1090 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



my memory serves me right it was some- 

 thing like this: 



The man who started to tell the smutty 

 story did the only manly thing he could do. 

 He said something as follows: 



" Gentlemen, get back in the coach and 

 ride. I hereby apologize to the young man, 

 and own up that he was right and that I 

 was wrong." 



I hope the state of Michigan has more 

 young men of that kind. There you have, 

 friends, a word picture of Prof. Cook when 

 I first knew him. 



The back numbers of Gleanings are full 

 of his land helps and suggestions. He was 

 always present at the conventions of the 

 Michigan beekeepers, and he was usually 

 chosen to preside. He had a peculiarly 

 happy way of making every one present say 

 something. At one state convention ,at 

 Lansing he commenced, as usual, calling on 

 one after another. Well, there was a cer- 

 tain boy present at this meeting, and Prof. 

 Cook kindly asked him about his beekeeping. 

 He remarked that he was keeping bees " in 

 company with his father." 



" Well, now, that is a splendid idea," 

 said Prof. Cook. " What better partner 

 could a boy have than his father? and what 

 better partner could a father have than his 

 own son?" 



That boy, by the way, is now Mr. A. L. 

 Boyden, the husband of " Blue Eyes." I 

 have mentioned their two boys, one of whom 

 is taller than his father or mother. This 

 hoy of years ago has, i^erhaps, more 

 to do now with our large honey business, 

 buying and selling, than any other one of 

 the firm. 



In 1879 there were so many beekeepers 

 who would persist in sending queens by 

 mail in rickety home-made cages that the 

 Postoffice Department issued orders, " No 

 more queen-bees by mail." Now, even tho 

 the traffic was then comparatively small to 

 what it is now, it was going to entail quite 

 a hardship and a sudden check on this 

 branch of rural industry. Somehow every- 

 body seemed to agree that Prof. Cook was 

 the man to go to Washington with proper 

 queen-cages and present the matter to the 

 Department in order that queen-bees might 

 be once more permitted to go thru the mails. 

 Now, as far back as 1880 Prof. Cook's well- 

 earned reputation was such that President 

 Hayes invited him to ride with him and Mrs. 

 Hayes in the President's car. Mr. Hayes 

 asked Prof. Cook many questions about the 

 new industry of beekeeping, and promised 

 to use his influence in permitting queens 

 once more, if properly protected, to be sent 

 by mail. It was a great disappointment to 



me, and perhaps to a host of others, when 

 we were told that friend Cook was to leave 

 Michigan College and go to California. 

 But what was our loss it seems was Cali- 

 fornia's gain. Ernest gave you quite an 

 extended sketch of Prof. Cook's work at 

 Pomona, Cal., in Gleanings for March, 

 1912. 



Prof. Cook was from boyhood a wonder- 

 ful teacher. Teaching was his special 

 forte. Some years ago it was my privi- 

 lege to listen to Prof. Holden in one of 

 his celebrated talks on Indian corn. He 

 had various specimens of ears of corn, 

 corn plants, corn silk, etc., that he held up 

 before the audience, and his way of talk- 

 ing impressed me strangely. I kept say- 

 ing to myself, " Why, who is it that Prof. 

 Holden reminds me of?" I finally decided 

 that he was wonderfully like Prof. Cook 

 in his talks to his classes at Michigan Col- 

 lege. After the lecture was over I said 

 to Mr. Holden, " Are you acquainted with 

 Prof. Cook? Have you ever met him?" 



" Why, my good friend Root, he was my 

 teacher away back years ago; and to him 

 I owe more, perhaps, than to any one else, 

 what I have been able to g:ive the world 

 in my corn talks." 



There you see it, friends. In the lan- 

 gTiage of our text, the lifework of any good 

 man follows him ages after he is dead and 

 gone, and so on thru all eternity. That 

 little episode on the crowded stage coach 

 started a wave of purity that may extend 

 on thru the ages. Years afterward, when vis- 

 iting Mammoth Cave, in Kentucky, on the 

 way over to the cave in a crowded stage 

 coach some one started an impure story. 

 The memory of what Prof. Cook did 

 prompted me to protest ; and when the 

 narrator snarlingly said, "Well, who are 

 you, anyway?" I simply said that I was a 

 professing Christian, and felt that such 

 stories would do no good and might do 

 much harm. He never finished the story. 



"god's kingdom coming.-" 

 My frequent use of the above heading has 

 already called forth considerable remark 

 and comment. Just now a newspaper clip- 

 ping has been sent me, but with no intima- 

 tion as to its source. It is one of the 

 utterances of that sainted woman, Frances 

 E. Willard. As she died long before any 

 intimation of the present war, her words 

 come down to us as a precious prophecy or 

 inspiration. As you read it will you not 

 breathe a prayer that God may hasten the 

 " Coming of his kingdom "? 



We all believe that one of the choicest fruits of 

 Christianity will be the growth of a bond of brother- 



