1886 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



215 



CHAPTER XL 



The laborer is worthy of his hire.— Luke 10:T. 



One of the most interesting things regard- 

 ing any kind of work is the point where the 

 cash comes in. When you set cliildren at 

 work, they usually like to see the cash come 

 in pretty soon. A great many of them would 

 like their pay every night, and some of them, 

 indeed, think it a hard thing to wait until 

 night comes. Well, we children of an older 

 growth are a good deal that way. We do not 

 like to work a great while without seeing 

 some of the dollars and cents. Years ago, 

 when I earned 25 cents by being at the head 

 of the spelling-class more than any other pu- 

 pil in the old schoolhouse, I debated quite a 

 time as to how I should invest the 25 cents. 

 I finally decided on launching out into the 

 poultry business. So I invested the Avhole of 

 my 25 cents in poultry. I talked the matter 

 over with my mother, and got her opinion 

 and experience. I suggested, that if I in- 

 vested in poultry, I should get returns for 

 my investment right away. " Why, mother," 

 said I, " if I buy two good hens, they will lay 

 two eggs the very next day, will they not V" 

 She thought likely they would; so I pur- 

 chased two old biddies with my 25 cents, and 

 rejoiced in being the possessor of two large 

 white eggs, almost before I had got my poul- 

 try yard and house ready for the occupants. 

 I swapped my eggs to my mother for corn 

 and other necessary feed. Like a wise and 

 good mother, she taught me to sell my pro- 

 duce at a fair market price, and pay for the 

 feed. Of course, I soon learned, as has many 

 another juvenile poultry-keeper, that it does 

 not necessarily follow that I should have two 

 eggs every day in the year, simply because I 

 was the possessor of two gv>od hens. I think 

 I figured out that, with good care, I could 

 depend on one egg a day for three hens. This 

 was over thirty years ago. I do not know 

 how much advance has been made in poultry 

 since that time. Probably some of the non- 

 sitters will do better. But I think an egg 

 each day in the year, for three hens, is a 

 pretty fair average, even now. My juvenile 

 figures demonstrated that, as a rule, one egg 

 a day, judiciously invested, would furnish 

 food for ./ire hens, so there is not, or, at least, 

 there was not then, any very dazzling profits 

 in the poultry business, where one has to buy 



the feed and sell the eggs at the market 

 price, to be consumed for food. Of course, 

 if we are enabled to sell our eggs for breed- 

 ing purposes, at one or two dollars a dozen, 

 it puts quite a different shade on the busi- 

 ness ; and, by the way, we are to make our 

 money by raising the best, and the very best, 

 of every thing. The world is full of people 

 who have plenty of money, and who are 

 willing to part with their money for nice 

 things— irtce products, for instance, but who 

 won't pay out their money at all, unless they 

 can see something a little above the general 

 average. 



Now, this same idea is to apply to our 

 plants. A little money is very convenient 

 to have when you are starting out in any 

 business; and it seems to go a great deal 

 further, and do a great deal more good, 

 when it comes as a result of that business. 

 The friends have often accused me of hav- 

 ing more of a liking for small bee-keepers 

 than I have for large ones. They say I 

 publish reports from some ABC scholar 

 who has only one hive of bees, and corres- 

 pondingly little experience, when I would 

 entirely pass by a finely written article from 

 one who counts his colonies by the hun- 

 dreds, and his honey by the ton. I do not 

 believe it is quite as bad as that, but yet I 

 do not know but I ought to plead guilty, to a 

 certain extent. I do love to see people start 

 in business, especially, where they start in a 

 healthy, self-sustaining way. I like to see a 

 boy raising nice heads of lettuce ; and when 

 1 see him on the market with a basketful, 

 swapping these heads of lettuce for nickels, 

 why, I just love that boy. I love the man 

 or woman who buys his product, too, and I 

 love the basket of lettuce. The whole trans- 

 action is a healthy, honest one. The boy is 

 putting his shoulder to the wheel, and doing 

 his part in the general economy of the world. 

 He is a man in business on a small scale ; 

 and if he is thrifty and prudent with his 

 little business, he will be so with a larger 

 one. Why, we have God's promise for this 

 very thing—" Thou hast been faithful over 

 few things, I will make thee ruler over many 

 things." 



I suppose many of the friends have at 



