60 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. Now is the time for parties interested in the cane industry to make arrangements for next season's operations. All who are intending to manufacture syrup next season should have machinery on the ground in the spring, or have it ordered at least so that your neighbors will feel safe in planting the cane. In regard to mills for crushing the cane, I have used three different makes. One was rigid, and one was arranged with rubber springs. But the one that I now use is the Adjustable Mill, made by the Madison Mfg. Co., Madison, Wis. This is adjusted by weights and levers. They will do one-third more work with the same power than any mill I have ever seen in operation. The weights and levers are to the mill what the safety valve is to the steam-engine. The Early-Amber variety of cane is the best. The producer should be careful to select pure seed, and that which has the greatest vitality, as the seed has a great deal to do with the strength of the plant. Seed should be thoroughly tested before planting, by placing the seed in some favored location, and by laying a piece of thin cloth next to the seed. You can then at any time inspect the seed, and you can more accurately tell the result. Soil. Cane gives the best results on a sandy upland soil; a clay soil gives a good quality, but not so large a yield. Generally speaking, cane will do well on W. P. CLEMENT. any good wheat or corn land. Monticello, Wis., January, 1881. We have now for sale, syrup from the Early Amber that is as thick as honey, and nearly as white, and our children, on seeing some of it brought home, thought of course it was honey. We retail it at 75c per gallon, or 7ets. per lb.-just half the price of honey. We have also in stock Early-Amber sugar that we sell at 74c per lb. at retail, or 7c by the barrel. There may be a difference in taste in regard to this sugar; but for myself, I greatly prefer it to the Southern cane sugar for puddings, pies, or any place where yellow or brown sugars are used. That sugar can be raised at the North is now proven beyond question; and this sugar can doubtless be used for feeding bees, just as well as any sugar. As I have never seen any refined into the white coffee or granulated sugars, I presume a different process of refining is needed; but it will be done, without quesThe tion, before another season passes. taste of it is rather more like maple sugar than the sugars from the South. that he might be needed, until he began to His father was a little out of tune, as you know, and, under the impulse of the moment, he gave him a cut with a halter-strap he had in his hand, saying,— "There! take that, and learn to remember what you are told." John went crying after the pail, but it could not be found. Come to think of it, he did feed the pigs, after all, promptly, just before dinner, and there stood the pail over near the pen, just where he had left it. So he came back to his father, rubbing his eyes, with the humiliating confession that he was not derelict in duty, but forgot to mention the circumstance, in time to avert the clip with the halter-strap. As John looked up at his father, and his father looked down at John, the situation was a little embarrassing for both parties. John loved and respected his father, in spite of his sometimes harsh ways, and always enjoyed being with him in any work or play. The father also loved his boy, in his way; and as he stood there with the traces of tears on his cheeks, he recalled to mind how very dutiful and obedient he had always been. In fact, there wasn't a better boy anywhere round about than his boy John, as he had often said, if it were not for his awful propensity to forget every commission, seemingly, that anybody entrusted to his care. Scolding did not seem to help the matter any, for he forgot again, MR. MERRYBANKS AND HIS NEIGH- almost before the words were out of his ears. BOR. FRIEND MERRYBANKS INVENTS A HIVE. I TOLD you last month, that John set the hive down on the swill-pail when the bees started off. Well, the pail was over by the fence, near the pig-pen; and now I think I will tell you just how it came to be on that precise spot. They had just finished their dinner, and John's father sat down to smoke a pipe before going out to his work again. While he smoked, he read in his bee journal; and, although he knew it was past the time he should be at his work, he yielded to the temptation to sit a little longer, in spite of the suggestion from his good wife, I am a little inclined to think the father was then remembering how he used to forget, too, when a boy, and how earnest, kind words seemed to lift him up and make him strong, more than any amount of scolding. Should he confess to his boy that he had been hasty? and would he not think less of a father who should so humble himself? Is it really well to "own up" to your boy when you have done wrong? As the father meditated upon the consequences of weakening the boy's confidence in his wisdom and fitness to stand in the position of father, he also thought within himself, "Oh that I could learn to be more careful, and to have perfect command over that temper of mine!" He did not think, "God be merciful to me a sinner," but it seems to me it amounted to was more expensive to fix and fuss with old almost that. JOHN AND HIS FATHER. "Papa John! The bees are swarming! don't you see them?" It was little Mary's voice; and, sure enough, the bees were swarming. The particulars of the event you have had already. Well, after John