1897 



CLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



53;{ 



couie iirounJ uikI muUo ustroiil)lo without their 

 owners. Hut I simply want tho Jo^fs to umler- 

 stami thai our fourth-acre of plant- b(>''s is 

 foibiaden ground. 1 have tried to have our 

 boys Rive each dog as it coiues around a good 

 wuolesouie lesson by way of a fright, but ihoy 

 don't seem to gel the hang of it as I do it. Let 

 the dog alone until you get your hands full of 

 Slicks or stones, or v\ hatever you can guther up 

 ha.-iily; then get up near enough so you cau 

 keep pretty close to him in the chase. Follow 

 him with shouie. and pellings, and hu will soon 

 learn where it is that he must not go. 



A good many tinu^s f am impaiieni at the 

 way people handle horses. A horse that is 

 always starting before you are ready can be 

 thoroughly cured of it by a little faithful whole- 

 hairtcu work. The same horse or horses that 

 will )i()t start when you tell them to can also be 

 cured by a little judicious use of the whip. 

 Perhaps there are horses that never need the 

 whip, bull have never found many of them. 

 Valuable lives are lost tivery day because of 

 half-heartedness in handling and training 

 horses Now, please do not misunderstand me, 

 dear friends, when I go further and say that 

 valuable! lives are lost, not only in body but in 

 soul, because of half hearted parents. If you 

 give up 10 the chickens, and give up to the 

 dogs (or if you choose, neighbors' chickens and 

 dok'si you h:\ti -iujplv Iosl your garuen and its 

 enjoyment; but when you give up to the child, 

 and say you have done the best you could— that 

 you c.uild not make him mind— then you are 

 re.-poiisible for the loss of an immortal soul; 

 and you need not be surprised if your gray hairs 

 are brought down in sorrow to the grave. 



Before I get through with dogs and chickens 

 I want to s.iy a word about iats and mice. 

 Since 1 have been trying to build up our busi- 

 ne-*s. again and again have rats and mice as- 

 sHiled us. When I protested, our people, dilTer- 

 ent ones, at different limes, would say, in efTect: 



" Well, you can not keep them out, and it is 

 no use trying." 



First, the cats woulj be "no good;" then the 

 traps were no good; or the " rough on rats" 

 was no good. 1 can not go into detail here; but 

 on personal investigation I found that the cat 

 had not been treait d properly. Many times 

 pussy was overfed. Th'-n there were no cat- 

 doors so these faithful friends could have access 

 to every nook and cranny. The traps were not 

 properly examined daily. Again and again 

 have I found trapped mice K-fi until they were 

 smelling badly. The bait was old and dried up. 

 The traps were not " daintily " adjusted so as 

 to go off at the first touch. For rats, the steel 

 traps were not properly smoked to remove the 

 smell of former transactions; and they did not 

 try bedding them in the sawdust or fine dirt 

 right under the runs. After I taught a boy (or 

 girl either, for that matter) just how to manage 

 traps, we had little or no further trouble. Sev- 

 eral times I found peoole who declared they 

 had used '■ rough on rats," and it did no good; 

 but upon inquiry ihey had not even once read 

 the printed instructions accompanying each 

 box. Oh how much trouble I have had from 

 things that would not work because the party 

 to whom the thing was intrusted never read 

 the " directions for use"l I have hadgro.vn- 

 up men and women coolly inform me rhey threw 

 the directions away without looking at ihera. 



I once sent out two old farmers into the field 

 to use a Meeker disk harrow. They drew it 

 around the lot almost half an hour upside 

 doifc'n. without ever so much a« looking at the 

 direciions securely tacked on the machine, tell- 

 ing how to use it. Somebr)dv will say, "Oh! 

 you are talking about hired help; but if these 



same people were working for themselves they 

 would, of course, take some interest in what 

 they were doing." Well, 1 have v/atched this 

 thing, and I am glad to be able lo say that 

 these same people, when they were working 

 for themselves, in and around their own homes, 

 managed pretty much the same way. They do 

 not give the mailer in question enough thought, 

 energy, and vehemence to make it succeed. 

 Again and again these friends of mine around 

 me say to me, *• Oh ! you might as well give up; 

 the thing is no good. We have trieu it in every 

 way, shape, ani manner, and it positively will 

 not work." But it does work, sooner or later, 

 when I get hold of it. Perhaps some of them 

 think I make a big fuss about nothing; but I 

 certainly succeed in keeping people at work, 

 and in paying them their wages every Saturday 

 night. 



Let me digress right here lo say that of late 

 years it is my son and son inlaw who should 

 have the credit of managing the greater part of 

 our business, and not myself. 



A good brother who lives far away sent us 

 S3.00 for some goods to be sent by mail. He 

 wanted first $2A() worth of foundation; then he 

 wanted some slates to hang ou his hives. He 

 said in his letter he wanted his goods as soon 

 as they could be got to him. The foundation 

 was already packed and put up, and could have 

 gone Dy return mail. Thi- slates were supposed 

 to be in the counter store. In order lo make 

 one package, the letter went to the store below 

 to have the slates sent up. Where goojs go by 

 return mall, or, say, next day, we have not 

 been in the habit of receip.iug the money; 

 therefore, when it was discovered that some 

 slates were ordered but none were in stock, the 

 letter was held until the slates should come. 

 In the mean time the slate-maker reported he 

 was too busy on other jobs to fuss with little 

 slates for hives. At this crisis the letter should 

 surely have gone back upstairs to have the 

 foundation mailed, informing our customer iu 

 regard lo the slates. Not so, however. Noth- 

 ing was sent and nothing was done until I 

 investigated the matter, fully two weeks after 

 the money reached us. 1 told our friend to 

 make out his bill for damages, and we would 

 try to pay it. And may I right here intimate 

 that a sure and complete remedy for all cases 

 like this last one is the scripture injunction to 

 love your neighbor as yourself? Any man who 

 tries even a little to put himself in his neigh- 

 bor's place would not be likely to see his neigh- 

 bor lose a part of his honey crop when nothing 

 at all prevented his having at least the greater 

 part of his order go by return mail; and. in 

 fact, love to God and love to one's neighbor 

 should be a perfect cure for all half-heartedness 

 of whatever nature. 



Just one more illustration right here: 



A week ago the man who runs the Planet 

 cultivator told me he could do ever so much 

 better work, and save his strength at the same 

 time, if the handles of the cultivator could be 

 raised. 



" Why. Mr. B., this cultivator is made just 

 on purpose so you can raise or lower the han- 

 dles to any point you wish." 



" Well, I supposed thai it was made in that 

 way, but it is not. Loosening the bolts which 

 seem to be made for that very purpose will not 

 permit the handles to go up and down a parti- 

 cle, as you will see." 



I look hold of the wrench, got down on my 

 knees in the dirt, and I did see. What do you 

 suppose I saw? Why, I saw that, when the 

 cultivator was set up. four or five years ago. 

 the man who put it together put a certain cast- 

 ing on upside down; and in all that time, all 



