156 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Feb. 15. 



Give, and it shall be given unto you; g-ood mea- 

 sure, pressed down, and sliaken togetlier, and run- 

 ning over, sliall men give into your bosom.— Luke 

 6:3«. 



A PRIVATE LETTER TO A. I. ROOT. 



FHend Root:—! notice in your Home talli for Jan. 

 15, as a remedy for the liard times, you exhort the 

 people (at least the poorer class) to economize more 

 — tliat is, to worli harder ;ind live closer. Now, our 

 politicians and most of our leading papers say that 

 the low prices now prevailing are due to overpro- 

 duction. Now, if that is the case, to work harder 

 .vould he to produce, more; and to live closer would 

 oe to consume less. Do you not see that tliat policy 

 would only augment tlie trouble ? Would it not be 

 more reasonable, if overproduction were the cause 

 of hard times, for the people to work less and con- 

 sume more? But, again, is there such a thing as 

 overproduction ? Wlien hundreds and thousands 

 of people all over our land are famishing for the 

 very necessaries of life, is it not a ease of under- 

 consumption ? S. Farrington. 



Corunna, Ind., Jan. 33. 



I may add, there is more to the above kind 

 letter, but we have hardly space to go into it 

 here. I think I know pretty much all that our 

 friend mentions, and I took the matter into 

 consideration when I gave the advice that we 

 should make our expenses come within our 

 income. I would do this^'rst. and then I would 

 undertake to right some of the ereat wrongs 

 that are afflicting our country. The man who 

 is in debt is in poor shape to remedy great evils. 

 Besides, if he should undertake to I'epudiate 

 his debts he would, in most cases, wrong his 

 neighbor who maybe suffering in exactly the 

 same way he himself is. The remedy I have 

 been preaching and practicing for having so 

 many unemployed people in our land, is to set 

 them at work raising or producing the things 

 they consume. In this way there are no mid- 

 dlemen: there are no railroads to defraud the 

 poor man of his earnings: there are no banks 

 to rob him. Yes, I would not only produce 

 from the soil the food we need, but T think I 

 would go back to producing the clothes we 

 are to wear. Our forefathers got along very 

 comfortably, raised large families of good men 

 and women, and it can be done again. I de- 

 spise the man. as much as any of you, who pays 

 five or ten dollars for his dinner, or, if you 

 choose, even one dollar for his dinner right 

 along, when people are almost starving for the 

 very cheapest and coai'sest food. When this 

 same man puts on airs, and thinks he is too 

 good to touch people who labor for a living, it 

 awakens feelings of disgust in my heart. Yet 

 I would not advocate violence or anarchy. I 

 would fi\mp]y starve hhn. ortt. T would be both 

 producer and consumer of the things I -needed, 

 to avoid paying him interest or rent, or the 

 tremendous profits such men sometimes receive, 

 taken from the poor man's earnings. While I 

 say this I recognize that God seems to have so 

 ordained it that .some men should furnish cap- 

 ital while others should furnish brains and 

 muscle. I am not afraid that consuming less 

 and working more will aggravate our troubles, 

 providing more people can learn to set them- 

 selves at work without asking anybody, unless it 

 be the great (!od above, to furnish that employ- 

 ment. I want to see more people working for God 

 instead of for some human boss. I want to see 

 more people working iritJi, God. I want to see 

 them making use of (Jod's sunshine, air, and 

 rain, without paying any human being for the 

 privilege of so doing. Our land is broad enough, 



and the world is wide enough, so there need not 

 be any suffering for want of food or clothing. 



The present age needs educating in regard to 

 this matter of finding employment. Humanity 

 must not get into a fashion of thinking that 

 somebody else Is to find them a job. They 

 must not drift into a way of sitting down help- 

 less because nobody wants to hire them. Get 

 at it, and be busy at something un'il some- 

 body wants you. You know this is a subject 

 on which 1 have talked and exhorted, over and 

 over again. In fact, I have published two 

 books with this special end in view. I do not 

 know how I can better illustrate what I want 

 to say than by quoting from my own life; but 

 please do not think, dear friends, that I want 

 to boast. 



When I was a very small boy my mother 

 says I always found something to interest me, 

 and something to enjoy. I never came to her 

 saying. " Mother, please tell me what I shall 

 do." I can remember vividly when I began tO' 

 notice the multitude of wonderful things there 

 are in this world. When quite a child I became 

 interested in seeing the ants work building 

 their hills; and whenever I had leisure I enjoy- 

 ed myself hugely in studying their movements. 

 The sight of the growing grass, the budding- 

 branches, and all these things, were an un- 

 ceasing delight; and when I discovered it was 

 my privilege to have a /*r(7tf7 in the great ma- 

 chinery of life, it was a new delight. My first 

 business in the way of earning moupy was in- 

 keeping poultry: and after I had got two " bid- 

 dies "of my own to care for and study — from 

 that time forward. I think I may say, I have 

 never been out of employment. I began study- 

 ing the wants of my two hens, much as the 

 experiment stations carry on their work nowa- 

 days. I quickly began to note the effect that 

 certain kinds of food had in regard to the mat- 

 ter of the production of eggs. I walked eight 

 miles to the bookstore to get a book on poultry 

 I saw advertised; and I sat down so often on 

 the way to study that wonderful book that I 

 came near not getting home that same day. 

 About this time Moore's Ritral Netv- Yorker 

 was started. It was taken by my grandfather, 

 who lived two miles and a half from our home. 

 They did not want to lend the papei-, so I man- 

 aged to be on hand as soon as it came from the 

 postoffice. Other papers were scanned for their 

 articles on poultry. I learned to pound up 

 bones with a hammer, and drew butternuts in a 

 little wagon, said butternuts being pounded up 

 much as we did the bones for the biddies. Then 

 the Rural New-Yorker told me how to make 

 use of the poultry manure, and that opened up 

 agriculture. Busy! Why, not only was I busy, 

 and having fun too, every minute of my boyish 

 life, but I presume I could have set other people 

 at work' too, providing I could have found peo- 

 ple to think while they worked. Let me illus- 

 trate: 



I do not like to find fault with these good 

 friends near me here; hut I want to tell you 

 what an uiu^xplored region there is before the 

 people of the United States. 



Plumbing and gas-fitting are at present quite 

 a department in our establishment. There are 

 water-pipes, steam-pipes, air-pipes, and pipes 

 for almost every .sort of purpose, running in al- 

 most every direction. These pipes save us 

 steps, and. of course, there must be attendant 

 valves, elbows, T's, unions, reducers, and all 

 the attendant fixtures. The piping and the 

 sewerage have, in some way, fallen under my 

 supervision. I have begun to think I might be 

 called " hydraulic engineer" of the establish- 

 ment. Well, you do not know how I have 

 wanted trusty helpers, or a trusty helper in 

 this work. In putting in my storage battery 



