queen, let them say so, and they won't find it neces- H. ALLEY. not rear a queen like the one you mention, although I confess I have never met one that so persistently refused to start cells. While reading your account, I was at first I hope, friends, this matter may be dropsatisfied that the hive had some sort of a ped now, even if something does still rewingless or imperfect queen; but after you main to be said. Friend Alley agrees to said they received the black queen, I was make all claims on him good; and if he does rather inclined to give up that position; but this, is not that enough? As I have before still, they may have had such a queen, and, said, it is my opinion, where a queen-rearer finding her no good," gladly took up with has lost a queen in the mails, he should have a fertile queen when presented to them. the privilege of making it good by sending Cases like yours are so rare I hardly think another. If his customer demand the monwe should consider them to spoil the gener-ey back instead of letting him try again, I al rule, that, when no cells are started, we are to presume a queen of some kind is present. FRIEND ALLEY'S EXPLANATION. REGRET very much to be obliged to appear in print in defense of myself; but as Mr. Neads, of Canada, did me great injustice by making the statement he did in the December number of GLEANINGS, I feel compelled to make some reply. The facts in the case are these: Mr. Neads, it seems, ordered a queen through a friend. She was sent him, but died in the mail. I think it was rather too late in the season to replace her. Mr. Corneil, the person who ordered the queen, demanded the $1.50 returned to him. I replied that I did not advertise to send queens and money too, and think I offered to send him 75 cents or send him another queen in the spring. I wrote Mr. Root that I would remit half the amount sent me, and am quite sure that he thought I was right, and should not do more. Well, I heard nothing more about the affair till some time last September, when Mr. Neads stated the case to me, and I promptly mailed him a queen. I think he must have had his queen in the 7 days from the time he penned his postal to me. Now, it takes 6 or 7 days to get a reply from Canada in all cases. Now, friend Neads, are not the above facts? And further, did you notify me before September that there was a queen due you? I do not send out queens in such cases till the parties notify me they are ready for them; then I will fill all such orders as promptly as the thing can be done. I will say here, that if any person has any claim on me for queens, either for impurity or dead ones, when received, I will send them queens till they are well satisfied, and get what they pay for, if it takes $100 to fill the bill. All I ask, is for such ones to notify me in May, or at any time they are in need of queens. Now, friend Root, give all such parties a chance to show me up in GLEANINGS. If all is not made satisfactory, don't blame me for it, for I am ready to do more than my part. I have been doing this business for 20 years, and never have cheated or swindled any man, so far as I know. Some complain because I do not reply to their letters promptly. Friends, it is impossible for me to do so. I have more than one man can do from May to October. I do not do much in the bee business from October to January. I am away from home much of the time during these months, as I get no chance to go during the warm weather. About 75 queens were stolen from the mails that I had shipped; that caused some trouble, and was very annoying to me; $25.00 in queens or cash will settle any account against me. If those who would rather have half the amount in cash than another should say, as a general rule, he should be entitled to no more than half of it. This is, of course, subject to conditions, and a reasonable degree of promptness should be one of them. TIN BOXES FOR RETAILING HONEY 66 T the convention, friend Jones exhibited tin cans, or boxes, for honey, for not only 1 lb., but also for 1, 1, and of a pound. I believe they were to be retailed for 25, 15, 10, and 5 cts. respectively. If I am correct, friend Jones sold 40,000 lbs. of honey this season, put up in these packages. You carry to your grocer the tin boxes and nice labels, and let him fill them himself from cans of honey sold him in the bulk. Or he can sell for a commission, as you find most agreeable. The little boxes can be used for a lunch, and this serves to give people a sample and a taste for the honey. We are making arrangements for making them all at the following prices: TIN BOXES FOR SMALL SAMPLES OF HONEY. Labels,per 1000, Capacity Pr. of 1 Pr. of 10 Pr. of 100 Pr.of 1000 Blus, Bronzed Letters. White labels in one color, one-half the above prices. Names and address can not be put on the labels, unless 500 or more are taken at one time. These labels are to go round the can, and cover the joint where the cover goes on. A nest of all four, neatly labeled, as samples, will be furnished for 10c.; if wanted by mail, 20 cents. Now, there are almost always two sides to every question, and our good practical friend Muth has just sent in the objections to this manner of selling honey: I have had a very good honey trade this fall and winter. My sales during 2 weeks in October were about 22,000 lbs. of extracted honey; about 15,000 lbs. of it, 28 barrels, were sold by the barrel, and almost all the remainder in our 1-lb. square jars. All of these 1-lb. jars were sold to my city customers, partly in shipping order, and partly