1891 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



605 



Ouide, page 131, 1 gave mj- opinion of the way Mr. 

 Root answered an article concerning rich men and 

 lawyers being Christians from a Bible standpoint, 

 and told, also, how I had alwajs regarded Mr. Root 

 as a Christian, and why. Tlie reason I wrote in 

 tliat paper was because I thouglit Mr. Root shut ofif 

 the liberty, in his paper, of speaking furtlier on the 

 subject, whicli.I considered wrong; and as I saw 

 that, in the Bee-keepers' Guide, there seemed to be 

 fault found with Mr. Root for selling poor articles; 

 and as my article was strictly religious, and 1 Ijnew 

 not for certain whether tlie editor of tlie Guide was 

 a Christian; and if he were, perliaps he niiglit be 

 like Mr. Root— would favor tlie ricli. I tliouglit to 

 tell of tlie articles I had bought of Mi'. Root that I 

 thought were not worth the money I had paid ; also 

 telling the facts concerning the smoker. If his 

 clerks sent me a bill before I wrote, I never received 

 it or I should not have written as I did; and when 

 thej' wrote, asking me if I had received it, I thought 

 they questioned my honesty, and I did not answer 

 them, but Ijelieved their woi'd, and waited, thinking 

 that the letter or card might have been lost through 

 the mails, and would yet come. But it never 

 came, or. of course, I should not have been such a 

 thief as to have put in the word " liope " instead of 

 "trust," as this was the word I ought to have put 

 in; and after the article was gone I saw it would 

 look doubtful, and realized they could do no such 

 business and prosper, and had no idea they did. I 

 hoped the editor of the Guide would notice it, and 

 not print the article. I meant to write and tell him, 

 but prayed that God would lead him right, as I had 

 taken pains to send my articli> away to have it cop- 

 ied, so as to have it plain, and I trust yet that it will 

 all work for the glory of God. 



My son, whom I had wished to print a bee-paper, 

 and" let me write mj- religious experience as Mr. 

 Root did, had left me with the bees. I think the 

 main reason was because his mother had no faith in 

 Ills success in the business unless he took God at 

 the helm, as I ctintended that Mr. Root did. The un- 

 justness and unfairness of professed Christians had 

 made him a skeptic in regard to the whole business 

 of Christianity. He had the best of reasons for his 

 doubts, and was much more honest than a hypo- 

 crite; and he has always contended that millionaires 

 do not get their propert.v by means of their honesty, 

 and was not sure that Mr, Root was entirely unself- 

 ish. I wrote that article for his encouragement 

 and benefit as well as Mr. Root's. We read, that 

 " open rebuke is better than secret love." 



When a young girl I went t;) school to a young 

 and very devoted Baptist minister who wrote a mot- 

 to on the blackboard, and had all the scholars read 

 it with him in concert until we learned it. It was 

 this: " Those are our best friends who tell us of our 

 faults, and teach us how tt) correct them;" and it 

 was my respect for Mr. Root, and love foi' his soul, 

 that caused me to write as I did; but moie especial- 

 ly for my son. But there was this (ine flaw in my 

 article, and he has published it all over the United 

 States, and it has greatly misreinesenled my princi- 

 ples. When I read the A B C of Bee Cu.ture I could 

 not have thought that he could ever have so erred; 

 but, to err is human. I liclievc that A. I. Root is a 

 superior man. and that he started right; that he 

 has superior business tact, and it is getting ahead 

 of liim, so he has no chancy to search the Scriptures. 

 He can goto church on Sunday, i nd trusts too much 

 to his good pastors instead of sear('hing more for 

 himself. His main fault is in not realizing that 

 A. I. Root is not deserving any pr.iise for his tact, 

 for God only gave it to him to secure the avails for 

 his own glory. I hope tliat Mr. Root will never 

 again publish that a woman professing religion 

 could be so dishonest and unwise as to do as he as- 

 sumes that I might have done, unless he says boldly 

 that [ am a hypocrite of the blackest-dye. 



