658 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1 



the floor. Do this in order that you may 

 not draw back any of the air you have just 

 expelled. I learned this almost from neces- 

 sity. Thousands of times during' my busy 

 life I have found myself confronted with im- 

 jjortant work that had to be done by a cer- 

 tain time, and my strength exhausted. One 

 of my brief naps was almost as much a ne- 

 cessity as to breathe. How could I get to 

 sleep quickest? B}^ getting a breeze right 

 in m3^ face, and lying in such a position as 

 1 have described, so the bad air could drop 

 (ut of the way and let the pure air in. In 

 growing peaches and other crops we have 

 liad to study "air drainage." By paying 

 proper attention to the matter of air drain- 

 age we avoid frost. If your peach-trees or 

 other crops are in a hollow where the air 

 settles stagnant, as it were, the frost will 

 Kill every thing. Well, people often sleep 

 in a stagnant pool of bad air. Their pil- 

 lows and feather beds get in such shape the 

 air forms a pool around the sleeper; and 

 the air that goes out of the lungs comes 

 I ight back in again, or at least a large 

 part of it. Some big stout men may stand 

 this, but / can not. Even when lying in 

 the hammock on a hot day, in order to get 

 to sleep quick I put my face over the side, 

 s ) there is absolutely no obstruction to the 

 air going out. I hardly need to say one 

 must clothe himself so as to be comfortable 

 with all this "draught" of air. Consump- 

 tives are now being cured by keeping them 

 outdoors all winter long. There is one such 

 institution in bleak New England, and one 

 in Colorado. Lots of woolens, and a big 

 campfire outdoors, keep the patient warm. 



Yesterday the potato-bugs were getting 

 bad, and there was no one besides myself 

 to use the sprayer. I had nearly finished 

 the field when I began to "play out." I 

 thought I would have to go to the hammock 

 for a nap before I could finish; but just 

 then a breeze came up from across the lakes. 

 I opened my mouth wide and "pulled in" 

 great breaths of it, filling my lungs to their 

 lullest extent, and pretty soon I had "second 

 wind" without riding the wheel, and fin- 

 ished my task easily. Lots of good air fur- 

 nished oxygen for the blood; and instead of 

 a lack of power I had a surplus. It is like 

 fuel to the locomotive when on an up grade. 



The great Eather, who, in his infinite 

 \\ isdom and love formed us of the dust of 

 the ground, and breathed into us the breath 

 of life, gave us also of his Holy Spirit that 

 we might have a spiritual as well as phys- 

 ical life, and he will surely guide us in 

 both lines if we look to him. "Shall not 

 the Judge of all the earth do right? " 



Mr. Root: — Please say to your readers 

 that if any of them have any questions they 

 would like to have answered at the Denver 

 convention, and will send them tome, I will 

 see that they are presented. 



A. B. Mason, Sec. 



Toledo, O. 



GETTING "acquainted" WITH TOOL.S AND 

 GETTING ACQUAINTED WITH BOYS. 



Seest thou a man diligent in his business? he shall 

 stand before kings ; he shall not stand before mean 

 men. — Prov. ^2 :29 



I told 3'ou about getting acquainted with 

 my wheelbarrow. I had handled wheel- 

 barrows more or less ever since I was big 

 enough to make a boy's wheelbarrow, and 

 yet I did not know, till I was 62 years old, 

 how to handle a heavy load on a wheelbar- 

 row. I may have known how pretty well 

 theoretically, but I had no practical experi- 

 ence in making a wheelbarrow take loads 

 that generally require a horse; and what 

 pleased me most of all was to find / had 

 the muscle and skill to make it do this 

 work. A man worked for me a few da\s 

 ago who had wonderful skill in handling 

 logs by hand, without any horse. He ex- 

 plained that he acquired that skill by be- 

 ing obliged once, in an emergency, to clear 

 up a piece of woods when no horse was 

 available; and he said this skill had been 

 of much value to him ever since.' Well, it 

 has in like manner done us good to work 

 here in the woods, without a horse. 



One of the boys in our employ has an- 

 noyed us somewhat because he is so curious 

 in wanting to know how every thing is 

 done, and all about every thing that is go- 

 ing on. When the big team was tugging 

 hard at a big stump it was difficult to get 

 him to stick to his job of getting the brush 

 out of the way, because he wanted to see 

 all about the way the chain was adjusted, 

 etc. I reall}' felt obliged to sa5% "John, 

 you keep right on with your work, and nev- 

 er mind what the men and team are doing. 

 The brush you are working at is in our 

 way every little while." 



John seemed for a time to feel hurt at my 

 reproof; but in a little while, when they 

 were doing something different, he stopped 

 his work again to look. Finally John and 

 I didn't get on very well together. As I 

 look back I think now it was somewhat my 

 fault. It was like the wheelbarrow. I 

 didn't know what it was good for at first, 

 and I didn't know what John was good for, 

 because I was not sufficiently acquainted 

 with him. 



Last winter, while in Ohio, I received a 

 circular of the " Cj'clone grub-puller," and 

 finally sent for a machine costing seven or 

 eight dollars. I had it shipped up here to 

 save the time of a big team in clearing up 

 wild land. When my neighbor Hilbert saw 

 it he laughed at me and said I had wasted 

 my money. I tried to work it, but it tired 

 me out, and I did not accomplish any thing. 

 I tried to have one of our stout men use it. 

 He pronounced it "no good " — said he had 

 seen similar things before, and tried them, 

 but they were ' ' no account. ' ' I felt sore 



