March, 1918 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



lis is contracted in the majority of cases 

 by men who were (or ivJien they were) 

 drunli. Does it seem possible a man in his 

 riii'ht senses would deliberately curse his 

 wife — yes, even his unborn children, unless 

 he were out'of his head? But strong' drink 

 is not all of it. Great progress toward 

 righteousness has been made in other ways 

 in the past seventy years. When I was a 

 boy there was no Y. M. C. A. (At leasl: I 

 had not heard of it.) There was no En- 

 deavor society nor Salvation Army. I have 

 seen them both start and grow. There were 

 no young peojile's prayer meetings, no gos- 

 ]iel songs. Why, before God sent out 

 ]\[oody and Sankey to us the poj^ular songs 

 were negro melodies, senseless or worse — 

 some of them. Sliall I give yo:i two lines 

 as a sample? 



■\VIien I goes out to promenade, I looks so fine and 



gay, 

 I has to take de dogs alons; to keep de girls away. 



When the Gospel hymns were started, 

 they took like wildfire, for even the chil- 

 dren saw and appreciated the difference. I 

 told you in a Home jiaper a few months 

 ago about the w^orldwide work of the Y. M. 

 0. A. This same war has spread that and 

 the Red Cross all over the woi-ld as nothing 

 else could have done. 



Now a word about our second text or 

 texts. It was announced a week ahead 

 that the topic of this especial prayer-meet- 

 ing Avould be, " Wliat has Jesus done for 

 you in your life?" In answer I selected 

 the two verses from the 40th Psalm. Per- 

 haps I should explain that, during a brief 

 part of my eaidy life (thank God it ivas 

 brief), I was attracted by (at that time) 

 popular skeptics, agnostics, etc. After I 

 left that crowd I one day had a talk with 

 a young man of much ability who had been 

 flattered because he spoke and even wrote 

 some very plausible things against the 

 Bible. I finally induced him to go " just 

 once " to our prayer-meeting. After sev- 

 eral fine testimonies from young converts 

 I was a good deal worried when lie arose to 

 speak. He apologized, saying he was very 

 likely out of ]ilace, as he was not prepared 

 just then even to accept Christianity; but 

 tliat there was one " testimony " he could 

 honestly give, and that was that "skepticism 

 and infidelity are the most unsatisfactory 

 things the world has ever produced." I 

 found it so, and it was at this time. the dear 

 Saviour found me and " bvouglit me.uji out 

 of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, * set 



my feet upon a rock and estal)lished my go- 

 ing." Yes, jjraise the Lord, " he put a new 

 song in ray mouth " in place of the old 

 " doggerels." Shall we not all join, not 

 only in singing but helping to bring about 

 " the whole wide world for Jesus?" 



*Some of you may be inclined to think I exag- 

 gerate about being in " a horrible pit " and " in 

 the miry clay;" but Mrs. Root could, if she would, 

 assure you there is no fiction about it, for .she will 

 remember it to the last day of her life. 



BEE CULTURE AND SOME OF ITS KINDRED INDUSTRIES 

 IN FLORIDA. 



The following is clipped from the Florida 

 Grower for Nov. 10, 1917. 



My good friend, the editor of the Florida Grower, 

 has asked me to write something about bee culture 

 in Florida. Perhaps in beginning I might speak of 

 the kindred industry of poultry-keeping. Years ago 

 I overheard a young kid say to the proprietor of a 

 general store isomething like this: 



"Mr. T , if you did not have to pay any money 

 for the good.s you keep in your store, wouldn't 

 storekeeping be just fun?" 



The storekeeper grinned ; I do not quite remember 

 what answer he gave the urchin ; but I have often 

 thought of it .since, especially since the "high cost 

 of — chicken feed." 



At my winter home in Bradentown I have of 

 late done more with chickens than with bees, and 

 I suppose there are a lot of people who just now 

 are thiiikiug it would be rare fun to keep a lot of 

 chickens if it did not take so much "good money" 

 to buy the feed. When I spent my winters on the 

 island of Osprey there was one man on the island 

 who kept something like a dozen chickens, and he 

 never fed them anything — did nothing but just 

 gather the eggs. The small number of chicken.s 

 went over to the Gulf Beach after animal food, 

 then rambled over the island for what else they 

 needed to make iip a " balanced ration." Year 

 after year, winter and summer, he did nothing but 

 gather the eggs ; but. of course, he did not keep 

 very many fowls. Where the number kept is just 

 sufficient to supply a fa*iily with eggs, and they 

 are fed from the scraps from the table, such people 

 know very little about the expense of keeping lay- 

 ing hens by the hundreds or thousands. You may 

 suggest that the poultry man may grow his own 

 grrain, even down in Florida; bait this does not make 

 it very much better, for I saw a statement in one 

 of the poultry journals quite recently to the effect 

 that the grain they had been feeding to their chick- 

 ens would have brought more money on the market 

 than the eggs and chickens that had been sold. In 

 an interview with a poultryman of our Ohio Experi- 

 ment Station he said I was entirely right, and that 

 unless grain came down or eggs went iip it would be 

 almost an impossibility to get out whole, and the 

 person who undei takes to keep poultry by the hun- 

 dreds and hire help to care for them will be almost 

 sure to sink monoy. 



Now, if you choose, let us take up bee culture. 



Bees, if prudently managed, almost fill the bill 

 as presented by that yoimgster to the storekeeper 

 You do not have to buy grain, and you really do 

 not have to buy feed of any sort. Of course, if a 

 bad season should occui', and you have not kept 

 reserve "slabs" of honey in the shape of capped 

 and sealed frames of comb, you may have to buy 

 sugar, and that, too, is away up. We have in Me- 

 dina at i)resent writing a large number of colonies, 

 and more honey on the first day of September than 

 they will in all probability need for the winter. Soine 

 of the younger members of our firm \\ero talking 

 alout extracting honey and selling it, because the 

 l)ricc of honey is also away up, and then buying 

 sugar to feed if feeding should happen to be needed. 



I said, " No, no, boys I Save what honey there is 



