572 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Aug. 1. 



want it. I've had sections capped darli when 

 facing old brood comb, even when the harvest 

 was flush. 



Young queens pulled out of their cells and 

 introduced with success is the theme of an item 

 in the French Revue. We call them "pulled 

 queens" at our house, and have used them for 

 several years. Just tear open a queen-cell: 

 and if the young queen is strong enough to hold 

 on to the comb she will be kindly received al- 

 most anywhere by merely placing her on the 

 comb among the bees. Friend Root was quite 

 interested on seeing us use " pulled queens " on 

 one of his visits here. 



MY HEAD TROUBLE. 



L,. L. LAN6STR0TH DESCRIBES THAT PECULIAR 

 FORM OF MELANCHOLIA THAT HAS DIS- 

 TRESSED HIM AT TIMES FOR 

 MANY YEARS. 



For many years, as most of your readers 

 know, I have suffered from what I have been 

 wont to call " my head-trouble." which not 

 only unfits me for mental exertion, but also dis- 

 qualifies me for enjoying almost any thing 

 personal to myself. While under its full power, 

 the things in which I usually take the greatest 

 pleasure are the very ones which distress me 

 most. I not only lose all interest in bees, but 

 prefer to sit. when they are flying, on that side 

 of the house where I can neither hear nor see 

 them. Gladly, if at all convenient, would I 

 have my library of bee-works hidden from my 

 sight; and often I have been so morbid that 

 even the sight of S big letter B would painfully 

 affect me. At such times, fearful of losing my 

 reason if I allowed my mind to prey upon itself, 

 I have resorted to almost constant reading to 

 divert my thoughts. The great objection to 

 this is, that it not only fails to interest me when 

 I am the inost unwell, but. by association of 

 ideas, too often deepens my distress. To u>e the 

 words of the old poet Herbert, — 



My tlioughts like case-knives are; 



They pierce me to the heart. 



I have, therefore, for years, read less and less, 

 and occupied my time mainly with chess, which 

 is too impersonal to suggest the melancholy 

 ideas which so often torment me when read- 

 ing. As soon as I awake I try, by chess prob- 

 lems, the most intricate that I can find or 

 invent, to forestall the approach of gloomy 

 thoughts, continuing to play as though a for- 

 tune could be made by it, or as if I were playing 

 for my very life; and often, during the large 

 part of the night, my brain seems to be inces- 

 santly mo\ing and supervising the pieces on the 

 chess-board.* 



Methinks I hear some of my readers exclaim, 

 *' Can this be the condition of a minister of the 

 gospel of Christ? Ought not the blessed 

 promises of God's word always to enable him to 

 attain, in some measure at least, to the apostle's 

 experience when he said, " Now the Ood of 

 hope Jill you with Joy and peace in believing, 

 and make you to abound in hope, by the power 

 of the Holy Ghost'?" No I no! God has not 

 promised to overrule his natural laws by con- 

 stant miraculous interposition. Can you give a 

 wholesome appetite for food to a person in- 

 tensely nauseated, by merely showing it to him 

 and inviting him to sit down and partake of it? 

 He knows that the food spread before him is 

 good; but can this knowledge give him an appe- 

 tite for it? It is a great help, doubtless, even un- 



* I ocfij seldom play with any antagonist — on an 

 average, not as often as once a year, lest I shoukl 

 abuse their time. 



der the most depressing circumstances, to know 

 that (iod is good, and to hope that, in due time, 

 the dark side of the picture will be turned from 

 us, and its bright one again be displayed. Thi-^ 

 hope often sustainsus when otherwise we might 

 l)e utterly cast down. 



Read the 42d and 43d Psalm, if you doubt 

 what I affirm. 



" My tears have been my meat day and night, 

 while they continually say. Where is thy God ?" 

 (The Psalmist undoubtedly had in mind those 

 who say. " Of what worth is a religion which 

 can leave a believer so despondent?") " When I 

 remember these things, I pour out my soul in 

 me; for I had gone with the multitude, I went 

 with them to the house of God, with the voice 

 of joy and praise; why art thou cast down, 

 my soul, and why art thou disquieted within 

 me? Hope thou in God. for I shall yet praise 

 him for the help of liis countenance. O my 

 God, my soul is cast down within me. Deep 

 calleth unto deep, at the noise of thy water- 

 spouts. All thy waves and thy billows have 

 gone over me. Why art thou cast down. O my 

 soul? Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise 

 him who is the lielp of my countenance and my 

 God." Not now! oh. not now! bat I sluill yet 

 praisehiin. ■" Oh send out thy light and thy 

 truth! Let them lead me; let them bring me to 

 thy holy hill and to thy tabernacles. Then will 

 I go unto the altar of God, unto God, my ex- 

 ceeding joy. Yea, upon the harp will I praise 

 thee. O God my God I" 



In the 30th Psalm we have the experience of 

 one who. out of the deepest depression, had 

 been raised to the heights of joy and gladness. 

 ■' O God. my God, I cried unto thee, and thou 

 hast delivei'ed me! Thou hast brought up my 

 soul from the grave. Sing unto the Lord, all 

 ye saints, at the remembrance of his holiness; 

 for his anger endureth but a moment, and in 

 his favor is life. Weeping may endure for a 

 night, but joy cometh in the morning. Thou 

 hast turned my mourning into dancing. Thou 

 hast put otf my sackcloth, and girded me with 

 gladness." 



If further confirmation is needed, see the book 

 of Job. the 3d chapter especially, when, in the 

 profoundest depths of depression, he even cursed 

 the day in which he was born. " Wherefore is 

 light given to him that is in misery, and life 

 unto the bitter in soul, which long for death, but 

 it cometh not; which are glad when they can 

 find the grave? Why is light given to a man 

 whose way is hid, and whom God hath hedged 

 in ?" 



I quote so largely from the blessed book, be- 

 cause I hope that some of my readers, almost 

 overpowered by gloomy forebodings, may find 

 help, and much more, from my own personal ex- 

 periences, and from their confirmation by (xod's 

 word. Of the Psalms in particular, it is evident 

 that all of them which express our strongest 

 emotions could have been born only outof deep, 

 personal experience; some. 



"■Wlien gladness wiiigsour favorite hours;" 



others, when we are almost disposed to repeat 

 that anguished cry of our Savior. '" My God! 

 my God! why hast thnn forsaken me?" Only 

 thus originating could they have lived in the 

 memory of man for so many ages. As in water 

 face answereth unto face, so the heart of man, 

 and I earnestly hope that some afflicted brother 

 or sister who has been crying out. " All thy 

 waves and all tiiy billows have gone over me," 

 may be helped by this recital of my sufferings, 

 and much more helped by realizing that the 

 great Father of our spirits, who pitieth his 

 children, who knoweth their frame, and who 

 remembereth that they are dust, has caused 

 special Psalms to be written, even for them. 



