GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Oct. 15. 



securely he could do nothing. The little men shot 

 thousands of small arrows at him, and tliey pricked 

 like needles in his face. One of the little threads 

 ■was no strong-er thnn a cobweb; but many of them 

 bound Gull ver so firmly that he could not g-etaway. 

 It is just so with the habit of smoking-, and there- 

 fore I sii V thr', boy who begins to smoke runs a 

 chance of losing his freedom, his money, and his 

 health, which is also a bad Bargain. 



II— DRINKING ESAU. 



If the boy who smokes makes a bad bargain, the 

 boy who learns to drink makes a much worse one. 

 Drinking is much older, more expensive, more dan- 

 gerous, and more degrading than smoking. If all 

 the money which is spent for strong drink in our 

 country were divided equally among the different 

 families, rich and poor, each family would receive 

 $90.00 a year. In the United States alone, 75,000 

 men die every yenr of drunkenness; 205 every day, 

 one every seven minutes. The cup has killed far 

 more people than the cannon. You all know how 

 much sori-ow and wretchedness are caused through 

 strong drink. Many children are suffering this very 

 day because tht-ir poor fathers learned to drink, 

 and made the bad bargain years ago. 



A irieat many years ago the Lacedemonians, a 

 people of Greece, used to make their slaves drunk 

 once a year. They brought these drunken men into 

 a circus-ring that all the free children might see 

 how disgusting a drunken man looked and acted, 

 and that the children might never follow the exam- 

 ple of the slaves. 



Not long ago a poor drunken boy said he was not 

 afraid to flght any man in the town. When he could 

 get no one to fight with him, he went away to the 

 railroad track. There the engineer saw him stand- 

 ing with his fists doubled up, ready to strike the 

 engme. It was impossible to stop the express train 

 quick enough, and the poor boy's body was crushed. 

 He made a bad bargain; he gave his life ^'or a drink. 



A drinker with inflammation in his eyes said, 

 " Doctor, can you cure my eyes ?" 



The doctor replied, "I can if you will stop drink- 

 ing." 



"Give up my drinks? Oh, no! Good-by, eyes," 

 and he sold his eyes for a glass of whisky. 



lit.— THE SWB.A.RrNG ESAU. 



The boy who swears makes a terribly bad bargain. 

 I can see how a hungry boy might he lead to steal a 

 loaf of bread, if it were steal or stai v\ but I can 

 not understand why any boy should ever swear. No 

 one ever became any richer, wiser, or better for 

 swearing. The biggest fool can swear as well as the 

 wisest scholar. Swearing is hurtful to him who does 

 it. Tt shocks all good peonle, and it grieves God. 

 Swearing is the language of hell. The swearer is 

 like a foolish flsh who bitf s at a bare hook. Smok- 

 ing, drinking, and swe.iring come to us like the 

 Arab's camel. On a very cold night an Arab was 

 sleepina- in his tent, and the camel was on the out- 

 side. The camel woke the master up and said, 

 " Master, it is very < old out here; may I please put 

 my nnsp into the tent ?" 



"Yes." the Arab said, " You may put just your 

 nose in." 



" O master! it is so nice in your tent! won't you 

 please let me put my bend in too V" 



After a while the master said, " Yes, put in your 

 head." 



Soon the camel pushed a little farther, and begged 

 that he might put his shoulders in. This was also 

 granted. Then without any other word the camel 

 pushed in his whole body. 



" It is very uncomfortable here," said the Arab. 



" Yes," said tlie camel. " It would be much more 

 comfortable for me if you would go out and give 

 me the whole tent." 



Boys, the Arab made a bad bargain when he al- 

 lowed the camel to put in his nose; and when we 

 allow the first glass to touch our lips we make an 

 awfully bad bargain with the old demon Alcohol. 



