JUNE 15, 1912 



363 



DFTTDKa 



.1. K. Crank, Middlebury, Vt. 



It seems as though I never knew a spring 

 when bees spread their brood so fast, con- 

 sidering the weather. 



* -*- * 



The March 15th issue of Gleanings 



ought to be placed in the hands of every 



fruit-grower in the United States. 



« * * 



P^i'iend Scholl keeps hammering away at 

 •'bulk honey." The argument advanced that 

 more can be sold near home in this way is 

 cjuite true, and of immense value when there 

 is a large crop to be worked off. 

 « * * 



Mr. Doolittle's ideas as to what consti- 

 tutes a Avell-to-do man are perhajis of more 

 value than any thing else in the number of 

 Gleanings for Feb. 15. They will do to 

 carry with us for meditation in our leislire 

 hours. 



* * 3^ 



It is bad enough for a busy man to get 

 letters asking for information without even 

 enclosing a stamp to pay for the postage; 

 but when one gets a letter asking for the 

 whole science of beekeeping, on a postal 

 card, it caps the climax. 



* « # 



Mr. Chadwick, page 155, March 15, gives 

 us- some interesting reading, much of it as 

 applicable to this side of the continent as 

 the other. The fact that one man who put 

 up bulk comb honey for only one season 

 created a permanent demand for it is very 

 significant. 



I was very much interested in reading 

 Mr. E. H. Shattuck's article on the tobacco 

 industry in the Connecticut Valley, p. 162, 

 March 15. I visited some of those fields 

 under canvas last year, and found the bees 

 working on the flowers. It is a pleasure 

 to know that something as good as honey 

 can come from this plant. 



* * m 



''Never too old to learn" is as true as old; 

 and that photo of baby Curt Lundgren, 

 that has been fed on milk and honey from 

 its earliest infancy, teaches us one thing 

 more about honey — that it is good for ba- 

 bies. We might have surmised as much; 

 but we are so stupid as not to think. The 

 land that in ancient times flowed with milk 

 and honey has produced some of the no- 

 blest men the world has known, and one of 

 the most virile of all nations — one that no 

 amount of persecution or injustice has been 



able to destroy — whose moral ideals have 

 helped to lift humanity higher than any 

 other. Hurrah for "milk and honey!" 



* * * 



How often we come across something 

 that seems to upset all our fine-spun the- 

 ories ! I found a hive this morning w^th an 

 entrance large enough to suit our friend 

 Latham or Arthur C. Miller, and it was 

 among my best ones too. Seven large combs 

 of brood before a single apple-blossom ap- 

 peared. 



« * * 



Travel where one may, through the length 

 and breadth of the land, the banishment of 

 the saloon seems to be a live question eve- 

 rywhere, and of more moral and economic 

 importance than any other now before the 

 American people. Some day this genera- 

 tion will surely be the object of ridicule for 

 the silly and stupid methods of regulation 



now in vogue. 



■ « * » 



The early spring shows that bees have 

 wintered very badly in Vermont. Where 

 they were able to get a fair amount of hon- 

 ey last year, or Avhere they gathered some 

 the latter part of summer, they have win- 

 tered fairly well ; but all colonies that were 

 short of honey during most of the season 

 have come through in bad shape, which to 

 me shows very conclusively that the win- 

 tering problem depends a good deal on the 



previous season. 



* * * 



A good deal is being said about the folly 

 of carrying all one's eggs in one basket. 

 This is especially true of the South. One 

 man raises all pinea]>ples, another oranges, 

 another celery, another tomatoes, another 

 lettuce, and another bees; but it is risky. 

 One man near where I boarded for a time 

 said he made more money playing poker 

 the week after he joined the church than 

 in all his life before. Some one chided him 

 for his unseemly conduct; but he said he 

 could not see that it was any worse to bet 

 on cards than on a crop of vegetables. If 

 the season is favorable, and markets good, 

 you win ; if not, you lose. And do we not 

 often tempt Providence when we attemot 

 to carry all our eggs in one basket? If the 

 poultry business can be made to fit into 

 beekeeping as neatly and successfully as it 

 is illustrated in Gleanings for Feb. 15, we 

 beekeepers need not carry all of the eggs in 

 one basket, but have two baskets and enough 

 to fill both. 



