1890 



GLEAxMNGS IX BEE crLTUlJE. 



287 



tire bee-kepping- guild of the Carinthian hig-h- 

 mountain villages, laborious-ly threading their way 

 along the nai row paths, climbing upward, as sliown 

 in the cut. What bee-lieeper's heart is not stirred 

 with enthusiasm in looljing at the picture, and see- 

 ing the Canntulaas climbing up the cloudy moun- 

 tains'!" 



The editor says that only the strongest man can 

 carry three colonies; but It seems as if the lady had 

 the largest load, does it not? 



Belleville, 111., Mar. .">. L. F. Dintelmann. 



We might add here, that Carinthia is in 

 the southwestern part of Austria, bounding 

 Italy on the northeast. It lies immediately 

 north of Carniola, where the bees known as 

 the '' Carniolans " are reared. 



Yes, friend D., we do think the picture 

 worthy of a place in Gleanin<;s. Please 

 accept our thanks for forwarding it. The 

 picture reminds me vividly of my climbing 

 mountains in California ; and if our people 

 there have never used an apparatus like the 

 above for lugging hives 1 trust they will 

 take the hint. I should be very glad to 

 know whether the picture was made from a 

 photograph of an actual scene, or whether 

 the artist supplied something from his im- 

 agination. In the picture we see three 

 women and three men. The woman in the 

 foreground has the largest load of any. Is 

 that the way they treat women-folks in 

 Austria ? If so, I wish to make a loud pro- 

 test. A'ery likely they enjoy the work, and 

 prefer to do it rather than to wash dishes 

 and keep house. If so, well and good. But 

 why do all the w^omen-folks have arrange- 

 ments for an extra package over the head V 

 Supporting the burden directly over the 

 head and shoulders so as to bring the center 

 of the weight between the feet is no doitbt 

 an ingenious idea ; and in carrying burdens 

 up mountains I should think it would be 

 valuable. In California I saw one apiary 

 on a level height where it was impossible to 

 get a horse or vehicle of any kind ; and it 

 occurred to me that it must have been a 

 tremendous task to get all the hives up 

 there. By the way, haven't our Austrian 

 friends been trespassing on Heddon's shal- 

 low brood-frames ? Those packages look 

 almost exactly like half-depth eight-frame 

 hives. In order that the package may be 

 light, and at the same time restrain the 

 bees, each section seems to be wrapped in 

 paper and tied with twine, something on the 

 style of friend Danzenbaker's package that 

 he took down to Elorida. By the way, will 

 somebody tell us whether it is the mountain 

 air and outdoor exercise that makes those 

 women look so plump and healthy. If so, I 

 think I should like to go and help. There 

 is one thing, hoMever, that might trouble 

 me : If the women-folks carried three pack- 

 ages, and I should carry only two, I should 

 feel ashamed of myself; and I am afraid 

 that, if I were to undertake to carry three, 

 and fail. I should be ashamed of myself still 

 more. I wonder if they do not sit down and 

 rest occasionally, and talk over matters; and 

 are there springs in those rocky recesses? 

 Is it possible that Gleanings has a sub- 

 scriber in the neighborhood of these moun- 

 tain apiaries V My curiosity is greatly ex- 

 cited ; and. oh bow I should enjoy visiting 

 these brotbus and sisters away off there. 



near the native home of the Italians and 

 Carniolans I 



COMMENTS ON GLEANINGS. 



terky's picture of home ; the servant GtRI.S ; 

 jotham's beep, by .iotham's wife. 



I AM not an enthusiastic bee-keeper, but Jotham 

 would like to be. I should much rather write for 

 the papers at the price paid for Wbittier's last poem. 

 Some medium of exchange is what this house 

 needs; and if I could see $100 a year, clear gain, 

 aside from all expenses of time and money and neg- 

 lect of other business, perhaps I might become an 

 enthusiast on the sub.iect. I occasionally read 

 Gleanings, and I feel pretty well acquainted with 

 such Jriends of huinauity as A. I. Root, T. B. Terry, 

 Dr. Miller, Anna B. Quillin, and the late Mrs. Chad- 

 dock. As " Rose Park," in the Farm Journal, she 

 was generally equal to the emergency; let it be the 

 thrashers' "unexpected company," "milking the 

 skittish heifer," or whatever it was, she never 

 seemed to be so badly taught but that she could 

 find some way out. 



Your splendid picture of the Brantford Conven- 

 tion makes me wish to live in Medina instead of 

 here, because there is one man in that place who 

 advocates woman suffrage— no, advocates taking 

 his wife to conventions, even if the happens to 

 think she can't leave home. 



I like Mr. Terry's picture of home. It is not every 

 one who has three rooms in the house to open for 

 every-day use, but we can use what we have, and 

 not keep one shut up the year round, never allow- 

 ing the sun to enter for fear it will fade the carpet, 

 till every thing in the room has a musty smell. If 

 his children " go to the bad " it will not be for lack 

 of pleasant home surroundings. 



All honor and praise to those lady teachers at the 

 convention, who remembered Ihe law of kindness, 

 and returned smiks and thanks for the thoughtful 

 consideration of the table-giil at the Lansing hotel. 

 Is it so much the position one occupies in life, as 

 the manner in which that one discharges the duties 

 of that position? If by force of circ\;mstances an 

 estimable yourg lady is <ah;c-uc(i(cr at hotels, I see 

 no reason why she is not entitled to the same cour- 

 teous treatment as if she were a clerk in a govern- 

 ment department at Washington. Away with this 

 caste spirit! 



Man's inhumanity to man 

 Makes countless thousands mourn, 

 and how much of the needless suffering comes 

 from selfishness on the part of those who could just 

 as well scatter seeds of kindness as thorns along the 

 byways ef life! Fiction gives us so me vivid pic- 

 tures of the insticctive felflehness of man, but real 

 life furnishes them every day. 



Jotham has been in the bee-business seven years, 

 and a subscriber to Gleanings four, and he threat- 

 ens to send jou a report of bis success or failure, I 

 don't know wbiih heeallsit. He has wintered (no, 

 they are not wintered yet) 15 colonies in some new- 

 fangled coEtriv&nce which he calls double-walled 

 chtflf hives, end thinks he is doing things scientific- 

 ally. I don't pretend to know an Italian bee from 

 a Cyprian, or a black bee Ire m a hj brid ; but if he 

 doesn't put his threat into execution (and I don't 

 believe he ever will) I will report next autumn, if 

 this literary effusion escapes the waste-basket. 



Jotham's Wife. 



