SEPTEMBER 1, 1913 



621 



Our Homes 



A. I. Root 



Cast thy bread upon the waters ; for thou shalt 

 find it after many days. — Ecc. 11:1. 



WATER FOR BEES WHILE BEING SHIPPED BY 

 MAIL AND EXPRESS. 



Almost as soon as Gleanings was start- 

 ed, in 1873, I began planning for the ship- 

 ment of queen-bees by mail; and I declared 

 that a good serviceable queen should be sent 

 by mail postpaid for an even dollar. But 

 just as the new industry had begun to as- 

 sume considerable ijroportions, owing prob- 

 ably to the work of careless beekee^Ders 

 queens were ruled out of the mails by the 

 Postoffice Department. Our good friend 

 Prof. A. J. Cook, then of the Michigan 

 Agricultural College, made a trip to Wash- 

 ington and interviewed the President, tell- 

 ing him of the importance of bee culture to 

 the world, and the result was that queens 

 were again permitted to go by mail. How- 

 ever, before traffic was once more restored 

 a quantity of queens piled up on my hands, 

 and I was for a time in a predicament. 



With the above preface you will readily 

 catch on to the following, which we reprint 

 from Gleanings for September, 1878 — 35 

 years ago : 



HOW TO KEEP EXTRA QUEENS ALMOST ANY 



LENGTH OF TIME ; ALSO HOW TO GET OUT 



OF TROUBLE OP ANY KIND. 



About the time queens were tlirown out 

 of the mails I was really in trouble — not 

 for myself alone, but on account of the 

 many that were sending me queens, and 

 who were, perhaps, less able to stand the 

 loss than myself. As soon as the order was 

 received Ave dispatched postals to every- 

 body who had been sending us queens, but 

 for all that they kept coming. Day after 

 day had I said, " Well, I really can not 

 think we shall have any more; so keep up 

 3'our courage, boys, and keep on dividing 

 and making room for them." We did so, 

 but more kept coming. Hay hurst had just 

 sent us a package of 25 or 30 ; Henderson 

 had sent as many more; then Moore, of 

 Atlanta, Ga., came in with a fine lot; and, 

 besides the above by express, a lot of the 

 ABC class were just getting the hang of 

 the business, and they swarmed in at every 

 mail, with their queer cages but nice bright 

 queens until I almost began to be sorry I 

 had ever taught them how to raise queens. 

 Some of those that had been notified kept 

 sending them in, saying they had nice 

 queen-cells just hatching, and they must 

 put the queens somewhere, and they thought 

 I sure could get along with a few more. 



One evening toward the first of August 



our friend Charlie came in with another 

 great bundle of queen-cages ; and as I 

 thought of the queens spread all around in 

 the honey-house with every thing that we 

 could think of given them, just to make 

 them hold on to life a little longer, I am 

 afraid I got into one of my ugly moods. 

 It is nothing very strange, for I do have 

 such moods, and am afraid I always shall, 

 now and then. Said a bad " impulse," 



'' Of course that fellow had received your 

 postal card, and knew better than to send 

 you those queens. I would send 'em right 

 back, and let liim bear the expense, to see 

 how he likes it." 



But a better imi^ulse said, " Steady, my 

 boy ; you are perhaps better able to take the 

 shock of this event than many of your pu- 

 pils, and you have no right to assume that 

 they had received your notice. You have 

 often said that calamities were sent on pur- 

 pose to teach us useful lessons. Had you 

 not better brighten up and gi'asp the situ- 

 ation squarely, and see what the lesson is 

 that is to be learned? " 



As I mused, I got into a better mood, 

 and went upstairs around into the wax- 

 room. The hands were all gone for the 

 night, and it was still and quiet. I remem- 

 bered how Mueller had asked God for every 

 thing he needed for his work among the 

 people, and it occurred to me that it could 

 not be a wrong act to kneel down there and 

 ask my heavenly Father to help me to be 

 a better friend to those who entrusted their 

 queens to me, and to ask him to tell me 

 what to do with them, not only for my sake, 

 but for the sake of all these bee friends all 

 over the land. I did so, and after that I 

 never borrowed any more trouble as to what 

 I should do with the queens. I did not 

 know at once what was to be done, but I 

 felt as if some " old hand " were going to 

 tell me just what to do, and so I looked 

 cheerful. 



I suppose I began to give the matter 

 earnest study ; but it seemed as if some one 

 talked to me something as follows: The 

 queen and bees, to stand long confinement 

 in small quarters, must have clean, pure, 

 fresh food. The honey that is used to soak 

 the sponges often acquires a musty or sour 

 smell in hot weather, and the bodies of the 

 bees that come the longest journeys are 

 often distended, especially after they begin 

 to die badly. The candy made with flour 

 answers nicely when first made, but after it 

 gets dry and hard, the bees have nothing 

 wherewith to moisten it, and so they die. 



