WRITING SEASONABLE ARTICLES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3380, 25 December 1918, Page 6

WRITING SEASONABLE ARTICLES.

" Why don't those who write articles for the bee papers get them up and have them printed so that they will be seasonable for the readers just at the time they appear in print? It is rather provoking to read in the December number an excellent article about how to manage swarms, or one on selling our crop of honey in April and May. One of the reasons for admiring your articles in Gleanings has been that many of them come to me at just the time when they are the most applicable." It is a difficult matter to have everything seasonable that appears in our bee papers. > Some discussions are started when the subject is seasonable, and then the debate runs on until the subject has outlived its usefulness, or become unseasonable —possibly both. Thert when a man has had Komo interesting experience with the bees he is inclined to tell it while the "fever is on," or not at all. By the time he has written it out and sent it to his favourite paper, and the editor has it in type and room made for it, and the printed article greets the eyes of the reader, the time for profiting by. that particular knowledge has oassed for thac year. Then, unless this especial article has been " pigeon-holed," by the time ai other year brings the proper season for that particular article it will probably be forgotten unless it happens to be of an unusually important character.

Doubtless it has never occurred to very many readers of our bee papers that the last .publication received should contain just the seasonable information wanted, as is evidently the thought of our questioner. I know that it would be ideal to have tho June Gleanings give directions for the car© of a swarm that might come out just when I was reading about it; but we can hardly expect that the publishers of Gleanings could havo all the matter of our June number entirely seasonable for that month. In order to put us in touch with all the topics discussed in Gleanings throughout the year, we are furnished, at the close of each volume, with an index that tells us just where to find the information wo want. However, this may not be in ths last completed volume; and we may be compelled to refer to somo older volumes. But if we have been careful to keep all the volumes in good order we can, by turning to the indices, find almost anything wo want. With perhaps the exception of orie or two numbers of one or two volumes, I have Gleanings perfectly complete since the first issue.

If during the busy season I find something that I would like more time to read, I jot it down in a little book I carry with me; and when the leisure of winter comes these old volumes are looked over to see what has been said on these particular subjects. Then what I read is boiled down to the smallest compass and jotted down in another book which I keep # for the coming season. In passing, allow me to say that, in this way, I find that much which is written as something new was brought up and discussed from 20 to 45 years ago. Besides the above. I have a way of indexing when reading an uncompleted volume. If I find anything I wish to use or refer to again I note it down in my index, and so in a brief space I make seasonable such matters as I wish to refer to again. For instance, in December I found something about swarming that struck me as better than what I have been accustomed to, therefore I turned to my index book, and under June 1 put " G. 16. p. 257. New about swg." Then when June, 1917, came, the past season, along about the 10th of the month I looked at Gleanings for 1916, on page 257, and there found just wh.\ I wanted. If the item was on selling a' crop of honey, then the index for October was used, and so on. When tried, if it is better than anything I had used before, such index is underscored. If of value, but no better, it is left untouched. If of no value, a mark, is drawn through the whole. In this way I have indexed nearly all the volumes, so that I can turn to all the really good things of the past 45 years, or find that which I have considered valuable during all of my beekeeping life. Now a word about my articles in Gleanings being seasonable. In December of each year I go over all the questions which have been sent in, and. in accord with my views, sort out. for each month that which I consider seasonable for the month; then during the winter, as I have leisure days I write the matter up, using my index if necessary to help refresh my memory. Occasionally the editor does not seem to agree with me, or for some reason puts in an article for a month for which it was not intended : and where this is done it throws the articles "out of joint." But I always calculate the editor knows better than I in these matters. —G. Ai Doolittle. Borodino, N.Y~