1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



201 



Id veterans in bee culture, an old contributor 

 3 (JM<:ANi.\(is. and he is the man who has in 

 ears past furnished us suidi nice queens, wiih 

 tie wal^-r- iioLlle to give ihem drink on tlieir 

 Durney. When we have orders for queens long 

 istanees, we pick out the cages containing the 

 'ater-bottle. 



Friend W., and his wife and boy, are living 

 n the old homestead. 1 for one have an espe- 

 ial liking for old houses. I like to see the 

 uildings that gather around them as the years 

 o hy; I like to see the old trees, and the other 

 liings that indicate that the place has been a 

 ante for a generation or two. Sure enough, a 

 eautiful spring poured out of the hillside right 

 lose by the dwelling, and a hydraulic ram 

 ^nds the water not only into the kitchen, but 

 ut to the barns and stables, and away up into 

 pasture-lot on the hillside. Mrs. \V. told me 

 hat. if I had not suggested the machine in my 

 'ritings. they probably would not have had it. 

 although it does the work beautifully, it cost 

 Illy $Vi.OO for the machine itself. The piping 

 nd reservoirs cost a good deal more. At the 

 ther side of the house were the strawberry- 

 eds, just such as Gi^eanixgs had talked about, 

 nd up on the hillside were raspberries; and 

 tell you it was refreshing indeed to know that 

 11 the things I have talki-d about and thought 

 bout had been worked out and made a success 

 a that home amid the hills. The strawberry- 

 atch gave them 125 bushels last season, and 

 hey were sold to a grocer for $2.00 a bushel, 

 ight straight through. This was not a very 

 ig price, but they were all sold without any 

 rouble or peddling, and the money for the 

 trawberries paid the last of the mortgage that 

 lad been for years resting on the old homestead, 

 soon told friend W. that I was on my way to 

 ee another friend, and without much urging 

 le consented to go with me. I knew before I 

 eached that home, that, although bees and 

 trawberries, and springs and other things, 

 \ere interesting to friend W., there was some- 

 hing of more importance than all these, on 

 vhich he and I could entirely agree. I knew 

 hat he and I could agree pretty nearly about 

 pending money for that which is not bread, 

 aid laborimj for that which satistieth not. 



We had some long pleasant talks on the way 

 Newcomerstown. Oh, yes I do you want to 

 enow what I was going there for? Wefll, if 

 :ou will look back in Gleanings for last year, 

 Dage 530, you will read about the man who sold 

 >300 worth of strawberries in three weeks; and 

 lis daughter. 14 years old, and his son, 13 years 

 )ld, ran the wagon and did the selling. You 

 ;ee, friend W. was interested as well as myself. 

 We found our friend Nicodemus busy steaming 

 ip and tucking up his hot-beds and new green- 

 louse, for a cold wave was coming. He had 

 just moved on to a new place: and as his green- 

 lonse had been put up almost in the depth of 

 .vinter, he especially wanted to see me, because 

 (lis steam-heated hot-beds were too hot where 

 he steam went in, and too cold where it came 

 ut. Now, we have had little or no trouble on 

 this account. With exhaust steam it takes 

 juite a little while for the steam to get through 

 the tiles; but when the ground gets well 

 warmed up, the temperature seems to be pretty 

 aearly equal, even in beds 200 or 300 feet long. 

 He says he has been told that live steam can 

 not well be made to do its work as well as 

 xhaust steam. The exhaust goes in regular 

 puffs — just so much and no more; and if let 

 into pretty good-sized tiles, it slowly parts with 

 its heat in a somewhat diflferent way from what 

 live steam does, even if it is let on very slowly. 

 The tomato book, however, suggests a remedy; 

 that is, to have your tiles further under ground, 

 where the steam is just going in, and then let 



them rise quite near to the surface, where the 

 spent steam escapes near the end. 



The son and daughter mentioned were both 

 wide-awake, and fully alive to all that the 

 father and mother were interested in. Oh how 

 I do love to get a glimpse of such a honu;! and 

 when this brother and sister sang some Sunday- 

 school hymns lor us, accompanied by a pretty 

 little organ, it seemed to me that such a home 

 and such a household came about as near to 

 heaven here on earth as any thing I have ever 

 found in this world of ours. Why, I really 

 believe I would give more to hear those child- 

 ish voices sing those hymns — those very same 

 hymns— over again than to listen to the finest 

 concert I ever attended. Of course, the circum- 

 stances and surroundings had something to do 

 with it. 1 had talked with the children about 

 their berry-growing, their market-wagon, and 

 about selling stuff to their neighbors. We dis- 

 cussed bees, strawberries, greenhouses, steam- 

 pipes, lettuce-plants, and all these things. I 

 was a little afraid that these young friends of 

 mine might become so much interested in busi- 

 ness that there would be a tendency to neglect 

 their education. The mother gave me a grate- 

 ful look just at this time, while she said she 

 had the same thing in mind; and then I was a 

 little afraid, too, that this bright, pretty young 

 girl (I hope she will excuse me when she reads 

 this, for she knows Uncle Amos means " hand- 

 some is as handsome does") — well, to go back, 

 I was a little afraid that, if she were to keep on 

 selling berries at the rate of $100 worth in a 

 week, she would be getting into business so 

 much for her tender years that the coarse out- 

 side world might, some of them, be a little pre- 

 suming. Her brother always goes with her, it 

 is true; but if she is going to continue in this 

 business, if she were my child (and in one sense 

 she is, for she is one of the Gleanings family) 

 I believe I would rather have her father not 

 very far away at least — that is, if she continues 

 to grow in grace and wisdom. 



You should have seen the look upon all 

 around when I told them I must be off on the 

 evening train in order to get home a little after 

 sunrise next morning. But February is a busy 

 month with us, and I felt that I could not be 

 away longer. 



A little of friend Nicodemus' experience may 

 interest you. He used to be a mason by trade; 

 but it took all he could earn to furnish food and 

 clothing for the little family, let alone laying 

 up any thing for the rainy day — an outlook 

 that liow probably troubles a min/o?!- or more 

 of the wage-earners of our country. He got 

 hold of Gleanings, and commenced keeping 

 bees. I wonder if he will excuse me if I say 

 right here that he used to be a swearing man. 

 Gleanings suggested something different and 

 something better. Now not only himself but 

 the whole household are Christians. With the 

 bees they took up gardening, and he looked 

 forward to the time when he could make enough 

 with his berries and plants and vegetables to 

 stay at home and work with his wife and chil- 

 dren all day, and not be obliged to hunt up 

 jobs. He bought an acre or two. (Tod heard 

 his prayers, and prospered him; and the chil- 

 dren took hold of the work, as you have been 

 told. His daughter had been teasing to plant 

 five acres of strawberries. 1 said, no— at least 

 not just yet; and I think his better judgment 

 also'said no. He knows— in fact, they all know 

 —that worldly prosperity does not satisfy. 



Some one may say right here, " Well, Bro. 

 Root, what does satisfy? How shall we pay 

 out money to get this satisfaction you talk 

 about?" I am glad to hear that question. In 

 the first place, you want to have a home. You 

 want a wife and some children. And next. 



