GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July L' 



Our Homes. 



And t' e man of God was wrotli with him, and 

 said, Thou shouldst have smitten live or six times; 

 then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst con- 

 sumed it whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but 

 thrice.-Il. Kikgs 13:19. 



Then came the disciples to Jesus apart, and said. 

 Why could not we cast liim out? And Jesus said 

 unto them, Because of your unbelief; for verily I 

 say unto you, if ye have faith as a grain of mus- 

 tard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove 

 hence to yonder place, and it shall remove; and 

 nothing- shall be Impossible unto you.— Matt. 

 17:19,30. 



People who knew me in childhood, and those 

 who have visited our place at different periods, 

 often express surprise at a business of such 

 magnitude, built up in so short a space of time; 

 and especially so as I commenced entirely with- 

 out capital, and with a comparatively frail 

 body besides. Now. do not feel troubled, good 

 friends of mine. 1 am not going to boast in 

 this Home Paper. If it sounds like boasting, it 

 is because you misunderstand me. I am going 

 to write to-day that I may give you help in 

 your own homes, and not that I may help or 

 brag about myself. Please keep this in mind 

 while I give you some suggestions that I hope 

 and pray will be helpful to you. And let me 

 say that the work 1 enjoy above all other things 

 in this world of ours is in being helpful to my 

 fellow-man. When I get among people, or in 

 circumstances where my skill and experience 

 are of value, then I am happy; and whenever 

 I find myself in a place where it seems I am 

 not needed, then I am unhappy: and so far is 

 pay is concerned, as 1 get older I begin to long 

 for the privilege of working where pay does not 

 enter into the matter at all. 



Many times visitors, and these friends of 

 whom I have been speaking, have asked me the 

 question, "Mr. Root, what is the secret you 

 possess ? Why is it you tind so much to do, and 

 how is it that you succeed in setting great 

 crowds of people at work while others all about 

 you are complaining that there is nothing to 

 do. or nothing: to do that will pay decent 

 wages?" I think the an!>wer,g(;.es along in the 

 line of the first of the two texts I have chosen 

 above. The man of God was " wroth." 1 like 

 that word wroth; and I believe it would be a 

 good thing for us all if a godly and sanctified 

 wrath were to stir us up a little oftener than it 

 does now. Why! some of these bright summer 

 mornings, when the sun begins to make it feel 

 unpleasantly hot. I have felt an almost over- 

 powering inclination to sit still in the shade, 

 and let things run themselves. Yes, I, like 

 yourself, know exactly what it is to have these 

 feelings; and I have prayed again and again 

 for deliverance from this sin of half-hearted- 

 ness. Now, you may think it a little funnv, 

 but the prayer many times seems to be answer- 

 ed by the prince of darKness, and he would very 

 quickly run me into worse troubles than half- 

 heartedness if I did not speedily call on the 

 great Captain, under whose banner I am en- 

 rolled, for help and protection. Am I speaking 

 in an enigma ? Well, then, let me explain that 

 my halfheartedness is often cured by seeing 

 somebody else half-hearted or criminally stupid. 

 Then ray "Root temper" comes up. Satan 

 prompts, no doubt, that I should wake up the 

 half-hearted person with a rush; but old ex- 

 periences warn mp to be careful; and before 

 doing any thing, if I breathe my little prayer. 

 " Lord, help me to right this wrong in a right 

 and proper manner," then I am pretty sure to 

 keep in the straight and narrow path. Let me 

 give you one among many illustrations. 



Some time in the latter part of March, when 

 those beds of Grand Rapid? lettuce were jusi 

 getting beauiiful to the eyes of all beholders, 

 they also seemed beautiful to our flock of chick- 

 ens domiciled not many rods away. The weath- 

 er was getting warm enough for them to begin 

 to make exploring expeditions. They had been 

 fed lefuse letiuce from the greenhouse until 

 they knew what it was. One day, when they 

 wandered fariher than usual, the whole flock 

 caught a glim pse of the brilliant coloring under 

 the rays of the March sun. I can imagine those 

 biddies as they tipped thc-ir heads one way and 

 then another, and ventured cautiously up to 

 the edge of the lettuce- beds. No one was 

 around jusi then, and that bifted rich mellow 

 soil offered rare inducements for scratching 

 and wallowing. No doubt there were angle- 

 worms in that protected soil. Perhaps the 

 chickens had not had a taste of the worms nor 

 of the lettuce for some time back. I need not 

 tell you the rest. You know something what 

 havoc an enterprising flock of hens will make 

 in just a few minutes in a bed of luxuriant 

 garden stuff. For a time we kept them away 

 by tilting the sash just enough to let in air, but 

 close enough to keep out chickens; but this 

 deprived our beds of the great benefit of a sum- 

 mer shower. We had tried frames of poultry- 

 netting, to be put on when the sash was taken 

 off; but these would cost a good deal, and they 

 were more or less in the way when on the beds 

 or off. I told the boys if the hens were driven 

 away with a tremendous scaring I did not 

 think they would come t;ack again, especially 

 as their forage ground was off in another di- 

 rection. Well, the boys chased the chickens 

 off, but they came back just as soon as another 

 opportunity offered. I made up my mind that, 

 if the hens were sufficiently scared, they would 

 stay away; but I could not think of a boy who 

 would do the work according to my ideas unless 

 I first gave him a copy. The boys were in their 

 teens, and 1 am toward sixty. Notwithstand- 

 ing this, I think I can beat any boy out in giv- 

 ing either hens or dogs such a fright that they 

 will never want to come around that way again. 



I finally found the hens, with the rooster 

 leading and bo-sing matters, right in the mis- 

 chief. 1 took off my hat and came up slowly 

 until I was pretty well in the midi^t of the flock. 

 Then with my hands and feet and voice I 

 made such a racket among the poultry that I 

 am sure the most of them will remember it as 

 long as they live. I ran after the old hens and 

 over them, and scared them with my hat until, 

 out of sheer fright, they could not run any 

 more; then I gave the rooster, as the ringleader, 

 such a scaring that he could hardly cackle. 

 They were glad enough to find refuge in their 

 own quarters; and after they got breath enough 

 they cackled over the event for an hour or more 

 afterward. I do not know enough about hen 

 language to tell just what they sai>l, but I pre- . 

 sume they thought it was monstrous to make 

 all that racket and fuss about a little bed of 

 lettuce. One thing, however, is certain: I have 

 not seen them, either singly or together, around 

 those lettuce beds since. We did not have any 

 poultry-netting to fuss or bother with, either. 

 I know they remember it, because, when I go - 

 through their quarters on my wheel, on the 

 way to the creek bottoms, they will cackle and 

 run as if they thought they were to be chased 

 again as they were on that eventful March day. 



Now, it is the same way with dogs. I have 

 told you how much trouble they make by walk- 

 ing over our glass sashes. If the dog is a big 

 one, crash, crash, crash, it goes every step. I 

 do not want to hurt the dogs, and I know the 

 law would permit me to shoot them where they 



