332 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 1 



we find a converted commercial traveler hold- 

 ing up the cross of Christ Jesus, and fighting 

 his way against fearful odds. Oh how I do 

 love to get hold of such a man, and put in my 

 feeble voice to back him up ! 



At that place called Flora Home the land- 

 lord sat before the fire, puffing his pipe, with 

 every thing in disorder all around him. A 

 traveling man, with jovial good nature, gave 

 him a short sharp sermon. He told him his 

 pipe would be the ruin of him, body and soul, 

 unless he gave it up. A bjstander assured 

 the stranger that ruin it was, then, for he 

 would never let go of his pipe, even hardly 

 long enough to sleep. When they found there 

 were two " pious " people in .^the crowd they 

 stared at us in evident surprise. Why, it 

 brightened me up, and made me forget I was 

 sick, to find somebody who could, good-na- 

 turedly, give the sleepy tobacco-soaked crowd 

 a shaking-np. Now, in thinking this matter 

 all over, I am forced to the conclusion that 

 these people who are setting such bad exam- 

 ples, and who are going thus headlong down 

 to ruin, do not realize or know what they are 

 doing. In one sense they are crucifying again 

 the Savior who meekly gave his life for wick- 

 ed men. But I think it can be said of them, 

 as Jesus said of his persecutors away back 

 there in the dark ages, " Father, forgive them, 

 for they know not what they do." And these 

 good friends — for I have reason to call them 

 so— these good friends of mine that I met and 

 talked with, when they smoke and drink and 

 swear, really, in the language of our text, 

 "know not what they do." The great wide 

 world needs teachers ; it needs ministers of 

 the gospel, and laymen who are not afraid to 

 show their colors, to speak out and plead for 

 Christ Jesus. For some reason we can but 

 dimly understand, God has laid the responsi- 

 bility on us all ; and even though I myself 

 sometimes feel discouraged to think there are 

 so few who are with me, and so many on the 

 other side, especially in this matter of tobac- 

 co, yet when I find, after many days, the good 

 fruit that my feeble words have brought forth, 

 then I get new courage, and go on my way re- 

 joicing. May the Holy Spirit bless these 

 words I have written ; and ma)' they find 

 lodgment in human hearts, and bear fruit. 



After dictating the above, a friend handed 

 me the following, clipped from a prominent 

 agricultural paper for 1899 : 



Tobacco manufactured in the United States during 

 October was 24.9.51,914 pounds, an increase of 0,271,078 

 over the same month in 1898. The cigar production 

 for last month was 471,890,050, an increase of 7.5,771,- 

 117 over the corresponding month of last year. The 

 sraa'l cigars not included in these figures numbered 

 79,918,1.50, the greatest on record. Every other class of 

 tobacco production shows a material increase, which 

 is encouraging. 



The above is called " encouraging ; " but to 

 whom is it so? If we divide the world into 

 two classes — those who would be encouraged 

 by such statistics and those who would be dis- 

 couraged — on which side should we find the 

 virtuous, mainly, and on which side the crim- 

 inal, depraved, unthinking, indifferent, and 

 those who use their columns for the propaga- 

 tion of such a gospel of degradation ? 



HICKS' AI.MANAC, AND PROTECTING ORANGE- 

 TREES. 



As soon as I got South I began to hear 

 Hicks quoted. In fact, one of our bee-keep- 

 ers where I stayed over night had just invested 

 between $27 and $28 in protecting some orange- 

 trees because Hicks said there would be a se- 

 vere freeze on a certain Saturday night. I 

 happened to be there that Saturday night, and 

 the weather was almost as warm as in June. 

 Mosquitoes were lively, and the fireflies were 

 flitting about after dark. My friend thought 

 that probably the cold wave would get along a 

 little later ; but, although I was in the neigh- 

 borhood several days, there was nothing of 

 the sort — not even a trace of frost. He finally 

 made a remark something like this : 



" I told father I did not believe Hicks knew 

 any better than anybody else what would hap- 

 pen six months ahead ; but he was so sure 

 that Hicks was sound and scientific that I 

 went and invested all that money for protec- 

 tion. I now wish I had my money back in 

 my pocket." 



I asked to see just what Hicks said in his 

 almanac ; and for once in his life he had been 

 unguarded enough to say right out in plain 

 words that a severe blizzard would come at 

 just about that time. Later on, in another 

 part of Florida another bee-keeper insisted 

 that Hicks correctly predicted a very severe 

 freeze. I asked to see the prediction, and it 

 read something like this : 



"On the 13th, 14th, and 15th, Vulcan will 

 be in the ascendency ; so, look out." 



Now, if that means there is going to be a se- 

 vere frost, then Hicks hit it ; but if the rigma- 

 role about " Vulcan " means one thing at one 

 time and something else at another time, I do 

 not regard it as very clearcut prophecy. 



THE PECAN INDUSTRY OF THE SOUTH. 

 When at friend Day's, in Silver Springs, 

 Miss., I found him quite enthusiastic about 

 growing pecans. He had a number of trees 

 that cost him all the way from a few cents up 

 to choice budded paper-shell stock that cost 

 $1.50 each tree. He had also learned the art 

 of budding this difficult tree, and showed me 

 with considerable pride the shoots from buds 

 he had set. Paper-shell pecans often bring 

 extravagant prices — if I am correct, somewhere 

 from 25, 60, 75 cts., and even $1.00 a pound 

 for large nuts with soft shells and finely fla- 

 vored meats. F'riend Alderman, of Wewa- 

 hitchka, has had the fever for some years. In 

 fact, he showed me a tree grown from a nut 

 that he himself planted 27 years ago. This 

 tree is now three feet in diameter about two 

 feet above the ground. It is 60 feet high, and 

 the branches have a spread of fully 50 feet. 

 The trees bear annually barrels of nuts. No- 

 body had kept account of how many. I found 

 some under the trees that were very nice eat- 

 ing, in the fore part of February. The tree 