in open crates for city trade. Only about 10 gross were shipped to neighboring cities. These one-pound jars of honey have become quite an article of trade. You can see them in every one of our business houses doing business in that line. Our clover crop having been short, we had to bottle darker honey than our customers were in the habit of getting. But, consum es accepted the position, and no objections were raised. "The honey is pure, and the clover crop was short," seemed to be a satisfactory excuse. I see, from several quarters, tin boxes recommended for the retail trade, to hold 1 or 2 lbs. of honey, but I am of the opinion that their great similarity to salve-boxes, in spite of fine labels, will be for ever a preventive to their successful introduction. I do not suppose that I should have succeeded in establishing a demand for 1-lb. packages of extracted honey, if these packages had been tin boxes. Tin buckets answer splendidly for 5, 10, or 25 lb. packages of honey, and I have as good a trade for these in proportion, as I have for one-pound jars. My principal reason for adopting square glass jars was that adulterators in New York and Chicago were offering their glucose honey in round bottles. It appears that I have made no mistake in this matter, as nobody suspects honey in square glass 1-lb. jars in our city, while no square nor round jars of extracted honey can be sold any more in Chicago or New York. Offering you my best wishes of the season, I am Yours truly, CHAS. F. MUTH. Cincinnati, O., Dec. 24, 1881. As the honey in these tin boxes is supposed to be candied solid, I supposed the candying would be considered a proof of purity. Does your honey now sell readily in those jars, friend Muth, when in a candied state, or do you take any pains to keep it liquid? MAY I suggest to friend Newman, that glucose contains a little larger per cent of dextrine than does grape sugar, to preserve it in a liquid state, instead of "chemicals" being added to the latter to make it solid? We shall get at the truth after awhile, if we are only patient. FRIEND BURCH has shipped quite a number of colonies of bees during the fall, and although some of the friends are far from being satisfied with bees in October instead of in June, I believe all feel better than if they had received nothing. As we learn that Mr. B. has been purchasing bees considerably, we trust all orders will be filled satisfactorily in the spring. THE December Magazine in speaking of extractors at fairs, speaks of one of ours as having been gotten up expressly for the occasion. Our extractors are all made exactly alike, and we have never, to our knowledge, made one any better, or different in finish, because it was to be used at a fair. We sell extractors for so much money, to all alike, and the purchaser can make whatever use of it he chooses. Would it not have been better, friend King, to have been sure you were right, before having put the above into print? A GREAT boom has come from that offer of a watch for five subscribers, and the question comes up, "Must we send the five names all at once, or how long can we have to work?" Let me tell you how it will help you, and the clerks here too. Send $5.00 GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. for GLEANINGS to yourself for five years, get your A. I. ROOT, EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, TERMS: $1.00 PER YEAR, POST-PAID. watch, and have the matter all settled; and then when you get a subscriber, send a postal and order your time shortened a year, to pay for him. When you have the whole list, why, just do the same thing over again. Of course, this great offer is solely to increase the size of our list, and therefore we can hardly afford it, unless the names are new ones. Well, to help you all we can we will allow you to get names anywhere, providing they are new ones, and not renewals. In December we used one gross of MEDINA, JAN. 1, 1882. watches in five days. Great peace have they which love thy law. PSALM 119: 165. FRIEND LECHLER sends us an article explanatory of his great yield, which will be given in our next. OUR 75-cent telephones will work nicely for half a mile; and if the rooms are very still, and the wire is drawn very tight, a mile will not be difficult. WE have to-day, Dec. 29th, 2791 subscribers, for which we are especially grateful; the more so, as a large number of them are from two to five years. Truly, GLEANINGS has found friends, and of the substantial kind too. OUR friend Nellis has, it seems, sold out the Exchange to Messrs. Houck & Peet. Friend Peet is well known to most of us by the queen-cage now so generally in use. The new firm sends out a 20-page price list, well gotten up, and of much general interest. FOUL BRood. A FRIEND who bought a half-pound of bees and a queen of us, insists that he thereby got foul brood into his apiary. As a proof, he has sent a piece of comb to friend Muth, who pronounces it foul brood of the worst type. I have no doubt but that he has foul brood, and I am very sorry indeed for the destruction of his apiary; but I have assured him over and over that we have no such thing about here, and never had. Our whole apiaries are constantly open to the inspection of visitors, and if any one can find a cell of foul brood in them we should be glad to see it. By the way, is not the new way of buying and selling bees by the pound a great improvement over sending out combs and brood, as a preventive of the spread of this great malady? From what I can gather, bees kept a week on