i888 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



771 



In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall ye call 

 every man his neighbor under the vine and under 

 the flg-trec.— ZEcn. :!: 10. 



fHERE are few if any who would 

 like to live without neighbors. Cir- 

 cunistances sometimes make it de- 

 sirable to live in a place where there 

 are no neijjhbors nearer than a 

 mile or two ; but I believe that every man, 

 woman, and child soon decides that such 

 a place is not pleasant. I suppose that 

 almost every one of us would prefer to have 

 neighbors whom we would ordinarily call 

 pretty mean, rather than to have no neigh- 

 bors at all. I know we sometimes think, 

 when vexed and sorely tried, that we would 

 be content if there were no neighbors at all, 

 within, say, a mile; but when we come to 

 our sober senses, I think we would reverse 

 our decision. When a child, 1 remember 

 that w^e used to have some neighbors who 

 w^ere pretty overbearing, and hard to get 

 along with; and when we came home and 

 told mother how they had acted, she mildly 

 recommended that we play at home, and 

 not have any thing to do with the neighbors, 

 at least for the present. It would not be 

 very long, however, before the children of 

 both families would be edging over toward 

 the fence. Sometimes one of the younger 

 ones, not so much used to the ways of the 

 world, would venture, ■•' Say ! are yon mad 

 any longer ? '' and after this sally we would 

 all get pleasant, and pretty soon would be 

 over on their side of the fence, and they 

 would be on our side. And so it w^ent on 

 until we grew up. Few things, in fact, add 

 more to the enjoyment of life than being on 

 pleasant terms with our neighbors. 



Day before yesterday, while we were up 

 in the swamp, we dug some potatoes that 

 we have been showing around to the neigh- 

 bors. Now, the potatoes were a surprise 

 and a cause of rejoicing ; but had I been 

 away oft in the woods alone, where nobody 

 Avould have seen them but myself — why, the 

 very thought of it makes me feel sad. As it 

 was, I took one in each hand, and started 

 for the nearest house. They were so big 

 they made my anus ache, I tell you, before 

 I got there. I put one under my arm while 

 I opened the door with my free hand. I did 

 not stop to rap. When I got the door open- 

 ed I discovered they were all at supper. 

 Worst of all, they had company— some city 

 folks from Chicago. I decided, however, 

 that I could not stop for city folks, and so I 

 walked in with my potatoes. The people 

 were all so greatly astonished that it made 

 us acquainted (even with the city guests) 

 in no time. Then I took my potatoes over 

 to the factory, and I felt glad 1 had neigh- 

 bors there too. May be you would like to 

 know about those potatoes. Do you remem- 

 ber my telling you about starting some po- 

 tatoes in the greenhouse, and covering them 

 over on one Sunday night to keep the frost 

 from killing them ? Well, along in June I 

 began to watch anxiously for the new pota- 

 toes ; but they did not show any signs of 

 ripening at all. They just grew bigger and 



bigger, and greener and greener. It was the 

 same in July and in August ; yes, even 

 during this latter part of September some of 

 them have not stopped growing even yet. 

 Two or three hills, however, showed the 

 vines nearly dead, and it was with some ex- 

 citement that I began to investigate under 

 the black loamy muck. 't The ground where 

 they grew had been heavily manured for 

 celery, and this, perhaps, accounts for their 

 immense size. They were hitched together 

 in a scraggly kind of fashion ; but the po- 

 tatoes, prongs and all— and these prongs, 

 mind you, were good sound potatoes — 

 weighed fully 'Si pounds each, and these 

 3A-pound potatoes were not all there were in 

 the hill, either. There were enough for a 

 good peck, taking all together. I bought the 

 seed for the Early Ohio, and planted it for 

 the Early Ohio ; yes, and I sold some to some 

 of the bee-friends for Early Ohio too. But 

 they proved to be a great big long white ex- 

 cellent potato, nothing like the Early Ohio. 

 I am afraid I shall not achieve a very great 

 amount of success as a seedsman if I con- 

 tinue to make so many blunders as I have 

 been telling of lately in these pages. 



Well, it is pleasant to have neighbors to 

 rejoice with you when you have great big 

 potatoes, and lots of them ; and it is pleas- 

 ant to be on such familiar terms that you 

 can go right into the house, without the 

 ceremo7iy of rapping ; but, my friends, it is 

 a terrible state of affairs when Satan man- 

 ages to get a tinger into a neighborhood, so 

 tliat the neighbors are not on pleasant 

 teims. I know it is hard to put up with 

 every thing, and present a smiling face 

 when you are greatly annoyed, vexed, and 

 perhai'S sometimes grievously wronged. 

 Let me make an extract from a letter I re- 

 ceived just when I was thinking about this 

 matter of writing Our Neighbois for Oct. 1. 

 We omit names and residence, because we 

 do not want to make matters any worse by 

 giving publicity. 



COMPELLED TO QUIT. 



Mr. Root:— I have no further use for bee-matter 

 except Gleanings, because of the behavior of an 

 opponent. The person In question is a man who 

 pretends to be a great lover of the gospel, yet after 

 prayer he lias been known to use words not suitable 

 for youths to hear. He keeps several colonies of 

 black bees (sometimes 40 colonies) which, you know, 

 are an injury to a queen-rearer. During the spring 

 of 1887 I visited this person (whose apiary is less 

 than a mile from me), and agreed verbally to Ital- 

 ianize his black bees, free, providing he would ac- 

 cept the queens. He said he would, so last spring I 

 furnished myself with a queen-rearing apparatus, 

 etc., which cost nie nearly fifty dollars. Well, 1 sup- 

 posed 1 was in a flrst-class condition to raise 

 (lueens to sell. I contracted with several parties 

 throughout Pennsylvania to furnish them with 

 queens at reasonable prices. 



During the latter part of May, 1888, I came to the 

 person in ((uestion, with an Italian queen, showed 

 her to him, and ottered to introduce her as per con- 

 tract, when he said, "No, I will not have my bees 

 touchedl I will continue rearing blacks." He ad- 

 mitted that the Italian bees were the best; that 

 they would work on red clover with success, which 

 blacks do not. I replied, " I made you this otter 



