1888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



657 



He next sold some watch-chains for half a 

 dollar apiece ; and after quite a numl)er had 

 purchased, asking them to stand along in 

 rows as before, he gave them back twice the 

 money they had paid him. Our town now 

 exhibited a scene something like our bee- 

 friends see when the bees get to rol)bing. 

 Laborers, mechanics, merchants, lawyers, 

 doctors, and printers, it is said; crowded up 

 eagerly. I do not know whether there were 

 any ministers, and I am not sure there were 

 any professors of religion in that crowd ; but 

 I trust there were not. From 50 to 70 people 

 passed over their money for watch-chnins, 

 when they knew the goods were not worth 

 it. In fact, the editor of our county paper, 

 who had published a caution in reference to 

 this very kind of work, and may be in regard 

 to this very man, a year or two before, was 

 one of the victims. After he had got his 

 hands full of money, he, in a reckless way, 

 took out a 20-dollar bill and doubled it up 

 and put it inside of some kind of a watch, 

 and dared any one to give him ten dollars 

 for the watch, money and all. Two people 

 purchased at once ; but the 20-dollar bill 

 had, by some sleight of hand, changed to a 

 one-dollar bill. In perhaps one fiour's time 

 this fellow took 50 dollars from the hands of 

 an intelligent, educated, and, I hope I may 

 say. Christian people. I am sorry that such 

 a thing happened ; but, dear friends, there 

 is an excellent moral to it. The little inci- 

 dent reminds us of the fact that average 

 humanity has a wrong spirit in its heart. I 

 am afraid that we. my friends, you and I, 

 are not ready to stand the test when temp- 

 tation comes suddenly upon us. Oiu" hearts 

 are certainly not 7-ight in the sight of God 

 when we can be at any time entrapped into 

 wanting something for nothing. What should 

 a Christian do under such circumstances? 

 Why, he should reply, simply, "No, thank 

 you." And he should be able to say, at all 

 times, and under all circumstances, and 

 over and ovei- again, if need be, " No, thank 

 you," whenever anybody presumes we are 

 ready to grasp eagerly for a half-dollar that 

 can be obtained without giving a fair equiva- 

 lent. 



Much has been said on these pages lately 

 about this matter of adulterating food prod- 

 ucts. The root of the evil, and the founda- 

 tion of all these troubles, comes from a bad 

 state of heart in the individuals. They are 

 wanting something for nothing. A case 

 comes up vividly to my mind just now. 

 Stratagem peas are the largest and most de- 

 sirable of any there are in the market. We 

 get 40 cents a peck for them right along, 

 when ordinary peas will not bring 20 cts 

 The pods are so large that one can pick a 

 bushel in almost no time; and the women- 

 folks can shell them with equal rapidity. It 

 is a small task to get tliem ready for dinner. 

 Well, the seed has always been very high. 

 Even though the Stratagem has been before 

 us for several years, last season they brought 

 from ten to twelve dollars a bushefat retail. 

 By consulting our seed catalogues to the 

 trade, I found one dealer who offered this 

 seed for seven dollars a bushel. He stands 

 almost at the head of the w^holesale trade. 

 I purchased two bushels, and made three 



plantings before any of them were ready to 

 harvest. Well, the "first patch proved only 

 one-third to one-half Stratagem peas. The 

 others very much resemble the old Champi- 

 on of England. The consequence was, we 

 did not have nearly as many Stratagems as 

 we expected, and the pickers were oltiiged 

 to sort out the Stratagems, or pick them all 

 together and then sort them. I thought that, 

 perhaps, some Champion peas had been put 

 into the same bag by mistake ; but my sec- 

 ond patch, and third, all produced Champi- 

 ons and Stratagems, evenly distributed, clear 

 through the long rows, "it could not have 

 been accident ; that is, I did not see how it 

 could. The seed peas look so much alike 

 that nobody can detect the difference, and 

 the cheap common peas had been mixed 

 carefully, clear through the two bushels. 

 Our last patch was sown purposely for rais- 

 ing seed ; but the only way I could get any 

 seed was to sort the pods "in nearly half an 

 acre. I should have been very much better 

 pleased to pay fourteen dollars for just the 

 Stratagems alone, even if I got less than a 

 bushel, for the labor of sorting them has 

 been a great many times more than the val- 

 ue of the seed. So you see that I should 

 have been much better off to have had seven 

 or eight dollars taken out of my pocket,* 

 than to have been cheated by having inferi- 

 or seeds mixed with the good ones. A year 

 ago last spring tliere was a great call for 

 Black-seeded Dwarf German Wax 1 jeans. I 

 give the whole name, because it describes 

 the variety. Well, one seedsman after an- 

 other announced, " Sold out," so that we 

 were obliged to look over catalogues, and 

 correspond, in order to keep customers sup- 

 plied. You see, people a great many times 

 get their ground all ready before they order 

 their seed ; and a seedsman who values his 

 reputation will do almost any thing rather 

 than say he is out. Well, I found some of 

 the beans, at a veiy high price. The seeds 

 looked exactly like the genuine— were uni- 

 form in size and appearance. When they 

 came up, however, three-fourths of them, 

 perhaps, produced late beans with common 

 green pods. 1 made a second planting, to 

 see there w^as no mistake. The bogus beans 

 were, however, mixed evenly, clear through 

 the bagful. I notified the seedsman, and he 

 sent me some this spring that were all right ; 

 but the demand this year was, as last, great- 

 er than the supply, and I had to go to differ- 

 ent places to get seed. Imagine my surprise 

 to have the same experience over again ! 

 The first lot, with the counterfeit beans 

 mixed evenly all through the bagful, came 

 from Cleveland ; the second lot, bought a 

 year after, were fixed up exactly in the 

 same way, oidy they had more of the coun- 

 terfeits and less of the genuine, and came 

 from Newf York city. The coiisecjuence is, 

 two large patches of German VVax beans 

 now show these late long-podded green ones. 



Wax. 



inly 



e plants are as unlike as any thing 



*To he consiplent with my text and teaching, I 

 should like to have those who have purciiased 

 Stratiitreni peas of iis, that have turned out as I 

 have described, tell me how much will make the 

 transaction satisfactory between them and myself. 



