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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



to criticise Christians should remember this: 

 That even the best of us, with all our best 

 intentions to be self-sacrificing, and to be meek 

 and humble followers of Christ Jesus, are often, 

 almost unconsciously, exceedingly selfish. 



Now, dear friends, the Bible is ringing with 

 texts along this line of self-sacrifice; and there 

 is not a greater truth in this whole wide world 

 than that the man who is constantly seeking 

 self-gratification will utterly fail in that which 

 he seeks after. " Whosoever shall seek to save 

 his life shall lose it." And, again, the one who 

 decides to deny himself, and to put down every 

 selfish feeling, just as soon as it puts in an 

 appearance, shall, almost unconsciously, find 

 the truest and straightest path to real happi- 

 ness. "And whosoever shall lose his life shall 

 preserve it." Why, I am sure, dear friends, that 

 you have all had experiences along in this very 

 line. You have again and again decided (per- 

 haps with a sigh) that it was best for you to 

 give up something you very much wanted ;'.-yet 

 you decided that, for the sake of peace and 

 good ivill, you would say nothing, and bear the 

 cross; and, to your great astonishment, you 

 discovered very soon afterward, that, in giving 

 up and in putting aside self, you found a great 

 blessing. Does not our text express it beauti- 

 fully? "Let him deny himself, and take up 

 his cross daily." And then, again, in the verse 

 beyond. " But whosoever will lose his life for 

 my sake, the same shall save it." 



Notes of Travel 



ON THE WHEEL— CONTINUED. 



After looking at the spirea we pushed on 

 through the evergreens, and my eye at first 

 caught on to the strawberries; but it was not 

 long before I uttered another exclamation of 

 surprise as I saw the most luxuriant growth of 

 clover I think I ever set my eyes on before. It 

 was so thick and strong that it fairly rolled 

 over on to the cultivated ground. I turned to 

 look at friend Terry, and he smiled as he 

 replied, " There, Mr. Root, that is what 1 want- 

 ed you to look at when I sent you that urgent 

 invitation. I thought I would let you alone 

 until you ran on to it yourself." 



At this I raised my eyes and looked over the 

 green field. Then I turned my face to the right 

 and to the left as I replied, " Why, your clover 

 is not all like that all over, is it ? is not this a 

 piece where you put on so much manure to get 

 something extra for your strawberries, two or 

 three years ago ?" 



" Well, you shall be the judge," said he. 



Then we went all around the clover-field and 

 examined it. It was almost too wet from the 

 recent rain to wade into it very much. Several 

 times I thought I saw a place where it was not 

 as tall, and so I did wade out in to see. But 

 Terry's thinking and working had got it almost 

 perfect. It was an even stand from one side of 

 the field to the other, just as regular as if it 

 were a piece of mechanical work. There were 

 no poor spots, and no extra good spots,* and at 

 that time it had not got down anywhere. 

 Within the past few weeks I have been having 

 some experience with what can be done, not 

 only with potatoes, but average garden crops, 

 on a clover sod. We have been having the 

 worst drouth that has visited us for many 

 years. But every thing on the clover sod is 

 walking right along, k(!eping up its color, and 

 making a strong thrifty growth. To-day is the 



* Not even where this ground liad been manured 

 so heavily for strawberries. 



10th of July; but since the 1st day of June we 

 have not had enough rain altogether to make 

 an ordinary shower, while the mercury has at 

 times been in the 90's. Now, I do not know 

 what the result would be of turning under such 

 a growth of clover as I saw that day; but from ■ 

 what experience I have had, I think it must be 

 something immense. I questioned a little, and 

 friend Terry admitted that the crop promised 

 to be so great as to fill all his barns — maybe 

 more too. 



Before leaving home I had been worried be- 

 cause of the quantity of docks that were com- 

 ing up in my potato-field. Old farmers shook 

 their heads, and said I would have to dig them 

 out, root and branch. Now, there were so many 

 that that meant considerable hard work. I did 

 not know how docks could have come on my 

 ground to that extent. But I concluded it must 

 have been in the clover seed, and that, when 

 we turned the clover under, the docks grew up 

 " t'other end to." I have spent some money in 

 digging out docks, and I have had some experi- 

 ence, as you may remember, in killing out 

 Canada thistles: and when some of my men 

 asked whether they should dig out the docks, I 

 told them to wait a little until I found out 

 more about it. In fact, I proposed to write to 

 friend Terry and ask him to tell me on a postal 

 card whether such cultivation as we give 

 potatoes would not kill out even docks as it did 

 Canada thistles. Well, when I looked over his 

 potato-fields where the potatoes were just get- 

 ting through the ground. I almost " chuckled" 

 as I saw the docks scattered here and there, 

 just as they were in my own field. But I was 

 not very much surprised either, when friend 

 Terry said they would not do any particular 

 hurt. He has told how careful he is about 

 having no foul seeds in his wheat when he 

 sows it, and therefore I rather expected he 

 would be equally careful about his clover seed — 

 especially clover seed without any dock seed in 

 it; but I was not very much surprised when he 

 said that dock seed in with the clover does so 

 little harm that it is hardly worth while to 

 make a fuss about it. 



Of course, he would not have a dock going to 

 seed on his premises, any more than I would; 

 but running the cultivators as he does every 

 few days right over the docks soon uses them 

 up, and I found it so in my case. There is not 

 a dock to be seen now in my potato-field, and I 

 hardly understand it either, so little attention 

 was paid to them. The few left in or between 

 the hills, were, just once, cut out with a hoe. 



Now, here a point comes in. A great many 

 hard-working farmers waste their time in 

 severe hard labor, in doing work that does not 

 need to be done— in fact, oftentimes even worse. 

 At this very time, right in the midst of a July 

 drouth, people all over our town are hilling up 

 their potatoes. Several have wanted to borrow 

 my shovel-plow or any other implement that 

 would just pile the dirt away up sharp around 

 the potatoes, leaving the deep V-shaped fur- 

 rows between the rows. I have attempted a 

 little remonstrance but it is not a bit of use. 

 When I quote Terry, ihey say, "If Mr. Terry 

 says that potatoes should not be hilled up so as 

 to prevent the hot sun from making them 

 green, we don't want any more of Terry." If I 

 had nothing else to do I might sit down patient- 

 ly with each one and attempt to explain mat- 

 ters. It is no use to attempt to get them to 

 read his book, for they have not time, or they 

 think they know best any way. A few years 

 ago I had a very promising piece of Early Ohio 

 potatoes. They were doing as nicely as pota- 

 toes could well do until one day. during ray 

 absence, one of my German helpers, who felt 

 sure it ought to be done, hilled up the whole 



