1898 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



855 



short cuts for almost a whole day. Oh what 

 a feeling of relief it was to me to find that we 

 had been acting wisely after all ! I felt like 

 the bee that had found its home, and I have 

 been thanking God ever since for that home, 

 unchanged, and grounded now more firmly on 

 the solid rock than ever before. In the case 

 of the bee, his home was taken away by out- 

 side influences. In my own case the dear 

 Savior was right there, ready as he always has 

 been, a very present help in time of need. / 

 was the one who was truant. With all my 

 teachings, and with all these years of experi- 

 ence, I was ready to doubt, simply because I 

 thought I had innocently blundered. 



Just when I was most distressed and trou- 

 bled about this thing — yes, when I was pray- 

 ing most earnestly over this ])usiness entan- 

 glement — a message came from my old pastor, 

 Bro. Reed, asking me to come and talk in a 

 little town where he had been holding meet- 

 ings. He wanted me to speak on business 

 and religion. He said the business men had 

 all agreed to shut up their stores and all their 

 places of business, to come and hear me talk. 

 At first it seemed as if I could not possibly 

 leave my home at such a time. In fact, I was 

 so beset with doubts and worries that I really 

 had nothing cheerful to talk about. I thought 

 of Jonah, and of God's servants in olden time 

 who excused themselves and refused to do his 

 bidding. What I did do was to saj', "Lord, 

 help ! " and then I started off to meet my ap- 

 pointment at a place a little difficult of access. 

 My talk did )iie good ; and, judging from the 

 looks of the churchful of bright, intelligent 

 people, my talk was helpful to them. I de- 

 cided that I would listen to God's call, what- 

 ever it cost, and trust him for the outcome ; 

 and it was just about at this time that peace 

 and faith came. I do not mean to tell you, 

 dear friends, that all my burdens and anxie- 

 ties have been lifted from me. I do not be- 

 lieve it is God's will that I should be spared 

 from all anxieties and worries, for they, above 

 all other things, drive me to the feet of the 

 dear Savior — to that home, that haven of rest. 

 After every such encounter as I have told you 

 of, that " home of the soul " seems to me more 

 precious. Without it I should be lost and ru- 

 ined. With the great God of all the universe 

 by my side to consult and confer and advise 

 with, I am happy, and thank him every day 

 for having given me a human life to live. But 

 if I had to fight my battles alone with my fee- 

 ble understanding and wisdom, with my frail 

 physical frame, I should be lost and ruined 

 and undone. And the greatest and most glo- 

 rious part of it all is, that the invitation is not 

 to me only, but to every child of humanity. 



Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy la- 

 den, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon 

 you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly in 

 heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my 

 yoke is easy, and mv burden is light. — Matt. 11 : 2,S, 

 29,30. 



You see this invitation covers all, and, like 

 the solitary bee, we are finally to be gathered 

 together in one fold, where misunderstand- 

 ings, jealousies, and vexations of every kind 

 are known and heard no more. 



POTATOES DURING 1898. 



I have several times spoken about getting 

 nice potatoes, planted after taking a crop of 

 strawberries from the ground. Some time 

 near the first of July, after we had made our 

 last picking of berries from that rich creek- 

 bottom ground, we plowed under about a 

 quarter of an acre, and planted it to Manum's 

 Enormous potatoes. Of cotirse, the berries 

 had been heavily manured, and mulched with 

 coarse manure during the winter. The patch 

 had borne over two full crops. When we 

 decided to plow up the strawberry -patch, 

 clover, weeds, and ever}' thing else were al- 

 lowed to grow; but we planned to get them 

 under ground before any weed could mature 

 seed. The prickly lettuce is the worst weed 

 we have in getting into seed before we know 

 it; but we hold it back by mowing the tops 

 off ; and after we get weeds, berry-plants, 

 coarse manure, and every thing else nicely 

 turned under, in go the potatoes. One of the 

 specially good things abotit the Enormous is 

 that it will keep solid and firm clear into July, 

 and almost without a sprout, and yet when 

 planted they usually .sprout very promptly, 

 and almost without a failure — that is, where 

 the seed is cut to two eyes. We had a pretty 

 severe drouth in July ; but when the rains in 

 August set in, the potatoes were " a thing of 

 beauty;" and they were growing bright and 

 green, a great part of them, until the 27th of 

 October; then we tried to find a day dry enough 

 to dig them, but did not find it till this od day 

 of November. Oh what a sight it was to see 

 the potatoes roll out! There are quite a lot of 

 them that weigh between two and three 

 pounds each, and scarcely a small one in the 

 lot, and not a scabby one — at least, I have not 

 noticed any. And, by the way, these late- 

 planted potatoes are almost always smooth 

 and clean. Of course, the weather has been 

 exceedingly favorable — that is, there was no 

 frost until toward the first of November, and 

 no lack of rain since August. In fact, there 

 has been too much rain if any thing. 



For once in the world I let my big German 

 friend have his own way about hilling up. 

 He hilled them up again and again, making 

 sharp mountains of every hill, with a sharp 

 valley between. With the great amount of 

 wetness this time, this happened to be just 

 right, and he kept the potatoes covered so 

 there was almost not a sunburnt one in the 

 lot. We have just put them into the cellar, 

 and the yield is very close to 100 bushels from 

 the quarter-acre. It would have been more 

 than 100 had it not been for a little circum- 

 stance. The piece of ground was not all cov- 

 ered with strawberries. On one side there 

 were several rows of Gault raspberries. Some 

 of the friends have complained because I have 

 not reported in regard to these as I should 

 have done. If you will look over our back 

 numbers, however, you will find that I have 



