AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



587 



CONDUCTED BY 



MRS. JENNIE ATCHLEY. 



BEEvrLLE. Texas. 



Getting: Alon^ With Cross People. 



Mrs. Atchley :— As we Southern bee- 

 keepers have now learned to look to you 

 for advice on matters pertaining to bees, 

 I wish to ask you what is the best way 

 to get along with people that are always 

 cross and trying to find something to 

 accuse the be'es of being a damage? It 

 seems that some people get angry when 

 everything doesn't go to their liking. 

 Please answer in the "American Bee 

 Journal." Subsckibek. 



Friend Subscriber, whoever you are, I 

 will say that you have me in a tight 

 place, to answer or give advice, and 

 without more of the particulars it would 

 be hard to prescribe for your case. 

 However, you ought to know whether or 

 not your bees are a real nuisance or 

 damage to your neighbors. If so, I 

 would remedy the matter if I had to 

 move my bees, for I do love peace. Now, 

 if your bees bother your neighbors at 

 preserve-making time, I would furnish 

 them with mosquito-bar or wire-cloth 

 enough to cover or enclose the room, 

 etc.; and, besides, take them a mess of 

 honey occasionally, and this will usually 

 sweeten people unless they are a lemon 

 straight. 



If your bees bother grapes, or what- 

 ever they do to annoy neighbors, try to 

 remedy the evil. I've had hard feelings 

 from people, or they thought hard of 

 me, because my bees visited their stock- 

 watering troughs, but I have always, so 

 far, made matters right and satisfactory 

 in some way. 



Please bear with me a little right here. 

 One of ihe worst things that has come 

 up in my rounds was in locating out- 

 apiaries. I almost always put my bees 

 at or near some residence, and I have 

 never yet, that I remember, had any one 

 to make a charge for my bees being on 

 their premises. Often I have asked 



what they would charge me, and the re- 

 ply was: "Nothing at all." I would 

 say, " Well, I will give you some honey 

 to eat, anyway." These people knew 

 nothing of bees, and thought where there 

 were bees there was honey. If the sea- 

 son would open up badly, and continue 

 so for a time, and I had no honey to 

 offer them, I would feel ashamed to visit 

 the yards, and actually I have bought 

 honey and given it to people, when they 

 thought it came from the bees at their 

 place. And, oh, how it would please 

 them ! I would rather pay a moderate 

 price for the use of space than to have it 

 free — I would get off cheaper. I nearly 

 always leave a colony of bees when I 

 move the bees away. 



Now, back to your questions, and I 

 will close by giving my experience with 

 ugly neighbors. It is this : 



There are some things in this world 

 not to our liking, which we cannot 

 change. Much of our happiness, as well 

 as usefulness, depends upon our ability 

 to adapt ourselves patiently to disagree- 

 able and troublesome things which are 

 inevitable and incurable. The river can- 

 not remove the mountain, so it grace- 

 fully flows around it; so we must pa- 

 tiently go around many things which we 

 cannot remove. 



This principle applies to our relations 

 and dealings with the people about us. 

 Some of them are uncongenial, disagree- 

 able, provoking. Strive and fret our- 

 selves as we will, we cannot change 

 them. We must accept their peculiari- 

 ties, and even their faults as inevitable, 

 and adapt ourselves to them. People 

 who have grown up crooked, are hard to 

 straighten. We must learn to help peo- 

 ple, and love them, and be happy in 

 their society in spite of their peculiari- 

 ties and defects. 



Now, I trust that you may get some 

 ideas out of this that will enable you to 

 study those cross neighbors, and make 

 them your friends. 



Jennie Atchley. 



BxifiEalo Clover. 



Mrs. Atchley : — I see that you name 

 buffalo clover as a honey-plant of Texas. 

 Now I always thought so, too, but I 

 have kept bees for three years, and for 

 two years as a specialty, and have 

 watched it closely, and I have not seen a 

 single bee at work on buffalo clover. 

 Now what I wish to know is, do bees 

 work on it in some localities, of your 



