270 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 



strainers, and skimmed several times, the 

 result is a maple syrup about as white as 

 honey, and with that wonderfully beautiful, 

 delicious, maple flavor that makes one think 

 of the woods and his boyhood home. 



Well, at one stage of the operation there 

 is an apparatus for removing what they call 

 silica. This is nothing more nor less than 

 fine white sand, or white Hint, you might 

 term it. How could sand or flint get into 

 maple syrup V When neighbor Clark told 

 me it came out of the sap, I was a little in- 

 credulous, but I had to give up ; and while 

 studying into the matter it occurred to me 

 that "this flinty matter was carried up by the 

 sap to make new limbs and new wood. Did 

 you ever know, children, that straw is com- 

 posed of flinty How else could a light 

 slender straw hold a ripened head of grain 

 without letting it tumble down and break 

 off V Is there any thing in the world that 

 will hold so great a weight, and yet weigh so 

 little of itself, as the straw that holds the 

 ripened head of grain V Nature is a great 

 economist. To have the grain ripened, it 

 must be held up above the damp ground, 

 and exposed to the breezes, and light of the 

 sun. A support must be built for it, and it 

 must be built quickly and cheaply. What 

 other materials can be found so stiff and 

 strong as this same flint, held together by 

 the glutinous matter and vegetable fiber 

 that forms the straw V The wheat -plant 

 carries this flinty matter up into the pores 

 of the straw, and builds this wonderfully 

 strong and beautiful structure. The maple- 

 tree, in the same way, rears its head among 

 the surrounding trees of the forest ; and to 

 get a strong stock with as little expense and 

 labor as possible, it weaves into it consider- 

 able flinty matter. Burn a piece of maple 

 wood, and you will find the flinty stuff left 

 in the ashes. This flinty material is carried 

 up by the sap, from the soil. The sugar 

 that goes along with it is for nutriment, or 

 food, if you choose, to make the young buds 

 and new leaves ; and the forces of the tree 

 are hard at work building and preparing 

 materials just exactly as the bees in the 

 hives are hard at work building, or at least 

 getting material ready for new combs and 

 young bees. The bees go off into the woods, 

 and gather pollen from the soft-maple, just 

 as the tree sends down in the ground for 

 flinty material, and manufactures sugar to 

 feed the buds. 



Did it ever occur to you, that the economy 

 of a plant or tree is strikingly like to the 

 economy of a bee-hive V If a comb is broken 

 in the hive, the young bees collect materials, 

 and weave it together so it is as good as ever. 

 If you drive a wagon against the maple-tree, 

 the bark is broken off and injured. The 

 tree goes to work, however, to build it up 

 and fix it smooth, so as to leave nothing but 

 a scar ; and about the Fourth of July, if you 

 look you will find the tree has done a pretty 

 nice job. You break your leg ; the forces of 

 your body go to work to mend the broken 

 bone, leaving you nothing but a scar. You 

 know the process is going on, but you have 

 nothing to do with it, only to keep still and 

 eat food containing sugar, flinty matter, 

 and materials required to fix the bone just 



right. Your appetite, if it is a natural one, 

 tells you what to eat. One day it says, 

 " Give me some pickles, or something sour;" 

 another time it says, " We want quite a lot 

 of sugar to work on, or some honey ; " and 

 again, '• Give me some meat, and three or 

 four good slices of bread and butter. We 

 will tell you when there is enough." Now, 

 the maple-tree, the hive of bees, and the 

 healthy growing boy, are arranged some- 

 what after the same plan or pattern. We 

 can pull the tree to pieces, and study its 

 system somewhat ; but we can not put it 

 together again. Neither can we pull a boy 

 to pieces, and see how that bone is built up 

 again — at least, we wouldn't want to ; but 

 we can look into the bee-hive, and see all 

 about how it is done, and know of God and 

 his works. Now, the bees enjoy this build- 

 ing up, as I have explained to you in the A 

 B C book. W^e know they are happy while 

 they are doing it. A boy enjoys growing 

 and learning, I hardly need tell you. 



Yesterday Iluber was cross all day, his 

 mother said. She couldn't please him any 

 way; but toward night she carried him over 

 to the factory, and I carried him around 

 among the machinery. You ought to have 

 seen him twist his head, and wonder and 

 look, and open his eyes in astonishment, 

 and especially when he first caught sight 

 of the engine, and then he " watched the 

 wheels go round," seeming to take in, by a 

 hurried glance, the manner in which one 

 wheel turned another wheel by means of a 

 leather belt between the two. I knew he en- 

 joyed it, and my mind ran swiftly back to 

 the time when 1 first went with my father 

 into a machine-shop. ^Vhen I carried him 

 back to his mother he whopped over to me, 

 grasped me tightly, and kicked his heels to 

 indicate that he didn't want her at all, but 

 much preferred to stay with me. He enjoy- 

 ed seeing things move, and he enjoyed the 

 exercise of mind it took to contemplate and 

 understand these things. Now. then, do the 

 maple-trees enjoy bringing up flinty matter, 

 and manufacturing sugar out of the starch, 

 making buds and leaves and blossoms, and 

 all that sort of thing? I think they do, lit- 

 tle friends, for we read in the sacred word. 



The mountains and the hills shall break forth be- 

 fore you into singins-, and all the trees of the field 

 shall clap their hands. 



HOW I BECAME A BEE-KEEPER. 



ElEN about sixteen years old, while boiling 

 maple sap one day in the fore part of April, 

 about two o'clock in the afternoon I got a 

 little lonesome; so, placing a good lot of large wood 

 in the fire, so that the sap would be kept boiling for 

 some time, 1 started off for a neighboring sugar- 

 camp, about a mile distant. As I neared the camp I 

 stopped for a moment to see if the owcer was in the 

 woods anywhere gathering sap, as I did not see him 

 near the sugar-house, or boiling-j)lace. As I stood 

 listening and looking for him, I thought I heard the 

 hum of bees; and on looking up into the tree-tops 

 all about me, I presently saw the bees taking their 

 first flight in the spring, from a bole in a large bas8' 