I never could raise enough potatoes to do us before I 

 got your potato book, 1 planted 2 bushels then. Now 

 I have to plant only half a bu.shel, and raise more than 

 enough to do us. In lS81t I raised 48 measured bushels 

 from ''2 bushel planted and cultivated according to 

 your book. Nearly every one laughed at me for giv- 

 ing such shallow cultivation — said that I only scratch- 

 ed around; but they did not laugh at the yield. 



Morgan, Ky., July 28. J.'p. Moore. 



With the crowd of business we have had 

 during the past season I did not get over to 

 see m}- neighbor Terry until well along in 

 September. I said to myself several times, 

 "Now, old fellow, first you know something 

 will turn up that will make you feel sorry you 

 have not kept track of what is going on over 

 in Summit Co., especialh' at friend Terry's." 

 When I got hold of the Practical Faruier for 

 Sept. Ill thought that ver\' thing, for here is 

 what I found. Let me say, first, that some 

 college (agricultural) professor had been 

 severely criticising Terry's teachings in regard 

 to cutting potatoes to one eye, and Terry 

 replies. In his reph- he incidentally gives the 

 result of an experiment made during the past 

 season, and I clip as follows in regard to this 

 experiment : 



SEVENTV-FOt-R HILLS FROM OXE TUBER. 



I^ast May I took one medium-sized tuber and cut it 

 into one-eye pieces, about snch as we u.sually plant. 

 Then I carefullv cut each of these oneeye pieces into 

 about six smaller pieces, in snch a way as to leave a 

 little point of the eye on each i)iece. as well as I could. 

 The potato is a new nne, not named, of strong vitality. 

 Do not write and ask about it. as it is not on the mar- 

 ket yet. Mr. Wm. Henry Maule, the well-known 

 .seedsman, sent me the potato. It was a iine-looking 

 tuber, and took my fancy. So I thought I would 

 raise as many from it as I reasonably could. It came 

 after our crop was planted, and we had no ground 

 plowed that was suitable. .So after mowing off the 

 clover I plowed two square rods of clover sod. This 

 was a great mi.stake. The clover had pumped the 

 water out of the subsoil pretty thoroughly. The 

 ground was too dry. I wislied a hundred times that I 

 had known beforehand, and plowed the land earlj', 

 and kept surface harrowed. And I would have put 

 half a ton of manure on last fall, too. if I had known 

 it. Then I might have done ."iomething. Well, I got 

 the potatoes started, although it was too dry for a 

 time. Now we are getting plenty of rain. There are 

 7-1 hills growing in about two square rods. The hills 

 are So inches apart each wav. They now cover the 

 ground about as well as you often see it done. I 

 think any grower would .say there were tons enough 

 on the ground. Thej* are "all good. Eighty tubers 

 would plant an acre. They are not ready to dig yet, 

 so I will not .say any thing about the yield, but we 

 have the plants'. Only about one-sixth of an eye was 

 planted to a hill ! I could have carried it further and 

 got more hills, but my wife .said : " What is the use? 

 only experts will believe what you have done now." 

 .So i quit. Of course, these ver>" small pieces required 

 more care in cutting, and finer soil, and better atten- 

 tion, than whole-eye pieces would, and far more than 

 whole tubers used for .seed would. This fine cutting 

 is not practical at all, except when you want to get all 

 you can from a few tubers. But it helps to establish 

 my point, and very greatly, too, that I can make all 

 the eyes grow, and get good thrifty plants from all of 

 them", practically. 



After reading the above, you may be sure I 

 was not long in getting on my wheel and 

 going over to see the 74 hills grown from one 

 tuber. Every hill was perfect, and the single 

 vine in each hill was remarkably strong and 

 rank. Friend T. put his hand into one of the 

 hills and took out two tubers weighing, I 

 should judge, a pound or more, but they were 

 then not quite done growing. I estimated 

 there would be about a barrel of potatoes as 

 the result of that one tuber. The potatoes 

 have now been dug, and, if I remember, there 



