668 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



starting buHiness in town. He intrusted- 

 his stock, buildings, and land, to hired ten- 

 ants. First, he didn"t gft any rent The 

 next time, he let his land out on shares. 

 The result was, that two or three of his 

 horses were work(^d to death, and other 

 things managed in much the same way. 

 lie trusted too much to humanity in one 

 way, because he didn't have his business 

 imder his personal supervision. I am afraid 

 he rushes to the conclusion that these peo- 

 ple are all l)ad and seltish and evil. I pre- 

 sume, dear friends, they are no worse than 

 the neiglibors you have right around you, 

 or, to come still closer home, no worse than 

 you or I. Maybe they hadn't sound judg- 

 ment to undertake the management of a 

 large farm, and ought not to have been 

 trusted in this way. When you have faith 

 in the good i^itentions of youi' neighbors, 

 remember they are frail and human. Thus 

 without having any hard feelings toward 

 them particularly, you may remember they 

 are selfish. Many a good steady hard-work- 

 ing man has been made to show to a great 

 disadvantage simply because he has been 

 l)ushed into some place he was not compe- 

 tent to till. Some people do not seem capa- 

 ble of having money in their possession 

 without paying it out foolishly. Now, 1 

 don't believe it is right to call such people 

 thieves because they pay out money that 

 does not belong to "them. I have known 

 quite a number who seemed to be honest 

 and upright and straight in every particular 

 until some money or property was injudi- 

 ciously put in their hands for safe keeping. 

 At first sight one would be tempted to think 

 that they yielded to temptation ; but a more 

 careful investigation seemed to indicate 

 there was no particular temptation about it. 

 They simply let the money slip without be- 

 ing hardly aware they were responsible for 

 it. Had "they been tried first with a very 

 little money or a very little property, to give 

 them a little practice in the way of assum- 

 ing responsibility, they would probably 

 have turned out all right. Hut it was like 

 the guano in my experiments with straw- 

 berries. They hadn't even been educated 

 up to the point of bearing responsibility by 

 careful tests on a small scale. Now, dear 

 friends, I want you to think kindly of those 

 about you; 1 want you to think kindly of 

 all your neighbors— even the bad ones. I 

 want you to think kindly of the criminals 

 in your county jail ; and if the suggestions I 

 have thrown out in this pa])er shall be the 

 means of causing you to inquire whether the 

 bad state of affairs is not owing a great deal 

 to injudicious acts such as 1 have mention- 

 ed, I shall have accomplished my purpose. 



A poor unfortunate fellow-being is now 

 confined in our county jail for attempting a 

 crime that makes all "good men and women 

 shudder. In fact, a mob gathered round 

 him and might have taken his life had he 

 not been rescued by the proper authorities. 

 The man is a laborer in a neighboring stone- 

 quarry. During a kindly ta.lk with him I 

 felt pretty well convinced that he was noth- 

 ing but a connnon])lace individual, not pai- 

 ticidarlv worse nor better than thousands of 

 others. ' I did not notice any thing vicious 



about him, nor any signs that he was lost to 

 good feelings and good impulses. A slight 

 stoppage in their work at the quarry induced 

 him and some of his fellow-laborers to take 

 a holiday at a beautiful lake near the center 

 of our county. This lake is quite a fashion- 

 able pleasure-resort ; but. alas I a beer-sa- 

 loon disfigures its grounds. This man is a 

 foreigner by birth, and, of course, he must 

 have some beer. \"ery likely something be- 

 sides lieer crazed his brain and inflamed his 

 passions ; but for (lod's sake, friends, don't 

 be in haste to conclude that such or such a 

 one is absolutely bad. Don't be in a liurr> 

 to say that the best place forhim is inside of 

 the penitentiary walls •. and don't be so has- 

 ty in your condemnation as to say the mob 

 ought to have killed him under the circum- 

 stances. Christ died for even such as he. I 

 would not save him from the penitentiary : 

 I think he ought to go : and I suppose it "is 

 best to let the law take its course, even 

 where these feeble-minded people are so 

 thoughtless as to use money which they have 

 no right to use. But does it not behoove us 

 all, especially those of us who are followers 

 of Christ, to be careful how our careless or 

 heedless acts make our friends and neigh- 

 bors stand to bad advantage before the 

 world V Be sure, dear friends, there is not 

 a beam in thine own eye before you under- 

 take to pluck out the niote from thy broth- 

 er's eye. 



TAILOR BEES, ETC. 



PKOl'. ( OOK TEL1.S US SOMETHING ABOUT DIFFER- 

 ENT MEMBERS OF THE BEE AND WASP FAMILY. 



E received from John Linersridge, 

 Anguilla, Sharkey Co., Miss., a lot of 

 bits of leaves, cut u\) in round circles, 

 done uj) in brown paper. He said he 

 found it in one corner of a hive, but 

 did not know what to call it. We recog- 

 nized it as the work of the tailor bees, as 

 has been often mentioned in our journals ; 

 but as there was quite a (|uantity of circular 

 leaves made concave, or cup-shaped, and 

 nested into each other in this nest, we for- 

 warded it to Prof. Cook who replies : 



EiHtnr Glrariinu": 



These arc the ourious cells of the interesting- 

 " tailor" bees— Migaihik (see Manual, p. 28). These 

 bees cut regular pieces— circular or oblong— from 

 rose and other leaves, and by ingeniously fastening- 

 them together they form these hollow cylinders, 

 which are stored with food, and then each is stock- 

 ed with an egg-. Often there are many such cells 

 placed end to end at one place. I know a lady who 

 left her knitting-work alone for a time, and upon 

 taking it up found several of these cells within 

 its folds. I have often found them in grrass. 

 The cells are about one inch long, and one-third of 

 j an inch in diameter. The bees are about the size of 

 I a common honey-bee, which they somewhat resem- 

 ble. They may be told, however, by the brig-ht 

 shining- yellow hair on the under side of their ab- 

 t domens, and also by the curious way in which they 

 raise this part of their body as they walk over the 

 tlowers. These yellow hairs are used to g-ather pol- 

 len, and such bees will be seen, ofttimes, with these 

 hairs fairly loaded with the golden pollen-dust. 



