1890 



&LEAN1KGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



15 



judge dismissed them he said: 'If it was a good job, 

 and well done, why did it fall in?' " 



" Well, Bill, while you are building an arch, I'm 

 going to try on a chimney, for ours always smokes." 



I have often said, that the prettiest thing I ever 

 saw was a little boy, and I've had the genus, from 

 time to time during the last tliirty years, in my 

 family, so I claim to know something of their char- 

 acteristics. I've had four different boys, in periods 

 lasting from two to seven years, and only one of 

 them could I interest in books to any extent, let me 

 charm never so wisely. One little German boy 

 could hitch up my horse, and drive around to the 

 front door, when he was so small that he had to 

 climb into the feeding-box to put on the bridle; but 

 learn to read, he could not. When he had learned 

 one lesson, he had forgotten the one that went be- 

 fore. But he never forgot the place for any thing, 

 nor to put it back when he used it. 



While reading Our Homes, that little couplet 

 came into my mind so often : 



Little boats should keep near shore. 

 While larger boats may venture move. 



We live in an extravagant age; persons live in 

 larger houses, burn more coal and light than their 

 incomes justify, as one expenditure leads to anoth- 

 er. Mr. Terry, in reckoning up the expense of 

 warming and lighting three rooms, has forgotten 

 several accounts. It is more work to refill and 

 clean three lamps than one; to sweep and dust 

 three rooms than one. In the spring there will be 

 three rooms smoked up to be renovated. Can not 

 one room be ventilated as well as three? Will that 

 mother's health be benefited by caring for three 

 rooms in lieu of one? Fathers and mothers are 

 now o\ erworked by reason of useless expenditui e; 

 fathers distracted at the round-up at the close of 

 the year, because their accounts will not balance. 

 Bee-keepers for three years have had poor crops; 

 but f hope they can say, " I owe no man a dollar." 



Peoria, 111. Mrs. L. Harrison. 



Why, my good friend, I do not understand 

 that you differ so very much from friend 

 Terry after all. lie and I were not discuss- 

 ing the children of wealthy parents— that is, 

 we did not have them particularly in mind. 

 When we consider that particular class of 

 boys and girls, I think we very nearly if not 

 quite agree with you. Abraham Lincoln 

 did not need the encouragement of a pleas- 

 ant room, abundant light, and modern 

 comforts ; but had he been supplied with 

 them, I am inclined to think he would have 

 made a great and good man, even then. If 

 this were not so, it would be a very sad com- 

 ment indeed, not only on the boys and girls, 

 but on humanity in general. "We all know, 

 I suppose, that it is chiefly the boys from 

 the farm that supply the material for our 

 great merchants and manufacturers in the 

 cities ; but these same merchants often go 

 back to farm life again when they are able 

 to do so. Your idea of a sort of industrial 

 school,! grant, is a grand one; but did it 

 not occur to you, dear friend, that the Home 

 of the Honey-bees is almost exactly such 

 an institution, except that we keep the boys 

 and girls at work all daylong, and pay them 

 wages, from five cents an hour up? I have 

 tried some experiments strikingly like the 

 one you suggest. The great difBculty is, 

 that the Sl^ boys spoil lumber, spoil tools, and 

 make such a cliaus of the brick and mortar 



that it would require a lot of money to clean 

 up and make good what is lobt and damag- 

 ed. Very likely you will say they must be 

 taught to clear up and put away things in as 

 good order as they tind them. There is a 

 youngster over at our house who is going 

 through this very drill. Sometimes it is like 

 pulling teeth to make him put up his tools 

 and playthings after he tumbles them all 

 over the floor. But mamma holds him to it, 

 and now he is t)eginuing to be a little back- 

 ward about scattering things to such an ex- 

 tent that it will take him quite a spell to 

 gather them up. His hobby just now is ov- 

 ens. These ovens he constructs of brick 

 and mortar, in the back yard. He has asked 

 me more questions already about ovens, 

 arches, clay and mortar that will stand rain, 

 etc., than I can answer without consulting 

 a mason. In om- juvenile department of 

 the public schools of Medina we have one 

 teacher who is a gem in her line, and her 

 schoolroom is sometimes pretty well fllled 

 with sticks, cards, boards, and other ma- 

 chinery, to induce children to build and ex- 

 ercise their ingenuity when their bent seems 

 to lie in that direction rather than books. 

 It seems to me that these youngsters need a 

 kind teacher, or mamma, pretty much all 

 the time. Of course, our boy Iluber builds 

 his ovens just as he pleases, and has unlim- 

 ited liberty for hours at a time •, but mamma 

 glances over her spectacles now and then, 

 in the direction of where he is working, to 

 see that he is protected from catching cold, 

 or is not straying away, etc. Now, I am 

 sure that you and friend Terry are pretty 

 nearly in a line in your desire to have the 

 childrtn grow up in wisdom, godliness, and 

 purity, is not the home the very best place 

 to bring it about, or say, in close proximity to 

 said home — the back yard for building ov- 

 ens, the front yard for croquet and other 

 games? 



^ I » 



SENDING HALF A POUND OF BEES 

 BY MAIL. 



FRIEND PRATT STILL THINKS IT PRACTICABLE. 



About bees by the half-pound by mail, let me say 

 that I have given the matter considerable thought, 

 and I have a plan whereby it will be perfectly safe 

 to send half a pound of bees with a queen, by mail. 

 The cage should be made of some tough light wood, 

 about the thickness of section-box wood, three- 

 cornered in shape, with braces across the grain the 

 full length of the cup. The corners could be dove- 

 tailed, glued, and nailed. By having thinner par- 

 titions than I put into the one sent to Mr. Doolittle, 

 six of them could be used. The candy could be 

 ground in a paint-mill, as you suggested. After 

 the bees have been put in, and sealed up as tight as 

 possible, the whole thing could be slipped into a 

 stout porous sack, made the correct size to hold 

 the cage loosely, after which stitch up the opening 

 with strong twine; tie on a tag, and mail it. Ry 

 way of experiment 1 went through the process as 

 above, to see how much the cage could stand. I 

 have not succeeded in breaking it yet, but I think 1 

 could with a sledge-hammer. E. L. Pratt. 



Marlboro, Mass. 



No doubt all you say, friend Frntt. is true. 

 The time may he when we shall be sending 



