farmers' institutes. 711 



finest specimens of fruit is due to cross-pollination the report further 

 says: 



'Tollen is transported from tree to tree by bees and other insects 

 and not by the wind." And asnin, on p. 180, "Honey bees and other 

 members of the bee family are the best workers in cross-pollination." 



It will thus be seen that apiculture has its profitable and useful side 

 as well as the poetical. 



Poetry can not well be described. Like music, it must be heard, 

 experienced to be appreciated, to even know what it is, and even then 

 you can not describe it. Languase fails you. Ima.a;ine an ideal day in 

 June, that loveliest season of the year. The very air all frajrrant with 

 the breath of flowers, the'' trees clothed in verdure and the earth covered 

 with a carpet of beautiful green. The birds singing, the very atmosphere 

 rife with the sound of music and laughter. All nature in one harmonious 

 blending of beauty and grandeur, and yet there is something lacking— 

 the little honey bee as she flits from blossom to blossom humming her 

 sweet music as she gathers the precious nectar that contributes so largely 

 to our comfort and happiness, completes the picture. 



"WJiat is more poetic, what appeals more strongly to the imagination, 

 what is more emblematic of an ideally happy and prosperous condition 

 than the scriptural phrase "A land flowing with milk and honey?" But 

 what is perhaps most ins)iiring is a practical study of the habits and 

 instincts of this remarkable little insect, if is here that we are enabled 

 to cultivate a closer ac(iuaintance with her. It is here that we may make 

 of her our intimate friend, but in doing so we must needs use some dis- 

 cretion and tact lest we learn to oiu- cost that undue familiarity breeds 

 contempt, and in that case we would be ready to join with James Whit- 

 comb Riley when he sings: 



"Yes, the bee sings, I confess it. 

 Sweet as honey— Heaven bless it. 

 Yit he'd be a sweeter singer 

 Ef he didn't have no stinger." 



THE WOMAN ON THE FARM. 



BY MRS. MAGGIE NILLIS, WEST FORK. 



[Rend at ^Yest Fork Fanners' Institute] 



In your busy life did you ever stop to think of the vast difference in 

 the life of the woman on the farm and the woman in towns. Sometimes 

 we feel discomaged and think our lives are lives of slavery and almost 

 wish we lived in town. But after all is it not the town woman who is 



