40 
GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 
Arnir-. 
A HOKE VI ATI OX'S IX BEE CORKESPOX- 
I)EXCE. 
WITHOUT questiou, it is of the utmost 
J J: importance that every aid be given to 
facilitate interchange of thought and exper- 
iment, among the devotees of our present stage 
of advanced Bee-culture, and as almost every 
mail gives us evidence of some one having de- 
veloped some particular feature, it is of great 
importance that those working in the same 
direction, exploring an unexplored region as 
it were, be put in communication with each 
other. 
As an illustration, friend Wilkin of Cadiz. O. 
sends us a sketcli of a plan for a floating Api- 
ary to traverse our Western and Southern riv- 
ers, and in a few days, we think it was friend 
IClum, of Sherman, Texas, who desired our 
opinion of a similar plan ; of course we en- 
deavored to induce the two to open a corres- 
pondence. Now is it not plain that by far the 
greatest good will accrue to the greater num- 
ber by giving the full P. O. address of each 
correspondent ? Such is at least the view we 
shall take of the matter notwithstanding the 
fact that by thus giving our friends publicity 
they may be annoyed by circulars of all sorts 
of humbugs and even counterfeit money propo- 
sitions etc. If we cannot keep them too well 
informed to invest in such trasli we shall con- 
sider our duties poorly discharged indeed. 
Again, it lias been said that the value of the 
advertising department is lessened by giving 
names in full, to which we reply, “be it so.” 
When people are so well informed that there 
will be no need to pay for advertising, wc will 
devote the space to some other purpose, for 
our purpose is to inform the people, not to 
keep them in the dark, and when we cannot 
get a liberal support for the former we will 
consider which is best, the latter, or the humi- 
lating admission that we have mistaken our 
calling. 
Now for our plan, after so much of a preface, 
and we really hope you will hear us through 
before you object. Postal cards are a glorious 
aid to Bee-keepers, and we had rather have a 
postal card brief, plain, and to the point, than 
the most elaborate letter, always supposing the 
writer, if he can consistently will have his 
name and address plainly printed on one cor- 
ner. If our friends could know of the annoy- 
ance caused ns by carelessly written addresses, 
and having to guess at the probable State in 
which a town is located, we are sure they 
would be more careful. A postal card will 
not contain a very long letter ’tis true but by 
omitting all forms and pitching right into 
your subject at once, they will generally do; 
they had better be dated to avoid possible con- 
fusion but this can be done very briefly, and 
if your address is printed on it, even a signa- 
ture may be omitted. In regard to privacy, 
should every one who can, read all postal cards 
pertaining to bee culture, we hope, he would 
be the better and wiser and we none the worse 
off. 
Novice has quite a laborious correspondence 
to get over and as his right hand is not as 
good as the left, it must of a necessity be con- 
siderably condensed. When our letters come 
from the office they are first carefully examined, 
and postal cards addressed by P. G. to all 
those requiring answers; those containing or- 
ders, or items for publication are distributed 
to their respective departments. Now Novice 
many times finds the card rather small as 
some of our readers may have observed, and 
such long words as “extracted honey,” “fertil- 
ization of Queens,” etc., fill out a iine before 
lie is aware of it, and the thought has many 
times occurred that such frequent terms might 
be abbreviated in such a way as to be perfectly 
intelligible to Apiarists and yet take but little 
room, whether they should be plain to outsi- 
ders or not matters little, to us. In reading a 
letter from Mr. Harrison who was one of Mr. 
Wilkins employees last fall, we were struck 
with a system of the kind of their own, 
which we found perfectly intelligible, viz ; 
using Q's, for Queens and h’s, for hives. 
We would suggest the following table of 
abbreviations to be used in correspondence or 
in writing for this Journal, as our compositors 
will of course understand it. We would ad- 
vise all to punctuate, observe the proper use 
of capitals, and in fact to omit nothing that 
might lead to an erroneous reading of the item. 
Queen, 
Q- 
Fertilization, 
fzn. 
Virgin Queen, v. Q. 
Bee Keeper, 
bkr. 
Bee, 
b. 
Brood, 
bd. 
Drone, 
d. 
Comb, 
cm. 
Hive, 
hv. 
Brood comb, 
bdem. 
Honey, 
i>y- 
AVorker “ 
wcm. 
Extractor, 
xtr. 
Drone “ 
dcm. 
Ext’d Honey, xtdhy. 
Feeder, 
fill - . 
Extracting, 
xtng. 
Frame, 
fnn 
Fertilize, 
fz. 
Pollen, 
pin. 
Fertilized 
fzd. 
Propolis, 
pis. 
Artificial, 
artf. 
Prolific, 
pic. 
Langstroth 
applied to 
Hives or frames, L. 
Quinby, 
“ “ 
it tt tt 
Q.v. 
Gallup, 
it it 
tt tt tt 
G. 
Standard, 
(( it 
tt tt it 
Std. 
American Bee Journal, A. B. J. 
Bee Keepers Magazine, B. K. M. 
National Bee Journal, N. B. J 
OUR OWX APIARY. 
Mfl|HE day being fine (March 1st,) our 13 col- 
JI, onies sallied out from beneath their res- 
pective manure heaps, and worked on the meal 
in a way that was highly gratifying, as we 
believe this is the earliest we have ever suc- 
ceeded in getting them to take the meal. It 
was sprinkled on the summit of these same 
heaps to get them started. In the forenoon 
they worked on the south west side ; at noon, 
on the south ; and in the afternoon as the sun 
turned, nearly around to the west. The dark 
color of the manure causes the sun to warm it 
up quickly, aside from its own internal heat. 
March 2nd , — We are so much pleased with 
the manure protection that we have put our 
entire 50 hives (all there is now) on their sum- 
mer stands, and are making manure heaps over 
them as fast as possible. P. G. and Mrs. N. are 
decidedly of the opinion that the plan is any 
thing but neat and ornamental, whatever may 
be the effect on brood-rearing; and even little 
“Blue Eyes,” (not quite years old) says 
“phfew,” at the aroma given oil' in handling 
the steaming 18 loads, of the fermenting prod- 
