582 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 15. 



transact business of the greatest and gravest 

 importance, ihey should be taught in some 

 way to hold their tongues at the proper time. 

 It was not only the women, but the men as 

 well, all over that great audience that would 

 visit during the exercises, in spite of any thing 

 the speaker or any one else could do. Please 

 do not think I mean to censure this crowd 

 more than other similar crowds. Our people 

 here in Medina have tried to have speeches on 

 our public square ; but it is almost always 

 more or less a failure, just because so many 

 will occupy the seats and crowd within hear- 

 ing distance about the speaker, and then spend 

 their time in visiting, and talking about pri- 

 vate affairs. I do not know but I am some- 

 what guilty, because during such a meeting 

 sometimes somebody will ask me a question 

 of much importance to him, and he might 

 think me unkind if I refused to give him a 

 civil answer ; and this answer calls for some- 

 thing else, and so on, until we discover people 

 around us, and may be the speaker himself, are 

 wishing as vehemently that we too {two) 

 would "shut up," as I wished people might 

 shut up at that great temperance meeting. 

 Permit me to add that the interruptions were 

 all of the most friendly and kindly nature. I 

 have heard of political meetings where they 

 not only had hard words, but fights and brawls 

 to interrupt the speaker. 



Well, I spent one forenoon in doing my 

 very best to hear something that some one of 

 the many speakers had to say ; but the crowd 

 increased instead of diminishing, and the ven- 

 tilation was by no means adequate for one of 

 my temperament, so I went away disappoint- 

 ed. Yes, I know very well that Bro. Ashen- 

 hurst and other kind friends who knew me 

 would gladly have given me a place where I 

 could hear ; but I should have to crowd some- 

 body else out, and I was an Anti saloon man 

 rather than a Prohibitionist. Of course, an 

 invitation was given me to be one of them, 

 and to put on the harness and pull with the 

 rest ; but while I am heart and soul in the 

 work they are trying to do, for the reason giv- 

 en above I could not accept the kind invita- 

 tion. 



After having a very pleasant visit with Bro. 

 York, of the American Bee Journal, I started 

 for Marengo ; and while wailing for the train 

 I looked over the markets of Chicago. Gar- 

 den stuff and vegetables of every sort (let 

 alone fruit from all over the world) were 

 piled up there in such great quantities I could 

 hardly believe all this perishable stuff could 

 be distributed and used before it would spoil, 

 even by the great city of Chicago. For the 

 first time in my life I saw stalks of rhubarb 

 fully a yard long, some of them almost the 

 size of a child's wrist, stacked up like cord- 

 wood. Other vegetables of like luxuriance 

 were there. I should really like to see the 

 grounds where much of this stuff is grown. 

 There were strawberries and raspberries, 

 gooseberries, currants, ripe apples from further 

 south, plums and cherries from California, be- 

 sides all sorts of tropical fruits. There were 

 cherries as large as plums, and there were 

 plums as large as peaches, until I could not 



tell whether the crates contained small peach- 

 es or large plums. Of course, strawberries- 

 were toward the close of the season ; and al- 

 though I looked the market over pretty care- 

 fully, I did not find any thing that would com- 

 pare with some I saw a few hours later, grown 

 on Dr. Miller's own premises. I called at 

 Burnett's, and inquired about honey, but no 

 new honey was yet in the market — at least I 

 did not find it ; and, by the way, I suppose it 

 is not so much of an object to get the first 

 honey on the market as it is the first strawber- 

 ries and the first fruits and vegetables. 



I found our jovial friend Dr. Miller dressed 

 in white, not quite like the porter in a Pull- 

 man car, but more like a mason or a man who 

 follows whitewashing for a living. I did not 

 catch on to the doctor's reason? for wearing 

 white pants until he reminded me of the fact 

 that bees are less likely to sting a white ob- 

 ject than a black one, and I think he is right. 

 If your bees are in the habit of stinging 

 through your woolen clothing, put on some 

 starched linen, pretty good thickness, and I 

 think the bees will go for somebody else dress- 

 ed in black. 



The doctor knew, of course, that I was more 

 interested in looking over the strawberries 

 than the hives, so he took me to the strawber- 

 ry-patch first. I believe his ground is natu- 

 rally favorable for berry-growing, but for years 

 past it has been a good deal neglected — that 

 is, so far as I know. ( I hope the doctor will 

 take no offense at this. ) But on the 26th day 

 of June there was the finest lot of strawberries 

 and strawberry-plants there I ever saw in my 

 life. I do not mean to say by this there were 

 more berries than I ever saw before on a like 

 area, for it was at the close of the berry sea- 

 son ; but they were the finest and strongest 

 and healthiest-looking plants I ever saw, and 

 quite a good supply of nicer berries than I had 

 been able to find in the Chicago markets dur- 

 ing that same afternoon. Now, the doctor 

 did not grow these berries. He is a bee-man 

 and not a berry-man ; but Mr. Stull, who 

 married Mrs. Miller's sister, has been growing 

 berries under high pressure. As nearly as I 

 could learn, there are two special points he 

 observes. First, his matted rows are thinned 

 out. I do not think he allows his plants near- 

 er each other than six or eight inches. This 

 thinning is done thoroughly, no matter what 

 it costs. Then he is a crank on the subject of 

 stable manure. In Marengo he gets all the 

 stable manure he can draw, for 25 cents a load. 

 With good roads and an appropriate wagon, 

 and a stout team, I think he said he has piled 

 on as much as two tons at a load. You see 

 the principal part of the expense is the haul- 

 ing. Well, he goes to work and makes his 

 berry-patch a veritable barnyard, not only be- 

 tween the rows, but between the plants. The 

 ground is black and damp with old well-rotted 

 stable manure. Of course, he gets weed seeds 

 more or less, and this is the greatest objection 

 to his method. He asked my advice about 

 using chemicals instead of manure. I told 

 him I did not think any chemicals would ever 

 grow such berries. They are so large, luscious, 

 and juicy, that I did not recognize man}' of 



