1899 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



553 



taminated water to send them to untimely 

 graves, or injure their health for life ! Think 

 of keeping the doctor day after day, week 

 after week, and month after month, and pay- 

 ing him a bill that goes away up into the hun- 

 dreds of dollars, when it might all have been 

 saved by providing good wholesome water to 

 drink ! Why, you had better go without a 

 clock in the home ; you had better go in rag- 

 ged clothing, or put up with insufficient food, 

 rather than give the slow poison of infected 

 drinking-water. 



These things have been talked over and 

 over until every farmer who takes a news- 

 paper knows how a well should be made. 

 Keep the surface water from getting into it at 

 any time of the year. Every family knows, 

 too, that the well should be away off from the 

 stables, privies, pigpens, and barnyards. Bet- 

 ter still, get the water out of the rock, and 

 have an iron tube go clear down into the rock, 

 or something equivalent. In very many parts 

 of our State, flowing wells are obtained by 

 going to sufficient depth. • Springs, I believe, 

 are usually safe, but not always so. Better 

 have the State Board of Health examine the 

 water. Cisterns, if kept clean, are much 

 safer than the average well; but in hot weather 

 I think I would have the drinking-water boil- 

 ed, then cool it afterward if you want it cold. 



At present writing I can not discover exactly 

 where this book is to be procured. It comes 

 from the Government Printing-office at Wash- 

 ington, and has been sent out this present 

 year. If you live in Ohio you might write to 

 Prof. Edward Orton, Ohio University, Colum- 

 bus, Ohio. If you do not live in Ohio, direct 

 your letter to Charles D. Wolcott, Department 

 of the Interior, Washington, D. C. Just 

 think of driving typhoid fever and diphtheria 

 out of the large cities at one stroke, by fur- 

 nishing said cities good drinking-water from 

 one single artesian well ! And now almost 

 every county-seat in our State is provided with 

 drinking-water approved by the Board of 

 Health, and hundreds of other cities and 

 smaller towns are fast falling into line. May 

 God be praised that good wholesome water is 

 so near at hand, and in such great quantity, 

 if we only reach out our hands (or, rather, bore 

 down to the rocks) and take it as a free gift. 

 I am personally acquainted with Prof. Orton. 

 He is an enthusiast, like myself, in this mat- 

 ter of good pure drinking-water for the whole 

 wide world. This is just the season of the 

 year, friends, to get stirred up on this exceed- 

 ingly important subject. 



THE ANTI-CANTEEN LAW AND PRESIDENT 

 M'KINLEY. 



On page 369, May 1, I closed my remarks in 

 regard to this matter by saying: 



Surely the President of the United States has some- 

 thing to say and something to do in a crisis like this. 



Well, from that time to this I have been 

 more troubled about this one thing than any 

 thing else that threatens our United States of 

 America. I reason that, if this thing is to be 

 an example and a. precedent for officers of the 

 law (when they touch the liquor - traffic) 



throughout the United States, we are in great- 

 er danger than ever before. In view of this 

 you may be sure I rejoiced when I saw in the 

 Cleveland Leader for July 12 that a delegation 

 of our best temperance men had personally 

 visited our President, and laid the matter be- 

 fore him. Below is the conclusion of quite a 

 lengthy article in regard to the matter : 



The paper declares that the agitation upon this sub- 

 ject will not subside, and the President is asked to give 

 a rehearing upon the construction and interpretation 

 of the law 



The members of the delegation after their call re- 

 ported the President as saying that the opinion of the 

 Attorney General was given without any previous 

 knowledge on his part — that he did know that any 

 opinion had been asked for bv the Secretary of War, 

 neither did he know that such an opinion had been 

 given until several days afterward, and that he would 

 look into the matter personally, and if the opinion of 

 the Attorney General was found to be correct it should 

 stand; but he added that all men are fallible, and that 

 if the Attorney General had made a mistake he had 

 no doubt he (Griggs) would be ready to rectify it — 

 that he was an able lawyer and a man honest and 

 courageous. 



It seems a little strange that the Attorney 

 General did not know what the Secretary of 

 War had been doing in regard to the canteen 

 business, and still stranger that an honest man 

 could read that law and decide it meant that 

 the canteen business should go on. Never 

 mind. We hope and pray that our President 

 may insist on having this crookedness — 

 straightened. 



KIND WORDS FROM OUR CUSTOMERS. 



I have intended two or three times to stop Glean- 

 ings, but I would find something in each issue worth 

 a year's subscription, so I guess I will keep on taking 

 it, even if the bees do have to go. C. H. Gilmore. 



Eangdon, Minn., May 24. 



I have just received strawberry-plants, Carrie and 

 Margaret, and was astonished at their appearance of 

 crisp and vigorous freshness, promising much for so 

 small a start. I was not aware plants could be ship- 

 ped by mail, and come out so little damaged. I have 

 received plants by mail before, but never any like 

 these. Dr. Homer Bowers. 



New Ross, Ind., June 23. 



samples of those peanut-cell queens. 



Yours of June 30, inclosing four queens, arrived 

 July 1, at noon, all in good condition. I introduced 

 them as per directions. All were cheerfully accepted 

 by the bees, and liberated in 30 to 40 hours. Yester- 

 day I examined them all, and found them " fat and 

 happy," and laying profusely in every empty cell, oc- 

 casionally two eggs in a cell. They are all beauties, 

 and especially the majestic select Italian queen. I 

 think I never saw a finer queen. I would not take 

 $5.00 for her. C. S. Ingals. 



Morenci, Mich., July 0. 



Isabels received. They please me very much. Other 

 goods received, and are very satisfactory. A few of 

 the dovetails are cut a little too deep in the extract- 

 iug-supers for close-fitting frames. By making some 

 shavings 3 V thick, and putting in the dovetails when 

 nailing, I maintain the proper inside length, 17J£. I 

 am so glad there is nothing seriously wrong. The 

 general workmanship is excellent. While you have 

 no extra help (necessarily unskilled) working for 

 you I wish I knew just what I wanted for the next ten 

 years, because another such dull season may not 

 come. But, hold on ! I can order during the winter 

 months, can't I? Your extra help is gone then. I 

 hope to get my orders in early in future. One reason 

 why I did not order any thing last winter is because I 

 was undecided, and wanted to make certain winter- 

 ing observations before making up mv mind. 



Eden, N. Y. E. W. Brown. 