got back from the woods with his bees still clustered on the limb, he gave them to friend Merrybanks to hold, while he went after the hive left sitting on the pail. The pail was over near the fence, and as the hive was lifted off of it, some stiff grass and weeds underneath it raised up so much as to upset it, and it rolled over against the board fence. Now, the bottom board of the fence was a rather broad one, and as the pail rolled against it, it fell with its mouth against this board in such a way that the pail was all closed, except a small opening at the lower edge. The picture will show you just how the pail lay against the fence. THE NOVEL BEE-HIVE. After the weeds had risen up back of the pail, it was obscured from view so effectually from the inside of the fence, that no one would have ever thought of there being a pail there; and, in truth, neither John nor his father ever did find the pail. After the excitement of bringing the bees home, John was not even as good as usual at remembering, and so it never occurred to him that the pail was down in the weeds just where it tipped over when he lifted the hive up. After he and his father had both hunted for it in vain, they gave it up; and when the latter went down to the grocery in the evening to get some more "tobacker," he bought a new pail. Now, one great reason why John's father was a poor man was, that he seldom took care of his tubs, pails, etc. When a hoop tumbled off, it was seldom put back and fastened; but the utensils and tools were mostly left out in the sun and rain until they fell in pieces, and then new ones were bought as a matter of course. His plea was, that it things than to buy new ones outright. Mr. Merrybanks did not agree with him, and they had often talked over the subject. Mr. M. even went so far as to make a new stave for a bucket, rather than to throw it away; and his plea was, that even if it was more expensive than to pay 15 cents for a new pail, it got one into a way of stopping things from going to pieces, and thus saving outlays to the amount of many dollars in a year. It was the same way with the tinware. A good tin pail at John's father's would often have the bottom rusted out in about two months, because the water was left standing in it, or it was left with just a little in, without being wiped out and turned over. Now, Mrs. Merrybanks had a way of taking care of her tinware, that I think I will have to tell you about. She did not buy the thickest tin pails and dish-pans, because she did not want heavy utensils to handle; but before each article was put to use, it was warmed slightly, and a little clean lard rubbed into all the seams, with a soft rag. This was of cloth, and the operations repeated at inthen rubbed off with another clean portion tervals, according to the way in which the article was to be used. The tin water-pail was thus dried and "greased " inside about once in a week or ten days, and the effect was such that the pail had been in use for years, and the bottom was not rusted even then. Mr. Merry banks treated his sappails the same way; and even though they and clean after years of service. were made from light tin, they were bright Now, a few days after that great swarming time we have mentioned, Mary and Freddie were at play in the lot adjoining. This lot was one where cattle were allowed to pasture, and the grass was eaten down closely. As they passed along opposite the spot where that unlucky pail tipped over, Freddie exclaimed, "Why! look'e here! Here are bees going out and in under the old board of this fence." They must be bumble-bees," suggested Mary, and they have got a nest under there, I'll bet you." "I'll bet you they ain't bumble-bees," said Freddie; "I guess I know bumble bees when I see them, and these are real honeybees. like my papa's." "Well, I know they are bumble-bees, for honey-bees don't ever go down into holes in the ground and grass as these do. My pa has got honey-bees too, just as well as yours.' John, hearing the dispute from where he was trying in vain to dig up the great weeds that had nearly swamped the potatoes, came to hear what it was about. Both children called out at once, 66 Say, John, ain't these bumble-bees?" "Say, John, ain't these honey-bees?" At this, John clambered over the fence; but the fence was poor and shaky, like the general surroundings; and as he jumped down, the fence was shaken so violently that all hands soon had a pretty fair prospect of knowing the disposition if not the kind of bees that inhabited that old pail and were pouring out from under the fence in a way that meant only" business." Discussion was dropped with a unanimity that would have done credit to a bee convention, and all hands cut for the house, laughing and screaming. Whom should they run against, as they turned the corner of the house, but Mr. rybanks, as jolly and rosy as he was when we last saw him rolling down the hill? hive. Little did any of the parties dream that morning that this same little incident, or perhaps accident, was eventually to make such a stir, not only throughout all OnionMer-ville, for that was the name of the place, but clear out into the outside world as well. As Mr. Merrybanks has promised us a description of the Wooden-Pail-Cracker-Barrel beehive, belonging to himself and John, for next month, I think I won't tell you any more about it now. It winters bees perfectly (even if they haven't a drop of honey), and costs only dear reader," Barney" says I have got to stop, for he can't squeeze another word into this number of