FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 93 



cucumber, squash and their kind; the tomato, egg-plant and not a few 

 other vegetables that she is for the apple, grape, strawberry and fruits in 

 general. Trulj^, few of us recognize the good work, and the amount of it, 

 that the bee does for us, and at small cost, too. Suppose a hired man or 

 the kitchen maid had to undertake the dry-nursing or cross-pollinating 

 of the cucumbers and tomatoes? Wages for hired help would go up and 

 so would the price of vegetables. 



BEES IN THE GREENHOUSE. 



Much has been written about the value of bees in the greenhouse in the 

 growing of forced vegetables and fruits. My own experience with the 

 bee as a worker indoors has not been satisfactory. In one of the western 

 states I tried a hive in midwinter in a house of cucumbers. But they 

 would not work, and flew at the glass and out of the ventilators into the 

 cold, where they perished. From my experience I conclude that the bee 

 was of small account in a greenhouse, that she was nothing but a humbug 

 in the winter time. Others have had similar experience, and from all 

 that I can gather I conclude that the bee must be tamed and domesticated 

 and be made to give up her wild ways before she is of much use indoors. 

 I must remark,too, that I found the bee very testy and ill-tempered in the 

 hot air of the greenhouse. I would not say that this is her nature, but 

 that, like the best tempered of people, there are times and seasons when 

 she is very put out. 



BEE NOT EXAMPLE FOR MAN. 



I must come noAV to the end of my paper, which is somewhat rambling 

 and fragmentary, and for the all too obvious reason, I fear, that I can get 

 but little out of my subject. I had hoped to piece my paper out by sum- 

 marizing in the way of drawing lessons for my fruit-growing friends from 

 the prudence and industry of the bee. (I take it for granted that beekeep- 

 ers have learned these lessons from the bees). But my father-in-law, who 

 is a preacher, tells me not to do it because the good book draws no such 

 lessons and he tells me that the Bible never once sets the bee as the 

 pattern for man. He thinks that few, unless it be the very young or the 

 simple-minded, need have the storing and hoarding of the bee impressed 

 upon them. Too often these are vices rather than virtues. The ant, to 

 whom the good book refers us. wisely provides for its daily fare, but does 

 not store up even beyond its capacity to feast and gluttonize as does the 

 bee. 



But if I leave the Bible and go to my little girl's story book I can draw 

 at least one lesson for all of you. The story goes that one season in a 

 village in Germany the place was overstocked with bees. With one 

 excejttion the hives were poorly filled. An old man, no wiser than his 

 neighbors, whose cottage was no nearer the bee pasturage, whose garden 

 had no more flowers, had his hives filled with honey. He was accused of 

 having bewitched his neighbors' bees. He bore the accusations patiently 

 until the end of the season, when he called his neighbors into his bee 

 garden and pointed to his hives. "This," he said, "is the only witchcraft 

 I have used." The hives were inclined a few more degrees to the east and 

 to the sun than were his neighbors. His bees were up and stirring before 



