558 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTUEE. 



July 



least of which was our 1111 of the choicest ripe fruit 

 for 66 meals. 



And now, Mr. Root, I want to ask you if it was ex- 

 travagant for us to eiit so many. When I passed 

 up my saucer (a big coffee-saucer, not a little sauce- 

 dish) lor a third Ailing, I imagined that my wife 

 thought I was a little extravagant. But I always 

 feel better and better every day while strawberries 

 last. Other folks can take their "one dollar a bot- 

 tle; six bottles for five dollars; worth Ave dollars a 

 bottle " of spring medicine; but give me plenty of 

 ripe strawberries. 



Now, friend Koot, did you ever know any one to 

 make something in a new line and not have i)lenty 

 to rush right into the same business? We made 

 some money on potatoes, and now there are 50 acres 

 within, say, one-half a mile of my house. We made 

 something on berries, and half a dozen friends 

 have told us they are going into the business next 

 spring. Good! I hope I may stir up so many (and 

 that will be the one thing I shall push tor years to 

 come— raising small fruits for family use), that ev- 

 ery family in the land, of average size, can have 12 

 bushels a year, at least, to eat and can. But, a 

 word of caution : They must be choice to command 

 top prices. Our dealers bought common market 

 berries at f 1.50 to *1.75 a bushel when they were 

 paying me $4.00, and they could not sell the others 

 when the choice ones were in sight. Again, I would 

 not advise any farmer to grow beri-ies for market 

 unless he has children who can take almost the en- 

 tire charge, as they come just when clover needs 

 cutting and crops should be cultivated. It would 

 be easy to lose more than they could make out of 

 the berries. But let every family grow from 8 to 15 

 square rods for their own use, and live like kings 

 for three weeks— not on the "fat of the land," there 

 is too much of that, but on the fruit of the land. 

 Hudson, O., July 9, 1888. T. B. Terry. 



Friend T., you have given us just exactly 

 the article we v\ anted. I have thought of 

 that strawberry-patch, and have been wish- 

 ing I could get away long enough to go and 

 see it. I rather suspected that any straw- 

 berry-patch that was under your supervision 

 would do well ; but I hardly expected as 

 good a leport as the above. Our berries here 

 were very much injured by frost, especially 

 those hrst ripened. You ask me if it was 

 extravagant to eat three saucerfuls of straw- 

 berries at a meal. I do not think it was at 

 all. My wife has frequently cautioned me 

 about eating so many, but I have always 

 told her that strawberries never had any 

 effect on me but a good one, even though I 

 have several times thought I would see just 

 what the result of an overdose, as the doc- 

 tors would say, would be; and an overdose 

 certainly never did any harm in my case. 

 By all means let the strawberries take the 

 place of spring medicines at a dollar a bot- 

 tle. Why, the very idea seems to me like 

 emancipation from the thralldom of igno- 

 rance and superstition, and I do not know 

 but that I shall be tempted to add, quack- 

 ery. I myself, I am ashamed to say, have 

 paid " five dollars for six bottles,'' several 

 times ill my life. This was taking a remedy 

 made by man ; but eating strawberries is 

 taking a remedy provided by God the Fa- 

 ther. E. P. lloe once said, if a man would 

 eat a good dishful of currants every morn- 



ing before breakfast, it would go a great 

 way toward making a Christian of him, and 

 I verily believe it. To get the full benefit 

 of the strawberry cure we need a great lot 

 of them ; and the only way to get this great 

 lot is to raise them ourselves, just as you 

 have done. You have not said very much 

 about the enjoyment of caring for them— 

 seeing the little plants grow, making the 

 ground mellow to accommodate them, etc.; 

 but I tell you, one who has never tasted the 

 pleasures of such outdoor rural work has 

 missed one of Gods greatest gifts to man. 

 Ask the young ladies who have worked out 

 among the vines if my words are not true. 

 There is a caution, however, in regard to 

 this business, which you touch on. If the 

 work is not well and" intelligently done, it 

 will not be the pleasant pastime, nor will the 

 berries bring the prices you mention. Even 

 during this past season, strawberry-raising 

 got to be an old story, and ours were not 

 mulched and cared for as they ought to have 

 been. I don't believe a city man can have 

 a patch of strawberries out in the country, 

 away from his home, and make it pay to 

 hire the work done — that is, not as a rule. 

 It needs a family of children— not only in 

 making the plants grow, but to dispose of the 

 surplus stock — at breakfast time. It needs 

 papa and mamma to go right in among the 

 children and the strawberries. In sj leaking 

 about that head clerk, Mr. Blackman, you 

 give us a glimpse of something else that is 

 bright and cheerful. I3ee-men are scattered 

 here and there, almost all over the world ; 

 and those who read and love Gleanings 

 are also here and there, imbued with the spirit 

 it has tried to teach— to be on the alert for 

 God's choicest gifts, and to m<ike the most 

 of them. 



HONOR TO W^HOM HONOR IS DUE. 



FRIEND LANGSTROTH CORRECTS SOME MISTAKES 



MADE BY FRIEND ROBtNSON IN OUR ISSUE 



FOR JULY 1. 



r^RIEND ROOT:- Allow me to point out some 



^ mistakes of Mr. Robinson's in your July 1 No. 



^ He says, "The records show that Mr. Lang- 

 ■*■ stroth did not record his invention until Oct. 

 5,1853." This is the date when my patent is- 

 sued, but the records show that the application was 

 tiled Jan. ti, 1853. 



Mr. R. says, " I forward you an illustration of the 

 hive which was awarded the first letters-patent in 

 America." This refers to one of the patents of 

 John M. Weeks, whom you also call "the inventor 

 of the first hive patented in the United States." 

 Now, the records of the Patent Office show that the 

 first hive patented in the U. S. was by J. Sweet, 

 Apr. 11, 1810; and that there were thirteen patents 

 on bee-hives before that of the first Weeks patent, 

 June ;50, 18156. This may seem a small mistake, but 

 those who write history ought surely to be more ac- 

 curate. Mr. R. says, " It is a matter of record that 

 Baron von Berlepsch and Rev. John Dzierzon in^ 

 vented a comb-frame hive, a description of which 

 appeared in the Bienen Zeitung of May 1, 1852." 

 Now, Dzierzon never invented a frame of anjykind! 

 and the hive of the Baron was sent without any 

 description or illustration, and its peculiar construe- 