GLEANINGS "no how." ARE THEY BUMBLE-BEES OR HONEY-BEES? Friend M. hustled the children into the house, and the bees, after buzzing about the door awhile, buzzed back to their pail hive. Mary had a bee or two tangled in her flying hair, but these friend M. got out quietly, without even a sting, and John was the only one of the three who got stung at all. The bees that got out of Mary's hair, when found on the window, proved to be one-banded hybrids. Friend M. lighted a chunk of rotten wood, and after rigging out the different members of the family with sundry veils, the whole party cautiously approached the pail bee-hive. A little smoke was blown in at the entrance, and friend M. carefully turned the pail so that a view could be had of the inside. Sure enough, there was a good colony. They had evidently built the first comb parallel with the bottom of the pail, and the next one right by its side, and so on. The queen had commenced her brood in the center, and circled around so that their stores were above and at the sides. All were loud in their praises of these beautiful" wheels" of honey-comb and honey, except friend M. He stood with his smoking chunk of rotten wood in his hand, and gazed as if spell-bound. Mary first broke the silence, "I guess pa is studying up a patent hive, made out of pails; don't you think he is?" IN turning over the great bundles of papers that come to me from all directions daily, I scarcely know from whom or why, I occasionally catch a glimpse of many good things. The following caught my eye this moment, from the Philadelphia Christian Standard: Nothing can equal in power and influence a holy life. The influence may be silent, but it is mighty. Books and tracts may be read, and their instructions and advices and appeals may be disregarded; sermons may be preached, and their expositions of truth and their exhortations to repentance may go unheeded; but a Christ-like example, a quiet, blameless, beautiful walk in the path of purity, is, at least, more difficult to resist. SOME one of my kind friends sent me a little book entitled "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life," and by so doing he bas conferred a greater favor than if he had sent me a thousand dollars (yes, a great deal greater, for the money would very likely have done harm; but the book will do good through endless ages.) May God's choicest blessing rest on the woman who wrote it, and all praise be to Him who put it into my power to call your attention to it. I shall probably make some extracts from it next month. THE SPIDER PLANT, AND SIMPSON-PLANT. I WOULD not advise any one to raise plants to sell, for last year's experiments abundantly proved that both could be raised in the open ground soon enough to get a good crop of honey. Of course, you will get better plants and an earlier yield, by starting them as you would tomatoes and cabbages, in the house, in a hot-bed, or even in the open ground, covered with sash, until all cool weather is past. We had several thousand raised in the latter way last season, and they bloomed nicely in the late fall months, when needed most. MRS. COTTON. ON page 571, Dec. No., I asked all who had com plaints against Mrs. Cotton for keeping their money and not sending any thing, to write to the address I then gave. Well, in the Jan. No., page 47, I said very few had reported. The truth of the matter is, no one reported. All cases of that kind seem to have bee-been adjusted before Mr. Holmes undertook to look into the matter. The only thing that now remains unsatisfactorily adjusted is the complaints of her customers that the goods she sent were not satisfactory, nor what one would expect from her advertisement. My way of fixing these complaints would be to refund such damages as they think they should have, or ask them to return the goods. Inasmuch as she is not the only supply dealer who has declined to settle with their customers in that way, she At this, John grabbed hold of friend M.'s other hand and exclaimed, "Oh Mr. M.! Mr. M.! it'll be half mine, won't it, 'cause I invented it when I lost the swill-pail?" At this sally there was a loud laugh all around, and even John's mother joined while she suggested he would certainly make a great inventor some day, if every thing he lost or forgot turned out like the pail bee hardly should be classed with humbugs and swindlers on that account. JOURNALS COSTING MORE OF THE PUBLISHERS THAN OF SUBSCRIPTION AGENTS. THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION. RIEND ROOT:-I desire to talk in a friendly way to you and friend Jones, about what you say on pages 17 and 18 of Jan. GLEANINGS, and desire a space in the Growlery or elsewhere so to do. Friend Jones says, "You hit the nail on the head when you say, 'GLEANINGS is a standard article.'" Now, I wish to ask, "How has GLEANINGS become a 'standard article'?" First, by advertising it by the editor; and second, by its being advertised by subscription agents. Which has paid the better? We will let A. I. Root answer. Under date of Feb. 5, 1874, friend Root writes me as follows; “Our number is now 840, but we have paid out about $150.00 advertising, so that we are not making GLEANINGS pay as yet." Under date of Dec. 25, 1874, he writes; "If you don't stop sending us full price for subscriptions, we will reverge ourselves by swelling the amount on your credit page until we can put it out on interest for your wife and family. We should scon have a larger journal if we had a few more such friends." Again, under date of Oct. 2, 1875, he writes: "We really feel as if we owed you much for the subscribers you have been the means of our getting." Thus it will be seen that subscription agents paid the better in bringing GLEANINGS to a standard article. That was when GLEANINGS was in its infancy, and friend R. insisted, at that time, on our taking 50 per cent as pay for our labor in getting subscriptions for him; or, in other words, buying GLEANINGS at wholesale, and selling at retail. As 50 per cent was more than we wished to take, the next year we conceived the idea that we could help friend R. more by way of introducing his paper, if we gave all our subscribers 35 per cent of this profit, and also be a help to them by reducing the price to all such as would buy GLEANINGS of us. Thus we have worked up to the present time, and the many letters we have received thanking us for our undertaking has cheered us on, and helped smoothe over several losses we have sustained. Also, friend Root has expressed his thankfulness to us for helping him to a large circulation. But now GLEANINGS has become a standard article, and as many children forget, when grown up, the labor and kindness be stowed upon them in childhood by their parents, so friend Root apparently forgets the many friends buying large quantities at wholesale, he has been enabled to get the goods at from 25 to 50 per cent discount, so as to sell to us thus cheaply, thus meriting the approval and thankfulness of bee-keepers all over the land. How many 10 per cents do you think you would make, friend R., if some one of us should sit down and write to all the manufacturers you buy of, and tell them you were selling goods at retail for less than they were, and convinced them that it would be a benefit to mankind if they would raise their prices so that all parties would have to pay alike for their goods? And now, friend Jones, to carry out your theory (of "bringing the producer and consumer, publisher and subscriber, nearer to together, thus crowding out unnecessary middlemen"), suppose you sit down and write to all these men of whom friend Root buys, that their "wholesale price is too low," and thus cause a wail to be heard from Maine to California, and from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, from those who have bought of friend Novice at the present low prices from his counter store. And Novice says, "AMEN! this is done solely to correct the inconsistencies you have mentioned." O consistency! thou art a jewel. Borodino, N. Y., Jan. 11, 1881. G. M. DOOLITTLE. That is right, friend D.; speak out; all you say is true, and some more that you did not say is true also. When I wrote you those letters of thanks, you received the full price from each subscriber; when you spoke of working without pay or commission, I suggested (if I am correct), that it was not a good way to do, even among the best of friends, and I think so still. If I am not mistaken. GLEANINGS became a "standard article" while you and friend Heddon both were dealing clips at it and its editor month after month, through the A. B. J.; and it was during this term of years that you commenced sending circulars to all of its old regular subscribers, offering it to them for 75c instead of a dollar, if they would buy of you. Letters came to me, inclosing 75c, saying that they supposed the publisher was able to afford GLEANINGS at the regular advertised price, and if he could not, send the money back. Of course, we sent the money back; for if I should let one of our friends have it at 75c, and charge the rest $1.00, I should think it little better than stealing, and that, too, from the best friends I have. I might put it at 75c to everybody, and have no wholesale, but this you would by no means consent to, if you took subscribers. who helped him in his time of need, and places them in a position where they will either lose all their customers, or else get no pay for their labor. If we Those who sell me goods for the counter place GLEANINGS to subscribers at 90c, and have to store do not retail, as a general thing; and pay friend Root the said 90c (as he says we must an- I have never heard one of them complain other year) where will the $100 come from it cost us because I sold them too low. A bee journal to print and get 4000 club lists into the hands of is wanted year after year by a special class bee-keepers all over the land? If we put the price of men, and it is an easy matter to put a cirof GLEANINGS at one dollar, we shall get no sub-cular into their hands, just about the time scribers, as they will then send to friend Root for them, just as we would go to any store if we wanted a watch, rule, knife, etc., if we could get them just as cheaply at the store as of friend R. And now we come to the INCONSISTENCY OF FRIENDS ROOT AND Jones. Friend Root refers us to counter store; that he there sells at a profit of 10 per cent, and has thus "builded up such a trade;" but he must have forgotten how he has told us, all along back, how, by they are ready to subscribe. Our friends across the ocean often commission me to purchase for them certain goods, and I can give them as low rates on every article as anybody else, with the exception of GLEANINGS; and it is a hard matter to explain to them, in fact, it can't be consistently explained, why I, the publisher, charge them a full dollar, when it is advertised extensively at 85c. As I now see it, it is my duty to furnish GLEANINGS for 1882 as low as it shall be advertised in any of the subscription lists; or, at least, so near near it that my old friends and customers will have no reason to complain; at the same time, I wish to pay (and pay well) the friends who take the trouble to canvass thoroughly in the vicinity of their own postoffices. The first page of reading matter in each No. gives the terms for doing this. Friends are often made better friends after having had a plain, square talk in regard to differences. MY FIRST TEN YEARS OF BEE- HAVE been keeping bees sixteen years. Hoping that it may be interesting and profitable to some of your A B C class at least, I send you a hort account of my first ten years' experience. 