282 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



May 2, 1901. 



more to the world. Before you build, and after you have got 

 this crude ideal of shape well in your mind, you can push in 

 two opposite sides of it until it is dumb-bell shaped instead of 

 circular — hives to be at one of the bulbs. This modification 

 will save one wall, save very greatly in the ground area 

 required, and give greater strength against wind. The cloth 

 at the sides can be arranged to pull up and tie at the top when 

 not in use and thus offer little sail to a storm. 



It will reijuire considerable grace to do so, but I trust Mr. 

 Davitte will be able to take it meekly if there are still 

 "Thomases" in the world. Sixteen days for preparatory 

 exercise strikes one as rather a big chunk cut out of the 

 drone's life. The words, "the queen and drone fall nearly to 

 the ground," are provocative of suspicion. Tliey sound so 

 dreadfully like they were " cut out mit de shears " from the 

 bee-literature of 25 years ago. A fall of less than 30 feet 

 seems very inadequate to give time for twisting off a strong 

 ligament by rotation. Page 181. 



BEE-KEEPING AND PIAKO-PLAYING. 



Easier to learn apiculture than piano-playing, eh ? Well 

 perhaps. There's this about it — if you learn bees you suffer 

 the torments yourself mostly ; if piano is your choice the 

 agony falls to the neighbors. Page 182. 



ADULTERATION OF SUGAR CO.MMON. 



Referring to Mr. Cowan's letter on page 211, I guess I 

 shall have to admit that the adulteration of granulated sugar 

 is getting to be common. Am using some now very pleasant 

 to the taste, but nevertheless tasting as tho there might be an 

 admixture of something. The hardness of grain and the 

 straight-out sweet and nothing else do not seem to be there. 



BUCKWHEAT BLOOM E.VRLY. 



West Virginia, on page 185 — what does he want buck- 

 wheat to bloom .July 1st for? Perhaps it might be well to 

 tell him that buckwheat made to bloom abnormally early is 

 pretty sure not to yield honey to amount to anything — also 

 pretty sure not to produce very much grain, either. 



j^.^.j&L^.J«C^VtC^,^.^.J:l,j:l^jiC^,j:L.j^.j«^^iCJ:C^t<L 



The Home Circle. 



W: 



Conducted bij Prof. ft. J. Cook, Clareniont, Calif. 



"THE BEST CROP." 



At one of our recent farmers' institutes, a lady had a 

 paper on the subject of "The Best Crop." Of course no one 

 could know whether she was to treat of beans, barley, or 

 beets. We soon found that it was to be none of these, but 

 was to be devoted to the children. And surely she was right. 

 The boys and girls do certainly form the best crop, not only of 

 the farm, but of any home be it in city or country. 1 wonder 

 if any of us realize this fact as we should. How many of 

 the children use tobacco ; how many even smoke the harmful, 

 not to say deadly, cigarette ; how many seek amusement In the 

 saloon; how many use profane language : how many tell or 

 listen to the vulgar story, and often demean themselves by 

 telling it themselves. Oh, how happy we are if we can keep 

 our dear ones from all these debasing habits 1 We engage 

 men to spend days, and keep a close watch of them all of the 

 time as they break a favorite colt. Yet do we all give time to 

 the children, and do we watch as closely, as their habits are 

 being formed ? Do we give an hour or two on each Sunday, 

 perchance walking in the field, park, or woodland, and call- 

 ing their attention to the many beauties that are scattered so 

 thickly all about us ? The father and mother who have not 

 liad these pleasures have mist one of the rarest sweets of 

 life. The children who have not in their early, tender years 

 enjoyed this rich fellowship, have had a most valuable part of 

 their life left out. 



I do not think there is any one thing in my whole life that 

 I recall with more satisfaction and genuine pleasure than I do 

 the Sunday walks with the dear wife and children. I found, 

 it so easy to beget in the children a love even for the creeping, 

 crawling things. They loved and admired even the snakes, 

 the frogs, and the caterpillars. Who has not admired the 

 stanza from the poet ? 



"He prayeth best who loveth best, 



All things both great aad small ; 

 For the dear Lord wlio loveth us, 



Ue tuade and loveth all." 



