THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



247 



became profitable that was engaged in be- 

 cause the one who started it had a journal in 

 which to advertise the new venture. It is 

 true that publishing, manufacturing and 

 dealing in supplies have been successfully 

 combined, but the men at the head of such 

 establishments have been peculiarly adapted 

 for the management of such a combination, 

 which has usually come about of "itself," 

 so to speak. But instead of pursuing this 

 subject further myself, I will introduce an 

 editorial from a late issue of the Trade 

 Press, a journal devoted especially to the in- 

 terests of class journals. Its editor says: — 



" An Eastern trade journal publisher 

 writes ; ' Very few trade journals are get- 

 ting from their subscribers the bare cost of 

 the manufacture of the white paper.' This 

 is, perhaps, true — true, at least, of many 

 publications. But it is not the fault of the 

 subscribers. It is the fault, pure and simple, 

 of the publishers of the journals about which 

 the statement is true. When the publisher 

 of a journal supposed to Contain news and 

 technical information obtainable in no other 

 paper, competes in subscription price with a 

 country weekly, filled with patent boiler- 

 plate matter, printed with worn out type on 

 news-print, it is natural he will lose money 

 on his subscription list. There are weekly 

 and monthly trade journals which charge $.5 

 and $6 a year subscription. Such do not 

 lose money on subscribers. Of course, the 

 plea is made that competition of journals of 

 your own class makes it impossible to charge 

 the proper price. True, two papers of equal 

 size and value in contents, one at a subscrip- 

 tion price of $1 and the other at $2, the first 

 would catch the subscribers. But these are 

 not the conditions. Where the trade journal 

 loses money on subscriptions' it is usually 

 due to the abnormal size of the paper, the 

 great preponderance of advertising pages, 

 made up of full and half-page ads at low 

 rates, making the printer, paper and press 

 bills out of all proportion to the subscripi,- 

 tion price. It is this that kills the profit on 

 the subscription list. Small ads, high rates 

 of advertising and subscription, and a small 

 sized paper, filled with the best of valuable 

 technical matter, is what makes a solid and 

 permanently profitable paper. Once estab- 

 lished on the opposite basis it may seem im - 

 possible to change, and yet if your paper has 

 any hold on its readers you will be aston- 

 ished how few discontinue subscription be- 

 cause of a raise in rates. With most busi- 

 ness men, the price of subscription is not 

 near so much a consideration as is the ques- 

 tion whether a paper contains in each issue 

 something they consider worth reading, and 

 which may be of value to them. There is 

 more money in $1,000 subscribers at .f? per 

 subscriber than 8,000 at $1, and the higher 

 your subscription price the more valuable 

 is the paper for advertisers, for a subscriber 

 who pays a good price for a paper values and 

 uses it according to the cost. The Trade 

 Press is ' harping ' on this string a little 



strong, in the hope that a readjustment of 

 subscription rates for trade journals may in 

 due time be brought about." 



There is one sentence in the above that 

 pretty nearly contains the pith of the whole 

 matter; it is the following: "Small ads, 

 high rates of advertising and subscription, 

 and a small sized paper, filled with the best 

 of technical matter, is what makes a solid 

 and permanently profitable paper." I have 

 proved the truth of the above in the case of 

 the Review, as it is exactly the plan upon 

 which I try to conduct it. I have also learned 

 that, if a paper has any hold whatever upon 

 its readers, a reasonable and necessary raise 

 in price causes but few of them to give up 

 the paper. There is also another point that 

 is worthy of consideration, viz., that "With 

 most business men, the price of subscription 

 is not near so much a consideration as is the 

 question whether a paper contains in each 

 issue something they consider worth read- 

 ing." 



Perhaps some will wonder of what partic- 

 ular interest all this can be to bee-keepers. 

 It is just this : the success of bee-keeping 

 has been, and is yet, largely dependent upon 

 the dissemination of knowledge through the 

 medium of bee journals ; the better the jour- 

 nals the greater will be the success of their 

 readers, and it is not to their interest that 

 the price of journals shall be forced down, 

 or remain so low, that the journals will not 

 be as good as it is possible to make them. 



Salt and Sulphur Don't Cure Bee Paralysis 

 — The Fault is in the ftueen. 



" I notice your mention of sulphur for 

 ' bee-paralysis.' Sulphur was no cure in my 

 hands, and I tried it in eve^y conceivable 

 way and extent : also salt. A change of the 

 queen has cured in every instance of some 

 80 colonies — last season and this. Some dis- 

 eased colonies which went through the win- 

 ter showed it again last spring. It appears 

 to be caused by imperfect queens, which be- 

 come imperfect through extensive egg-lay- 

 ing. 



I have seen the disease in Iowa, but it was 

 slightly different from the California kind. 

 Here it usually attacks a colony about the 

 time it gets populous enough for the surplus 

 receptacles. Then the colony gradually 

 weakens until the surplus receptacles will 

 not be occupied, and they are taken off as 

 empty as when put on. Even in au abun- 

 dant honey-flow they are unable to get much 

 ahead, and often are unable to gather their 

 daily food. It begins gradually, so that by 

 keeping a few newly-reared queens they may 

 be introduced as soon as the first symptoms 

 appear, and avoid very great loss. 



