1890 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



717 



uiu' just the other way. The truth of tlic mat- 

 ter is. I pros\inie. thai the varieties differ enough 

 so that one may yield iioney when tlie otiier 

 does not.l 



You fail to mention hurdoelv as a in)ney-i)ro- 

 dueer in tlieAHC. I find it very i)roduetive. 

 liees worlxing on italldav. Cii.vs. Matiikk. 



Cascade, N. Y.. Aug. 4. 1890. 



[Unrdoek lias been frequently mentioned as a 

 honey-plant. In fact. I have seen almost as 

 many bees working on liurdoek at one time as 1 

 ever saw on some of the murh-laudcd honey- 

 plants: but it i-i a feai'ful weed, and draw s heav- 

 ily on the soil. \\'ho wduld think of I'aising 

 liurdoeks. e\-en if tliev did gi\'(' h(ine\' 1>\^ the 

 tons?) ' 



STOLEN BEES. 



Last Friday night one of oui' eoloni<'s was 

 stolen. Do you think tlnn- will conu' back again, 

 if they are let out'.' They have them piMined np 

 yet. so I guess they have had no chanc(! yet. 

 The>- ai'e a few hundred yards off from my 

 house. Joiix IlKUl'.si.Kii. 



Galena. 111.. Aug ;.'!. 1890. 



[To be sure, the bees will come l)aek again, if 

 they have oi)poi-tunity: but. now. are you not 

 making a mistake? Is it not only a sui'inise 

 that they are w ithin only a few hundi-ed yards 

 of yotu- house? I should hardly think they 

 could be kept confin(Hl nearlv a week, as voii 

 state it.l 



PYgELF WD JAY piEIGpB©^?. 



A riglileuus man resardeth the life of liis lieast ; 

 l)ut the tender mcieies of the wiikeil aw cinel.— 

 Prov. 12:10. 



In my talk about the new railroad. 1 touched 

 ujjon th(> matter of cruelty to the horses but inci- 

 dentally. I told you that the men who let their 

 passions run away with them, and yield to the 

 imimlse to give vent to these jjassions in oaths 

 and curses, using <'very sacred word they could 

 bring to mind, are the ones that ai'e abusive 

 and inhuman to their horses. The latter part 

 of our text tells us that even the tender incrcies 

 of the wicked are cruel. As they are crowding 

 this raih'oad to its utmost, they have offered 

 large pay for men and teams: and a good nuiuy 

 who own only very inditferentteams have beeii 

 induced to i)ut them to drawing dii't bv the 

 stimulus of the S3..-,o a day which they offer. A 

 good numy boys ar(> also set to work to drive. 

 Hoys do not cost as much as men. so you see 

 there is quite a chance for speculation. Iliad 

 heard, before they canu' on to our gi'ounds. of 

 cruelty toward tlu' horses, and I was deter- 

 mined to do whiit I could do to resti'ain it. and. 

 as much as possilile, in ihe sanu' line I undei- 

 took to restrain the iirolainty — by the spirit of 

 Christian kindness. Many of the learns, being 

 unused to such work, were exc(.'edingly awk- 

 ward: and the experienced man — that is. ex- 

 perienced in railroad business — nuide no allow- 

 ance for the poor dumb brutes on this account, 

 lint cursed and jiounded the pooi' heasts w hen 

 they were doing the very best they kni'W how. 

