1889 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



341 



" There, " said I, "that fixes it exactly." 

 I often decide a colony to be queenless in 

 just the way you describe, and sometimes I 

 can teil by the actions of the bees around 

 the entrance.— Very likely Ira Barber will 

 be pleased with a dark-colored queen that 

 produces leather-colored bees ; but unless 

 you know your man when you send out such 

 a queen, you may get a letter from him that 

 will make things lively. The queen would 

 suit me, however, to a dot. 



DEBT AND CREDIT. 



OWE NO MAN ANY THING, BUT TO LOVE ONE 

 ANOTHER. — ROM. 13: 8. 



fHE matter of doing business cash 

 down, and no credits, has been dis- 

 cussed over and over again ; and 

 many large enterprises are conduct- 

 ed, or at least they profess to be, on 

 the basis of cash in advance. The princi- 

 pal argument is, that no one can sell goods 

 at as close margins, and give credit, even 

 limited credit, as they can where they have 

 the cash in hand, before the things leave 

 the store. A good many of our supply-deal- 

 ers, I believe, have adopted this plan ; that 

 is, they do not ship any goods until the cash 

 is first at hand. Now, while this may be 

 every one's privilege, and while it may be 

 true that nobody has any right to find fault 

 if a man decides to do business in this way 

 (so as to give close margins), I do not think, 

 or at least it does not seem to me. as if it 

 were a Christianlike way of doing. One 

 who has a real love and kindly feeling for 

 his neighbors must be accommodating, 

 within the bounds of reason. Selling goods 

 on time, or lending money, if you choose, is 

 a e:ood deal like lending tools. The matter 

 of lending tools has been discussed some- 

 what in these pages already ; and I believe 

 the final decision has been that one must 

 lend his tools — at least to a certain extent, to 

 be considered a good neighbor, or, if you 

 choose, a Christian. A man who has built 

 up a beautiful place, and who has succeed- 

 ed in setting a beautiful farm, with all mod- 

 ern appliances, would, as a rule, be hated, 

 rather than loved, in his own community, if 

 he used every thing he owned, simply for 

 self, and entirely shut down on any sort of 

 accommodation to his neighbors. It is a 

 good deal so in selling goods. 



At one time in my life I became so much 

 embarrassed with outstanding accounts that 

 could not be collected, that I decided I 

 would start in business again, and have it 

 all cash down or cash in advance. Two ob- 

 stacles stood in the way of carrying this out. 

 One was. that it seemed very hard and un- 

 friendly to refuse a little accommodation to 

 those who had for a long time paid cash in 

 advance, and with whom friendly acquaint- 

 ance had sprung up. Another thing, when 

 there came a boom in business we were oft- 

 entimes unable to send the goods as prompt- 

 ly as our customers had sent the cash. We 

 would not trust them 24 hours, but they in- 

 trusted us with their money, and even then 

 did not eet their goods for days and may be 

 weeks. Is this fair or Christian-like ? Sure- 



ly not. At other times, somebody sent 

 money for goods without knowing just 

 what they would cost. Now, if a man 

 sends $9.00 for something that is worth 

 $10.00, is it right to hold his $9.00 and keep 

 him waiting until he sends the other dollar? 

 To be sure, it is not. If, then, it is the duty 

 of a Christian to give credit to a certain ex- 

 tent, who should have credit, and who 

 should not? Here is where the great trou- 

 ble comes in To send out goods right and 

 left, to everybody who asks for them, or 

 who makes promises, would be the height of 

 folly. Many of our young friends who have 

 gone into the suppiy-business have discov- 

 ered this to their sorrow. In the bee-busi- 

 ness, in the small-fruit business, in this 

 whole business of raising crops, it has been 

 well said that it is more work, as a rule, to 

 sell the product and get the money than it is 

 to raise the crop. Raising the crop is only 

 one part of the business ; and the great 

 trouble is, whom shall we trust, and how 

 shall we trust ? The thought that perhaps I 

 might be able to help some of the friends 

 who are studying on this problem has mov- 

 ed me to write this paper. In our business, 

 looking after accounts, and deciding whom 

 to trust and whom not to trust, has been the 

 most wearing and fatiguing, perhaps, of 

 any one branch of the business. It is this 

 branch of our business that has broken 

 down my health, perhaps, more than any 

 other one thing ; and when we finally de- 

 cided that I must delegate this serious 

 and difficult matter to somebody else, the 

 question came up as to who should under- 

 take it. We finally decided that our oldest 

 and most experienced book-keeper should 

 undertake this, under the advice of Mr. 

 Calvert and myself, when the case seemed a 

 difficult one to decide. As a matter of 

 course, when I let go of the " wheel," if I 

 may use the expression, and intrusted it to 

 somebody else, complaints came in, and it 

 became necessary to frame a set of rules for 

 the guidance of the book-keepers. These 

 rules were those that had been deduced 

 from long experience ; and after they were 

 framed they were tested. When we were 

 forced to conclude that we had trusted 

 somebody unwisely, the book-keepers were 

 asked to go back and see why this man was 

 deemed worthy of credit ; and if our rules 

 were unwisely framed, they were remodel- 

 ed. 



To get the matter before us, let us sup- 

 pose, as I have done once before, that ob- 

 taining credit is like going to your neighbor 

 and borrowing a wheelbarrow. You com- 

 mence : 



" Mr. A, I am a little ashamed to come 

 on such an errand ; but just now things are 

 in such a shape that the use of your new 

 Daisy wheelbarrow for half a day would 

 save the price of a good man. Now, if you 

 prefer not to lend it, say so without any 

 hesitation, and I assure you there will be 

 no unkind feelings ; or if you can not spare 

 it, that ends the matter." 



In the above transaction the neighbor has 

 shown a fair, manly, Christian spirit ; and 

 if Mr. A decides he can not spare the wheel- 

 barrow, or decides that he can not lend it 



