;r)(i 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



May 



widows with a poor little farm, I tell them to stick 

 to the poor liitle farm aud makeita rich little farm; 

 but I have never yet advised a woman to keep 

 bees, because I think it is too hard work for wo- 

 men. I know there is money in bees where one is 

 in a good situation, but there is nothing' light nor 

 easy about it. 

 Vermont, 111. Mahala B. Chaddock. 



My good friend, you liave much to thank 

 . G< d lor. The secret of success in any kind 

 of business is to be able at any minute to 

 work side by side with your helpers. No 

 wonder yourboys did twice as much when 

 their emv)]oyer was working with them ; 

 and from what we know of you I should 

 suppose you could make yourself agreeable 

 if you tried hard, even to the boys who haul 

 the manure. You are very fortunate, also, 

 in having "no end " of manure. I should 

 like to help on such a job as tluit myself, 

 and I assure you that every wheelbarrow 

 full would be scraped up and utilized if I 

 were around.— Now, in regard to bee-hives: 

 I feel quite certain you can have your apiary 

 so arranged that the work need not be more 

 laborious than " holding two leather straps," 

 as you express it. What do you want to 

 lift' your bee-hives for, I should like to 

 knovv? One reason why I like the chaff 

 hive is, that they are intended to be planted 

 in a certain spot and stay there. There is 

 not any severe lifting, that I know of, un- 

 til you' come to taking ofE honey, and you 

 surely can have small cases, say those hold- 

 ing lu or 20 sections. If yoii do not like 

 hard work, lift one at a time. Set the cases 

 on to a light wheelbarrow, and have a good 

 path from the apiary, among the hives, to 

 the honey-house. Have a plank fixed so as 

 to run right up the steps and into the house. 

 When the honey is to be loaded you can 

 place the same plank from the doorstep to 

 the wagon, and run the wheelbarrow right 

 into the wagon. If you arrange things in 

 that way I don't believe it will be much 

 greater work than taking care of horses and 

 hanging up harnesses. That is what I most 

 object to in farming with sulky plows, disk 

 harrows, etc. — harnessing up and unhar- 

 nessing the horses. I would a good deal 

 rather take off honey and put it on a wheel- 

 barrow. 



A BRIGHTEK PICTURE. 



AND OUR GOOD FRIEND PROF. COOK FURNISHES IT. 



TT is terrible to think that such pictures as Mrs. 

 j^f Chaddock gives of the horribly mistreated wife 

 ^[ are from real life. May I send another, per- 



■*• haps just as instructive, and certainlj^ more 

 pleasing? Years ago, as my wife and I drove 

 from the College to Lansing to church each Sabbath, 

 we regularly passed a lad hardly yet in his teens, 

 and a still younger sister. Master W. always had 

 his sister's hand, and his courteous demeanor to 

 her, and loving attention, could not have been 

 greater, even if he were her newly accepted lover. 

 More recently the same actions have been ever 

 manifested, only they are now digiiifled by maturer 

 manhood. The young gentleman is prominent in 

 the Sabbath-school. Often the mother or sister 

 would go home immediately after church, while he 



would remain to attend to his duties in the Sabbath- 

 school. As he would bring the horse and carriage to 

 the block and help his mother or his sister into the 

 carriage, he would always raise his hat as ho handed 

 the lines and bade the mother or sister good-bye. 



A few days ago we received this j'oung man's 

 wedding-card. One of our children read the young 

 lady's name, and remarked: "She is a lucky one;" 

 and I ask, is the child's phik)Sophy not correct ■:f' Show 

 me the young man who Is ever kind, courteous, and 

 thoughtful regarding his sister and mother, and 

 I will show you the one who will make not only 

 a good husband, but a good neighbor and a good 

 citizen. 



I heard a child ask its mother, a few days since, 

 why she fell in love with her husband. Her answer 

 was to the point. "I saw that he loved and reverenc- 

 ed his mother and sistei's." I believe we can give 

 our children no stronger, surer safeguard for life's 

 journey than to bring them up to love and cherish 

 each other aud the mother. I would rather my boy 

 would always be thoughtful of mother than to have 

 him Crown Prince of Germany. A. J. Cook. 



Agricultural College, Michigan. 



Dear friend C, of all the many good things 

 you have ever written and uttered, I can not 

 now think of one you have written before so 

 grand as your concluding thought. May 

 God help us to second the thought in the 

 deepest and most secret recesses of our hearts! 

 And now will your good wife excuse me 

 while I say, before closing, the boy who 

 wouldn't be kind and thoughtful to such a 

 mother as your boy happens to have, would 

 be a sad specimen of a boy indeed ? My 

 good friend W. P. Root, who takes down 

 these words of mine, adds that it is possible 

 for a man to be botli thoughtful of mother 

 and even Emperor of Germany ; and that, 

 if he is correctly informed, the present in- 

 cumbent of that office is both. 



BEESWAX FLOATING IW WEST -INDI- 

 AN WATERS. 



IS IT TRUE ? 



N a very instructive article on " Ambergris," in 

 the Farmer's Advance, I flud the foUowiug: " It 

 is related, that on one clear, calm afternoon, 

 a number of years ago, the schooner Gage 

 Phillips, of Proviucetown, was drifting along 

 on the whaling-grounds, when the man on the look- 

 out in the crow's-nest hailed the deck as is customa- 

 ry when any thing is discovered on the water, and 

 reported to the officer on deck that a small, pecul- 

 iar-looking substance was floating off the port quar- 

 ter, and said that it looked like beeswax, which is 

 often found floating in those waters." I will give 

 you the rest of It, if you wish; but what I want to 

 know is. how comes it that beeswax is floating 

 around loose in these West-Indian waters? Is the 

 sun hot enough to melt it out of the combs as they 

 hang on trees over the water? and is it then washed 

 about from place to place? or do the natives heat 

 the wax seven times over to purify it, and then 

 when they find it is ruined throw it into the sea? or 

 is the honoy placed by the bees in crevices of the 

 rocks, and does the heat melt out the wax and let it 

 run to waste? Whoever knows any thing about 

 this wax that goes floating about in lumps, in those 



