646 



GLEANIKGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 



I did with Dr. Miller's ; but after two days 

 of questioning, and practical experience 

 with his hives and fixtures, I began to think 

 that, for extracted honey exclusively, friend 

 France might have decided on the very best 

 arrangement, especially for out-apiaries as 

 far away from home as his are. Those im- 

 mense hives will hold all the honey safely, 

 in case he should have trouble about getting 

 around promptly. The bees never starve, 

 for he winters them with the whole 36 large 

 frames ; and when they come to raising 

 brood in the spring they never lack in 

 stores. I am very much inclined to think 

 these great hives have an amount of brood 

 in spring, right along year after year, that 

 we shall seldom get with small hives; and 

 this is one reason why I am very loth to give 

 up the ten-frame Langstroth and adopt the 

 eight-frame. Dr. Miller has cut down all 

 his hives to eight-frames ; but he winters 

 entirely in the cellar. Of course, friend 

 France lets his great shot-tower hives stand 

 right where they are placed, winter and sum- 

 mer ; and he has no fussing to do from the 

 time honey ceases in the fall until it com- 

 mences again in the spring. Of course, he 

 does not extract very closely in the fall, pre- 

 ferring to leave them too much rather than 

 not enough. Now, dear reader, before going 

 any further with my Notes by the Way, I 

 want to ask you to read My Neighbors. 



Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy 

 neighbor.— Ex. 20: 16. 



July 16. — While waiting for the train at 

 Woodman I have just had one of the pleas- 

 antest visits of my trip. I found some 

 bees belonging to an old gentleman between 

 •SO and 90. While talking with him I no- 

 ticed an old gray-haired grandma, standing 

 in the back doorway. I wondered if it was 

 likely she w 7 ould care to talk with A. I. Hoot ; 

 but it has always taken a little effort on my 

 part to make advances toward an acquaint- 

 ance, even with old people, and 1 thought 

 once I would not crowd myself into their 

 home. Then the thought came, that, if it 

 were Prof. Cook, he has such a gift that 

 way, he would easily and naturally get ac- 

 quainted and entertain her. I walked to- 

 ward where she stood, and very soon her 

 face broke into a smile as she asked if it 

 were indeed true that A. I. Root had visited 

 their home. She is a devoted Christian, and 

 soon I had heard about her children and 

 grandchildren, and especially about one son 

 — the one who first started them with the 

 bees. He succeeded with the bees, became 

 a storekeeper and then postmaster, but 

 finally left their little town of 30 or 40 in- 

 habitants, and went west, where he is still 

 prospering, for he is a God-fearing son. 



" Grandma " insisted that I should go 

 down into their cellar and see where "grand- 

 pa" did the work. The cellar was dry and 

 clean— yes, cleaner and sweeter and nicer 

 than most of the extracting-rooms T found 

 among a good many bee-men. But I might 

 say this and not say a great deal either ; but 



this underground extracting-room was a 

 cool and pleasant place wherein to sit down 

 and talk. During exceedingly hot weather 

 I could imagine that it was a very nice place 

 to work, and bees are not very much in- 

 clined to go down into a cellar. Before 

 leaving, the old couple, with another son 

 and his wife, with grandchildren, gathered 

 under the trees in front of the little cottage. 

 In my poor way I tried to strengthen their 

 faith in the great Father, and also in their 

 fellow-men. I gave them some suggestions 

 on " what to do, and how r to be happy while 

 doing it." 



When I got into the town of Woodman I 

 was told I should have to stop three hours. 

 There are only two bee-keepers there ; but 

 the landlord told me that six miles further 

 on my road, at Boscobel, there were a great 

 lot of them. Accordingly, after an hour's 

 pleasant chat with the bee-keepers there, I 

 employed a man to take me ahead to the 

 next town, that I might waste no time. He 

 hadn't the change for a five-dollar bill, so I 

 went into a store. The storekeeper did not 

 like to spare his change, but suggested that 

 I might get it at one of the saloons. Now, 

 the town of Woodman has only about thirty 

 or forty inhabitants, probably ; but there 

 were two buildings nearly if not quite as 

 large as the dry-goods store, devoted to the 

 saloon business. I told him I did not like 

 to go into saloons, even to get change. I 

 suggested that two saloons for so small a 

 town were about two too many ; but he did 

 not agree with me. He further added, that 

 people need not go into saloons unless they 

 choose, and that, if nobody went into them, 

 there certainly would not be any. My 

 friends, I want you to hold that idea right 

 in your minds. If nobody goes into saloons 

 there will not be any ; and if you stop now 

 patronizing and encouraging them they will 

 very promptly stop existing. 



Men whom you find around railroad sta- 

 tions carrying passengers, driving hacks, or 

 keeping livery-stables, are not, as a rule, I 

 believe, godty men. I do not know just why 

 it is so ; but I am sorry that I have found it 

 so ; but it seems to be the rule. Of course, 

 I commenced getting acquainted with this 

 new friend, as I always do, while we were 

 on our six-mile trip. I told him I was the 

 editor of a bee-journal, and we talked about 

 bees and honey. Then I spoke of the nice 

 old couple I had just left. Said he : 



" Mr. Boot, you would hardly believe it, 

 but those old people cheat so fearfully by 

 putting sugar in their honey that nobody 

 will buy it any more." 



Of course, I expostulated ; but he declar- 

 ed the more vehemently that everybody 

 knew it, and seemed to think that was much 

 the way with people who read the Bible, 

 and sing and pray. I plead for Christians, 

 as I always do. He afterward informed me 

 that these old folks had a son, some little 

 time back, who was a notorious cheat. He 

 kept the store and postofhce. He was right 

 smart, of course, and got rich by cheating. 



" Why," said he, " it was amazing, the 

 amount of sugar that man had shipped into 

 town. Even the station agent said the 

 quantity was unheard of for a town the size 



