1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CUI/rURE. 



159 



iniddlomea that we can cut off as well as not. 

 We. can withhold our patronage from the 

 saloon-keeper, for one thing, and in the same 

 way we can withhold our patronage from all 

 who are speculating out of tlie earnings of poor 

 people. Our agricultural papers liave liad 

 much to say in regard to farmers selling prod- 

 uce directly to consumers. Find somebody 

 who needs the stuff you raise, and then make a 

 short cut by delivering your product directly to 

 him. Yon understand, of course, my remarks 

 are directed principally to those who are suffer- 

 ing because they have nothing to do, or because 

 the work they are doing does not pay sufti- 

 ciently. It may be that muscle is plentiful in 

 our land; but of brains there never was an 

 oversupply. There is not and never was an 

 oversupply of earnest, honest thinking men and 

 women— the kind of people who think for 

 others; who love their neighbors; people who 

 always make it a business to take a stone out of 

 the highway— a stone that may injure a wagon, 

 and gall the shoulders of the poor hard-work- 

 ing horses. We want men and women who, no 

 matter what they are working at, would never 

 think of doing such a thing as to put in a piece 

 of piping without lirst looking through it to see 

 If there were a hole through it. We are not all 

 going to be plumbeis. but we are. all of us. la- 

 boring for somebody. The consequence of our 

 blundering often costs dollars. A poor woman 

 once came to me begging for employment. I 

 set her at work. She was trusted one day to 

 mail some garden seeds. A man wanted some 

 Wakefield cabbage seed to plant right away. 

 It is true, he wanted only a five-cent paper; but 

 this new clerk sent him an empty printed 

 wrapper, without any seeds in it at ail. She 

 had not love enough in her heart for her fellow- 

 men to simply pinch the empty envelope while 

 it was in her fingers, to see whether there were 

 any .seeds In it or not. She said it was only a 

 mistake. Some of the others took her part, and 

 thought I need not make so much fuss because 

 of a simple thing like that— picking up an emp- 

 ty seed-bag instead of one that contained seeds. 

 Now, I am trying hard to make myself under- 

 stood. The idea is this: He who commences 

 any sort of business, or who commences to earn 

 a living, should have, first and foremost, at the 

 bottom of his heart a deep and sincere anxiety 

 to (io yood in the world — to be helpful; and he 

 should be so anxious for the welfare of his fel- 

 low-men that, whenever he undertakes to serve 

 them in any capacity whatever, he should look 

 out for their interests. I do not know exactly 

 the circumstances of your own life, so I can not 

 map out in detail just what would fit your case; 

 but a love for humanity— a love for Christ Jesus, 

 and a sincere desire to do right by your fellow- 

 men, recognizing that the eye of the great God 

 above is constantly over you, will. I am sure, 

 bring you plenty to do, and at reasonably good 

 pay. ■' (Jive, and it shall be given unto you," 

 the Bible tells us. I do not understand by this 

 that you are to give money or bread and butter 

 to tramps; in fact, I do not think it means that 

 at all; but it does mean that, in your daily 

 work, you should give good and liberal measure 

 to your neighbors, to your men. to your employ- 

 er, to your hired man, to everybody with whom 

 you have to do. Be liberal with them; look 

 oul for their interests, study their comforts and 

 their needs; plan so as to avoid accidents, 

 hitches in business, delays and disappointment, 

 and they will in like manner plan for you; and 

 the great (rod above will, in his loving kind- 

 ness, plan for, look after, and protect you both. 



I get more inquiries from my ad't in your paper 

 than from any other source. W. H. Putnam. 



River Falls, Wis., Jan. 12. 







O.NIONS. 



I do not know but some of the friends will 

 think this is an onion number, even though in 

 one respect the onion business is not very en- 

 couraging. I hear that, in some localities, very 

 fair onions are offered at from 75 cts. to 61.50 a 

 barrel. Nevermind. There is money in onions 

 vet. The seed-catalogues are quoting potato 

 onions at from K.OO to $2.5() a peck. What do 

 you think of that— from $8.00 to flO.OO a bushel, 

 to say nothing about a barrel? and onion-sets 

 are about the same price as potato onions. By 

 the way, what is the reason nice onion-sets are 

 quoted year after year at from $4.00 to $6.00 a 

 bushel or more? I believe they can be grown 

 almost anywhere, and children very often grow 

 the very finest. And, by the way, what has be- 

 come of the old - fashioned top onion - sets? 

 When I was a boy 1 made quite a little money 

 growing onion - sets. My mother showed me 

 how. We just planted big onions, and the sets 

 grew on top of the stalks, like the Egyptian 

 onions, and all these sets made nice large solid 

 onions, and onions that were good keepers. 

 Furthermore, after all the sets had been gath- 

 ered, the onions could be taken up and put into 

 the cellar, and the next year they would bear 

 another crop of sets, and so on. 



We never had a bit of trouble in selling our 

 product. The nearest grocery would take the 

 whole lot at a price that paid big. A good many 

 times the grocers would be bidding against 

 each other in order to sret tlu-m. esppcially if 

 they were nice and clean. Who will tell me 

 what these onions are called ? I see something 

 mentioned in one of the catalogues, but they do 

 not give any name for the onion. They call 

 them top-sets, or buttons, and say they will 

 produce large onions quirker than any other 

 kind of onion seed. It stikes me I should rath- 

 er raise them than to raise the sets that grow 

 in the ground. Another thing, these top-sets 

 were much more .solid, and never sprouted in 

 keeping over winter, as the sets that grow in 

 the ground do. They were always marketable, 

 and were not constantly deteriorating. 



Oh. yes! I did find one Chicago house that 

 offered onion sets for $3..50 a bushel. 1 sent for 

 samples, but they had not even been putthro'ugh 

 a fanning-mill to blow out the chaff. The on- 

 ions were soft and wilted also. We have grow- 

 ing in our greenhouses, chives, multipliers, po- 

 tato onions, and shallots. By the way, I am 

 greatly interested in this shallot business. 

 They are the firmest, handsomest little onion 

 you ever saw. and they keep splendidly, so I am 

 told. Eead the following: 



SPRING SHALT-OTS. 



^. I. Root;— At your request I will describe 

 what I have always known as spring shallots. 

 There are two varieties, red and white. The 

 white are the best in every respect. They grow 

 larger, and are sweeter. They do multiply. 

 We put them out in the spring as early as the 

 ground will do to work; put a single one in a 

 place eight or ten inches apart, and there will 

 be a dozen or more come from the one. When 

 they get five or six inches high, thin out for 

 bunch onions. You can pull out all but two or 

 three, and they will send up seed-stalks and 

 make seed which may be sown as other onions, 

 and they will makT; beautiful little sets, which, 

 in turn, will multiply. Their principal value is 

 for bunch onions, on account of earliness. I 

 never raised any except for family use, but 



