1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



795 



Our Homes. 



For precept must be upon precept, precept upon 

 precept; line u])on line, line upon line; here a little 

 and there a little.— Isa. 28:10. 



The following is along the line of thought of 

 my talk to the bee-keepers at Lincoln, Neb.: 



Dear friends, this is an age of improvement 

 and progress. We are not only devising ways 

 and means of furnishing better things than the 

 world ever saw before, but, strange as it may 

 seem, we also furnish these improved neces- 

 saries of life for less money than they could 

 ever be bought for before. Yes, many times we 

 furnish a better article at a much less price 

 than the old-fashioned awkward utensil or im- 

 plement used to cost us fifty or a hundred years 

 ago. I may mention briefly some of the things 

 that have been accomplished in bee culture. 

 We not only have a better and handsomer sec- 

 tion to hold the honey than we ever had before, 

 but our expert bee-keepers succeed in getting it 

 tilled with snow-white comb and luscious con- 

 tents in a neater and more attractive shape 

 than it has ever been before. 



I can remember the time, years ago, when I 

 decided that the comb foundation that seemed 

 to be needed ought to be made with a pair of 

 rolls. I said we should be able to roll out a 

 strip a mile long if anybody wanted it. Long 

 days and nights I worked on the problem; and 

 I distinctly remember the time when Mrs. Root 

 urged me to burn up my machinery and give 

 it all up. She was tired of the melted wax, 

 doubtless, and I was too. But I could not think 

 of abandoning the project then and there. 

 Nowadays when I go down into our wax-room 

 and see the boys and girls making beautiful 

 foundation, or, rather, see as I have of late 

 where automatic machinery does it, 1 wonder 

 if anybody thinks of the long string of difficul- 

 ties that we had to get through with before 

 this thing was a success. The machine now 

 takes a chunk of pure beeswax, said wax being 

 melted and kept at the right heat by a coil of 

 steam-pipe. A machine makes it into sheet 

 wax of evenest thickness, and these sheets 

 are run out and rolled up like a belt of leather 

 or like paper from a paper machine. Another 

 automatic machine passes it through the rolls, 

 cuts the sheets into the desired length, and 

 piles them up neater than any one can possibly 

 do it by hand. These machines will run for a 

 little time alone, and do their work all right 

 without any attention or supervision whatever. 

 I have not the time here to mention the improv- 

 ed products that meet us on every hand; but 

 let me take one more illustration: 



During the past summer I have greatly en- 

 joyed raising a crop of the finest apples I ever 

 saw. We commenced in the spring, before the 

 trees were leaved out, and sprayed them with 

 the Bordeaux mixture. Just before the buds 

 opened we gave them another spraying. After 

 the petals had fallen so that we should not 

 poison the bees they were sprayed a third time, 

 with a little London purple added to the spray- 

 ing solution. This was to poison the codling- 

 moth. When the apples were as large as 

 hickorynuts they were sprayed again with the 

 Bordeaux mixture and arsenic, and a little later 

 on they were given still another dose. The 

 result was, we had apples free from scab, and 

 almost free from worms. But this spraying 

 was not all of it. The borers have for several 

 years been at work down near the base of the 

 trunk of the trees in my young orchard, and 

 some of the trees were killed outright before I 

 found out where and what the enemy was. 

 Last fall we commenced to dig out the borers 



with a sharp pointed knife and wire. We went 

 over them again in the spring, and once more 

 along in June, and we are going over them 

 again this fall. And that was not all. The 

 trees blossomed very full last spring. Many of 

 them had set more apples than they could hold. 

 We picked off the gnarliest and poorest speci- 

 mens where there were too many on a limb; 

 and we got rid of some more by shaking them 

 off in order that the remaining ones might 

 have a better chance. Still further, we drew 

 some fine old well-rotted manure, and scatter- 

 ed it liberally around under some of the choicest 

 trees as far as the limbs extend. This was to 

 enable them to perfect the immense loads of 

 fruit that the tree had undertaken to mature. 

 The copious rains of last summer carried this 

 fertility all down to the roots; and as a reward 

 for our pains and care, we had, as I have told 

 you, apples that not only astonished but de- 

 lighted all our friends. Yes, the apples delight- 

 ed our little granddaughter before she was 

 quite one year old; and grandpa carried her 

 out and showed her the great nice apples, and 

 explained to her that they were not only hand- 

 some, but would be good to eat in a few days. 

 She learned with her baby lips to join in his 

 exclamations of surprise and thankfulness. If 

 I remember correctly he used to say to her, 

 "Oh. my! what nice apples!" But her baby 

 lips did not shape the words exactly as grandpa 

 did. She got it, "Oh, ivy!" instead of "Oh, 

 my!" Pretty soon that was her favorite ex- 

 pression when she saw any thing nice or un- 

 usual. Sunday morning, Oct. 18, when the 

 snowflakes came tumbling down almost as large 

 as half-dollars, she looked out the window and 

 expressed her wonder and surprise by a series 

 of "Oh, wy's!" When she came to enjoy the 

 nice mellow apples with grandpa, there were 

 more "Oh, wy's!" 



You see, we could not secure any thing real 

 nice and beautiful without much care and 

 pains; but it must be line upon line and pre- 

 cept upon precept, as the old text has it. And, 

 again, it is not enough to plant the seed or to 

 plant the tree. Both must be watched year by 

 year, week by week, day by day. Sometimes 

 it must be hour by hour. If you are raising 

 Hubbard squashes, and want to have the finest 

 and best in the market, the bugs must be 

 watched for when the weather is favorable, 

 almost every hour. It will not do to say, "I 

 think they are all right, for there was not a bug 

 on them this morning." By noon the bugs 

 may have destroyed a large number of plants. 

 Sometimes the potato-beetles come in upon us 

 in the same way. Eternal vigilance is the price 

 of victory, and it is so in producing almost any 

 thing for market, in these days when sharp 

 competition is all around us. It will npver do 

 for us to be discouraged because there are so 

 many foes to fight, and because prices are so 

 low, unless we have the very finest that can be 

 produced. It seems hard; but yet if we have 

 the right attitude toward the great Creator of 

 the universe, and are looking to him daily and 

 hourly for guidance and counsel, we shall see 

 there are blessings in the background of the 

 very things that look to us like misfortunes and 

 hardships. 



And now, dear friends, I want to speak of 

 something of more moment and more impor- 

 tance than sections of nice honey or even beau- 

 tiful apples. All these things are right and 

 proper. It is a grand thing to see young men 

 or young women giving their whole heart to 

 the work of excelling in these things. But this 

 should not be first and foremost. Somebody 

 has said that the most important crop that 

 grows on the farm or anywhere else, for that 



