the end of four weeks, not a chick; 

 eggs were not even spoiled. I am. sure it was not a 

 good thing for the bees. Now, it seems as though the 

 conditions were all right, except it was too early in the 

 season for continued hot weather. I tried it in dande- 

 lion and fruit-bloom. 



Eggs we're al ways cold on top when I went to turn them 

 over. If it happened to be cold weather I warmed a 

 new cushion and changed the cushions. I presume it 

 would work in extremely hot weather; but then I want 

 the bees to work at something else. 



Mt. Pleasant, Mich., Feb. 22. H. S. Wheeler. 



