1894 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



847 



A NEW USE FOR TAXIDERMY. 



It is a little funny that so many bee-keepers 

 are devotees of natural science, and especially 

 in the line of natural history. Boardman and 

 France have each of them collections of stuffed 

 birds and animals that might honor a museum: 

 but a little incident aroused me to the utility of 

 this science while visiting the first-mentioned 

 gentleman. We had just returned from the 

 fishing-trip I mentioned in my last; and as his 

 nice young team brought the easy carriage 

 round up to the porch, I noticed a chicken- 

 hawk standing out in the yard, where his poul- 

 try were standing off at a safe distance and 

 scolding and expressing their indignation at 

 having their born enemy so near. 



" Why, friend B., what is that hawk doing 

 there in your dooryard?" 



"That hawk? Why, he is keeping the 

 chickens off the porch and the stone walks. 

 He is the cheapest help I can possibly get to do 

 the work.'" 



Then he had a good laugh, to see that I at 

 first took his handiwork to be a real live hawk. 

 I took in at a glance the possibilities of his in- 

 vention, and went on. 



"Why, look here! that bird would keep 

 chickens and all feathered thieves from your 

 cherries, strawberries, or any thing else, and 

 would save his value over and over. Have you 

 not tried him for this purpose?" 



" Why, 10 be sure I have; and that is one of 

 the things I kept forgetting to tell you about. 

 He has been out in the sun and rain now for 

 two years past; during the warm weather, and 

 during strawberry time, it would have delight- 

 ed you to see the big 'indignation meeting' 

 held day after day by all the birds in the 

 neighborho'od. They never get a berry of 

 mine, from the fact that they spend all their 

 time quarreling with him. He, however, takes 

 it very philosophically, never fighting back, 

 even though they go so far sometimes as to 

 pluck the feathers from his back." 



I wondered that the chickens around the 

 house did not in time discover the fraud; but, 

 even if they did, they seemed to think best to 

 give him a wide berth. 



Now, then, friends, here is a wonderful dis- 

 covery. If you don't realize it. just purchase 

 for your wife a stuffed hawk, set it on a cast- 

 iron base, so he won't blow over, and show her 

 that she can keep chickens off the walks and 

 porches, without the trouble of fencing them 

 off and keeping gates shut. Now, this doesn't 

 end here. The taxidermist can furnish the 

 natural enemy of any of the animal kingdom; 

 and who knows but that a great enterprise 

 may be builded up in the "scarecrow " busi- 

 ness? When you shoot hawks and owls, don't 

 throw them away, but turn them over to some 

 boy who has a fondness for the business. With 

 the aid of the propei' books, one can soon learn 

 how to put them up so they will be durable. 

 Prepared skins of hawks may also be purchas- 

 ed at low prices in many of our large cities. 



LIFE AMONG THE POOR IN NEW YORK. 

 A rVARNING TO COUNTRY BOYS. 



Bii Rev. W. T, Elsing. 



[The first two paragraphs of the following 

 Tvill explain why this very interesting article 

 n this subject appears in our columns. The 

 flocking of the masses from the country to the 

 great cities and large centers is getting to be a 

 serious matter indeed, and I trust this article 



will be read carefully, by the boys at least. 

 The colony referred to was sent along last sum- 

 mer, and it is to be hoped that it will help to 

 carry light and life to some portions of " Dark- 

 est New York.'" — Ed.] 



It may interest the readers of Gleanings to 

 learn how a city missionary comes to write an 

 article for a bee-journal. Ever since I have 

 been a missionary I have been trying to show 

 the people among whom I live something 

 besides brick walls, stone sidewalks, and dirty 

 streets. I have, once a month, given a lecture 

 or sermon about some object in nature. Among 

 other things I have preached about ants and 

 bees. My readings about bees made me curious 

 to see the inside of a hive. At the World's 

 Fair I visited the corner in the gallery of Agri- 

 cultural Hall, where the bee-supplies were lo- 

 cated. I made the acquaintance of some farm- 

 ers; and when I was tired out sight-seeing I 

 enjoyed talking with the bee-keepers. When 

 the.>e good men learned that I was a minister 

 in the most crowded part of New York, and in- 

 terested in bees, they were always ready to 

 give me points. Every one with whom I talked 

 said. "If you want to know about bees and bee- 

 keepers you must get Root's ABC book and 

 Gleanings in Bee Culture." So many peo- 

 ple spoke about " Bro. Root" that I became 

 desirous to meet him, and called several times, 

 but never had the pleasure of seeing him. I 

 met Dr. Mason, and he informed me that Bro. 

 Root was always glad to send Gleanings to 

 ministers and missionaries. 



On returning to New York I received the 

 magazine, and my interest in bees increased. 

 I wanted a colony of real live bees, so that I 

 might see them at work, and take some of them 

 to my church when I gave the next lecture; 

 but when I thought of the suffering around me, 

 and listened daily to appeals for aid. when I 

 heard women and children crying for bread, I 

 did not feel that it was right to spend money 

 for any thing which I did not absolutely need. 

 I wanted the bees, but did not feel like spending 

 the money. I wrote to Bro. Root about my 

 difficulty, and proposed that we " swap " a short 

 article on tenement-house life for a colony of 

 bees. 



The terms were agreeable, and this is how it 

 comes about that a city missionary writes for a 

 bee-journal. I propose to give the readers of 

 Gleanings some account of life among the low- 

 ly in a great city. 



The great tenement houses remind me of 

 bee-hives. Probably most of the readers of 

 Gleanings have supposed that London is the 

 most crowded city in the world, and they will 

 be astonished to learn that in some parts of 

 New Y^ork the population is more than twice 

 as dense as in London. In the most crowded 

 part of London there are 170.000 people to the 

 square mile; but in the most crowded part of 

 New York there are 345,000 to the square mile. 

 The graves of the silent dead in the cemetery 

 are not more closely crowded together than the 

 active moving bodies of the living. When a 

 fire breaks out, or some excitement occurs in 

 lower New Y^ork, the people pour out of these 

 human hives in vast multitudes, and blacken 

 the streets as far as the eye can see. It seems 

 as if every brick in the wall and every cobble- 

 stone in the pavement had suddenly become 

 a living, moving, restless human being. If all 

 the people in the tenement-house districts were 

 suddenly to become possessed with the desire 

 to swing their arms in the air they would not 

 have elbow room, but would strike each other 

 in the face. 



I have recently gone through one of these 

 immense hives, 200 by 60 feet, and found, by 