1. How I got into the business. I often wanted to buy honey, but could get none, except once; I got from a farmer, who had brimstoned a hive, a few pounds in old brood-combs, half full of bee-bread. It was not very good eating, but we made the best of it. In the fall of 1861 I met a clergyman from the West who told me of the new methods. I bought Langstroth's book and studied it. I bought a hive of bees in March, 1875. I sent to Mr. Langstroth for a sample hive, and got a carpenter to make others, for which I paid $4.50 apiece. I read my book, and practiced what I read. In one year I had gone the whole round of dividing, taking honey, wintering, etc. By that time I had learned pretty thoroughly the theory and practice of beekeeping, and was prepared to advance. My bees and hives cost me the first year $31. I got 80 lbs. of box honey, which I could have sold at 40 cts. per lb. I had four good colonies to winter, which I could have sold for $12 apiece. Had I sold out at the end of my first year, I would have netted $19 on the one hive. Remark. I feel very confident that, as a general rule, it is best for beginners to commence in a small way with a few hives and as little expense as possible; learn the business, test their own capabilities, and make the bees pay their own way. This would have saved many persons I know considerable loss and disappointment. 2. Until 1872 I wintered my bees successfully in a good dry cellar, out of the reach of the changes of cold and heat. That fall, owing mostly to carelessness, and in part to the fact that my neighbors had for some years wintered their bees so successfully in Langstroth hives on their summer stands, and without protection, I left my bees out unprotected. That was a severe winter. I lost over one-half of my colonies, and the other half was so reduced that it took them all summer to recover. Foul brood also made its appearance, and I lost several colonies before I got it exterminated. My neighbors lost nearly all their bees that winter. FOUL BROOD. 3. In the spring of 1873 I began feeding up the 10 colonies left, to make them increase to fill my empty hives. One day in April I found a crock of honey that I had forgotten about. I divided it among the 10. After three weeks, when they all seemed to be prospering, on examination I found foul brood in every one of the hives. Then I remembered that the honey in the crock had been saved from hives destroyed by foul brood. I had intended to boil it before feeding, but forgot about it. Here was trouble-foul brood in every hive. What could I do? Previous experience had satisfied me that I could not save them without destroying the brood, and boiling the honey; and I was somewhat disgusted with keeping foul-brood honey. Most of the bees were old, and would not live long. I doubled up the colonies, putting them into three empty hives and removing them into the cellar to make them eat what honey they had saved before I would give them combs. I made a brush-heap, set it on fire, and emptied the contents of the ten hives into it, and set the hives away to freeze the next winter The account I kept was a cash account. I did not before they could be used again. After two days I charge the bees with my own labor, but with cash brought out the bees, gave them clean hives and paid out for hives, queens, etc. Neither do I credit combs, which had been saved after the destructive them with the increase, nor with honey used in my work of the winter of 1872. In three weeks more, I own family, or given to my friends and neighbors. found foul brood in every hive. Ah me! I had anThis amounted to several hundred pounds a year, other fire. The three colonies were put into one The cash account for ten years stands as follows:- hive, and placed in the cellar for four days, and fed Year. No. of col's. Dr. Cr. a little. They did not get foul brood again, but died 1 $00.00 from old age before the young bees had increased enough to save the colony. Thus ended my first ten years of bee-keeping. 2. Expenses, increase, and profits. 00.00 5.00 125.00 1865 $31.00 1866 4 32.00 1867 6 60.00 1868 13 80.00 1869 22 Remarks.-1. A man must mind his p's and q's if he does not want to make bee-keeping a failure. 2. Some years, bees will winter well out of doors in almost any hive. Most winters, when bees can fly occasionally, out-of-door wintering in chaff hives, or $1890.00 hives well protected, will probably prove the best. $451.00 But in winters like that of 1872-3, when the bees Net profit in ten years, $1439.00 could not fly once from early in December until the Remarks. After the prosperous year of 1871, I be- middle of March, I am disposed to think there is gan to sell my bees, and to work out of the business. nothing equal to a good dry cellar. Had I continued the next three years to increase, or even if I had kept up the number of working colo 3. It makes me sad yet to think of the desolation which reigned in my apiary in 1874. I did not find it |