For fear Mr. Root maj' think I favor the poor be- 

 cause I am poor, I will say that my husband is a 

 money-loaner. and all my relatives, so far as I know, 

 are C(msidered well off, but are not million:iires. I 

 am not keeping bees for a livelihood. 



Bradford, Iowa. June 29. Mks. F. A. Dayton. 



[M.v good friend, I never once thought of your be- 

 ing other than a sincere and earnest Christian. But 

 earnest Christians are often led into making griev- 

 ous mistakes, and mistakes that harm and hinder 

 the very cause they love; and I still think that this 

 matter "of being in" haste to think evil is one of the 

 saddest mistakes of the present day. We are allot 

 us more or less guiltv. May the kind Father help 

 us!] 





A bruised reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall 

 he not quench.— Isaiah 42: 3. 



We are raising queens now in the house- 

 apiary. Not so bad a plan, after all. 



According to our Honey Column, elsewhere, 

 there is very little new white honey on the 

 markets as yet. 



Since our editorial in our last issue, referring 

 to the delinquency of new bee-papers, qtiite a 

 number of the missing journals have put in an 

 appearance. 



Mr. Dog LITTLE says (p. 585), that "the purity 

 of a queen can not be told by her looks.'" Quite 

 right, Bi'o. D. We have more jangles with our 

 (ignorant) customers on this point than on any 

 other. 



Among oiu- potiltry exchanges there is none 

 better printed or edited than the Fancier's 

 Mo7ithly, published by James R. Parker. San 

 Jose, Cal. The price is Sl.(K) per year: or club- 

 bed with Gleanings, $1.75. 



We see by the American Bee Journal that 

 some credit is due to the manager of the Union. 

 T. Ct. Newman, as well as to Prof. Cook, for se- 

 curing the privileges we now enjoy of having 

 imported queens free of duty. 



We have just received some samples of yel- 

 low bees from J. F. Michel, German. O.. and 

 from Leininger Bros.. Fort Jennings, O. They 

 are beautiful to look upon. While we should 

 be glad to contintie our notices of these yellow 

 bees from other breeders, our space is so crowd- 

 ed that we shall be compelled to do so no more. 



Oh dearl we are having trouble with the 

 Doolittle cell-cups. The bees clean 'em all otit, 

 build comb over them, and disregard them en- 

 tirely in some cases. The fault is with os. for 

 we have made them work, and we have a num- 

 ber of excellent reports from those who are 

 succeeding with them. If others make a suc- 

 cess of them we can. 



HANDLING HIVES; THE BEE-KEEPER WHO IS 

 GOING TO WIN. 



We would call especial attention to a valua- 

 ble article on handling liiven instead of frames, 

 from the pen of that veteran bee-keeper. C. J. 

 H. Gravenhorst, editor of the lllustrierte Bic- 

 nenzeitung, a German bee-paper of no ordinary 

 standing. This is a vital subject, and we are 

 glad Mr. Gravenhorst has given his experience 

 along this line. Close comin'titiou and poor 

 honey-seasons, such as we li;ivi> had. mean that 

 we nuist produce a ton of honey with less labor, 

 and that is. handling hives instead of frames. 

 Mr. James Heddon deserves no little credit for 

 advancing this idea of late: but he is by no 

 means the pioneer in it. Since we have been 

 handling fixed fram<'S we have seen the possi- 

 bilities in handling hives, and the time is fast 

 approaching among progressive (not conserva- 

 tive) bee-keepers wlien they will find queens, 

 ascertain the amount of stores, and diagno.se a 

 colony in a dozen other ways, with a tenth part 

 of the labor. Old fogies need not poohpooh at 

 this: if they do. they will be left in the race on 

 profits. Let this subject be discussed. We 

 have lots of room for such articles. 



