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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 1 



He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, 

 that bringeth forth its fruit in its season ; its leaf also 

 shall not wither. — Psalm 1 : 3. 



Wash ye, make you clean. — Is.\iah 1 :16. 



I do not know but some of the friends will 

 object to the way in which I use or apply the 

 first of my texts above. In fact, I do not 

 know but they will object in the same way to 

 the second one also — some of my tninisterial 

 friends especially. I can imagine the pleasant 

 smile I see on their faces when they see this. 

 God knows I have a most abundant reason 

 for feeling that the clergy of all denomina- 

 tions who read these Home Papers are my firm 

 stanch friends, even if they do not always 

 agree with mj' "theology." It gladdens my 

 heart when I get their kind letters, and it 

 gladdens my heart still more when it is my 

 privilege, as it sometimes is in traveling, to 

 take them by the hand and see the cordial 

 smile on their faces as they bid me Godspeed 

 in defending our homes. Now for my use of 

 the text, the first one. 



People who till the soil and practice thor- 

 ough underdrainage have been for years an- 

 noyed by the roots of certain plants and trees 

 going down into the tile drains ; and many of 

 you may have noticed that at times these tile- 

 drains get filled up and clogged with fibrous 

 roots, and at other times they never go into 

 the tiles at all. Somebody finally suggested 

 that whenever tiles carry running water that 

 goes through all summer long, the roots of a 

 great variety of plants will get into these 

 tiles by some hook or crook. They are after 

 the water that can not be found anywhere 

 else. It is not only astonishing but it is 

 lavighable to see how the rootlets will crawl all 

 over and around the tiles, and fairly hunt for 

 cracks or crevices. Sometimes they will find 

 a little hole left in burning the tile. A little 

 r©ot will get through this opening, and then 

 spread out two or three feet each way, filling 

 the tile with a broomy mass of fine rootlets 

 until it is clogged entirely. This happens 

 oftenest when the tiles are made use of to 

 carry away the water from a natural spring or 

 seeping-place, say in a side-hill. In this case 

 the tiles would carry some water all summer, 

 and the greedy, thirsty roots have found it 

 out. One of the remedies suggested is to get 

 vitrified sewer-pipe with collars, filling the 

 joints with Portland cement. But if the job 

 is not thoroughly done, the roots will actually 

 squeeze through this cement and break it 

 away. Willows especially are given to this 

 kind of work. 



During my childhood days there was a pret- 

 ty little spring where I often used to drink, 

 at the foot of a hill. Somebody stuck a willow 

 twig in the damp mud close by this spring. 

 Forty years later this twig was a tree three 

 feet in diameter, and the spring had disappear- 

 ed. The willow-tree had sent its roots all 

 around the sources of that spring, and finally 



utilized the moisture to such an extent that it 

 made dry ground around where there used to 

 be a running spring and a piece of wet bog. 



We are often told that sunflowers ward off 

 or prevent malaria. At first I thought that 

 was on a piece with other silly superstitions; 

 but a government bulletin has recently given 

 notice that, if you plant a number of sunflow- 

 ers wher the slop drain from the kitchen 

 empties, these sunflowers, when they get a 

 going, will take up every particle of the dish- 

 water and other slops, and in this way ward 

 off malaria. The sunflower makes its rankest 

 growth during hot weather, when bad smells 

 are likely to emanate where the slop-drain 

 empties. By the way, I have all my life en- 

 joyed utilizing things that bother us. You 

 know how much trouble hens make in scratch- 

 ing just now when we are making garden. I 

 believe it is the neighbors' hens that make 

 the most trouble. Well, when somebody 

 spoke of utilizing hen power in fining up 

 manure I thought it was a big invention, or 

 perhaps we might say suggestion. Some years 

 ago one of the bee-friends in commenting on 

 the many inventions there were to get rid of 

 the inoth-worm in hives, remarked that he on 

 the contrary was engaged in growing moth- 

 worms for profit. He said if anybody knew 

 how to get a great stock of them on short no- 

 tice he would like to find it out. After we all 

 had racked our brains to know what earthly 

 use moth-worms could be to anybody, he said 

 he grew them to supply fishermen; that cer- 

 tain fish would bite quicker at a big fat moth- 

 worm than at any other bait. Now, on the 

 same plan we are going to work to coax by 

 every means in our power the pesky roots and 

 rootlets from all kinds of plants and trees to 

 go down into the tile. The purpose of this is 

 sanitary drainage. 



That reminds me just now that I forgot to 

 tell you in the outset this Home Paper is de- 

 voted, at least mainly, to sanitary drainage, 

 or, perhaps we had better say, utilizing the 

 sewage that must be disposed of in some way 

 around every home. The Department at 

 Washington has already published two bulle- 

 tins in regard to this matter, and I believe 

 they have recommended throwing the slops 

 out on the garden or lawn, or pouring them 

 around the trees, first in one place and then 

 another. But this is a lot of work for the 

 dear little wife, or, if you choose, the dear big 

 wife. (If she is large and heavy it may be 

 still harder for her to get around lively with 

 the slops. ) Yes, I know some of you will 

 rather smile (may be with a little sarcasm) 

 because I spoke about having a zvife do these 

 things, and suggest it is the hired girVs busi- 

 ness. My good friend, do you know of any 

 hired girl who would carry out slops and put 

 them first in one place and then another, or 

 pour them around the growing trees and 

 plants that need it? If you know of such a 

 one, she could get a hundred situations right 

 here in Medina, this very day. But aside 

 from this, if we love our neighbors as our- 

 selves we should be almost as anxious (?) to 

 save the hired girl's steps and strength as to 

 husband the energies of the mother of the 



