142 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15 



cultural meeting much more in my life. Friend 

 Day. as a matter of course, was backward 

 about taking part, and telling what he could 

 tell so much better than anybody else. I say, 

 "as a matter of course," for it is a lamentable 

 fact that the real skillful, intelligent, and suc- 

 cessful cultivators of the soil— the real experts 

 and old wheel-horses in nearly all rural indus- 

 tries—are very modest men. A good many of 

 them think they can not talk. The reason is. 

 they have all their lives sat in the background, 

 and so have got an idea that they can not help 

 in such gatherings. Of course, that is not one 

 of my troubles — not now, anyhow. In fact, I 

 am afraid I have sometimes pushed myself for- 

 ward a little too much. As the program was 

 already quite full at this gathering, I decided 

 not to say any thing; but I am sorry now that 

 I kept still. I came in during the middle of the 

 exercises, and there was not much time for 

 introductions; yell am now sorry that I did 

 not crowd in with at least a few brief remarks. 

 There was something in my mind that I wanted 

 to say to the four or five hundred people there 

 assembled. Well, there is one consolation- 1 

 can say it yet to perhaps twice as many thou- 

 sands: but I wanted the South(>rn people es- 

 pecially to hear it. I wanted the colored boys 

 of that horticultural meeting to hear what I 

 had to say. I am now going to give my little 

 speech here; and my good friends in the South 

 may scatter it about. Here it is: 

 Mr. President, Ladies and Oentlemen. of this 

 Horticultural Society of the State of Missis- 

 sippi: 



In Ohio, where I came from, we have a man 

 whom we delight to honor. Not only does the 

 whole State of Ohio delight to honor him. but 

 the whole United States is beginning to do so; 

 and before he dies we expect him to be held in 

 grateful remembrance by the people who till 

 the soil, fi'om all over the world. His name is 

 Terry. He is teaching the people of the North 

 how to raise potatoes; and not only more pota- 

 toes, but better ones than the world ever saw 

 before. Now. dear friends, you have a man 

 here in the South, right in this State, in this 

 county — yes. here in this room— who is in a like 

 manner teaching the Southern people to raise 

 tomatoes— better tomatoes, and more of them, 

 and earlier in the season— than they have ever 

 had them before. In fact, he has developed a 

 great industry where nothing of the kind was 

 ever known before. You doubtless looked out 

 of the car windows, as you came here to this 

 gathering, and saw the white cotton sheeting 

 that covers the hot-beds. In fact, these cloth- 

 covered hot- beds are at this very moment dot- 

 ting the landscape with this very industry 

 until it calls forth question and I'emark from 

 the ti-aveler who passes through on your rail- 

 way trains. The man you are neglecting and 

 overlooking is my good friend J. W. Bay. I 

 know we are told in the good book, that "a 

 prophet is not without honor save in his own 

 country;" but with all due respect to my good 

 friends Gov. Hoard and J. M. Smith, and others 

 who have come from the North to talk to us, I 

 want to remind you that you have home talent 

 that needs recognizing and encouraging. Now, 

 boys, there has been a good deal of cheering 

 here to-night. I want you to give three rous- 

 ing cheers for the home talent of the State of 

 Mississippi. May God bless you all. 



After the meeting was over we adjourned to 

 our lodging-places. The unusual number of 

 visitors in the little town of Jackson was so 

 great the hotels and boarding-houses were full, 

 and extempore beds had to be rigged up all 

 over the city; and it was my exceeding good 



fortune to be permitted to sleep in a bed with 

 friend Day, and this bed was only one of half a 

 dozen or more that occupied the same room. 

 As the weather was a little frosty, a big blazing 

 fire of pine knots was kindled in the spacious 

 fireplace, and we all got around the fire and 

 told stories. Friend Day was inclined to apol- 

 ogize a little for the way he entertained a 

 Northern visitor; but I look back to that even- 

 ing, and the friendly chat we had by the fireside 

 there, as one of the most enjoyable evenings of 

 my life. It gave me just the glimpse of the 

 Southern people and Souihei-n customs that I 

 wanted. Most of the friends who sat around 

 that fire had been slave-owners in former days: 

 and they were just as free to talk it all over^ 

 and teli stories, and answer any questions I 

 might ask. as if they had been my next-door 

 neighbors all their lives. Of course, there was- 

 fun and merriment; but there was a real hun- 

 gering and thirsting after righteousness. The 

 matter of the morals of the colored people wa,s- 

 discussed: their value as farm-hands and me- 

 chanics; their capacity for education, etc.; and 

 the report I received was certainly encourag- 

 ing. 1 know there are drawbacks — terrible 

 drawbacks; but, my dear friend, there are 

 drawbacks with the white people too. It took 

 a good deal of hard, earnest work, and much 

 patiient forbearance — much kindness and long- 

 suffering— on the part of earnest Christian 

 workers before you and I were brought into the 

 fold of Christ Jesus. 



These horticultural meetings and farmers' 

 institutes are going to be great agencies for 

 good among the colored peopl'i. A great part 

 of them take kindly to gardening, fruit- 

 growing, and kindred pursuits. I have no idea 

 horv many features of the problem are to be 

 solved; but I am sure that education, manual 

 training, etc., are right and proper at the pres- 

 ent stage. 



I did not get a chance to shake hands with 

 Gov. Hoard; but I wish to say a word of en- 

 couragement to him. if he will accept it; and I 

 want to suggest to the good friends of the State 

 of Wisconsin, that, if they have not already 

 thanked God for such a bright, happy, and, at 

 times, almost inspired leadi-r in the cause of 

 agriculture and every thing else that is pro- 

 gressive and good and pure, they want to do it 

 now. Our friend Smith, who had the wisdom 

 and good sense to take his wife along when he 

 went down among the Southern people, also 

 deserves a vote of thanks. And we may thank 

 God that he, too, has been raised up at a time 

 so opportune — that is, when there is such a gen- 

 eral disposition to say that farming does not 

 pay; we may thank God that J. M. Smith has 

 come on to the stage to show us that intensive 

 agriculture does pay, and pays tremendously, 

 where one gives it brains and energy — the same 

 kind of brains and energy that are given to 

 almost all callings to make them successful. 

 Not only in the North is it possible to make 

 agriculture pay; but industries are springing 

 up here and there all over the Southern States 

 that are enough to startle the whole world. 

 There are possibilities along this line, and pos- 

 sibilities, too. that people right in these very 

 neighborhoods never dreamed of. Let us get 

 the cotton or wheat, or whatever else it may be, 

 out of our ears and eyes, that we may see and 

 hear, and profit by seeing and hearing. 



I was very much interested in an address on 

 growing strawberries in and around Crystal 

 Springs; and the speaker had in his hand a box 

 of ripe berries while he spoke. They do occa- 

 sionally, in favored localities, get a few straw- 

 berries in February; but it seems to me as if 

 they must be something a little irregular, about 

 like the small crops of berries we sometimes get 



