576 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



water for the express purpose of destroying 

 American enterprises; for they have done so in 

 the past, and such is their publicly avowed 

 policy toward our country. 



But, you say, if the British factories reduce 

 their prices, will not the American consumer 

 be benefited? No. for two reasons. 1. The 

 reduction is only temporary, until American 

 enterprise is out of the way, when steel, for 

 in'itance, will go up to f 107 a ton as before, in- 

 stead of $30, as under protection; 3. The price 

 we pay for articles of consumption is a small 

 matter compared to the importance of steady 

 work for our people at fair wages. 



Let me ask friend Hewes why such wide- 

 spread paralysis of trade, manufactures, and 

 business occurs in 1894. It is because the /?-cc- 

 trade party is in power. It is because the peo- 

 ple know their record; it is because American 

 manufacturers, fearing free-trade measures 

 will be enacted by the party now in power, 

 refuse to run their mills, and put out the fires 

 in their furnaces all over our land; it is because 

 our people know that the result of free trade 

 would be to flood our country with the products 

 of foreign labor: a suspension of our own man- 

 ufactures of all kinds; a gradual loss of our 

 specie, sent to other countries to pay for these 

 foreign goods; a necessary stoppage of most of 

 our business for want of circulating medium; 

 idleness of laborers and artisans; universal 

 debt: depreciation of real-estate values; in- 

 ability on the part of nearly everybody to pay 

 their debts. These results are not mere theo- 

 ries of a diseased imagination— far from it. 

 They are the teachings of history. Witness 

 tbs first free-trade period— that preceding the 

 adoption of the Constitution, when, during 

 1771. our imports exceeded our exports by 

 13,7!>0,000— an enormous sum in those days. 



Witness the second free- trade period— 1816- 

 1824, of which Horace Greeley said, "Our manu- 

 factures went down like grass before the mow- 

 er, and our agriculture and labor speedily fol- 

 lowed; financial prostration was general, and 

 debt universal." 



Witness the third free- trade period, 1833 to 

 1843, during which money was so scarce that, 

 in some parts of Pennsylvania, people divided 

 bank notes into halves, quarters, eighths, etc., 

 from necessity, and goods sold at sheriff's sale 

 for cents, that were worth dollars. 



Witness the fourth free-trade period— 1846 to 

 1861, against which legislation the great Daniel 

 Webster made one of his greatest speeches, 

 running through three days— July 25 to 28, 1846, 

 and said, " You indulge in the luxury of taxing 

 the poor man and the laborer! That is the 

 whole tendency, the whole character, the whole 

 effect of the bill. It is not a bill for the people 

 or the masses! It is a bill for the relief of the 

 wealthy classes, and takes away the means of 

 living from labor everywhere." TheNeiv York 

 Tribune reports that, in January, 18.55, thou- 



sands of people in New York depended on 

 charity and soup-houses." 



Look at the sum of fifteen hundred million 

 dollars that was paid to labor in 12 years, 1878 

 to 18t>0, in the steel industry alone, under pro- 

 tection; look at the wonderful prosperity of 

 our country from 18(51 to ISUl- the growth of 

 our manufactures — the hundreds of millions of 

 money during these 30 years, paid our work- 

 men, and then say, if you dare, in the light of 

 history, in the pressure of such facts, that free 

 trade is good for our country. 



Chicago, 111. 



BAUBLE 112. 



HOME APIARIES. 



By Rambler. 



In past rambles I have intimated that the 

 home apiary, even here in California, was more 

 attractive, oftener visited by the apiarist, and 

 kept in better condition generally, than the 

 apiary in the distant foot-hills. There are ex- 

 ceptions to the rule, however; and many times 

 the out-apiary is nicely arranged, pleasant to 

 look upon, and it is a pleasure to work therein, 

 while not a few of those near the dwelling 

 have as ragged an appearance as the most 

 forlorn specimen in the foot-hills; and I find it 

 makes but little difference where the apiary is 

 located; for if the owner is an enthusiast at 

 his calling, his apiary is always in a neat con- 

 dition; but if the bees are looked upon as so 

 many factors of the almighty dollar, and are 

 only hastily visited in order to rob them of 

 their surplus stores, the apiary is liable to be 

 grossly neglected, even if located near the 

 owner's doorstep. 



It happens sometimes that the enthusiastic 

 bee-keeper gets deep into the fruit-growing 

 industry, and this encroaches so much upon 

 his time that the bees are neglected; and if 

 they do not succumb to natural causes, they are 

 finally sold. The cultivation of fruits also 

 gives employment all the year round. These 

 little farms are seldom less than five acres in 

 extent, and usually not larger than twenty; 

 but occasionally they are found containing a 

 hundred acres or over, and the work upon them 

 requires a large number of workers, both old 

 and young, male and female. 



The would-be fruit-rancher comes to grief 

 many times through the purchase of his little 

 upon the credit sytem. While the little trees 

 are slowly growing toward maturity the inter- 

 est is also eating into the resources of the pur- 

 chaser; and, without capital to tide over until 

 the trees begin to bear, the purchaser may lose 

 a few years of toil and some of his precious 

 hard-sought earnings. The fruit-grower suit- 

 ably situated can keep bees and grow small 

 fruits, which, with ordinary seasons, give an 

 income from the siart, and have in many cases 



