18'. 14 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



595 



protest, hut they have not replied yet. If the 

 charge I am making against them is unjust I 

 shall be glad to correct it. Now, is it true that 

 express atid railroad companies have been in 

 the habit of doing things like this — damaging 

 a customer, damaging tlic goods, and then 

 making a larger price than to have taken the 

 shortest cut '? Once more: 



During these dull times for railroads they 

 are working hard to get business. They are 

 sending out agents to securi^ freight over their 

 respective lines, if they can. Kut suppose one 

 of these agents should lind out who does the 

 '■ routing " for a manufacturing establishment. 

 By the word "routing" I mean the man whose 

 business it is to decide what line of railway 

 shall carry the goods. Now, suppose the rail- 

 road should send a man to this routing clerk, 

 and offer him, for his individual benefit, a free 

 ticket to California, or some other place, pro- 

 viding he will mark all goods over their road 

 whenever it is possible to do so; and suppose, 

 in consideration of this free ticket, this routing- 

 clerk sends goods away off out of the way, 

 making the customers of the firm extra expense 

 and delay, simply because he has been bribed 

 to do this sort of work. I presume there are 

 some who will excuse such a transaction b^' 

 saying it is done every day. God forbid! and 

 God does forbid that a man shall prosper, and 

 be happy, who damages by extra expense and 

 delay those who have confidence enough in 

 him, or the firm which he serves, to intrust 

 their money and their business to his care. If 

 it is true that such things are common, then it 

 follows that there are still better chances for 

 lionest men, and those who are faithful to their 

 post, and to the great wide world, no matter 

 what intluence may be brought to bear. You 

 may ui'ge that the shipping-clerk who does 

 this, simply throws a little more expense on 

 people whom he does not know, and that 

 everybody who does business must expect to 

 meet this sort of thing. Just wait a bit right 

 here. We are under just as much obligation 

 to be honest and true to the great world whom 

 we do not know, as to friends and relatives; 

 and that wonderful passage in the Scriptures, 

 where the Master said, " Inasmuch as ye have 

 done it unto one of the least of these my 

 brethren, ye have done it unto me," declares it; 

 and the man who swindles or wrongs the great 

 public whom he does not know is swindling and 

 wronging Christ Jesus himself; for the Bible 

 teaches most emphatically that self and selfish 

 interests are opposed to Christ Jesus. The 

 Christian loves humanity, even as Christ Jesus 

 loved it and died for it; and the man who tries 

 to be right and fair to the great mass of hu- 

 manity whom he does not know is really being 

 right and fair to Christ Jesus himself, and to 

 the great God above: and he who deliberately 

 and unfeelingly swindles the masses, especially 

 the poor laboring masses, the widows and 

 orphans, and those who earn their daily bread 

 by the sweat of their face — the one who steals 

 their slight earnings in the ways I have men- 

 tioned, that he may get a little money himself 

 — a five-dollar bill or a railroad ticket to Cali- 

 fornia, or any thing else, is cheating the Lord 

 Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world: for he 

 himself has most emphatically so stated it. Pie 

 is robbing God, and a day of reckoning will 

 surely come, sooner or later. 



Gr.EANiNOS is one of my best friends in bee-keep- 

 ing. I don't think I could make a success without 

 it. This has been the liest season for honey that I 

 have ever known in this locality. 



Cat Creek, Ga., June 12. J. B. Giuffin. 



m^^^^mr^^mB 



Hifip-^ 



£:;^2 



,:/:: 



AMKHICAN I'KAIII, UNIONS. 



We commenced shipping these to Cleveland 

 in the montb of June. So far they hav(! sold 

 at a commission house at fl.SO per bushel. 

 They are put in crates holding a third of a 

 bushel. We commenced shipping them before 

 they were fully grown. Wc; find that, by i)ick- 

 ing out those where the tops have dropped uver, 

 and laying them in the sun a day or two, they 

 can be cleaned off so as to be firm and solid, 

 and very nice looking. Those that seem to be 

 growing, we let stand. This 7th day of July I 

 hold in my hand a couple that measure 4 inches 

 in diameter, and they are about as handsome 

 as any thing in the shape of an onion can be. 

 This is the fourth year that we have success- 

 fully raised these onions. The sets are planted 

 in September on a piece of ground vacated by 

 early crops. They commence to grow as soon 

 as we have fall rains, and make quite a growth 

 during the fall. Of course, we cultivate them 

 and keep them free from weeds, and this is 

 about all there is to it — no mulching of any 

 sort. When the ground becomes sufficiently 

 dry in the spring, we run a wheel-hoe through 

 them and pull out all the weeds that make 

 their appearance. But the onions soon cover 

 the ground so that very little attention or care 

 is needed. For bunch onions, nothing can be 

 nicer; but it seems almost wicked to pull 

 onions an inch in diameter, when they would 

 be three or four inches in diameter if simply 

 left standing a few weeks longer. The quality 

 of the onions, I believe, is equal to any; and 

 they seem to bring the highest price of any 

 thing in the onion line ever put on the market. 

 This year we have grown successfully some 

 beautiful sets by sowing tlie seed in March so 

 thickly that they can not make large-sized 

 onions. Some of the sets are dry enough to 

 harvest now. We have raised the same sort of 

 onion by setting out onion-plants instead of 

 onion-sets. The seed for the plants was sown 

 quite thickly in May and June, giving plants 

 large enough to set out in September, at the 

 same time we put out the sets. There were, 

 however, more failures among the plants. If 

 you have a firm, well-ripened set to plant out 

 in September, if dry weather comes on. the sets 

 keep in the ground firm and solid until it is wet 

 enough for it to start to grow. An onion-plant, 

 however, put out in September would not 

 stand a severe hot dry spell as well as the set. 

 For this reason, planting out sets seems to be 

 the safer way. If the sets are much more than 

 three-fourths of an inch in diameter, they are 

 apt to send up seed-stalks in tiie spring; but if 

 these seed -stalks are broken off down close to 

 the onion, just as soon as you can see them 

 starting, you will get a nice large onion. Some 

 of our boys simply broke off the top of the seed- 

 stalk; but this does not seem to answer as well. 

 From my standpoint of view, and judging from 

 my own experience, I do not see why raising 

 American Pearl onions is not destined to be a 

 great industry. Perhaps I should say that our 

 best success has been on our creek- bottom 

 ground. The most trouble we have ever had 

 was when the season was so exceedingly wet 

 that the onions were flooded with water. 

 While low ground seems to be best for these 

 onions, great care should be taken to avoid 

 having them flooded. 



MMIITE MUI.TIPLIEKS. 



These begin to mature just a little later than 



