638 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Ti 



'HERE has 



been a great 



scarcity o f 

 potatoes for seed 

 in this region. 

 Finally our town 

 people here in 

 Medina succeed- 

 ed in getting a 

 carload of "Ru- 

 rals" from some 

 place in Michi- 

 gan, and it was 

 my privilege to 

 get a few of 

 them. As they 

 did not get here 

 till toward the 

 last of June, I 



was in a hurry to get them planted. Well, 

 in this locality it not only rained almost 

 every day, but sometimes "two times" in a 

 day. The potatoes were nicely sprouted (by 

 being spread out in the sun, while getting 

 the ground ready), and I did not Avant to 

 trust anybody else to cut them to one eye, 

 and properly place them in the furrow 

 without knocking the sprouts off. 



By the way, between our place and that 

 of our nearest neighbor there is a vacant 

 space that has been allowed to gi'ow up to 

 grass clear out to the street. Mrs. Root has 

 always objected to having farm crops put 

 on this piece of ground. She declares green 

 grass — at least a certain amount of it — is as 

 ornamental about the home as expensive 

 flowers — at least she thinks a nicely kept 

 lawn should go with the flowers to set off 

 their beauty. Well, for the first time, she 

 has (yielding to the call of the President) 

 said I might plant potatoes on that spot. 

 So we turned under the heavy sod and got 

 the gTound nicely fitted and ready to plant. 

 But it kept on raining — not very hard, but a 

 sort of drizzle. The thermometer was close 

 to 80, and it was just the time that the po- 

 tatoes should be in the ground. I rigged 

 myself up in some old clothes and was 

 dropping my potatoes in spite of the rain. 

 Pretty soon a young fellow came along do- 

 ing some work on the wires for the electric 

 company. He, too, was working out in the 

 rain because, as I presumed, the work was 

 urgent. It was somewhat of a question 

 which one of us looked the more respectable, 

 for he, too, was pretty well covered with 

 mud from digging up poles that were to 

 be moved elsewhere. Something was said 

 about working out in the rain. Finally he 

 eyed me over from head to foot and then 

 propounded tlie following question : 



"By the way, stranger, who are you work- 

 ing for, anyway?" 



OUR HOMES 



A. I. ROOT 



Him only shalt thou serve. — Matt. 4:10. 



Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his right- 

 eoiLsness. — Matt. 6:33. 



And every one that hath forsaken houses, or 

 brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, 

 or children, or lands, for my sake, shall receive a 

 hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life. — 

 Matt. 19:29. 



August, 1917 



Before I could 

 answer I began 

 to consider the 

 matter as I 

 looked at him 

 smilingly. Then 

 he went on : 



"Are y o u 

 working for the 

 company ?" 



"What com- 

 pany do you 

 mean, my young 

 friend ?" I re- 

 plied. 



"Why, are 



you working for 



the Root Co. r 



I s m i 1 ingly 



told him I guessed I was, at least part of 



the time. 



After he went on with his work I went 

 on with mine, drojoping potatoes. But the 

 words kept ringing in my ears, "For whom 

 are you working?" I tried to put them 

 away and think of something else. But 

 the question kept following me all day and 

 into the night — "Whom are you working 

 for — self and selfish interests? or are you 

 working for God and your neighbors?" 

 I looked np at the stars and stripes that 

 are floating every day in the wind from 

 the flagpole on the fire-reservoir — the high- 

 est point on our buildings. Once more : 



Am I working for A. I. Root or for the 

 A. I. Root Co.? A. I. Root is not going, 

 to last many years, and may be not many 

 months. The A. I. Root Co., God permit- 

 ting, may last for years after A. I. Root 

 himself is gone. The potatoes I am planting 

 may, part of them, be for A. I. Root indi- 

 vidually ; but if we have any kind of yield, 

 by far tlie greater part of them will help 

 to save the life of the A. I. Root Co. Or 

 they may be sold and help nourish humanity 

 at large. 



My good friend, you whose eyes rest 

 on these pages, whom are yoii working for? 

 Are you working for self, or ai'e you con- 

 sidering humanity during these war times? 

 Are you working for the good and future 

 welfare of the children of your neighbor- 

 hood or state or nation ? Are you consider- 

 ing the unborn children ? Are you planning 

 and working for the benefit of posterity? 

 Are you doing what you can to protect the 

 coming generation from the devastating 

 influences of strong drink? If you are old, 

 like myself, are you ever tempted to say or 

 Ihink, "Well, there is no use in letting so 

 nmch responsibility rest on my shoulders — 

 the younger people may take care of it to 