sugar and water, in a cage, would be much less likely to carry contagion than where combs with brood were sent with them. GRAPE SUGAR. A VERY large number indeed have expressed themselves in favor of Our Homes during the last month, WHILE I have had no good reason to change my while, so far as I can recollect, only one has suggest-mind in regard to the future of the grape-sugar ined that GLEANINGS better be entirely becs and hon-dustry, I have, for reasons already given, disconey. If I am faithful in the field in which I seem to tinued keeping it for sale. In view of the fact that have been called, I am sure I shall never lack sup- grape sugar's near neighbor, glucose, is being used port. so much for the adulteration of syrups, I would at present advise our readers to use only granulated sugar for feeding. Dr. Kellogg, in his very able address at the Michigan convention, told us that the successful adulteration of granulated sugar by any of these substances is an impossibility. When asked in regard to the difference between grape sugar and glucose, he said although he was unacquainted with the two substances as they appear in commerce, he supposed glucose contained a larger per cent of dextrine, which so effectually prevents it from becoming a solid at any temperature. This agrees exactly with what you were told in GLEANINGS several years ago. ALTHOUGH the Waterbury watches are having a sale never before perhaps known in timepieces, our friends should bear in mind that watches subjected to the rough usage of the mail-bags are quite often received out of order, no matter how carefully they have been carried and tested by us. A Waterbury watch in order has no more business stopping than any other watch; but if you get one that does stop, don't be cross and say you do not believe any of them go, nor need you write a lorg letter about it. Just say, on a postal card, "it stops," and send it back. One man says, when he moved the minute-hand, the hour-hand "just stood still;" but had he read the little book we send with each watch, he would have known that nothing was broken. Will you not bear in mind how small an amount of money you paid for it, and make our task of keeping them all going as light a one as you can? If the watch has had unfair usage, or you have had it over 30 days, send it to the factory, and not to us, for they all go to the factory eventually. TO OUR CONTRIBUTORS. Ir seems, dear friends, GLEANINGS is to have a boom this year, and I have been already devising ways and means to make it more pleasing and valuable to you all, in return for your kind words and— dollars. At the convention it was suggested we have the matter arranged in a more orderly manner, using more small-cap heads to the different thoughts expressed. Now, will those who write for it please head their letters with a caption, then stick to your text till you wish to talk about something else, then take a new head, say all on that subject, and so on. Some of you do this already; but there are others, who write for print, too, whose letters can not be straightened out, without altering the wording to such an extent it would be really saying something they did not say. I think it would pay all round if some of you would re-write it for us. If you are short of paper, I will send you some stationery. Nice paper to write on, with ink or the Automatic pencil, will be furnished in strips 7x27 inches, at 15c per lb. Automatic pencils, 3 for 50c. FORNCROOK'S PATENT ONE-PIECE SECTIONS. OUT of respect to friend Forncrook we have permitted the advertisement to go in as you see it, although it does seem as if he were getting very close to our friend Mitchell, in claiming all section boxes made of one piece of wood. I have pointed him to a letter in GLEANINGS, describing one-piece sections, made and used several years ago; but his reply was to the effect, that sections made of strawberry-box stuff are quite another thing. This amounts to saying, as I see it, that a rough box is not patented; but if you plane it, or sandpaper it, you are infringing. Do you say that a patent has been granted him? Very і likely; but so has a patent been granted on the fdn. we are using; on putting it on to wires; on divisionboards for bee-hives, and also on the very tin separators we are using, and have been using for years. The Patent-Office supposed all these things were new, and are doubtless honest; but, friends, is it in any way likely they have a man in the whole PatentOffice corps who has an idea of modern bee culture? A proposal was started, at the convention, to raise a fund for mutual protection, if any of our number should be subjected to expense; but I trust nothing of this kind may be ever necessary. Mr. Forncrook proposes to make all bee-keepers pay $6.00 per thousand, instead of the established price of $4.50. SOME GOOD BOOKS. I Do not know but that some of the friends at Battle Creek were a little amused at the almost childish wonder with which I gazed (very likely with open mouth; at those wonderful structures, the Sanitarium and Tabernacle. When I passed through them pleased with that great printing-office. Boys and I was still more astonished, and especially was I girls as neat and clean-looking as our own at home, did the work; and when I was told that no tobacco great feeling of thankfulness that I stood not quite or swearing was allowed inside the walls, I felt a alone in what has so often been thought one of my eccentricities. I won't hurt anybody's feelings, will I, to say this latter institution