1888 



GLEAKINGS iK BEE CULTURE. 



695 



best samples (small quantities) of either kind of 

 honey, or on bees, as they do not require much skill 

 or labor to produce or exhibit; but the premiums 

 can not be too large on the best and largest displays 

 of both comb and extracted honey. Thefee displays 

 not only attract more attention from the public, 

 which is a prime object, but they show the taste 

 and skill of the exhibitor, and require much more 

 outlay of time, trouble, and expense, to properly 

 prepare than do the other items of exhibit. 



O. O. POPPLETON. 



Dear friends, there is something a little 

 sad to me in the above answers. The sad 

 part is, that so many of our good, practical, 

 expert honey-producers are not in the habit 

 of attending fairs at all. Now, friends, per- 

 haps nothing I can say will change your 

 minds very much ; but 1 want to have" my 

 say, notwithstanding. It may be true, that 

 you do not enjoy going to fairs ; and the very 

 ones who say they do not go are the ones we 

 need most. Go as a duty— a duty you owe to 

 your fellow-men. You know that Jesus our 

 Lord pleased not himself, and you also know 

 that he once attended a wedding — yes, a 

 regular oriental wedding, where they had 

 music and dancing, and a good many other 

 things that you and I, perhay>s. would not 

 care for. He went because, by so doing, he 

 could meet the people and get acquainted 

 with them, and he helped to make the occa- 

 sion pleasant. Yes, he even furnished wine 

 by a miracle when the supply gave out, and 

 that of the very best kind too. I do not 

 know whether he taught the people there or 

 not— perhaps not. Now, you surely know 

 tliat our fairs are kept tip because of the 

 educational facilities they furnish. They 

 also enable manufacturers and producers to 

 advertise their goods. This is all light, and, 

 in fact, it is the proper and legitimate place 

 to advertise. If a bee-keeper is so well off 

 that he does not care to advertise, then let 

 him go to help and encourage others. If the 

 very friends who have said above they do not 

 attend fairs would go, their intluence would 

 be powerful against lotteries, gambling, and, 

 may be, objectionable horse-racing. Of late 

 years I have felt that it was as much my 

 duty to attend our county fair as to attend 

 prayer-meeting and Sunday-school. There 

 are a great many people I do not see at all, 

 except at fairs. The county fair furnishes a 

 wonderful opportunity for speaking words 

 of encouragement, and i)erhaps to give coun- 

 sel ; and I tell you, friends, there is not one 

 of usbut can learn valuable lessons ourselves. 

 For instance : Almost every season somebody 

 wants bass wood-trees before the usual time 

 of taking them from the ground. I always 

 tell folks they must wait until the leaves 

 fall. Well, at our county fair last week I 

 saw some l)eautiful nursery stock, taken up 

 and packed, ready for shipment, just as we 

 see them in the spring or later in the fall. 

 I asked the nurseryman if the trees would 

 not be killed or injured. 



" Why, bless you, no. Y'ou see, we have 

 pulled the leaves oft". You can take up 

 trees in August and September just as well 

 as later, if you pull the "leaves oft when you 

 take them from the ground. Had I left "the 

 leaves on these trees, the wood would be all 



shriveled up, instead of being plump and 

 full as it is now." 



This was entirely new to me ; and so at 

 every step, by talking with people, I got ac- 

 quainted and gathered new ideas. 



Now a word in regard to selling things. 

 I think it is an accommodation all around 

 to sell honey on the fairgrounds. It is the 

 very best place in the world to correct pop- 

 ular fallacies. At the centennial now in 

 session at Columbus, our thousand-dollar 

 cards are making quite a stir and excite- 

 ment. The great world at large still tries to 

 stick to it that all the comb honey they see is 

 manufactured. Where in the world can 

 people be taught truth in place of harmful 

 scandal as well as at the fairsV My good 

 friend Hasty, before I got to your name I 

 more than half suspected you were a '' hos- 

 tile Indian," as you express it ; and I fear it 

 may be out of my power to convince you 

 that, by so doing, you are hostile to the 

 cause of the Master whom I know you love. 

 At our county fair, children would gather 

 around me and look up wishfully, as if to 

 inquire whether I was awful busy as usual, 

 or wliether it might be possible that it was 

 a kind of Sunday-school or vacation time 

 with me. and that may be I would talk with 

 them. And I did talk, too, and the remem- 

 brance of their bright little faces, as they 

 looked at me and smiled makes me happy 

 yet. Why, dear friends, the very'fact that 

 children will go to fairs is reason enough 

 why we ought to go. Go, and help them 

 have fun. A week or two ago all the Sun- 

 day-schools of Medina had a great union 

 picnic on our fairgrounds. I took the juve- 

 niles over to the carp-pond, to show them 

 my fish ; and there were so many of the 

 children that tliey crowded up so close to 

 me that I actually had to dig my fingers into 

 the grass along the bank of the pond, to 

 keep them from crowding me into the water. 

 I taught them how to ride in Huberts little 

 boat, and then I got into the boat myself, to 

 make fun for them. I think I never got so 

 really well acquainted with so many chil- 

 dren in one day in my life. And this is ex- 

 actly what we "might do at our fairs. Oh ! I 

 wish it were possible for me to get hold of 

 you, dear friends, and go with you to the 

 nearest county fair, and show you how to 

 make the children happy, if for no other 

 reason. Then all j'ou have to do is to con- 

 sider all mankind as children of a larger 

 growth— yourselves among the rest — and 

 your case becomes hopeful. I like the idea 

 of selling things on the fairground. Our 

 little glass and tin honey-pails, both empty 

 and filled, make lots of smiling faces, and 

 open 'the way to getting acquainted with 

 many a little one with whom you could not 

 get to talk if it were not for these things 

 that please children so much. Now, friends 

 Hasty, Doolittle, Grimm, Ehvood, Wilkin, 

 France, Foppleton, Ileddon, and 1 guess I 

 had better include Dr. Miller also, won't 

 you change your opinion just a little? Do 

 you say you haven't time? One of these 

 days, dear friends, you will have to take 

 time to die ; and what will it be worth to 

 you at such a time, to remember the smil- 

 ing faces of not only the children but of the 



