188 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 1 



few of these are given below. But while 

 there may be a thousand who wish to have 

 the department of questions and answers 

 more full and strong, and there may be 

 several thousand who prefer to have more of 

 the advanced or technical articles, we 

 should like to get a full and complete ex- 

 pression, so we may be able to follow out 

 the wishes of a majority of our readers. 

 Say, also, whether you like illustrated mat- 

 ter, especially that which shows new kinks 

 and new methods for doing work among the 

 bees. 



I like the questions and answers the best. 

 Earlville, 111. J. C. Frank. 



I find questions and answers a great help to me, 

 rather more interesting than "forced, shook, or shak- 

 en swarms." R. W Pollky. 



North Chelmsford, Mass. 



My opinion is that the last number is the most in- 

 teresting and instructive I have yet seen, and my sub- 

 scription has covered two years. W. S. Carson. 



Chicago, 111., Feb. 23. 



Your Questions and Answers department is all right. 

 We older ones are not too old to learn, and you know 

 we find lots of good hints among your answers. Keep 

 on doing so. G. C. Greiner. 



La Salle, N. Y., Feb. 23. 



I,et me congratulate you on the splendid issue for 

 Feb. 15. Give us more questions andj answers. No- 

 thing so nearly approaches a]practicalidemonstration 

 of the workings of an apiary. J. M. Reed. 



Big Valley, Texas. 



Yes, by all means keep up the questions 'andjan- 

 swers. 1 am and have been for many years a close 

 reader of scientific and technical papers, and the part 

 that I like most in them all is the questions and an- 

 swers H. D. Dibble, 



Rochford, South Dakota, Feb. 23. 



My preference is decidedly in favor of the questions 

 and answers, as given in the issue mentioned. The 

 articles from the expert bee keepers are excellent, 

 and we couldn't get along without them; but the 

 question department brings out the little practical 

 points that help us at just the point where we need 

 them. . A. J. Kilgore. 



Bowling Green, O., Feb. 23. 



Speaking from the standpoint of a very green hand, 

 I would say continue the questions and answers by 

 all means. It will tend to keep such as I from making 

 some very foolish moves, and help us to understand 

 the problems which were learned so long ago by the 

 masters that they have forgotten that it wasn't born 

 in them. H. R. Sanders. 



Chrisman, Ind., Feb. 19. 



On page 135 you struck the key-note when you im- 

 agined that questions and answers was the " stuff." 

 At any rate that is what I pick out and read hrst. 

 I am with the little bees, the same as you are with the 

 automobile: don't know the cause and effect, but get 

 other people's experience and profit, thereby saving 

 time, money, and vexation, let alone failure. 



Albia, Iowa. J. I. Chenoweth. 



Bro Root:— Yonr last number of Gleanings, Feb. 

 15, is about the best I have yet read. It is chuckful of 

 practical information I always like your editorial 

 notes at the end of each article. But I can't say that 

 I like one department better than any other. They 

 are all interesting 



I use the Danz hive, and I, too, think that making 

 the bottom-bar of the brood-frames as wide as the top- 

 bars would be an improvement, even if it has the one 

 disadvantage you mention. Chas. B. Ach.-\.rd. 



The letter of Mr. Sanders, above, touches 

 on a point that I have found was sadly 

 lacking in the text-books and journals 

 treating on automobiles. They would talk 

 about four-cjxle engines, carburetters, 

 spark-plugs, make-and-break coils, plane- 



tary transmission, etc., assuming that we 

 novices knew all about them as a matter of 

 course; and it was only after a talk with a 

 practical automobilist that I learned the 

 meaning of those terms; and he even seemed 

 surprised to think that I should be such an 

 ignoramus. Now, I wonder if bee-journals 

 have fallen into the fashion of assuming 

 that their beginner class know all about the 

 technical terms that are used so freely in 

 their columns. Let's see. How many 

 know what "post-constructed " and " pre- 

 constructed cells" means? when we talk 

 about "grafting," what idea is convej'ed? 

 and just imagine the perplexity of a novice 

 when he finds in his bee paper a good deal 

 about "shook swarms." After a little he 

 falls to wondering whether " forced swarm- 

 ing " has any thing to do with the first- 

 named term. Soon he sees the veterans 

 talking about "prime swarms," and that 

 even they disagree as to what is the mean- 

 ing of the term. Then some one else has 

 something to say about half-depth brood- 

 frames, and he wonders what is a standard 

 depth. He may read the bee journals for 

 years and scan many of the supply catalogs, 

 and never see the size of a Langstroth frame 

 given. No wonder he is at sea. 



But Gleanings does not propose to give 

 up its entire space, by any means, to be- 

 ginners. It wishes to make itself useful to 

 the veteran as well as to the novice. But 

 what it now wishes to know is, what shall 

 be the proportion of technical or advanced 

 bee-lore to that which is somewhat more 

 elementary in character. 



MR. HEDDON ON A NATIONAL COMMERCIAL 

 ORGANIZATION. 



Mr. Hutchinson, the editor of the Re- 

 view, recently visited Mr. Heddon, one of 

 the bright, brainy bee-keepers better known 

 to some of our readers of some years ago 

 than those of the present day. In the inter- 

 view that followed, the subject of national 

 co-operation of bee-keepers for the purpose 

 of marketing honey came up. Mr. Hutch- 

 inson quotes Mr. Heddon as follows: 



I went over the different plans that have been 

 proposed for national commercial organization. He 

 thought the matter over for a while, then said: 

 "Hutch, I don't believe you'll make it work. The 

 country is too large, there are too many bee-keepers, 

 and they are too scattered. They are lacking, many 

 of them, in business abilities. Ordinary bee-keepeis 

 have not had the business training that comes to the 

 heads of manufacturing concerns that go into a trust. 

 Any business concern that goes into combination 

 wiih other like concerns is rtady at all times to 'tat 

 crow.' If a whole loaf can not be secured, half a loaf 

 is accepted. Let come what may, they all hang to- 

 gether. They keep up the combination. Bee keepers 

 won't do this. The moment that a man's honey isn't 

 graded as he thinks it ought to be graded, the moment 

 he does not get the returns to which he thinks he is 

 entitled, out he goes ' 



I cited him the Colorado Honey producers' Associa- 

 tion " Yes," he said, "the bee-keepers of a certain 

 State or locality may band together, if there is any 

 reason why they should, and make a success of it. Cal- 

 ifornia may form an association and make a success; 

 so maj' Colorado; so may Canada; or New York; but 

 when you attempt to combine all the bee-keepers of 

 this country into one society, or have a central organ- 

 ization coiitrolling the different local organizations, 

 j^ou are courting failure. There is always something 



