632 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 



with a screen door on one side to g-ive the queen 

 and the few bees with her plenty of air, and there 

 was u little tube filled with candy, made of honey 

 and powdered sugrar, for them to eat on the way. 

 Queens have been sent in similar cages across the 

 ocean in the mails, and have arrived in safety. 



" Besides this, Huth wrote for the bee journals 

 and made money that way, and, altogether, that 

 year we cleared over a hundred dollars, and we had 

 twenty-five good colonies to winter over. 



"That winter, Ruth went to school in Ashland. 

 She worked for her board, and the tuition was only 

 fifteen dollars. The next season we sold over a 

 thousand queens; some of them were tested, and 

 those we sold for $3.00 each ; but the most of them 

 were dollar queens. 



"We had an extractor that year, and we extract- 

 ed a barrel of as nice bass wood honey as mankind 

 ever ate. We sold it for ten cents a pound, deliver- 

 ed on the cars, and threw in the barrel, and that 

 year we paid off the mortgage, everj' cent, every 

 mill of it. Polly and I helped Ruth in all the busy 

 times. We sent queens to seventeen States and to 

 Canada; and the year aftei-, we built this house 

 (the old one was just readj' to fall down); one side 

 had sunk so low that I was almost afraid to walk 

 about the floors, and we had to set pans all 

 over the beds to catch the drips when it i-ained. 

 Then we bought the cottage organ and the phaeton. 

 Ruth is now at the Cooper Institute, in New York. 

 It is an art school, and was endowed by Peter Coo- 

 per, the great philanthropist, for poor boys and girls. 

 She is going to be a wood-engraver. She is working 

 hard, but she finds time to write us splendid letters 

 every week. 



"We have one hundred colonies of bees now. 

 Polly attends to them ; she runs them for comb 

 honey mostly, because it is less work. She writes 

 for the bee journals too. She took music lessons all 

 last winter, and she plays the organ in the new 

 church every Sunday. 



" Jordon doesn't teach school any more, and he 

 seems to grow younger every year, and I feel that 

 to Ruth we owe it all. 



" Dear litttle Ruth ! the Ruth in the field of Boaz 

 never gleaned more faithfully than she, nor loved 

 her mother-in-law better than Ruth loves me." 



I looked at Mrs. Morse to see if she was going to 

 tell any more; her eyes were closed, her ball was on 

 the floor, her knitting was sliding olf her lap ; she 

 was asleep. Mahala B. Chaddock. 



Vermont, Fulton Co., 111. 



STEA"W"BERRIES FOR PEOPLE WHO 

 HAVEN'T EVEN A GARDEN. 



A SUGGESTION FROM ONE OF OUK BEE-FOLKS. 



fERHAPS some of the young folks would like 

 to know how to raise strawberries where 

 there isn't room for a "patch." I take the 

 following from the report of the Western 

 New- York Horticultural Society: 

 " Take a barrel, and bore rows of inch holes about 

 five inches apart. Fill with soil to the first row of 

 holes, put a plant in every one; fill up to the next 

 row, and set another row of plants, and so on, until 

 the barrel is filled. You can get alioiit lOO plants in 

 a barrel. Whenever the soil in thf band ^ets drj% 

 water with liquid manure. In the case described, 

 those planted in the barrel had five good berries to 

 the plant, while those planted in the ground in the 

 usual manner liad scarcely a good berry." 

 Howard Center, Iowa. Buudett Hassett. 



A PICTURE OF BEE CULTURE, 



tTE are indei)teil to somebody, we don't 

 '"'^ know who, for a copy of the Blizzard, 

 of Oil City, Pa., containing the fol- 

 lowing poem. It was certainly writ-, 

 ten by somebody who knows bees, 

 withont qnestion,and some one who possess- 

 es no mean talent, according to my judg- 

 ment ; but there is one thing in it that gave 

 me pain, and that is. tliat any bee-keeper un- 

 der any circumstances (and I grant you they 

 sometimes meet trials not to be despised) 

 should so far lose self-control as to swear. 

 We hope you did not do so, friend M., and 

 that it was only fov the sake of making 

 rhyme that you put in that word. In fact, I 

 was tempted to cross the word out and sub- 

 stitute another ; but I really should have no 

 right to do that, you know, so I concluded 

 to simply put in a remonstrance, as I have 

 done, not only against profane swearing^ but 

 against any thing that '\\()uld seem to indi- 

 cate that we are addicted to any such habit. 

 Now, why can you not change it so as to 

 leave that word out, and have it stand as a 

 gem without a flaw V 



These lines, my disappointed friend, 

 Which meekly now to you I send. 

 And which in meekness I have penned. 



Will truly say 

 Why to your home I did not wend 



My way to-day. 



I am a bee-man, as j'ou know- 

 One of those chaps that to and fro 

 Among the hives can come and go 



With careless ease, 

 And gaily scoff at folks who show 



A fear of bees. 



One of the chaps who laugh at those 

 Who don so many extra clothes. 

 And muffle so from eyes to toes 



Their timid forms, 

 That they resemble Esquimaux, 



When hiving swarms. 



Well, yesterday, with dauntless air. 



And honey-tools, did 1,'repair 



Unto the shrub-fringed regions where 



Our hives are set, 

 To take such surplus stores as there 



Might be to get. 



"As meri-y as a marriage-bell " 

 The work went on. " This year 'tis well- 

 Plenty to eat and some to sell; 



Yes, quite a lot, 

 Whei-eas last jear a decent smell 



We hardly got." 



'Twas thus I murmured as I plied 

 My smoker and my brush, and eyed 

 With honest apicultural pride, 



Upon the board, 

 The white-capped sections, side by side. 



With sweetness stored. 



But, sweet and joyous thoughts must flee: 

 When most my bosom throbbed with glee. 

 Up rose a "busy little bee " 



From out the lot. 

 And made a lightning pass at me. 



(I heeded not.) 



Again it came (I feared no foes); 

 And then again (still all repose): 

 And then upon niv (laint\- nose 



It lit and hung; 

 Then it dug in its little toes; 



And then it stung. 



