July 25, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOUPNAL 



473 



sweets is small, something is possible in the way of posting 

 each one as to the habits of bees. Tell them sweets in a store 

 will be as sacred as sweets in a home pantry if you " shoo" 

 the first ones away and don't let them get begun. Tell them 

 also that screening often is only needed for two or three days, 

 until a mysterious change in weather conditions makes the 

 flowers " give down " — after which the flowers have the pref- 

 erence. 



QUEEN ACCEPTING THE COLOKT. 



I think Editor Pender is on the right track in jogging our 

 minds concerning the fact that the queen must accept the col- 

 ony as well as the colony accept the queen. Curiously hunger 

 is the best peace-maker on her side, and the opposite of hunger 

 a very necessary peace-maker on their side. Page 383. 



PARTLY FILLED SUCTIONS FOR B.\IT. 



Let's sing some more about taking partly filled sections, 

 bees and all, to start laggards at storing honey. No expe- 

 rience myself (so I can sing more freely). I have wondered 

 just a little if the wise old chaps who recommend this have 

 figured high enough on the hinderment the good colony suf- 

 fers. You see, if we let a good hand spend half his day mak- 

 ing a tramp work, and said tramp does J^ of a day's work, we 

 have scored a loss of 2.") percent. My practice is, and my 

 advice is strongly in the same direction, to keep bees for comb 

 honey that don't need any such fussing. Page 387. 



HINTS ON SELLING EXTR.^CTED HONEY. 



On page 388, G. H. Pond strikes the heart of an import- 

 ant matter when he deprecates too large sales at one time. A 

 lot of old candied honey well punctuied with dead flies and 

 ants — well, if an adversary wanted to keep a honey-loving 

 family from buying any honey 8U0 years he couldn't contrive 

 any better way. " Got a great lot of it on hand and can't buy 

 till we eat it up." And it looks so repulsive they never eat it 

 up. His experience with grocers is also interesting. Told 

 many of them just how to reliquefy — they said they would — 

 no one ever did. 'Spects that would be pretty much the same 

 everywhere. So if a fatal drooping of sales is to be prevented 

 at all, the man who furnishes the honey must see to it that it 

 is kept in liquid condition. 



Conducted by Prof. n. J. Cook, Claremont, Calif. 



NATURE STUDY. 



•• Flower in the crannied wall, 

 I pluck you out of the cranny ; 

 I hold you here in my hand. 

 Little flower; and it I could but understand 

 What you are. root and all, and all in all, 

 I would know what God and man is." 



Those beautiful lines from the great author, Tennyson, 

 are rich in suggestion, and show the heart of the great poet- 

 laureate of England. It is beautiful for us all to know the 

 flowers, to know the birds, to be intimate with butterfly, moth 

 and beetle. These gems of God's handiwork are intrinsically 

 beautiful. To be on speaking terms with them, to look deeply 

 into their beauty and mysteries, day by day, is to enrich and 

 refine the life. Peering into their wondrous secrets is ever 

 full of sweetest and best entertainment, is ever startling us 

 with surprises, is ever bringing us to know more of God's 

 wondrous ways. 



And how we constantly learn to see more and more as we 

 study these wondrous fashionings right from God's own hands. 

 Did the great poet overstate the truth when he said that to 

 know the flower thoroughly was to know God and man ? 1 ara 

 sure, to know the flower and insect will bring us as near (iod 

 as will anything we may study, and will make us more alive 

 with human sympathy. If, as we are often told, the country 

 folk are more pure and true than others, may it not be that 

 the influence of plant and flower has worked to sweeten and 

 ennoble life ? 



New York, through a beautifully wholesome work of Cor- 

 nell University, is bringing nature study into all the country 

 schools, and so into all the homes. God be praised for this 

 splendid undertaking. We may well bring it into all our home 

 circles. Can we not get all our States to follow New ^■^l•k's 

 most admirable example, and all have the leaflet, the lesson 



helps, and every bid to foster this glorious nature study ? Let 

 us all urge it upon our colleges and legislatures. A little seed 

 here will bear a most bountiful harvest. 



