682 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



Oct. 2+, 1901 



HOW THK SICILIAN BEE-KEEPKKS DO. 



We have closed standing frame hives both with and with- 

 out outer shells ; but the Sicilians are unique in plastering on 

 an outer shell upon movable standing frames. The plastering 

 is to be repeated after each manipulation, I suppose. With a 

 frame ouly 8xS bees are not so anxious to curve the comb 

 around as in frames horizontally long, so quite possibly a 

 bamboo top-bar might need no comb-guide. Page 582. 



CAUSES OF QUEEN-REARING FAILURES. 



And so Doolittle suspects that wrong moves in transfer- 

 ring the larv;i? are responsible for most of the failures — the 

 quite moderate percent of failures — in rearing queens by the 

 Doolittle method. It is a shrewd test experiment which he 

 suggests — take out the larvie from some natural cells which 

 the bees undoubtedly cherish and see if you can put others in 

 successfully. Page 582. 



HUGGING TO DEATH. 



We know that the same facts can oft be read in different 

 ways. We are pleased to hear (pleased in one sense of the 

 term) that bees are not trying to worry the drones to death — 

 only hugging them in the affectionate effort to dissuade them 

 from suicide. And if, to dissuade Mr. Archibald from the sui- 

 cide of extracting from combs with brood in them, just the 

 right body would didactically and effectively hug him — well, 

 it would be a good deed. Page 587. 



POSITION OF NECTAR-GLANDS. 



I think Prof. Shimek is hardly wise in his choice of words 

 when he says that nectar-glands are concealed. The condi- 

 tions of the case make it necessary that they be placed behind 

 the spots which bees are being lured to touch unwittingly, and 

 concealmenteomes in as an undesirable result. Page 588. 



"EN.70YIN6 life" — SELFISHNESS. 



I like the talk from Gleanings in Bee-Culture, on page 

 589, about the philosophy and plan of human occupation and 

 life; but, still, I greatly wish some one could give, intelligibly 

 and victoriously give, just a little different turn to the phrase 

 "enjoying life." A man wrongly devoted to the enjoyment 

 of life is a kitten running after its own tail. And in just that 

 sort of a quest multitudes of well-bred, intelligent people 

 make their lives into wrecks — make themselves unfit persons 

 to be in any imaginable world which God is to stay in over 

 night. We w?<5/ have some banner before us which does not 

 have "self, self, self," written all over it. 



\ ^ The Home Circle. ^ | 



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



EDUCATION. 



What a wealth of philosophy, and what a mine of truth. 

 are to be found in the familiar scriptural adage, " It is the 

 little foxes that spoil the vine." Is it not equally true that 

 some little word, or apparently trifling event, makes a life a 

 man ? A fond teacher in my early boyhood — one of those rare 

 persons who take by storm the love, respect, admiration of all 

 whose lives they touch — said a word that aroused in me a 

 quenchless ambition for that which else I would never have 

 secured. That word was "College." She said, what I have 

 seen illustrated in many lives since that time, "If you wish it 

 hard enough, you can get a college education ; a thorough ed- 

 ucation would be worth more than a gold-mine to you." 



I wish some happy parent, or some fortunate teacher, or 

 some other good angel, could blaze this truth into the mind of 

 every bright boy and girl the country over. We should wish 

 most fondly and most earnestly that all our children should 

 covet the very best gifts. Certainly high among the best treas- 

 ures of any life is a rich, broad culture of the mind. Unly one 

 thing transcends it, and that is a rich soul-culture. 



Were I to be a ditcher, or a stone-crusher in the hot sun 

 by the roadside, I should wish a good, thorough education to 

 be my companion then and there. The education would not 

 only soonest lift me out of the ditch, and away from the stone- 

 pile, but it would do even better, it would help me to enjoy the 

 life with the spade and the hammer. One thoroughly educa- 

 ted can find real pleasure in the opening ditch or the break- 



ing stone. Shakespeare was, as always, wise. Those with 

 eyes to see can find books in the running brooks. 



