20S 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Mar. 



I have been astonished to note how greedi- 

 ly the children drink in every word in regard 

 to the ptory of the Morning Star, and her 

 mission through the seas. The boys of my 

 class, althoi.gh not ordinarily interested in 

 any thing in regard to missions, listened 

 with breathless silence to my account of this 

 work ; and at its close declared with almost 

 one voice, "Mr. Root, we can do it, we know 

 we can do it ; just give us a chance, and let 

 us try ; and when we have get the ship built 

 and paid for, it shall be our steamship." 

 They are right, friends. It will be ours, be- 

 cause it belongs to the Sunday-school. Now, 

 all this is done, and much more can be done, 

 simply by heeding the voice of the Master, 

 and showing to all men that we have love to 

 another, that " we be brethren ;" that we do 

 not stop to inquire what church it is, what 

 denomination, Avhat minor differences of 

 opinion, but that, with light hearts and hap- 

 py faces, we go down into our pockets, and 

 say, "Here is the twenty-five cents. Go on, 

 and build the steamship." Now, friends, 

 you see what we can do unitedly. Suppose 

 every man worship God "on his own hook," 

 to use a common expression, how much 

 would it amount to ? How many steamships 

 would the same number of people build, if 

 they held aloof from each other, without 

 meeting every Sabbath to compare notes, 

 talk over experiences, and profit by mutual 

 sympathy and encouragement V What can 

 one man do all alone by himself, any way ? 

 And yet I meet hundreds of Christian 

 people who say that they love God and love 

 the Jiible, and yet they belong to no church, 

 attend no Sunday-school, and, please do not 

 think me uncharitable or harsh, if I say grope 

 in darkness, and go through the world grum- 

 bling and finding fault with things and i>eo- 

 ple about whom thev know comparatively 

 little. 



I have often thought humanity was much 

 like the bees in a hive ; united, and standing 

 side by side, they are a power, and can defy 

 almost any evil ; but a single bee, off in the 

 fields alone, is almost as helpless as any other 

 insect. AVhen I used to raise queens in small 

 nuclei, say with two frames two or three 

 inches square, 1 found I could handle the.se 

 little miniature colonies almost as i would 

 handle flies. You see, there were not enough 

 of them to show fight, i.et them get to 

 building up, however, until they filled two 

 stories of a full-sized hive, and then we 

 would find it was quite a different matter, 

 although in both cases it was precisely the 

 same worker - bees, and the progeny of the 

 same queen. Now, friends, it is the same 

 with humanity in almost any undertaking. 

 We can not hold aloof from each other, and 

 distrust each other, without suffering. " We 

 be brethren;" ardwoe betide us when we 

 forget it. 



A few years ago an elderly gentleman call- 

 ed on us to see about having some bee-hives 

 made. He had a new svstem of bee crriture, 

 and a patent hive, all his own. Although 

 quite intelligent on matters in general, and 

 well along in vears, 1 was astonished to find 

 him almost entirely unacquainted with mod- 

 ern bee culture ; and still worse, he was so 

 set in his own way that he declared that, with 



his system and common bees, he could get 

 more honey than any bee-man of the present 

 day. He also declared that he could remove 

 this immense crop of honey from the bees 

 without getting a single sting the whole sea- 

 son through, which none of us could do. I 

 attempted to explain to him his mistake, 

 but he would not listen. I asked him if he 

 had made any such great yield as he told us 

 about. He admitted that he had not, but 

 said he had not had proper opportunities. I 

 urged him to test his theory with a few hives, 

 but he insisted on demonstrating to the 

 world his superior way, by building two pret- 

 ty good-sized house apiaries. The outsides 

 were painted with all the colors of the rain- 

 bow, to guide the bees to their respective do- 

 miciles. If I am correct, he did not even use 

 movable combs in his improved system. He 

 held aloof from bee -men, and would not 

 even read the journals, or attend conven- 

 tions. And, by the way, friends, I want to 

 say here in a sort of parenthesis, that I do 

 most warmly indorse and recommend con- 

 ventions, even small neighborhood conven- 

 tions, especially where the spirit of them is 

 in the line of which we have been talking — 

 "we be brethren.". Well, this friend of whom 

 I have been speaking, told all around what 

 he was going to do ; made everybody stare 

 and look at his peculiar structures ; paid 

 us quite a sum of money for the hives and 

 fixtm-es,and yec failed in all, if I am correct- 

 ly informed, without ever getting any honey 

 to mention. In fact, I am not sure that he 

 got a single pound. I protested when he 

 gave us his orders, and told him his project 

 could not help being a failure. 1 reminded 

 him that we had seasons every now and then 

 that gave almost no profit ; but he stubborn- 

 ly declared that bees always made honey 

 when managed on his plan. 



This is a sad story, friends, but it all came 

 about because he would not be one among 

 the bee-keeping brethren. He would not 

 profit bv the experience or advice of others, 

 but held himself aloof, and in a lofty way, 

 as it seemed to me, declared his knowledge 

 and judgment superior to them all. Now, 

 when we profess to love God, to love justice 

 and truth, and yet stand aloof from the great 

 bodies of our fellow-men who are working 

 unitedly, are we not much in the attitude of 

 our poor mistaken friend V 



It has seemed to me of late as though one 

 could not know God, could not feel after 

 him and find him, unless he was in close 

 communion with his brother-men. Still fur- 

 ther, I have thought that one of Satan's 

 most ingenious wiles was in the line of per- 

 suading us that all mankind is corrupt and 

 dishonest, and that we alone are pure in 

 heart. When Satan can get us into the at- 

 titude of looking at neighbors in a jeering 

 sort of way, and saying, as we witness their 

 failures or weaknesses, " There goes your 

 pretty Christian," he has got us pretty well 

 under his thumb. Plow much better is the 

 attitude when we feel like extending a 

 brotherly hand to one who is going astray ;. 

 and while we do so, feel in our hearts, "We 

 be brethren." I know I am at fault, dear 

 friends ; I know that I have been wrong in 

 this matter of conventions, right in this line. 