also showed their good sense in having a woman handle all the money of the establishment? Well, you know I couldn't rest without knowing something of what kind of books they make, so I kept "kind o' peeking" into things, and pretty soon I opened a book and read about one page of it. Look here, friend S., I want that book, and I do not care what it costs." "Why, that is Dr. Kellogg's new book, Plain Facts about Common Things, and here is his new doctor book." I read a page in the doctor book, and told him I wanted that too, and now I am happy. No, I'm not happy, either, for I wish every one of our readers who loves good health and God's laws could have these books. Dr. Kellogg's especial forte seems to be the study of the causes of crime; and his strong earnest talks seem to supplement the Home Papers of this number in a way that is truly wonderful. These books will not only save doctors' bills and give life here, but they may be the means of giving eternal life to the innocent children who are now growing up in our homes, and going out into the world. May God's blessings rest upon the labors of Dr. Kellogg! Our good Queen Bess has left us, O Bob! you have bereft us -LU. We ask for both this boon: In haste she changed her name, I ween. For men will court, and maidens will trust, "Tho' the harbor bar be moaning." -ELLEN M. May he who has had the good fortune to win "our Bess," love, prize, and cherish her, as she was loved and prized in the Home of the Honey Bees! "Boss." ROTHER BEEKEEPERS, WHOLESALE I am about to lose my place, 101% acres, of the James Geore 640-acre survey, worth $2000.00. $550.00 will release it, and pay all taxes due. Will give ten per cent on the above amount for two years, with vendor's lease on land, which is as good as bank check. In high state of cultivation; made 65 bushels oats per acre, 1880. H. A. Halbert, Esq., of Corsicana, Texas, will fix up all papers at my cost. Speak quickly, as I have only thirty more days. B. F. CARROLL, NAVARRO CO., DRESDEN, - TEXAS. 1882. QUEENS! 1882. I am now booking orders for war- J. T. WILSON, BEE-KEEPERS All buy Dodge's Summer and Winter Top and Entrance Feeder, and Upward Ventilator. It feeds Candy, Syrup, Sugar Candy, and extracted honey, or any suitable bee food, in a temperature corresponding with the interior of the Hive. A perfect upward ventilator, without loss of heat. Needs no testimonials; 1 sample captures every bee-keeper. Sample, by mail, 30c. Per doz., via express, $2.00. U. E. DODGE, Fredonia, N. Y. Inventor and Sole Manufacturer, and manufacturer and dealer in all kinds of Apiarian Stores. 1-3d IMPORTED QUEENS. -AND RETAIL. Dealers in Bee Supplies will do well to send for our wholesale prices of foundation. We now have the most extensive manufactory of foundation in the country. We send to all parts of the U. S. We make all standard styles, and our wax is nowhere to be equaled for cleanliness, purity, and beauty. Extra thin and bright for sections. All shapes and all sizes. Samples free on request. 11 francs in Gold. id 10 BAYOU GOUla, IbervilLE PAR., LA. FOR SALE! Queens which die in transit will be replaced only if sent back in a letter. CHARLES BIANCONCINI & CO., Bologna, Italy. NOR SALE cheap, a 10-inch Dunham Foundation FMachine. Used but one season. A. B. WEED, 75 Bagg St., Detroit, Mich. hand-power Rip-Saw, almost new. A S. C. & J. P. WATTS, Lumber City, Clearfield Co., Pa. FREE! A sample copy of the NEW ENGLAND BEE JOURNAL. H. POOLE, Mechanic Falls, Me. BOOKS for BEE-KEEPERS and OTHERS. Any of these books will be forwarded by mail, postpaid, on receipt of price. In buying books, as every thing else, we are liable to disappointment, if we make a purchase without seeing the article. Admitting that the bookseller could read all the books he offers, as he has them for sale, it were hardly to be expected he would be the one to mention all the faults, as well as good things about a book. I very much desire that those who favor me with their patronage, shall not be disappointed, and therefore, I am going to try to prevent it by mentioning all the faults so far as I can, that the purchaser may know what he is getting. In the following list, books that I approve, I have marked with a*: those I especially approve,**; those that are not up to times, t; books that contain but little matter for the price, large type and much space between the lines, ; foreign, §. 1 25 Fur, Fin, and Feather.. 50 125 Farming For Boys... 1 50 100 75 Farm Implements and Machinery, Thomas 150 1 50 Gardening For Pleasure, Henderson.. 1 50 100 Cook's New Manual**.. Gregory On Cabbages....paper. 30 1 25 Gregory On Squashes....paper.. 30 The same in Paper.. 100 Gregory On Onions.. .paper 30 Dzierzon Theory**. 75 Extracted Honey, Dadant. Fuller's Grape Culturist**. 1 50 Hedges and Evergreens, Warder. 150 Honey as Food and Medicine. 10 Hoosier Schoolmaster. 1 25 You can not look over the back No's of GLEANINGS or any other Periodical with satisfaction, unless they are in some kind of a Binder. Who has not said "Dear me, what a bother-I must have last month's Journal and it is no where to be found." Put each No. in the Emerson Binder as soon as it comes, and you can sit down happy, any time you wish to find anything you may have previously seen even though it were months ago. Binders for GLEANINGS (will hold them for one year), gilt lettered, free by mail for 50, 60, and 75c, according to quality. Table of prices of Binders for $5.50 any Periodical, mailed on application. Send in 30 your orders. A. I. ROOT, Medina, Ohio. |