1883 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



617 



hand, we will notify you. Hoping above will prove 

 satisfactory, I am yours, etc. A. I. Koot. 



Per Kittij. 

 The full amount was charged to you to 

 show that we had never received any thing 

 for the book, and also that it might be made 

 straight if your letter should come to hatid 

 after a while, as stray letters often do. 

 Sometimes they come in three or often six 

 months after they were wriiten, with the 

 amount inclosed all right. 



I wonder if the friends know how myself 

 and my clerks study humanity — how we 

 stut y people and their ways of doing. Just 

 a few weeks ago our good friend — — sent us 

 1115 in a letter, unregistered. Weeks passed, 

 and no tidings came of it, and I confess I 

 was almost tempted to think it could hardly 

 be true, that any one was so thoughtless as 

 to send such an amount in such a careless 

 way. Finally I was one day surpiised by an 

 exclamation by the clerk who opens the let- 

 ters. We all stopped work to see what was 



so wonderful. Mr. 's letter was at hand, 



and there the money was, all safely inclosed 

 in the letter, exactly as he had said. ^Vhere 

 had it been all this time V AVe were never 

 able to discover. We were so glad to be 

 able to find it all right that we did not inves- 

 tigate very much. Just one more point : 



Every little while somebody accuses us of 

 keeping back Gleanings after we have re- 

 ceived the money for it — as if we could pos- 

 sibly have any object in so doing ! Why, 

 friends, surplus Gleanings that are left 

 over almost every month are of no possible 

 use to any one, and are then taken down to 

 the warehouse and sold for waste paper, 

 when they are out of date. Does some 

 thoughtless one ask why we do not give 

 them away, and also, while we are about it, 

 give away the ABC too? Why, friends, 

 for the simple reason it will not be using all 

 alike, and you know we must have a uni- 

 form price for all. I believe no one ever ac- 

 cuses us of having this uniform price too 

 high. 



Perhaps, friend M., you only meant to in- 

 timate that we wanted the pay twice for one 

 book. But even that is a pretty hard charge 

 to make. Or did you simply mean that we 

 had lost the money by our carelessness, and 

 then asked you to send it again V Could you 

 visit our office, and witness the precautions 

 we take to prevent the possibility of such a 

 thing, I hardly think you would make such 

 a charge. Our postmaster puts all our let- 

 ters into a leathern sack belonging to us. He 

 then locks it up, and our book-keeper (who, 

 by the way, is a lady) unlocks the bag and 

 opens the letters herself. She also carefully 

 notes the money, and makes it her business 

 to see that it is credited on her books, where 

 credit is to be made. Then the letters are 

 distributed to the clerks over the different 

 departments ; and when they are through 

 with them they are filed in such a way that 

 we can, in a few minutes, lay our hands on 

 any letters that have ever reached our office. 

 Now, then, to conclude with, please bear 

 in mind that when our publications give you 

 pleasure and profit, we receive pleasure and 

 profit; and, therefore, it would not only be 

 absurd, but almost idiotic to publish books 



and papers, and then keep them, after the 

 money had been paid over. Come to think 

 of it, there is a point here where I am selfish. 

 I have a selfish motive in wanting our publi- 

 cations in your hands just as soon as possi- 

 ble after they are out of the press ; for every 

 student and pupil of A B C and Gleanings 

 eventually becomes a good, permanent cus- 

 tomer. Just see how that takes the romance 

 out of it all. 



Or Letters from Those AVho bave Made 

 Bee Culture a Failure. 



THE DROUGHT IN TEXAS. 



E have just been through the longest drought 

 W in this part of Texas for at least 25 years. 

 Think of it, not to have rain to any amount 

 from March 33d till Sept. 8th I Our bees are, there- 

 fore, in a poor condition, and we are In Blasted 

 Hopes. After one of the coldest winters known in 

 Texas, they built up fast, and every thing looked 

 promising till swarming time, when it was very 

 windy and dry. As they held back from swarming, 

 I divided some, but lost all the queens in mating. 

 After trying one hive six times, to have a queen fer- 

 tilized (the last proved a drone-layer), I had to dou- 

 ble up at the end of June; in all I inserted about 50 

 queen-cells, and pot 6 fertilized. Should we have 

 some more rain, our bees may gather enough to win- 

 ter from cotton, which is starting to bloom again, if 

 the worms do not destroy it. Every thing else is 

 dried up, and the fall crop is blasted too. 



My report for this year will now sum up as fol- 

 lows: In spring, 24; increased by natural swarming 

 and dividing to 42; doubled up to 23. Last year Tex- 

 as stood against the world for honey ; this year the 

 world stands against Texas, though we will try an- 

 other year. In our locality, where we have nothing 

 to depend on for the honey crop as annuals, you can 

 think how bees can gather honey when it does not 

 rain for bli months, with the thermometer every 

 day from 100 to 108° in July and August. If you 

 like more reports for B. H., I can furnish you some 

 of box-hive men in the neighborhood. 



J. SCHUDDEMAGEN. 



Black Jack Springs, Fayette Co., Texas. 



HONEY CROP A FAILURE. 



Our bees quit storing honey in June, and since 

 then have not gathered enough to live on. If it 

 doesn't rain this month we shall have to feed for 

 winter, we are feeding nuclei now; shall double up 

 soon. From 100 hives we extracted only 3000 lbs. this 

 year; 43 lbs. was the best, and 20, you see, an average. 

 Last year 300 lbs. was the best, and 5000 lbs. the total 

 crop. We sold, last year, at an average of 15 cts. per 

 lb. None sold this year for less than 15 cts. 



Waco, Texas, Sept., 1883. Guyton Bros. 



Be of good cheer, friends. It is now pret- 

 ty clearly demonstrated that almost every 

 locality gives a bountiful yield of honey now 

 and then if the apiarist is up and dressed, 

 and ready to care for it. When friend Muth 

 reported last year " not a pound of honey," 

 I looked around on the hills about Cincin- 

 nati, and, without saying so, I settled down 

 to the conviction that there was not much use 

 in trying to keep bees in a city like Cincin- 



