73:^ 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 1. 



WHO IS MY NEIGHBOR T 



SOMETIIIXG FURTHER — SEE P. 6.59. 



Frie7id Root: — I think your reply to Mr. F. H. 

 Finch, in Sept. 1st Gleanings, is a little inap- 

 propriate. The argument of the farmer strain- 

 ing to pay his mortgage off is hardly to the 

 point. The greatest good to the gi'eatest num- 

 ber is what brings happiness to communities, 

 and communities are of more importance tlian 

 individuals. Your argument seems to. be that 

 the seller of any commodity, no matter wheth- 

 er it be a luxury or a necessity, is justified in 

 getting all he can for it. The coal barons, 

 then, are quite right in raising the price of coal. 

 If the poor can not pay the price, let them go 

 without I You commend the conduct of Mr. 

 France, wlio tried to buy a crop of blackberries 

 that he might bull the markei. The millionaire 

 speculator, then, who makes a corner in bread- 

 stuffs is doing a Christian work! The poor 

 may have to pay more for tlieir bread, but 

 what does that matter? I fail to see that Mr. 

 Finch accuses you in his letter of having cheat- 

 ed any one. and I do not undersiand how you 

 can place that construction on what he says. 

 It seems to me that Mr. F. simply mak^s the 

 accusation that you are a little inconsistent. 

 He would not, I imagine, write as he did to you 

 to any firm of nurserymen or gardeners whose 

 relations with the public were of a purely com- 

 mercial nature. But it is somewhat different 

 with you. You are fond of sermonizing, and 

 pointing out to your fellows tht'ir moral duties. 

 Tlie Christian Endeavoreis of your neighbor- 

 hood are a source of pleasure to you, and no one 

 doubts that your writings do a considerable 

 amount of good; but they also lay you open to 

 a criticism that otliers. whose religion is less 

 demonstrative, would escape. 



Your line of reasoning may be logical, but 

 yon ought not to feel hurt because some others 

 vipw it in a different light. W. E. Money. 



Cobham, Va., Sept. 11. 



[I am very much obliged to you indeed, 

 friend M.. for your kind letter, and your sug- 

 gestion that friend Finch and I did imt under- 

 stand each other. I did not think of carrying 

 the idea that the '-seller of any commodity " 

 might with a clear conscience cliarge all he can 

 get: in fact, I drew the line fairly. I thought, 

 in my concluding remarks when I said. "•If the 

 farmers were getting rich, and were pi'oud and 

 arrogant toward the banks and railroad men,'" 

 etc. You may be aware, perhaps, that I have, 

 at different times during my life, taken up a 

 great variety of industries. In my effort lo find 

 work for people to do. I have stood behind the 

 counter and sold a great variety of goods : I 

 have worked in the factoiy. and I have also 

 worked in the fields. The products of the farm 

 and garden are quite ditTi-rent things from the 

 goods produced by our large factories: and, in 

 fact, they are qiiite different from flour and 

 coal. These latter are not perishable goods. 

 and are obtained from so wide an extent of 

 countiy that there is a uniform market price, 

 as. for instance, the goods on the shelves at a 

 hardware store. Now, if a merchant should 

 purchase either coal or finnr at a certain price, 

 say a dollar, and charge his customers two or 

 three dollars, it would be extortion, providing, 

 of course, he knew where he could get an un- 

 limited supply at the price mentioned. He 

 would not be doing by his customers as he 

 would be done by. 



I hardly need tell you that' the products of 

 the garden, and many products of the farm, are 

 different matters indeed. Potatoes are worth 

 to-day in our market from (50 to 70 cents per 



bushel, and I am exceedingly glad of it. It 

 rejoices my heart every time I see a load of 

 potatoes come into market. A neighbor of 

 mine has, by great care and perhaps some good 

 luck, secured 2000 bushels of nice potatoes. 

 Suppose he should say that 40 cents is enough, 

 and that he believed it to be unchristianlike to 

 take more. If he were to do this it would do 

 great damage and great wrong to hundreds of 

 small potato-growers who are dependent upon 

 their crop of potatoes for the necessaries of life. 

 If potatoes are enough cheaper somewhere else, 

 so somebody can bring in several carloads, and 

 the supply is great enough to keep the price 

 down to 40 or .50 cents, it would be all right; 

 for, to overlialance those who suffer here, there 

 would be a benefit to potato-growers where 

 these carloads came fjom— enough to compen- 

 sate. 



I heartily ngr'ee with your expression. "'Tlie 

 greatest good to the gicatest number." Friend 

 Finch. howev(>r, by his own confession, did a 

 little good to a small numlM'r, and by so doing 

 did a great damage to a large number by break- 

 ing down tbe pi'ice when it ought ?iof to have 

 been broken down. Yon see. we can not have 

 an established price on gai'denstuff and per- 

 ishable fruits as we can on the goods we find at 

 the hardware stores. 



Another thing, there are so many people just 

 now deciding that farming does Hot pay, and 

 there is such a widespread stampede froin the 

 farms into the towns and cities, that real trou- 

 ble is coming unless the farmer and gardener 

 get some encouragement; and this encourage- 

 ment must come in the way of better prices. 

 Our own industry of keeping bees is exactly in 

 line right here. The townspeople and others 

 who work in factories can take care of them- 

 selves, even if prices do come up. a great deal 

 better than the farmers and gardeners now 

 take care of themselves. Very likely the town 

 and city people will not fall in with.my position 

 liere; hut whether they fall in or not, it is 

 right. If our boys continue to leave the farms 

 and crowd into the cities, and if encouragement 

 offered to those who work in tlie open air is not 

 increased, our country is going to suffer, not 

 only physically and financially, but it is going 

 to suffer terribly in a moral and spiritual way. 

 While I am writing. I tear out the following 

 clipping from the Rural New-Yorker of Sep- 

 tember 17: 



United States Senator McConnell, of Idalio, began 

 lis prosperous career by starting a truck-patch in 

 the then Territory and selling tlie miners cabbages^ 

 at 76 cents a head, and turnips at 45 ceiits a pound ! 



Now. that pleases me. I should like to shake 

 hands with Senator McConnell. If the miners 

 were glad to get his cabbage at 75 cents a head, 

 and tuinips at 45 cts. per lb.. I think it \\ as per- 

 fectly right that he should charge it; and 1 am 

 glad to see piogressive farmers and gardeners 

 look over our country and hunt up corners 

 where there is plenty of money and a scarcity 

 of vegetables. Our good friend J. M. Smith, of 

 Green Bay. Wis., built up a great business by 

 selecting an unpromising piece of land for his 

 garden; but to overbalance this he was so near 

 the mining-camps that he was. sure of big 

 prices for his products, (xardeners. farmers, 

 and friiit-growers should have inducements to 

 scatter themselves over the face of the earth; 

 and in one sense I consider them like Christian 

 people — " the salt of the ("arth." 



Thank you for your concluding remarks, 

 friend M. I did not feel hurt at what friend 

 Finch wi'ote, but I did feel, and I do still feel, 

 that he, by his mistaken acts, was hurting and 

 damaging" the interests of a class of people who- 

 sadly need encouragement. Our stenographer 

 very justly suggests that those big onions (and 



