1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



tell them to make and ship them at their conven- 

 ience. By so doing-, they have a full stock on hand 

 when none can be obtained elsewhere, and thereby 

 advertise their business in a way that nothing else 

 does, by furnishing goods promptly that can be ob- 

 tained at no other house. Of course, this requires 

 capital, but much money is lostby the needof a thing 

 at just the proper season, and it should be remember- 

 ed that, with most of you, money can be obtained for 

 about six per cent interest. Now, this small amount 

 of interest is a trifling matter, compared with los- 

 ing a crop just for lack of proper fscilities for car- 

 ing for and marketing it. Of course, this would ap- 

 ply only to ttaple goods that are sure to be needed 

 year after year. In our business, we often order 

 supplies of honey-knives and such like floods in the 

 fall, so as to bj sure to have them ready for next 

 spring. 



CORKECTIKG MIST.4KES. 



It is an ciJ saying, and one that is generally true, 

 that right harms no man; but it seems to me, my 

 friends, that we sometimes carry the matter of rec- 

 tifying mistakes to almost too great a length, and 

 often, perhaps, without hardly thinking of it. With 

 the multiplicity of goods we offer for sale during the 

 busy season, like the present time, mistakes will, in 

 spite of us, creep Id. and you know I have requested 

 you to inform us of these. But suppose the mis- 

 take in question is only on a five-cent or three-cent 

 article. Is It really worth while to have expensive 

 clerks stop their work and hunt over files of old let- 

 ters, to see whether the error was in your order or 

 in our filling the order? I suppose most of you, in 

 dealing or in making charge, are accustomed to let 

 a matter of three or five cents drop, when the 

 change is not at hand to make it right. A postal 

 card is just at hand to-day, complaining of some 

 mats for hives. After the clerk looked it up, we 

 found it was the second time he had written about 

 It; and on looking up the order, we found that he 

 had only two mats at five cents each, and one of 

 them was too small. The time consumed in hunting 

 it up was far more than the value of the mats. 

 Now, we make it a rule here to hand over five cents 

 to anybodj- who says we owe him that amount; and 

 when we receive go-dswith shortage or breakage 

 to an amount not to exceed 25 cents, I have, cs a 

 oeneral tliimj, been accustomed to let it drop rather 

 than to make anybody any trouble about it. Would 

 it not bo best to consider this point a little? 



A "big trouble." 

 There is one big trouble, friends, that I don't just 

 now see how to get over. It is the old story in re- 

 gard to carelessness. One friend writes us just this 

 minute, to say that the file he said was not put in 

 with his goods is found, after all. A few days ago 

 he declared we didn't send it, and his order had to be 

 hunted, to see if he oi'dered one. When found, with 

 tivo checks on it, to show that two clerks had seen it 

 put in, I was either obliged to scold them for care- 

 lessness, or write back to our friend that he must 

 have overlooked it. Neither one is a very pleasant 

 task to do. Should I send him another by mail, 

 without even stopping to look up the order, and thus 

 save time and trouble? There are two objections to 

 so doing: At the low prices we sell these things, I 

 can not afford to; and then, again, we often find 

 that the man who says he ordered a file, didn't order 

 any at all — he only tlutught he did. I must keep a 

 check on the clerks too, and most of them want to 



know when complaints are made of their work. 

 There is no way but to go back, hunt up letters, and 

 trace complaints. Yesterday a friend wrote that 

 the rabbets he declared were left out were in the 

 package a'ter all. Somebody had lifted them out 

 with the tin hive-covers, and then he declared there 

 were none sent, and an innocent clerk came very 

 near having to pay heavy express on more rabbets. 

 It often takes more time to hunt up such blunders, 

 and get at the truth, than it does to put up the 

 goods. What shall we do, and who can help us in 

 this matter that is such a very great cleg and hin- 

 drance in business? 



cook's new manual. 

 We have just received a large invoice of Professor 

 Cook's " Manual of the Apiary." The book has been 

 thoroughly revised, and containes much additional 

 matter, besides a large number of new engravings 

 added. It seems to me that everj' bee-keeper should 

 have Cook's Manual. The ground occupied is in 

 many respects quite different from that of our A B 

 C book. As I have explained to you before, the 

 ABC book is written mainly to give plain practical 

 directions for the ABC scholar to make a success 

 with his bees, with as littleexpense as possible, and as 

 little confusion as may be, as would come from 

 knowing all the differerit hives, etc., now in general 

 use. Now, Cook's Manual, in one sense, occupies a 

 much broader field than the A B C book. He touches 

 on many things that I omitted entirely. He also de- 

 scribes many methods of management that no men- 

 tion is made of in the ABC book, and gives a bird's- 

 eye view, as it were, of the present state of affairs 

 of the science of bee culture over the whole world. 

 Of course, he does not describe as many things mi- 

 nutely, nor go into details as I do in the ABC. Had 

 he done so, the work would have been too volumi- 

 nous for most readers. As Prof. Cook is one of our 

 leading entomologists, he has taken up the natural 

 history of the bee, and carried it further, in many 

 respects, than the ABC book has. We have made 

 arrangements with frieud Cook, so as to furnish the 

 Manual at the same price as the ABC book, both 

 wholesale and retail. That is, when you are making 

 up a club for the ABC and Gleanings, you can 

 count Cook's Manual on the same terms. 



CIRCULARS RECEIVED. 



We have just printed for H. B. Harrington, of this 



placf, a 1-page list of bees, queens, and farm iiiiplonients. 



Our friend Byron Walker, Capac, Mich., sends us 



a 4-page circular and price list of bee s^upplies that ought to be 

 read bj' every bee-man, even if lie doesn't buy any floods of him. 



E. A. Thomas & Co.. Coleraine, Mass.. have mailed 



us a verj- complete catalogue of their improved strains of 

 bees; 4 i)ages the size of this. 



P. P. Bhodes, New Castle, Ind., has sent us a one- 

 page list of bees and queens. 



N. S. Coggeshall, Summit, N. J., has just i-eceived 



from our press a C-page list of bees and querns. On account of 

 the destruction of their factory by tire, friends N. S. & W. B. 

 Coggeshall furnish no supplies at present. 



M. B. Moore, Moraran, Ky., sends out a one-page 



list of Italian queens. AVitli each order, fi iend Moore sends a 

 specimen of his penmanship. Hardly in a lifetime do we tind 

 so exquisite a jienman as he is. Friend Moore has the good 

 will of our typos on that score, .as have Hasty, Hutchinson, 

 and others. 



L. E. Mercer. Lenox, Iowa, sends us a 16-page list 



of bee sup])lies. In winding up, friend Mercer writes the fol- 

 lowing very kind words relative to the A B C book and— friend 

 Novice: The A B C book is certainly the best hook ever pub- 

 lished on bee-keeping. It is especially adapted to the wants of 

 the beginner. Every person that has a stand of bees should 

 have one of these books; they aiv well bound and nicely print- 

 ed, and illustrated with many tine engravings. Frientl Root 

 has a peculiar way of writing that makes one feel when read- 

 ing his book as though he were ,iust talking to him ; and I am 

 sure that after you have read his book you will, as I do, think 

 of him aa " friend " Root. 



