1888 



GLEANINGS IN Bee CULTUtlE. 



161 



be made quite a profitable item, as will be seen, 

 when I say that, with very little effort, I did a busi- 

 ness on this alone amounting to SlfiO a j'ear. When 

 I gave up the subseri])tion-business I dropped plant- 

 selling also, being obliged to do less work along 

 these lines after the care of my father's estate fell 

 upon me. However, if I were to choose any busi- 

 ness to go with the bee-business, it would certainly 

 be farming, for the reason that this gives steady 

 employment nearly all the year; and at times 

 when more is to be done along both lines than the 

 bee-keeper could attend to, a man capable of doing 

 farmwork could be hired very easily; while hired 

 help along other lines, which would be at all satis- 

 factory, is something not easily obtained. 



On page 823 of the same volume of Gleanings, 

 Mr. T. D. Waller tells us of the excessive swarming 

 of bees, where he took away the queen, and says, 

 "They acted so persistent about it that I think 

 they might swarm if they had no queen;" where- 

 upon the editor says, " We are to understand, from 

 what you say, that your bees swarmed without the 

 queen." I do not understand it so, only that they 

 might do so. Well, they might, for I once had a 

 swarm come out without a queen, but in this case 

 there were several queens out with other swarms, 

 and I very much doubt if a queenless colony could 

 be induced to swarm under anj" other circum- 

 stances. But this was not what I particularly 

 wanted to notice in Mr. Waller's article. He says, 

 in answer to the question, " Why did you not cut 

 out the queen-cells?" "I have done that, and then I 

 have had them swarm out till there was not a quart 

 of bees left." The trouble here was, that the 

 queen-cells were not cut at the right time, for the 

 cutting of queen-cells can be so done as to make a 

 success of it, or a complete failure. By the old 

 plan, of waiting only six days after swarming, or 

 when a queen was taken away. It was nearly always 

 a failure; for in this case the bees had jjlenty of 

 larviv that were still convertible into queens, and 

 the question of swarming was delayed only a few 

 days; and as this delay gave them more strength, 

 of course they would swarm all the more. Had he 

 waited eight days, in case of a colony having 

 swarmed, or ten days where the queen had been 

 taken away, before cutting the cells, he would have 

 had a perfect thing of it; for in that case the bees 

 could not possibly have reared a queen to go with 

 a swarm. 



Friend Root, I must object a little to the loose 

 way you speak of the teachings of the Bible, on 

 page 19, Jan. 1. The Bible either means what it 

 teaches or else it is a book not worthy of our notice. 

 It is either true or else it is the worst book in the 

 world. There can be no half-way ground here. 

 When it says, " Thus saith the Lord," who is to gain- 

 say it? If "baptism " means to be baptized with 

 the Holy Spirit, then no one has any right to be 

 baptized with water; for Christ saj's, " Not one jot 

 or tittle" of his word shall fail; therefore we should 

 be very careful how we interpret his sayings, and 

 what latitude we give to our views. The trouble is, 

 that, instead of coming to the Bible, we trj' to bring 

 the Bible to us— down where it will meet our views 

 and notions regarding nearly all the events and 

 wants of our life. One day, a few years ago, when 

 I was very busy with the subscription-business, a 

 stranger called, and it seemed that I could hardly 

 spare a minute from my work; but I soon saw that 

 in him I had no ordinary Individual, so I dropped 



all work, and in the brief time he stayed I learned 

 many things. Among them this: He said that there 

 was no reason for our going through the world not 

 knowing whether we are right or not; for, said he, 

 we have the gospel trii-square, and by it we can tell 

 just where we arc. If we have any doubts whether 

 right or wrong, lay on the square; if our life 

 squares with it, all right; if not, all wrong. Lay on 

 the try-square, friend Root, and see if your teach- 

 ings on page li) square with it. See Matt. 5: 19. 

 Borodino, N. Y., Feb. 17, 1888. G. M. Doolittle. 



Thanks for your explanation in regard to 

 the small-fruit business, friend I). At our 

 farmers' institute, we were addressed by 

 Mr. Longnecker, of Dayton, O., and he 

 gave us a most valuable talk in regard to 

 small-fruit raising, and especially in the 

 matter of sending plants by mail and ex- 

 press. After the session was over, 1 ques- 

 tioned a good deal about the amount of 

 fruit he sold, lie did not answer very sat- 

 isfactorily, and pretty soon he turned 

 around and spoke something as follows : 

 " Mr. Root, I suppose I shall have to con- 

 fess to you that I don't raise more straw- 

 berries than my family need for their own 

 use, although I have two acres or more de- 

 voted entirely tt) strawberries.'' I opened 

 my mouth in astonishment, and he went on : 

 '■'■ The fact is, I do such a large business in 

 raising and selling plants that I have aban- 

 dcmed fruit entirely." I found, upon further 

 questioning, that he pinches off the fruit- 

 blossoms in order to throw the whole force 

 of the plant into runners, lie has a perfect- 

 ed system for taking up the plants for pack- 

 ing and shipping, and has trained hands 

 for the business. In this way he does it 

 better, and at much less expense, than 

 when he sells both plants and fruit. I con- 

 fess, tlie business as he described it seemed 

 very attractive to me. Take such a strong 

 plant as the Jessie, for instance, and push it 

 for runners and little plants, and see how 

 many you can get from one in a season. In 

 a light soil, the number of strong healthy 

 plants that can be produced is almost incred- 

 ible.— May be I am a little loose, friend D. ; 

 but I have seen Christians behave in such a 

 very unchristianlike manner in regard to 

 this matter of baptism, that I can not but 

 feel that there is such a thing as laying too 

 much stress on one of the points of Bible 

 teaching, and ignoring others. Paul says, 

 II. Cor. 8:6, "The letter killeth, but the 

 spirit giveth life." I like your ligure of the 

 try-square ; and I believe with you, that the 

 Bible, rightly used, will lead us unerringly. 



THE GRAND RAPIDS LETTUCE. 



SOME FURTHER PARTICULARS IN REGARD TO IT 

 FROM FRIEND TERRELL. 



Ifp FTER reading the letter published on 

 ^1^ page 14-5, I immediately wrote to 



jMf friend T., asking him how much seed 



-^^ he had to spare, and v/hat he would 



take for it. Below is his reply : 



Friend Root: —My greenhouse is full of this let- 

 tuce. Some of it is almost readj' for market. 

 Plants set December 29 are 9 inches high, and not a 

 spot or a louse on them up to this date. I use no 



