952 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. IS 



them I never attended a fair in my life 

 where they did not have on exhibition, at 

 least to some extent, the best tools and ma- 

 chinery before the world. I told them I 

 found the Daisy wheelbarrow at a county 

 fair; and, by the way, my Daisy wheel- 

 barrow has been the admiration of all the 

 farmers and everybody else in the neighbor- 

 hood. No such light strong wheelbarrow 

 had ever been seen in that locality until I 

 brought in mine. Again, I had a thousand 

 bushels of potatoes to dig; and as I was 

 situated it seemed best to dig them by hand. 

 I wanted the very best hand diggers made. 

 In that region potatoes are dug with both 

 fork and hook. My boy Earl is an expert 

 in this line. He uses a hook and fork both. 

 When he is tired of one he uses the other. 

 I went over to our country store and paid 75 

 cents for a hook. Of course, I got the best 

 they had. But the tines, instead of being- 

 sharp and tapering, were blunt. Earl used 

 it perhaps one day, and then brought his 

 own from home. He said my blunt-pointed 

 one would wear down sharp in the course 

 of time. I told him I wanted one that was 

 made sharp and needle-pointed on the tines. 

 He said there was no such thing on the 

 market. I told them if they would come 

 with me to the county fair they would find 

 different patterns of potato-hooks; and I 

 was sure some enterprising manufacturer 

 would have some that were sharp-pointed 

 to start with. Another thing, this blunt- 

 pointed potato-hook, when it strikes a pota- 

 to, mangles it fearfully compared to the 

 damage done by the slender-pointed hook. 

 An old hook that has been used for years be- 

 comes polished like a needle. The daughter 

 of my nearest neighbor, while digging po- 

 tatoes a year ago, plunged the tine of the 

 potato-hook through her little brother's foot. 

 He was picking up potatoes, and had his 

 bare foot under the dirt, where she did not 

 notice it. The keen polished steel went 

 clear through the foot and out on the under 

 side. Of course, she pulled it out at once 

 and then hustled him off eight miles to 

 Traverse City to see a doctor. He said if 

 the steel was clean and bright, no harm 

 would be likely to result, and he was right. 

 Little if any blood was shed, and the boy 

 went right along with his regular work. 



Now, the damage to a potato is a good 

 deal like the damage to that foot. Of course, 

 the potatoes should not be "jabbed" by the 

 diggers; but some varieties that spread 

 greatly in the hill can not well escape. 

 These boys, neighbors of mine, are all in- 

 terested in the best cultivators, the best 

 plows, the best harrows, whiffletrees, 

 doubletrees, stoneboats, vehicles, and every 

 thing else found on the farm. When half a 

 dozen of them get together and look over a 

 new tool they will point out its defects and 

 good points, oftentimes almost as well as 

 the gray-headed old farmer. I wanted to 

 take the crowd of boys with me to the county 

 fair, but not one would go. They laughed 

 among themselves, and said they guessed I 

 would change my mind after my visit. 



Let us now go back to where I was the 

 next morning after my cold bath. The girl 

 who promised to have my overcoat cleaned 

 and ironed by breakfast time said she was 

 busy the night before, and did not get it 

 done; and although it was a frosty morning 

 I st.^rted for the county fair without my 

 overcoat. Although the sun was shining 

 bright when I reached the gates of the fair- 

 grovind, there was nobody in sight. As the 

 gates were wide open I walked in. I found 

 the managers of the fair in a little bit of hut 

 filled with tobacco smoke around a hot stove. 

 One of them took my money and gave me 

 the keys to the agricultural hall and ladies' 

 department. Now, I dislike to find fault 

 with things; but the buildings containing 

 these exhibits were hardly fi. for a decent 

 cow-shed ; but the exliihits inside were good. 

 There were, perhaps, fifty different samples 

 of potatoes. These were worth to me all 

 my trip of 18 miles around the lake. The 

 display of fruits was fair; and there was 

 a very good show of every thing that grows 

 in the garden. This was interesting to me 

 because I wanted to know what crops suc- 

 ceed in the Traverse region. When it came 

 to the exhibition of implements, there was 

 nothing, with the exception of a machine 

 for separating cream from milk — not a hoe, 

 spade, shovel, potato-digger, plow, harrow, 

 nor any thing else; and it was the same 

 with places of amusement for the children. 

 There was not a swing nor a merry-go- 

 round nor any thing of the sort. The people 

 were expected to come there and pay 25 

 cents to get inside the yard (inclosed with 

 poultry-netting), without anj' windmills, 

 farm implements, thrashing-machines, feed- 

 cutters, nor any thing such as we ordinarily 

 see at a county fair here in Ohio. I asked 

 how many were in attendance the day be- 

 fore, and was told there were thirty orfo7-ty. 

 I attended the last day. They said the 

 people would not come out because 25 cents 

 was too much for a fair with no attractions 

 and but little in the way of educating farm- 

 ers. The managers said they could not make 

 a better s,hov7 with the little money they got. 



Now, this is a bad state of affairs ; but 

 the objection to having things in better shape 

 reminded me of the objections I met in try- 

 ing to build up the membership of that little 

 church in Bingham. The people stayed 

 away from church because they had a min- 

 ister only every other Sunday, and he did 

 not live among the people. They could not 

 pay a minister salary enough so he could 

 live among them and preach every Sunday, 

 because not enough people attended, etc. 

 And this same fashion of doing things has 

 got into the schools more or less. 



I wish to say a word more about the po- 

 tatoes. The exhibits were mostly made up 

 of very large potatoes. In harvesting a 

 crop it seemed to be the fashion to select the 

 biggest ones to take to the county fair; and, 

 of course, these would be overgrown mon- 

 strosities. There were a few baskets of 

 medium-sized handsome table potatoes; but 

 there was not one of the Freeman nor one of 



