IS'.rj 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



659 



would h:ivo to ln< bnisliod; Imt it was a ffcmiiiit' 

 ploa>Jun' to take otT tlic hives lliat were empty, 

 and wheel them into the extraeliiin-room; and 

 I found ili(> appliances, tliouyrh iiuDei'feet. a 

 Hi'eat help— so iiuu'li so that, when Ufi s\ipers 

 were a ixmni (iay's work for one man in the old 

 brushing way. I could take olT :.*.") and extract 

 them before dinner. It also made the work 

 come in the yard at morninL: and eveniufr. and 

 in the shadeof th(> house dniinii the heat of the 

 dav. which is no small it,em in this clinuiie. 



As to how much I mijiht have gaiin'd with a 

 revoi-sibU' extractor run by a water-molor is 

 only Ji question of oxporience. The question 

 with the beo-koepor who wishes to produce 

 ohoap hon(>y is, " How much of the work can I 

 do without hirintr help? " and all of these hol|js 

 ai'c means to solve the jirohhMn. 



The bees in tliis apiary were worked with a 

 bnxid -chamber and one super. The best results, 

 I think, can be obtained with a brood-chamber 

 and two supers. The two lower supers should 

 be used for a brood-chamber until the middle 

 of .June, and then contine tiie (pieen to the low- 

 er chamber. ShonNi I adopt a new hive for 

 tliis climate, my Tiiind now is, that any hive 

 that can be manipulated to give a large or small 

 brooil-chamber. as the season rc^juires, will se- 

 cure the best results. These are the present 

 views of the Ramhlkh. 



[Friend R., your pictures and description of 

 your culinary department make me sorry that 

 I did not wait longer and go with you out on 

 your ranch. It reminds me of the time I took 

 supp<T with friend Farrat Oceanside. The coal- 

 oil stove hadn't capacity to cook fast enough 

 for two to eat; therefore, while each dish was 

 being ctxiked we talked bees and other things. 

 Then you see we had our rations smoking hot 

 right from the fire. Before I come, however, I 

 hope you will clean out all the rattlesnakes and 

 those other " varmints."] A. I. R. 



WHO IS MY NEIGHBORS 



SUI'PLY AND DEMAND. 



One of the saddest spectacles in this our 

 United States of America is the cross-firing, or 

 working against each other, among the same 

 classes of people. Of cours<% you all know 

 about the complaint that has come up, that 

 *' farming doesn't pay," and you have all heard 

 men talk who abu.se the bankers, railroads, and 

 merchants, because they believe them to be 

 bitter enemies to the farmer. A great deal of 

 this comes from mistaken notions. It comes 

 from zeal without wisdom. The saddest part 

 of it is, that, when certain ones get a going on 

 their peculiar notions, nothing can stop them, 

 and nothing can convert them. Below is a typ- 

 ical letter. It comes from a farmer, or gar- 

 dener, perhaps, and yet he is at odds and ends 

 with his own class of people; in fact, I greatly 

 fear that he, through his mistaken notions, is 

 damaging and hurting community round about 

 him. Perhajts you think this is strong lan- 

 guage, and very likely many of our Headers 

 will insist that he is right and I am wrong. 

 May God in his infinite goodness and mercy 

 help rae to present the matter to you in its true 

 light. Here is the letter: 



Friend Root: — I noticed in Gleanings for 

 August 1st your statement in regard to your 

 selling Pearl onions at s cents per lb. Now, 

 one or two years, while I was in tn(! Northwest, 

 some kinds of vegetables were very scarce on 

 account of the drouth on the great Dakota 

 prairie. My land was not all level, and 1 



chose it on that account, as I knew that draws, 

 as we called them thei'e((lepressioiis, or shallow 

 ravini's), would not be so apt to dry up. Nearly 

 everybody tried to get every footof their land 

 perfectly level. I found my theory pi'oved true. 

 1 niiide all my gai'den. and had all my vegeta- 

 ble grounds in the draw, and never failed of a 

 gooil gaiden and plenty of vegetables. When 

 my neighbors failed, 1 had tine cabbage and 

 potatoes, and sev(>ral times th(!se articles weni 

 very scarce. I could sell my surplus at my own 

 [irice; but, who were my neighbors? VVhen 

 they came for my potatoes, which I could have 

 cliarged 5^2. .^)0 per bushel for, and 25 cents per 

 head for m(>dium-si7.ed cabl)age, did I do it? 

 Not at all. I told them 10 cents [)er head for 

 cahiiage was all they were worth, and •*=1.50 per 

 buslnd was all I would take for potatoes. I also 

 had the Peail onion, which I had sent way 

 down to i'hiladelphia and got the sets and seed 

 for at a big cost; and I was the only pi'rson in 

 that section who raised onions of any kind for 

 three years. I could have sold as high or even 

 higher than you did. But. who were my neigh- 

 bors? I never took advantage of their necessi- 

 ties — n(!ver took over .?1..50 per bushel. Now, 

 how any Christian can reconcile Christianity 

 with extortion is beyond my comprehension, 

 whether it be myself or A. L Root. If you can 

 bring your Christian conscience up to the point 

 of charging 8 cents per lb. for onions because 

 you happen to have a monopoly on that partic- 

 ular kind, I confess you can't know who your 

 neighbors are. I could get 3.5 cents per lb. for all 

 my comb honey here, b(^cause no one within the 

 county lias any like it, and I can monopolize 

 the trade; but I charge 20 cents and think that 

 is enough. I have even sent up north, and 

 bought some that cost me over 19 cen-ts to get 

 it here, and sold it for 20. "O consistency! 

 thou art a jewel." F. H. Finch. 



Florence, Ala., Aug. 10. 



[At very many of our bee-keepers' conven- 

 tions there have been grievous complaints about 

 men who persist in cutting down prices. Friend 

 France told me of a man who persisted in n;- 

 tailing blackberries at 10 cents a quart, when 

 they were worth 14 at wholesale. He finally 

 went to the man and proposed togive him more 

 for his whole crop outright than he was getting 

 by retailing them out a quart at a time. The 

 man, through his mistaken notions, refused to 

 sell them to him at any price, but kept on 

 Hitailing at 10 cents. Now, some of yon will 

 say that this man was c(mscientious, and that 

 hewas doing as he would be done by. I won- 

 der whether I can show you your mistake. We 

 will suppose some farmer to be straining every 

 nerve to pay off a mortgage on his farm. He 

 goes into blackberries. Di'outh or floods are 

 against him, and he has only a small crop. The 

 prospect is, he will not be able to pay a cent on 

 his mortgage. By and by it turns out, how- 

 ever, that others have had short crops too, and 

 the market price is doul)le wliat it has been in 

 foi-mer years. He looks up and takes courage; 

 for his short crop, owing to the scarcity, will 

 bring double the usual price, and so he is on 

 his feet again. I can imagine such a man, with 

 tears in his eyes, thanking (rod for this unlook- 

 ed-for opening out of his troubles. Now, sup- 

 pose, instead, that some eccentric individual, 

 like the one above who writes the letter, says 

 that 10 ccMits is enough for blackberries, and so 

 he breaks down the nuirket, to the damage and 

 real hurt of his unfortunate neighbor. Is that 

 a Christian act? Supi)ose we call it honey in- 

 stead of blackberries. Our good friend Finch 

 admits that all the honey they could raise or 

 get hold of would readily bring 2.5 cents in their 

 locality; but in spite of this — in spite of the 