 Hy th(» way. did you ever, in your .^ober mo- 

 nu'uts. think what a cruel and' ungentlemanly 

 thing it is to abuse anybody — man, (ddld. or 

 duml) brute, hecause of inexix'i'ience? It was 

 in my mind to include wdnu'u: i)n1 llu' thought 

 of being cruel to a woman, when she is doing 

 hervei'y level best, canu' so near tost ii-ring up my 

 feelings that I thought 1 would not put her iii 

 the list. Surel\' none Inii an intemperate man 



would think of l)eing harsh and cruel to a 

 woman because she did not understand what 

 is wanted. IJut we are going to talk about 

 horses to-tlay. ami not about women. Most of 

 the teams on the wurk' were too poor in llesh to 

 do tlndi- work well and easily. I am very w(dl 

 aware that work-horses may have tcjo much 

 flesh to stand heavy work day aft(M' day: but I 

 believe that this (>xtreme is seldom met. The 

 poor horses seem to be willing and anxious to 

 ])lease: in fact, the greater part of them show- 

 ed more life and energy than 1 expected hor.ses 

 to show when their ribs and joints are almost 

 l)rotruding through the poor hide that covers 

 the auinnils. How I did long to see what the 

 effect would be to give them all the grain they 

 could consunu". (^specially while they wei-(> on 

 thejol)! (^)uite a few fell down fr((m exhaus- 

 tion (or swearing— which was it?) and had to 

 be turned otf by the boss as itnfit for the work. 



On(» afternoon, toward night. I saw a pooi' 

 heavey horse panting to such an extent that 

 its eyes fairl\' stood out in their sockets. As it 

 ptilled the scrai)er to the top of the heap of soft 

 dirt, it swayed one way and another, and trem- 

 bled as if it were almost ready to fall down in 

 its tracks. IJesides this the blood was stream- 

 ing from on(> of its legs. It had Ix'en hurt in 

 getting through a bridge some days before. A 

 bandage had been put over the wound: but the 

 heavy work had knocked off' the bandag(» and 

 started the woiuid afresh, and loss of blood, 

 probably, had something to tlo with the exhaus- 

 tion of the poor aninnil. It seems to me. that a 

 man who would work a horse under such cir- 

 cumstances. sim])ly l)ecause by doing it he could 

 get i*3.75 a day. ought to be horsewhipped him- 

 S(df. But this woidd not be th(> method taught 

 by Christ ,Iesus. 1 saw him before I had reach- 

 ed the si)ot. and asked the boss why he allowed 

 the man to woi'k with such an aninnil. He 

 said there were ci'rtain reasons why he did not 

 like to interfere, but he had been rather hoidng 

 somebody who belonged to the Hunume Society 

 would conn> around, and then be would hav(^ 

 good authority for ordering the man to take 

 liis horse honu'. Is not this a hint to the work- 

 ers in the Humane Society? The team came 

 near where we wei'e standing. Said I. "My 

 friend, do you thiidc it right to woi'k a horse 

 undei' such circumstances ? '" 



•• Well. I sup|)ose it is not exactly the thing. 

 But I hav(> no other hor.se to put in: and unless 

 I use him it throws me and my other horse out 

 of woj'k."" 



I told him I was a member of the Humane 

 vSociety. and I thought he had better not work 

 the horse any nmi'e. esix'cially while he was in 

 that condition. The boss then veiy i-eadily in- 

 dorsed what I had said. Now. friends, he who 

 acts as an obicer of the Humane Society needs 

 much skill and judgnn-nt. and knowledge of 

 horses. A horse really itittil for woi'k. in the 

 hands of an ignorant, swejiring man. and oiu' 

 w ith poor judgnu'Ut. might do very well, and 

 woi'k witlumt very much fatigue, undi'r tin- 

 guidance of an expei'ienced. competent, kind 

 driver. In all my work in life I am paiui'd al- 

 most constantly to see waste labor and waste 

 nn)tions. In tiiis simple matter of di-awing 

 dirt, the horses wei'e sometimes driven many 

 weary steps that were entirely useless. AftcM' 

 the scraper is emi)tie(l. the thoughtless driver 

 freipiently goes <pnte a distance, instead of 

 tui-ning back jiromjitly as soon as his work is 

 accomi)lished. Awkward, blundering drivers 

 |)ull the horses aw ay over to one side until they 

 are out of the path, and then, with curses, jerk 

 them back the ot her way. when the fault was 

 entirely that of the ilriner. the poor lii)rse hav- 

 ing been jierffflh.i oliedieiit to the pull on the 

 lines. Wliv. it i- enough to nuike one's Ijlood 