A good friend writes commending my "Home Circle" 

 teaching, but wishes I could be brought to see that Saturday, 

 not Sunday, was the sacred day. Another wishes I could be 

 consistent and vote for prohibition. I have no retort for either. 

 We may well remember Paul's word, " Some esteem one day 

 better than another ; some esteem all days alike." Paul did 

 not follow this with a thrust at either. He said, "Be well 

 persuaded in your own minds." That is very wise advice. Let 

 us all study both these questions, and all others that divide 

 public opinion as thoroughly as we may, then decide as care- 

 fully as we have studied, and then act upon our convictions. 

 If we do this we shall please God, I am sure. If this results 

 in our keeping Saturday, then well ; if in keeping Sunday, 

 then well. If it makes us vote prohibition, God will smile ; if 

 it makes us vote other tickets, God will also smile. God does 

 not demand perfection of any of us. "Only one, your father 

 in heaven, is perfect." He does demand earnest, honest study, 

 as a requisite to right judgment. The good education makes 

 the hard study easier, and the succeeding judgment more cor- 

 rect. The good education does, or ought to do, a better thing. 

 It makes us charitable, tolerant towards others who also have 

 studied and decided differently. It recognizes that all fail of 

 deciding wisely and rightly at times ; and instead of a word of 

 condemnation to those who differ from us, we re-examine our 

 own views, lest, perchance, we may be in error. 



I keep Sunday, and generally vote the Republican ticket. 

 I believe I please God in doing so. If my friends have studied 

 as best they may, and have decided as conscientiously as the 

 importance of the questions demand, then they, too. please 

 God. (iod be praised for the best mind-culture. That not 

 only helps us to right decision, but makes us kindly, charita- 

 ble towards him who is led to different decision. 



One of the most blessed things of our day is the greater 

 tolerance which we give to those who think not as we do. Ed- 

 ucation, clarified and sweetened by the Christ spirit, is the 

 glorious parent of this broader charity. 



LANDSCAPE QARDENINQ. 



In my institute work of late, I have been happy in being 

 associated with a bright landscape gardener and floricultur- 

 ist. In his lectures he gave three principles which he said 

 should control in all laying out of home grounds, whether in 

 the restricted city lot or in the more spacious environs of 

 country. 



First, " Avoid straight lines." 



Second, " Preserve open lawn centres." 



Third, " Plant in groups, not singly." 



I have listened more pleasantly as we have followed two 

 of these rules in our own landscaping. We have no straight 

 lines in walk or drive, and I am glad curves are more pleasing 

 than right lines. Our little white clover lawn is all the richer 

 and more thrifty in having all to itself. A tree or shrub in a 

 lawn almost always looks as if it fell out of place. Its foliage 

 looks pale and sickly. My plants are isolated, and not in 

 groups. They are not regular. On my small place I doubt if 

 grouping would have given us more pleasure. Of course it 

 would if more artistic, more after Nature's pattern. Is this 

 true in such confined limits? 



"DEAR DAUGHTER DOROTHY." 



This is a charming story for the children. Like that fas- 

 cinating book, "Captain .January," it should be in all our 

 home circles where children abound. The book makes a child 

 do impossible things, but in such a realistic way that we for- 

 get that it could not be realized in life. It is charming, too, 

 to see how perfect is the union in thought and feeling between 

 father and daughter. Such a uicturo of home life is beautiful 

 to hang on memory's walls. I urge every home circle to get 

 these two books, and read them aloud in the home circle. It 

 the scene in " Captain January," where separation is pro- 

 posed, brings tears, and raises the heart throatward, we shall 

 be all the better for it. 



I remember how our whole household, years agone, gen- 

 erated dampness under the eyebrows, when we read "Uncle 

 Tom's Cabin" aloud in the old home. It was good to cry. 

 Such scenes were common wherever this great classic was 

 read. They were good tears, and were not without influence 

 in the stormy days of the early sixties. 



Queenie Jeanette is the title of a pretty song- in sheet 

 music size, written by J. C. Wallenmeyer, a musical bee- 

 keeper. The regular price is 40 cents, but to close out the 

 copies we have left, we will mail them at 20 cents each, as 

 long as they last. 



