1886 



gLeakikgs In bee cult hue. 



'M) 



Those "5 colonics I doubled down to tiO lor wintel'. 1 

 think 1 Shull averag-e 15 cents per lb. for the comb 

 honey, and a fraction over lOcents forthc extracted. 

 I market all in Springfield, and the country and vil- 

 lages around. Tliis result of :l') lbs. to the stand is 

 rather small. The showinjr is better when I consid- 

 er that nearly all wtls obtained Irom about 30 col- 

 onies, a numlier of which were not able to go into 

 surplus bo.xcs until the middle of June, brintrinfr 

 the average up to 40 lbs. Hut even that is no very 

 great affair compared with the reports of our liest 

 bee-keepers. I am, however, better satisfied than 

 ever before. I feel that 1 liavc worked to I etter ad- 

 vantag'e, and succeeded better than I have yet le- 

 fore done. 1 have certainly done a great deal better 

 than any one else around here. The 8:eneral verdict 

 of my neighbers is, that bees do not pay. 1 should 

 think not, the way they manage. Some with sev- 

 eral colonies have not taken otf Ti lbs. of sui'plus, 

 and none cf them very much. I suppose two-ihirds 

 of the bees will starve out as they did last year. 1 

 had just carried a case of honey into a store last 

 August, when neighbor Ike camo in. Ho looked at 

 my honey, *<n nice Simplicity boxes, I tell 30U. 



" Why, George, how is it that you can get so much 

 honey Avhen none of the rest of us can get any':" 



"Simply because I take care of my bees— pay at- 

 tention to them— put my time to ihem. To make 

 any thing from bees you have to cultivate them the 

 same as you would a crop of corn." 



In June, ISSiJ, an olil gentlenum about ten miles 

 from here came to sec l:ow ] fixed tt) ri.lse section 

 honey. Ho had then 3.5 stands, and he closed the 

 year with 80. 



" I do not do any thing with my lees," said he, 

 " but hive them and take off the hone.ii ; but they 

 always do very well." 



A few weeks ago I saw him, when he told me he 

 had gone from 100 down to Ifi. and the moth were 

 taking them. He does not think "tliey do \ei'y 

 well " now. I could tell sevcial more stories of the 

 same kind. When I compare theso reports with 

 many in Glhaning.s, I am led to inquire, 



IS THIS A GOOD ItKOION VOIl HKK CU !/rUl( K.V 



Docs white clover yield more copiously in other 

 localities than in tliis? Does the clover sonson last 

 longer in other jilaccs? Here — Central Illinois — 

 there is no basswood. White clover seems to be 

 the only crop that can be depended upon at all. 

 Heart's ease and Spanish needle yield well some- 

 times, Ijut they have failed the last three years, 

 and fruit-blossom never has yielded much for me. 

 In IH.'-'i and '3 there was considerable honey raised; 

 and if 1 had known as much then as 1 know now 1 

 could have produced (iO, perhaps "5 lbs., per colony. 

 But they were regarded as exceptionally good sea- 

 sons here. Is this a comparatively good honey re- 

 gion, or is it even fair'/ 



WHAT SI7,K OF PA( KAGE SHALL WE USE? 



I oan not agree with friends Root and Hutchin- 

 son, that a Simplicity section \'2 or 1 '^3 inches wide 

 is the coming box. The narrowest I have used is 

 1^4, and I am not goitig to order any more, 1 think. 

 Whyy IJecause they do not suit my customers. In 

 Springfield a box that lu)lds about a full pound goes 

 very well. 1 have sold honey there in the old l'/4- 

 Ib. and :i-lb. bo.xes, and the merchant who has sold 

 as much for me as all others, there and elsewhere, 

 told me once that he did not see but the larger 

 packages sold as well as the smaller. This fall I 

 took him a case of l''i bf)xe8, and his customers did 



not like them. Nearer homo I find that the largest 

 boxes actually give the best satisfaction. That 

 fact, and the fact that they are continually com- 

 plaining about the price, makes me think more 

 than ever what 1 said over a year ago, that it is not 

 best to throw away all our old bulk boxes; fori 

 certainly think that honey can be produced with 

 less cost in that form. Certainly it will pay me to 

 use several hundred large sections; and if it will 

 pay me, why not othei'sV Also, if they do tu)t like 

 honey in smaller than iiound lumps in Springfield, 

 I do not see why they should not dislike them else- 

 where. Geo. F. Robijins, +5—75 flfl. 

 Mechanicsburg. HI , Jan , 1S86. 



REST FOR THE OVERWORKED. 



MRS. €HAI>DOCK TELLS US HOW TO OBTAIN REST, 

 AND STILL BE BUSV. 



OCTOKS disagree, so do friendly advisers. I 

 am fully persuaded that, if I had followed 

 one half the advice that has been given me, 

 I should have been iion est long ago. Now, 

 they seem to haves^ettlcd down on rei<t or 

 Al)out half of them advise rest; the others 

 " Stir out, stir out, or you will die." 



I was in a large water cure establishment once 

 for a few weeks, and I then learned that to rich 

 people the advice was daily given, " Rest is what 

 you need, my good winian; complete rest; your 

 mind is too active for your body, and if you do not 

 rest you will land in the insane asylum." To the 

 poor folks the same doctor said, " Stir out, stir out, 

 young man; you don't want to go droning around 

 here lor ever. Use your will i)ower— exert your 

 thinking faculties, and get well." 



One day the docter lectured on " Rest." He said, 

 "You want to lie down and rest, .iust as a horse or 

 cow does when sick. Nobody has to tell a sick cow, 

 'You are better now, and I think you had better 

 get up and go to eating grass.' No, sir; a cow just 

 lie.s there till she gets well, then she knows it, and 

 gets up and goes to eating. And don't keep all the 

 time thinking about the money that it takes to 

 kefep you here; you had better spend every dollar 

 that you have, and be cured, than live as you are 

 living now. " 



It was a good kcture, and was applauded to the 

 echo. Now, in the room next to ours was a poor 

 young man who had stayed at the cure till he had 

 spent all his substance, and yet was not healed, and 

 the doctor walked straight from his lecture, with 

 rcM, irxt, complete rest, still warm on his lips, and 

 said to the poor young man, " Why, man aliye, why 

 do you lie here? Why don't you stir out? Stir out, 

 I tell you. You have a thinking mind, do you not? 

 Well, use your will power; force yourself to get up 

 and out; take interest in something; you will die 

 if you don't." 



That convinced me that rich people ought to 

 rest, and poor ones stir out. For my part I like the 

 stiriiud mit. I'd rather drive a mule team than 

 play the piano. I can do it better, and there is 

 vastly more fun in it; but part of the time I am 

 not able to sit up, then I rest. As to Mr. Root's 

 rextiny by digging the ground half an hour, that 

 wan rest. 



Rest, according to my notion, is any thing that 

 eases the strain on the nerves or muscles, or what- 

 ever is tired; and work that can be left at any 