In the meantime, let us all get the children to study 

 flower, insect and bird. Let us with the children see just when 

 the birds come back in spring : when and how they build their 

 nests ; how they move on the ground ; how attentive and 

 faithful the male is to his mate ; how the color of the male 

 compares in brightness with the female ; which of these do 

 the singing, and when they sing sweetest and best. 



Again, let us note what insects seek and sip nectar: why 

 wasps are about the sticky mud near well or hydrant ; how the 

 butterfly fixes her wings when she alights ; whether moths do 

 the same ; why the leaves of our plants are ragged: and count- 

 less other things that will be so full of interest that we shall 

 find our days too short, and will sing with new meaning Fa- 

 ber's beautiful hymn : 



"There's a wideness in God's mercy, 

 Like the wideness of the sea." 



THOROUGH 'WORK. 



It was a great compliment that a young man received in 

 my hearing from an older person, a day or two since: "I 

 must have you at any price. You do your work so well." Do 

 we as parents appreciate the meaning of these words—" good 

 work ?" I had a boy work for me for 3 years. He was a joy 

 every day. He never slighted anything nor did he do one 

 thing less perfectly because no eye was looking on. It was a 

 great misfortune that I could not secure his help this year. 

 He could do better elsewhere. He will constantly progress. 

 Promotions will come thick and fast. People will fairly tumble 

 over each other in their eagerness to secure his services. His 

 life will be a happy one, because successful. He will always 

 be wanted, as he will always have something most valuable to 

 give. His work will always be speaking his praise. 



Can we devote time more wisely than by use of both pre- 

 cept and example, to beget in our children the fixed and cer- 

 tain habit of doing everything well— the very best that they 

 can ? Can we use a better means than to be generous with 

 approval '? Mrs. Cook often asked me if I were not afraid of 



spoiling Mr. by my words of approbation. I never saw 



any evil in dealing out such just praise in great, liberal, allo- 

 pathic doses. In my observation, nagging, fault-finding, sar- 

 castic jeers go very little towards making people better. I do 

 have great faith in the use of timely and honest praise for 

 work well done. True, we may overdo our praise of virtue, 

 but I think we are oftentimes far too chary in awarding it. 



I am sure that there are very few things that count so 

 largely in making life a great success as the habit of doing all 

 that comes to our hands in the very best possible way. Christ 

 was perfection. He always did his best— and the best. 



QRIT. 



I have always admired the stanza from the Irishman who 

 told how he secured so good a shillalah for use in his police 



duties : 



•• I take for stick the seraggedest. 

 The thorniest, knottiest, raggedest. 

 The thorniest, knottiest, snaggedest, 



Be it buckthorn, be it oak; 

 I pluck the flowers so swatly. 

 Leave knot and thorns so nately. 

 And tor seven long days eomplately 

 It must soak, and soak, and soak." 



There is a whole lot of philosophy in this. Our worst pas- 

 sions and most forbidding traits may become our ornaments 

 if held in check and made to bless and not curse. We may 

 well leave the knots "eomplately " if we will only use enough 

 of the hard polishing to smooth them down. The great thing 

 to remember, we must let the hard, forbidding sticks of 

 character "soak, and soak, and soak." 



Why Not Help a Little— both your neighbor bee-keep- 

 ers and the old American Bee Journal — by sending to us the 

 names and addresses of such as you may know do not- now 

 get this journal ? We will be glad to send them sample 

 copies, so that they may become acquainted with the paper, 

 and subscribe for it, thus putting themselves in the line of 

 success with bees. Perhaps you can get them to subscribe, 

 send in their dollars, and secure for your trouble some of 

 the premiums we are constantly offering as rewards for 

 such effort. 



The Premiums offered this week are well worth work- 

 ing for. Look at them. 



