1900 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



407 



nate, one of the boys told me that the bad spin- 

 ach seed was coming up all right after all ; 

 and then I felt satisfied we did test both lots 

 of seed last fall, but did not notice that one 

 was slower to germinate than the other. In 

 fact, in our seed tests we have not been in the 

 habit of noting exactly how many days it takes 

 seed to come up. We have noticed, however, 

 that the old seed, as a rule, comes up slower. 

 After it came up we took the bad seed and 

 counted out three lots of 100 seeds each ; but 

 even during this warm May weather, with 

 such a genial shower as we are having to- day 

 (May 8) it would be nothing strange if the ob- 

 jectionable seed should behave very fairly, 

 when the same kind of seed would not come 

 up promptly, and a good percentage die, dur- 

 ing the cool and comparatively unfavorable 

 weather in April. 



My good friend Gressman suggests some- 

 thing that I have been long considering. 

 Have I really any business to undertake to sell 

 seeds with all I have on my hands, especially 

 since I am getting well along in years ? But 

 after I give it up, may not somebody else man- 

 age it still more poorly than I have done ? I 

 think you would, as a rule, have to pay higher 

 prices than I have been charging you ; but if 

 you get better seeds, perhaps you had better 

 pay higher prices ; but if you pay the higher 

 prices, do you get seed that is up to all the re- 

 quirements we have been considering in the 

 above transaction ? I have traded more or less 

 with the large seedsmen of the United States, 

 and I do not know of one whose seed is al- 

 ways exactly what it ought to be in every re- 

 spect. Before the seed is offered for sale it is 

 invariably tested by all of our great seedsmen. 

 They are sure it germinates — pertiaps a good 

 fair proportion of it, but it is not always new 

 seed of the last season's growth. Friend 

 Black and others have told us that they do not 

 dare risk celery seed and lettuce seed that was 

 not tested the season before. Two-year-old 

 seed is the only thing they dare use. My im- 

 pression is that spinach ought to be grown the 

 season before. Well, the seedsman can make 

 sure the seeds will germinate promptly, and 

 a goodly percentage of them. But this is not 

 all. I once sold a man 20 cents' worth of cel- 

 ery seed that had been tested in our green- 

 house. It was all right in regard to germi- 

 nating, but it produced red celery instead of 

 Giant Pascal. If I remember correctly I paid 

 him about .$10.00 damages for that one twenty- 

 cent deal ; but if I am expected to do business 

 that way right along, I should very soon go 

 out of the seed business. You may say it 

 served me right for purchasing seed of an un- 

 reliable party. But, hold on, friends. The 

 celery seed was purchased of a well-known 

 and reliable seedsman. Just before the con- 

 cern became bankrupt, they sent out poor 

 seeds for the first time. In spite of any thing 

 that we can do, old reliable firms every now 

 and then become bankrupt, and we must get 

 along with the consequences as best we can. 

 Where both parties in all these transactions 

 have the spirit of Christ Jesus in their hearts, 

 the spirit of fairness, of peace and good will 

 toward their neighbors, as in the language of 



our texts, it is a very easy matter to settle dif- 

 ferences. And this spirit of peace and good 

 will is contagious. Thank God that it is so. 

 Our friend says in his letter, " It seems to me 

 I can not feel satisfied to take any thing, be- 

 cause I believe it was not intentional." Then 

 he adds something I do not like quite so well: 

 " If such was the case, I could have the heart 

 to take all I could get." Dear friend G., the 

 Savior admonishes us to love our enemies — to 

 do good to those who hate us. He did not 

 just exactly say we should do a kindness to a 

 man who has deliberately cheated us ; but I 

 think it includes that, at least in a meas- 

 ure. He did admonish us in another verse not 

 to cast our pearls before swine — that is, we 

 must not become reckless or foolish. We 

 should study carefully the person we are deal- 

 ing with ; but if we make any error, dear 

 friends, I am very sure it is best to err on the 

 side of charity. 



Better do a bad man a kindness, even if it 

 should be like casting pearls before swine, 

 than to conclude hastily that somebody who 

 means to do right has been trying to cheat 

 you. 



One more thing : The hard-working mar- 

 ket-gardeners or bee-keepers are, as a rule, 

 fair and honorable men. The man who never 

 works if he can help it — the tramp, the fre- 

 quenter of sa'oons — are the fellows who have 

 no scruple and no conscience. They have no 

 scruple about lying and cheating whenever a 

 chance offers ; but the man who gets up early 

 in the morning, and works all day, in all kinds 

 of weather, is, as a rule, one of God's noble- 

 men. Sturdy toil seems to develop manliness 

 and good sound common sense. Oh how I do 

 love to meet manly men— those who are never 

 afraid to have their acts or lives held up for 

 investigation— those who prefer to earn their 

 bread by the sweat of their faces ! 



Now for the golden rule. Friend Gressman 

 and his neighbor got some poor seed because 

 I was trying to find out where I could get seed 

 at a price that would not necessitate advanc- 

 ing prices in the catalog — yes, and I did get it 

 too. The California-grown seed is as nice as 

 any I ever planted ; but before I got that it 

 seems I got hold of something that was not so 

 good. Now, the golden rule would settle every 

 thing in regard to what is right in such a mat- 

 ter, no matter if the market-gardener is poor 

 and the seedsman rich ; in fact, the seedsman 

 who is well-to-do can all the better afford to 

 do exactly as he would be done by ; and if 

 both parties seem willing to shoulder their 

 part of the loss, then the market gardener 

 should ask no more than he would be willing 

 to pay if things were changed about, with the 

 seedsman whose seed caused a failure of the 

 crop. It is a pretty hard stretch on the aver- 

 age man to expect him to do exactly unto oth- 

 ers as he would that others should do to him 

 under like circumstances. But there are men 

 who do it — yes, thank God, there are thousands 

 of them, and they do not get into the poor- 

 house by so doing, either. Did noXfesus say, 



Give, and it shall be given unto you ; good measure, 

 pressed dov^n, and shaken together, and running over, 

 shall men give into your bosom? — I,uke 6 : 38. 



