1904 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



853 



A hen with a dozen chickens will be looking 

 after the welfare of her flock by the road- 

 side. When the auto comes on her unex- 

 pectedly, she (and the chickens) at the last 

 moment seem to think that the other side of 

 the road will be much the safer, and so they 

 run right into danger; and unless the driver 

 slows up and turns his machine so as to avoid 

 them he will be pretty sure to kill chickens 

 more or less. Now, even as good a boy as 

 Huber suggested that a chicken, especially 

 a small one, is not worth slowing up for, es- 

 pecially if you ai"e in a hurry. I reproved 

 him, and I wish here to reprove every user 

 of the highway who takes that ground. 

 Some of the auto magazines have suggested 

 that poultry is out of place on the highway. 

 Even if this should be declared so by law, I 

 would not consider for a moment asking the 

 farmer to shut up his chickens or to keep 

 them off from the roadway. You see, friends, 

 it hits the same question as to whether bees 

 have the right of way to go where they 

 choose. A small chicken may represent only 

 a nickel in value; and even if the driver 

 would willingly hand over the nickel rather 

 than stop, this does not help the matter. 

 Paul says, "If meat maketh my brother to 

 offend, I will eat no meat while the world 

 standeth;" and killing chickens, and leaving 

 them lie scattered along the highway, cer- 

 tainly does make, just now, a farmer "broth- 

 er to offend."* I am sorry to hear that, on 

 the road that was chosen for automobiles to 

 run from New York to St. Louis, not only 

 dead chickens but geese, turkeys, and guinea 

 fowls were mangled and scattered along the 

 way. I have never yet killed a chicken, al- 

 though Huber killed one or two when I was 

 sitting by his side. That was when we first 

 started out, more than a year ago. I have 

 always slowed up rather than endanger the 

 life of a chicken, out of respect to my farm- 

 er friends; and if I should be so unlucky as 

 to kill one I will certainly stop my machine 

 and pay for the fowl. We are told that, on that 

 ride to St. Louis, an irate farmer drew a 

 gun and threatened the life of one of the 

 auto drivers unless the man stopped and paid 

 him a dollar for a chicken. He said, "Of 

 course, you did not kill my chicken; but one 



* Farmers, or perhaps I should say farmers' wives, 

 work hard to rear their chickens, and it is no small loss 

 if they be run over, especially if they are run over with 

 indifference, as if they did not amount to much anyhow. 

 I stopped one night at a country home. The father and 

 mother, with three or four children, had been for thir- 

 ty years on a rented farm. Various mishaps had pre- 

 vented them from purchasing the propei-ty outright. 

 Just a few days before my arrival, the good wife said 

 to the husband in the morning, " Why, husband, you let 

 the chickens out this morning, didn't you?" 



■' No, I have not touched the chicken-coop at all." 



"Why, dear me! I fear somebody must have stolen 

 them." 



An examination showed that 73 chickens, worth 50 

 cents apiece for broilers, had been stolen during the 

 night. These chickens were the result of days and 

 weeks of hard work. The coop was securely fastened 

 every night and opened every morning: and yet there 

 are wretches in human form who would thus rob a poor 

 farme'rs wife on rented land of her hard earnings. On- 

 ly about a year ago their best horse was stolen out of 

 the lot in like manner. Think of this when you feel 

 like calling it a " small thing " because a chicken or two 

 may be killed by an automobile. 



of your crowd did, and you can get your 

 money back from the crowd." He got his 

 dollar, and the crowd did make good the 

 man who handed it over to avoid being shot. 

 But in this case the farmer was the one who 

 was breaking the laws; and I think that, in 

 order to avoid establishing a bad precedent, 

 this farmer should have been arrested and 

 punished. Getting your rights by using a 

 shot-gun illegally is not according to the 

 spirit of our text. 



I have already discussed about teams. We 

 have good laws in regard to this matter, and 

 horses are fast becoming educated as well as. 

 the chickens. We have good laws regulating 

 the matter; and almost everybody under- 

 stands now that an auto driver is legally 

 obliged to slow up or stop whenever any 

 person who is driving a horse gives him a 

 wave of the hand. It may be annoying to 

 be obliged to slow up and stop the engine 

 when the horse pays no attention whatever 

 to the machine; but it is the law, and we 

 must obey it. 



I wish I had space to tell you of the pleas- 

 ant words and smiles I received during that 

 long trip in arranging this matter of fright- 

 ening horses. I made it a point to say, 

 when I hindered anybody because his horse 

 acted badly, "I am very sorry to have an- 

 noyed or hindered you. I try to avoid mak- 

 ing anybody trouble." In reply to such 

 words, over and over again bright intelligent 

 men and women have said to me, "I am ex- 

 ceedingly obliged to you, sir, and I fear I 

 have hmdered you needlessly. My horse has. 

 acted badly on previous occasions, but you 

 have a fashion of going much slower than 

 such vehicles usually do, and your machine 

 doesn't seem to make nearly as much noise 

 as the greater part of them." Of course, 

 the replies are not always in the above lan- 

 guage, but something like it. Again and 

 again people would say, when I began ta 

 slow up, "Go right along, sti-anger; I can 

 handle my horse, I am sure, and I want him 

 to get accustomed to these things. ' ' 



Unfortunately I came into the town of 

 Xenia just as long strings of vehicles were 

 returning with their occupants from the big- 

 gest day of the county fair. It was no use 

 for me to take another road leading into 

 town, for they were all in the same fix. I 

 did think of stopping by the wayside; but 

 that woulld have kept me till after dark, 

 which would have made matters still worse; 

 so I passed vehicle after vehicle. Let me re- 

 mark here that there seem to be special 

 towns where the horses act very much worse 

 than in others. Where there are a dozen 

 autos in the town, the horses have mostly 

 become accustomed to them, and there is 

 little or no ti'ouble. Xenia and one other 

 town are the worst I have seen; but in both 

 places the people who drive the horses were 

 more at fault than the horses themselves. 

 They frightened their horses by making them 

 think they were going to be killed sure. On 

 one occasion I saw some women away off on 

 top of a hill, piling out of the buggy in fran- 

 tic haste. They were so frightened, and were 