. Can we help our children more than to lead them to love 

 and admire (lod's handiwork at the very threshold of their 

 lives ? If we can couple with this in their young minds a full 

 appreciation that all the good things are from God, we have 

 given to them an invaluable possession. I would rather my 

 child would have a perfectly realizing sense that God was all 

 about him, loved him, cared for him, and was the Great Giver 

 of all the beauty about us, than any other one thing. No 

 father should be so busy that he could not take these Sunday 

 walks with tlie dear children. 



Is it not also true that the club or street-corner talk 

 should be very valuable indeed if it robs the children of the 

 time and sympathy of the father? How many fathers carry 

 a life-long burden because of wayward children '. I just 

 heard a day or two ago of a good Christian man who lives 

 close by us, who has also been a life-long minister of the gos- 

 pel, whose son has dipt into all the bad things that smirch the 

 life and cliaracter, I have known the boy, and his face tells 

 the story of his reckless life. I believe all this burden of 

 sorrow might very likely have been avoided had the father 

 found time during the boy's early years to have taken walks, 

 read to him the Youth's Companion or other good paper, 

 given him some chickens, and then taken the interest In him 

 that is always so pleasing to the boy or girl. 



I remember once in a lecture before the Chautauqua Asso- 

 ciation, in speaking of inciting in children a love of Nature. 

 I made what I feared at the time was a rash assertion. I said 

 that I believed that up to twelve years of age, if Barnum's 

 "Greatest Show on Earth " were to come our way. and I had 

 said to my boy and girl, " We will take the day off, and go to 

 the circus or for a walk in the woods — which shall it be ?" I 

 believed that they would have elected the walk in the woods. 

 As I bethought me of the circus, the fine horses, tlie rapid 

 and dizzy riding, the wondrous jumping, swinging and wrest- 

 ling' I feared that 1 had perhaps make a reckless statement. 

 After the lecture, I askt my grown daughter who was present, 

 if I had done so. She said, " No, indeed. I am sure we 

 should have gone for the walk." 



It is assuredly true that the children are the best crop of 

 the farm. Time, effort, energy, spent in keeping them inter- 

 ested in good things is the best kind of cultivation. I have 

 often wisht that I had money so that I could put the Youth's 

 Companion into every home of the land. Next to our per- 

 sonal attention, nothing will hefp so much to lift the children 

 from all that is mean and unseemly as good papers and books. 

 These are now so cheap that no home need be without them. 

 We have had many illustrations here at our college that the 

 boy or girl of good stuff need not even go without a college 

 education. Energy, determination, vim, can even give this 

 best of riches with no outside help at all. How much easier 

 to secure the good book, the good paper, for the children. 



CHILDREN IN THE CITY. 



How many of our good friends live in the close quarters 

 of the city, perhaps in a flat where a few feet of ground in 

 front and back form the only seclusive places for the children. 

 The children must have air and sunshine. Without these, 

 pallor, weakness, disease, are sure to come. Left to the 

 street, and all kinds of companionship will be theirs. Impu- 

 dence, rudeness, often even the vilest vulgarity will be poured 

 into their ears. Surely, no mother can contemplate this with- 

 out a dread and horror that will do its utmost to bring inven- 

 tion to the rescue. I have a friend who has just this problem 

 to solve. Her husband's business makes it almost Impossible 

 to escape the narrow limits of the city fiat. The back yard is 

 about 30x10 feet. This is boarded up so as to shut out the 

 street children, and give the seclusion which is so imperative 

 to the best good of the children. Lovely vines have converted 

 the rude board fence into a thing of beauty. A hammock, 

 screen to protect from the sun, pile of clean sand for the 

 thousand and one things that the little architects will design, 

 some clay to be used in moulding, blocks, brick, etc., all make 

 that back yard a veritable paradise for the wee children. 

 Other children in the neighborhood long to gain admittance to 

 this little fairyland, and are themselves moulded into goodness 

 as they know that the most perfect conduct is the only key 

 that unlocks the door. 



Thus this mother has not only solved the immediate prob- 

 lem for her own children, but she has a center of good influ- 

 ence which is throwing Its wholesome beams all thru that sec- 

 tion of the city. Whenever the busy mother can do so, she 

 takes the children to the parks and there talks of birds, 

 insects and even creeping things, for she learned to know and 

 love these things when she was little, and she Is handing these 

 same bits of knowledge over to the eager children which have 

 come to bless her home. 



A friend at my side asks, " How about the coming years ?" 



