480 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



August, 191« 



bolic or kerosene) around covers and cracks, 

 and sat down on a box to watch develop- 

 ments. After a bit thing's quieted down, 

 and I left them — apparently well-behaved 

 and worthy citizens of the peaceful little 

 bird preserve where they are located. But 

 this morning comes the message that they 

 are making life miserable for the young 

 women who are canning some precious 

 sweets in the demonstration kitchen! Truly 

 the way of the beekeeper is hard. 



* * * 



On page 430, Jiily Gleanings, Mr. Byer 

 speaks of how early city people begin in- 

 quiring for honey. At our last little county 

 meeting, one of our city backlot beekeepers 

 remarked that her neighbors hang over her 

 fence, asking for honey. "Got any honey?" 

 one of them asked one evening. ' ' Not to 

 sell," was the answer. "Well, will you 

 have some tomorrowf" she persisted — 

 "just exactly as if she were asking for 

 eggs,-" the backlotter concluded, "for she 

 seemed to think I gathered a little every 



day. ' ' 



* * * 



Not having seen Dr. Phillips' article in 

 the May Scientific American, I was greatly 

 interested in the excerpt quoted in the July 

 Gleanings, page 430. I have sometimes 

 wondered if we tend more towards increas- 

 ing the number of beekeepers than towards 

 raising the standards of beekee^jing. In 

 giving an address on bee culture recently 

 before the School of Eural Life at Peabody 

 College, where quite a good many of the 

 students were training with the hope of be- 

 coming county agents, I tried hard to im- 

 press the idea that poor beekeeping was 

 worse than none at all, always dragging 

 down the industry and the state wherein it 

 was allowed. And so much insistence did I 

 put on the necessity of reading and study 

 and conscientious intelligent work that one 

 young lady told me afterwards that I had 

 "scared her out of her idea of some day keep- 

 ing bees! Now that was certainly bad work 

 on my part; yet after all, if she really isn't 

 willing to study and read and work intelli- 

 gently and hard, maybe it is just as well for 

 Tennessee beekeeping that she did get 



scared out. 



* * * 



Of course it is among the side-line bee- 

 keepers that those are to be found that 

 need to take to themselves the advice to sell 

 out to good beekeepers, or become good ones 

 themselves. The men who are depending 

 upon their bees for a living will surely give 

 them good attention. Those who are keep- 

 ing them only as a pleasant side line may 

 do so, if not for ambitious or business rea- 

 sons, then perhaps for the sheer love of it. 

 But there is another class, made up of those 

 who think it a good idea to have a few 

 bees just to get a little honey for their fam- 

 ilies. Their real work is something entirely 

 different, and it is there they put their 

 thought and study and effort — if anywhere. 



The bees may swarm merrily at will or be 

 weakened by disease or attacked by bee 

 moth or left to starve. They may become 

 a real menace to progressive beekeepers. 

 Or if nothing disastrous occurs, they may 

 simply not be living up to their own possi- 

 bilities. That is a serious thing, in bees or 

 beekeepers either, failing to live up to their . 

 possibilities. 



Whatever a colony of bees is capable of 

 producing in a given location, in a given 

 season, that it should produce. Anything 

 short of that achievement is relative failure. 

 And as we can 't very well upbraid the bees, 

 we must turn to their keepers. I wish 

 every side-line reader of Gleanings, who has 

 not already done so, would graduate this 

 very summer from the class that says, ' ' Yes, 

 I've got a few hives of bees — they don't do 

 much good, tho — they swarm a lot and all, 

 but somehow they don't do much good — 

 weevils get in 'em, I guess — no, I don 't 

 bother with 'em much — just rob 'em once 

 in a while. They don 't do much good. ' ' 



One beekeeper told us this spring he had 

 had two colonies four years and had produc- 

 ed 25 or 30 pounds of honey, all tolil. We 

 bought his bees. 



Even if our living doesn 't depend on it, 

 we ought to be as good side liners as we can. 

 Especially in these days. With sugar con- 

 ditions as they are, every beekee})er, tho he 

 owns but one colony, should work hard to 

 make every bee work hard to get every pos- 

 sible drop of nectar stored in a honey cell 

 and rijiened. This means not only study, 

 but well-directed study; not only work, but 

 systematized w^ork. More and more I be- 

 come impressed with that fact. "We can 

 work tremendously and yet fail to accom- 

 plish what could have been done with less 

 actual labor, if there had been just a little 

 more method — or perhaps a great deal more. 



* * * 



IN MEMORIAM: 



G. M. DOOLITTLE. 



What unimagined things you may have foinid ! 



What sudden, unguessed beauty all around! 



Ah tell us, are your dreams iu blossom there ? 



And is there eager radiance in the air. 



And surge of glory hinted us of old — 



That more than half that never has been told? 



And is there something tender there and sweet, 



And very .satisfying and complete? 



And do you walk unwearied those high ways 



That God has walked thru iuimtMnorial days, 



And drink great joys that thrill you thru and thru 



And leave no sadness at the heart of you ! 



Thru grievous days or glad the bees will hum, 

 Yet yoii, who loved their murmur, will not come. 

 Why should you come? Why slmuld you come, O 



friend. 

 From things unending bJTclc to things that end. 

 And thing.s that hurt, and dreams that come not true 

 Allho their dreaming thrills us thru and thru? 

 ]iut sometimes vvlien our bees take fearless flight 

 Across great summer floods of golden liglit 

 To where some distant beauty breaks in flower, 

 And earth seems perfect thru one perfect hour. 

 These wings shall somelmw make us think of you, 

 And we sluiU smi'.e, and know (uxl's dreams come 



true. 



