1887 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



385 



managed to release the little finger of my 

 right hand, and get that under the door- 

 latch, and may be in so doing I would drop 

 a comb of honey or push the latch into it. I 

 know what it is to have sticky door-latches 

 and door-knobs, and it always makes me 

 disgusted with myself and things generally. 

 Well, now I want to criticise your machin- 

 ery a little for opening a door. It is loo 

 much machinery. I am sure some of our 

 sharp inventors will improve on it right 

 away. Can't some of the devices that have 

 been so frequently figured for operating seif- 

 opening gates be brought to bear light here? 

 i on see, you have two cords, and three pul- 

 leys to be kept from squeaking. I suppose 

 many of you have seen self-opening gates 

 that were operated by fixing a lower hinge 

 at the end of a short arm. Well, now, by 

 making this short arm revolve a quarter of 

 a revolution, the center of gravity is chang- 

 ed so the door swings open of itself, and 

 this same operation raises the latch. The 

 spring to bring the hinge back to its former 

 position would close the door and latch it. 



McFADDEN'S LETTER. 



REBUKING PROFANITY AND OBSCEN- 

 ITY. 



SOME SUGGESTIONS ON WINTERING. 



AM sure many of your readers will be interest- 

 ed as 1 was in the letter of Daniel McFadden. 

 In it there is a whole romance for some one to 

 bring- out and color up— not that his state- 

 ment of ihe results of " cold storage " is in anj' 

 way to be questioned. Most assuredly, there is a 

 substantial ground for believing that bees that are 

 kept perfectly quiet consume vastly less honey. 

 Entire darkness, an equable low temperature, and 

 freedom from noise, are evidently the require- 

 ments. Here in the Southern-Middle States, where 

 we can winter safely on summer stands, and where 

 bees may tly out every month in the winter, the 

 consumption of honey is often excessive. 



Activity involves expenditure araong bees, just 

 as it does among the hardy lumbermen in winter, 

 who can eat and digest a quantity of food that 

 would ruin many another less laboriously engaged. 

 Right here we have a case in point. Fourteen col- 

 onies in an outlying apiary, and run for extracted 

 honey in 1886, had two full stories, 20 frames (I use 

 the L. frames). I was totally unable to go and ex- 

 tract, and contract them before it became too 

 cold, and they were left with not less than an aver- 

 age of 60 lbs. of stores, some having more. In over- 

 hauling them in April, but one colony was found 

 with as much as .5 lbs. of honey, and some were 

 nearly destitute of any honey. But such power- 

 ful colonies I never saw so early. No honey had 

 been collected, and very little pollen, for frost had 

 cut the alder and the willow. 



In my home apiary of 100 colonies, better pro- 

 tected and shaded, and consequently less active, 

 the consumption was much less, yet by no means 

 so small as many of the records given in cellar 

 wintering. 



We are often annoyed by the excessive accumu- 

 lation of pollen here. This spring, because of the 

 frost just at time of bloom, very little was brought 

 in, and all pollen-laden combs were quickly clean- 

 ed out when placed in the hives. J. W. Porter. 



Charlottesville, Va., May 4, 1887. 



THE TESTIMONY OF A BROTHER IN SUCH MATTERS. 



RO. ROOT:— I sincerely sympathize with you 

 in your surprise at the state of morals ex- 

 isting in a neighboring State. While 1 re- 

 gret that, while you hesitated about rebuk- 

 ing such profanity and obscenity, I have no 

 doubt but that it was the evil one that furnished 

 the apologies for delay. In my own experience for 

 many years, 1 have always tried to reprove when- 

 ever 1 have heard such talk, on the street, in stores, 

 or at depots, on the spot, and to do it in such a 

 manner as to express how my feelings were pained 

 by such language, and I have as j'et never been 

 insulted for so doing; and I believe that, if you had 

 done so on hearing the tlrst expression, you would 

 have succeeded in putting an effectual stop to it 

 for that time. Here let me add my conviction 

 that they, when they perceived that you were lis- 

 tening, continued the discourse, and added to Its 

 degrading depravity and blasphemy— it may have 

 beenonpurpose to torment you. I have heard of just 

 such cases before. There ia one command that I 

 think is not sufficiently regarded by Christians 

 nowadays in Lev. 19 : 17, and which, if we all tried 

 more implicitly to obey, our heavenly Father would 

 give us the words and right spirit to rebuke sin; 

 then would be verified his pi'omise in Lev. 26: 3-8. 

 May he help us to be " wise as serpents," is the 

 prayer of yours most truly. A. H. V.\nD()ren. 

 Mons, Bedford Co., Va., May 8, 1887. 



Thanks, friend V. I, too, have never yet 

 received any abusive language when 1 have 

 tried to rebuke such things, unless I except 

 one man who excused himself for swearing 

 by saying he supposed this was a '' free 

 country.'' But I am afraid that Christ's 

 spirit was not in my heart at the time 1 re- 

 proved him. Your testimony encourages 

 and strengthens me, and I thank you for 

 the texts you quote. 



As it may trouble some of our friends to 

 hunt up their Bibles and find the refer- 

 ences I give them here. 



Thou Shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart; 

 thou Shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and 

 not bear sin because of him.— Lev. 19 : 17 (New Re- 

 vision). 



If ye walk in my statutes and keep my command- 

 ments, and do them; then I will give you rain in 

 due season, and the land shall yield her increase, 

 and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit. 

 And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, 

 and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time: 

 and ye shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell 

 in your land safely. And I will give peace in the 

 land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make 

 you afraid: and I will rid evil beasts out of the 

 land, neither shall the sword go through your land. 

 And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall 

 fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall 

 chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put 

 ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall 

 before you by the sword.— Lkv. 26: 3—8. 



There, brothers and sisters, is not that 

 promise strong enough V and I have not a 

 particle of doubt but that it will be ful- 

 lilled to the very letter. If we push for- 

 ward with Christ's spirit in our liearts in 

 this matter of rebuking such talk, verily 

 shall it prove true that five of us shall chase 

 a hundred, and a hundred shall put ten 

 thousand to flight. 



