220 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUKE. 



July 



When you get another order from me or my friends, 

 you wi'll know it. 1 ag-ree to everything that the 

 A. B. J. says against you. F. D. L. 



Texas. May 30th, 187«. 



Whew ! I do not know how it is with oth- 

 er folks, but postals like the above make 

 me feel as if some one had struck me with a 

 club. I can freely forgive our friend, for I 

 kiiow just how one feels, when he is charg- 

 ed dollars where he expected to pay dimes. 

 We had a plenty of silver hull buckwheat 

 raised, as we supposed, and the man who 

 had it said he would bring it up town be- 

 fore we wanted it, any way ; but when the 

 order came, we were out, and a postal had 

 to be dispatched to him. He came in and 

 told some one he had no more to spare, and 

 they forgot to tell me. The order was for- 

 gotten until I hunted it up, and then we 

 sent it at once to Lane, of Wis. Of course it 

 had to go by express as it was so late ; in 

 fact, if put in a box and sent by freight, the 

 charges to Texas might not have been any 

 less. He should have been notified of the 

 facts in the case, but that, too, was over- 

 looked. There is no use of twisting the 

 matter about as I know of, for the fault all 

 rests on my shoulders. Accordingly, I have 

 written all the parties tJiat I will pay back 

 all the money they have sent me, and let 

 them keep the goods, too, if nothing else 

 will make it pleasant. I could not stand 

 this very long, it is true, but — you see it will 

 teach me to do better, if anything will ; and 

 if it does not, why, the sooner I get ''wound 

 up," the better. Meanwhile, please do not 

 be too hard on a fellow. I will try and do 

 right, even if you don't come at me with 

 ''pitchforks". 



If the A. B. J. did take me to task in re- 

 gard to some of my short comings, I believe 

 Siey did not accuse me of dishonesty, or a 

 lack of interest in the good of my patrons. 



.^00. sections &c., to hand. Time 10 days, weight 97 

 lbs., charges, $1.,58. All right; but here comes the 

 "rub." In ordering' the sections, I said that my 

 frame to hold them was "exactly 11 ?s in. by '.'}i in. 

 Inside". (See order May 13.) These would take box- 

 es scant 45ix5 13-16. The long pieces are all right. 

 The short ones, all but one bundle, are 4: 11-15 long, 

 thus requiring a frame at least % in. deeper than 

 mine. They areas they came, I measured at each 

 end of the bundle. For proof , see end piece, also 

 your bill, enclosed. What shall I do? Yours with 

 kind sympathy, O. F. 



May 30th, 1878. 



Yours of the 4th is received. Having no machin- 

 ery I cannot fix those sections (and make any kind 

 of a .'/()?)) in the way you say. I sent all the way to 

 you, in order to get extra^ nice work, but instead of 

 that, thej' are rinmh, hroken, sappy, hlack, contain 

 u'orwi ^()?(.s', and do not ((t all compare with your 5c 

 sample. 



Please don't put me in "Growlery," as I did not 

 mean to mention this, and should not had they been 

 otherwise right. The f^nly way I see, is for you to 

 send some more end pi: ces, mtt 'ri{iht, and I will re- 

 turn these, if you wis-h. 



"Ro" will please hu:;(l this to the "Boss". O. F. 



I don't mean to try to excuse myself, but, 

 my friends, if you will give the exact dimen- 

 sifyns you wish your work, jiiid then not say 

 anothf-r word "about it, it would help us 

 amazi; ;rly. Do not leave anything for usto 

 culculaTe. but make all your calculations 

 yourself, if possible. We have paid from 

 $30 to iS;82 per M., for lumber for our sec- 

 tions, but have Iiad one or two lots that ran 

 poor. I presume it was my duty to send it 



back to our himlier dealer, rather than to 

 use it. but, as he had usually given us nice 

 stuff, I hated to do it. We are now pur- 

 chasing our lumber directly from the forests 

 of Mich., and so that part will be remedied, 

 I hope. If the sami)le we sent out was 

 better than the average, I assure you it was 

 accidental, and not intentional. I tell you, 

 one has to be watchful, to have evciy thing 

 all right, always. 



I received the goods that you sent me, last night, 

 and they were all right. 1 am perfectly satisfied 

 with them; they are better than 1 supposed they 

 would be; I tltcmk you very much for sending me Ifi 

 boxes more than I ordered. The expressage on 

 them was only 8.5c. My bees are doing first rate; 

 the old hive gave a very large swarm the 16th of 

 May, and I am looking for another erery day. 



C. S. MlLLEB. 



state Hill, N. Y. June 5th, 1878. 



There now ! That last letter did not be- 

 long in 'the "Growlery" after all, but it is so 

 much easier (?) to publish such letters, it 

 "sort o' slipped in'\ O, dear me ! there is 

 just one more that lays heavily on my con- 

 science, and then, I believe, 1 have given 

 you all tlie very bad ones. 



I hardly know how or what to say to you. Ac- 

 companying this I send to you a sample of the box- 

 es you sent me. I have "taken a small part out of 

 the box, and find that several bunches are cut like 

 these; these are from two bunches. 1 have been 

 setting up seme of the sections, that is, such of 

 them as are dovetailed so as to go together. Each 

 box is from 5x6 to .5x6 1-16 inches, inside measure; 

 now, this lets the glass fall right into the box. They 

 should have been 5 in. wide, as they are, and 6 in. 

 deep minus the thickness of cittier top or bottom. 

 As it is, my glass does not even reach to the top in- 

 side when the boxes are put together. The boxes 

 also varj' in size. It is more than they are all worth 

 to get them into shape, so that I can use them. It 

 seems from the looks of some of the bunches, that 

 they were not held up to the saw gauge. You re- 

 member two years ago when you sent out fdn., 

 some of which the bees refused to use, that you 

 asked each one to send in their bill for damages. 

 You must remember that I wrote you it was consid- 

 erable damage to me, but did not ask for any re- 

 muneration and do not now, on the fdn.; but I 

 think this is the worst lot of section boxes I ever 

 saw. I would not go to the depot for all that I 

 covild draw. The worst of all is, it is time we had 

 bur sections ready to set on the hives, and here I 

 am. I have ordered some from Syracuse. If this 

 is a specimen of the work you send out, my advice 

 is, vou had better save the money you intend to 

 build that factory with. W. H. B. 



May 31st, 1878. 



To own up, the above letter did almost 

 make me sick— sick of trying to build the 

 brick factory, at least— and to make amends 

 as far as I could, I have offered to send all 

 the money (ovei- S30.) back, and let our 

 friend keep the sections too. This order, 

 also, was for an odd design, and after writ- 

 ing the third time for particulars, our friend 

 only said he wanted a cl<ised top section box, 

 to hold 5xt) glass. However, this was no 

 excuse for not making them all of a length, 

 I am well aware. I have "scolded" the 

 hands just as much as is for their good, and 

 I am afraid a little more, and we are trying 

 to devise machinery that cannot be made to 

 cut a wrong length. And now, I have a 

 favor to ask of you, my friends ; when you 

 wish something we do not advertise, and 

 that we have never made or seen, will you 

 not send us an exact sample of what is 

 wanted. Almost any one of our boys will do 

 work right, if you A\ill give him a sample to 



