March, 1919 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



as nourisliin;;', altlio 1 am not sure of it. 

 Both Mrs. Root and 1 at different times 

 have heen near death ; and both of us were 

 built up and brought back to health on a 

 diet composed largely of finely gi-ound 

 beefsteak. 



In regard to small type in our journal, 

 if we follow our good friend's suggestion, a 

 great lot of valuable matter would have to 

 be left out of Gleanings and many other 

 periodicals. 



A LKTTER FROM TUB A. B. C. F. M. SHAOWU MIS- 

 SION, EMBRACING THE CITIES, SHAOWU, KU- 

 ANG TSEH, TAI NING, KIEN NINO, TSIANG 

 LOII, SHUN CHANG, YANG KEO. 



The following is an interesting letter to 

 me from a foreign missionary : 



Dear Mr. Root: — Recently I was quite interested 

 to see in the Scientific American a short paragraph 

 in regard to your success in utilizing wind power 

 for charging automobile batteries. It is an ag- 

 gravation to see so much power constantly going to 

 waste over our heads and all around us, and be able 

 to utilize so little of it for mechanical purposes; 

 but, just like the power of the sun, it is so diffused. 



In a recent copy of the Literary Digest was an 

 article, giving opinions pro and con as to the 

 hexagonal shape of the cells in the honeycomb hav- 

 ing been produced directly by the bees. I am sum- 

 mering in a little cottage about 3,300 feet above sea 

 level. Thei walls are of earth tamped down, and 

 are nearly a foot thick; and this gives a space of 

 eight or nine inches between blinds and windows. 

 When we came here July 1 a swarm of bees had 

 seittled in one of these spaces ; the combs were paral- 

 lel to the window, and the supply of honey had fal- 

 len off just as the comb next to the window was 

 nearly finished. Tliese new cells were every one of 

 them empty and hexagonal with not a sign that any 

 had ever been occupied, or that any had originally 

 been circular. Manifestly, the comb had not been 

 built, one cell at a time ; and each little waU had 

 been constructed as a partition between two cells. 

 Of course the walls were straight between the two. 

 The wonder is that all the honeybees the world over 

 have these hexagonal cells. Granting that all these 

 things have come about by evolution, there must be 

 a guiding Intelligence back of it all. 



Recently I bought a ream of paper, and had let- 

 ter heads printed on it as above ; and then came 

 word that we were " The Shaowu Mission." Little 

 did we dream of this when we opened the station. 

 Thanksgiving Day, 1876. Present force: five fam- 

 ilies, four single ladies, myself, four babies, four 

 children, one lady coming — in all, 28 adults, 24 

 children. The missionaries and their children who, 

 off and on, have lived here during these 46 years, 

 number 52; and 51 of them are still alive. Mrs. 

 Walker lived longer than did her sister who died 

 of the same disease. I can still do a good half-day's 

 work. Truly God has been good to Shaowu. 



Some of the children may now be somewhere in 

 France. Our Father keep them safely. Cordially 

 yours, J. E. Walker. 



Shaowu, China, Sept. 9, 1918. 



nil 



GERMAN BEER AND STARVING GERMANY. 



America has cut off using grain by the 

 breweries, that we may have food to spare 

 for the starving nations; now before we 



it'S|ton(l to (ilermany's call for helj) in the 

 i'ood crisis, shall not Gernumy, in a like 

 manner, give the grain to her starving 

 ]ioor, instead of letting her breweries have 

 it? When I read the clipping below in our 

 daily paper, I gave a loud Amen! Cannot 

 you, reader, do the same? 



UNTIL INDEMNITY IS PAID. 



Editor Plain Dealer: — Sir: One of the first 

 items in the peace terms should be absolute prohi- 

 bition of the manufacture, sale, purchase, or use of 

 alcoholic beverages in any form, until the entire 

 war indemnity is paid in full. (This could be en- 

 forced by an army of occupation.) It was a booze- 

 crazed brain that started the conflagration, and a 

 booze-crazed brain only that could have been guilty 

 of such dastardly crimes. The brutes are now beg- 

 ging for bread, while they are using millions of tons 

 of the best breadstuff for making booze. Take it 

 away from them; it will be a severe punishment in 

 ilself, but I can see no better way to give to all, 

 from the least to the greatest, a little punishment 

 for the crimes they have directly and indirectly 

 helped to commit. The punishment will be severe, 

 but the world will be better for it, the war indem- 

 nity will be paid in half the time, and a brighter 

 light wiU dawn on the next generation of Germans. 



Don't misunderstand me; this is not the only 

 punishment I would favor, but only in addition to a 

 just puni-shment to be meted out to those from the 

 lowest to the highest, who are personally giiilty of 

 any of the crimes committed. 



bberlin. O. CONSTANT Reader. 



MILK and HONEY FROM SWEET CLOVER. 



My Dear Brother Root: — December Gleanings 

 just arrived today, and, in perusing it this evening, 

 in your department I noticed reports on sweet 

 clover for pasturage. You stated there was nothing 

 said about bees, so I give now my report including 

 the bees. 



I bought three colonies of bees late in May, with 

 partly filled supers. One colony had already swarm- 

 ed. I moved them about a mile to my own place, 

 and let them finish white clover. They weighed 

 91% pounds, including weight of sections. Three 

 miles out my son-in-law has a farm which had 13 

 acres in sweet-clover pasturage. He let the clover 

 get a good start before turning the stock on it, as it 

 was all the pasturage on the farm. Six or seven 

 cow.s, a number of hogs, and four horses consti- 

 tuted the stock. 



Those cows went into the pasturage thin, and, as 

 I watched results, I found them gaining. The occu- 

 pant, Mr. Oldenburg, told me that the quantity of 

 milk was increased, and for the first time he was 

 not having to use any chop feed for the cows. He 

 took pride in showing his cows to the neighbors be- 

 cause of the way they were gaining flesh, and at 

 the end of the season they were in better flesh than 

 many that went to the butchers' pens. I asked Mrs. 

 Oldenburg if she noticed any difference in the flavor 

 of the milk. Her reply was that she and her hus- 

 band had observed that they never had such nice, 

 sweet milk before, and that the butter was so much 

 firmer and better than usual. 



It was getting well along in the season, and white 

 clover was gone, with but little sweet clover in our 

 neighborhood. One night my grandson and I load- 

 ed the three colonies in the Ford and transferred 

 them to the farm. In 30 days I went out, brought 

 them home, and weighed up 128 pounds in finished 

 sections. This was early in September. I put in 

 150 new sections for buckwheat, but on account of 

 bad weather and killing frosts I got only from 80 



