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GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



October. 1917 



patch with some satisfying language. Did 

 you, A. I. Eoot, ever know that you could 

 get a potato patch so rich and full of humus 

 and wood ashes that it would grow nothing 

 but tops and remorse? Well, it's so. But, 

 I want to tell Stancy Puerden that I would- 

 n't get all puffed up and blow and brag 

 about early potatoes that I had to start in 

 a box in the house, rock in a cradle, feed on 

 a bottle, tuck under blankets nights and 

 take out on warm days in a perambulator. 

 No, I wouldn 't. I would either raise a man- 

 ly, indei^endent, frank, open-faced, outdoor 

 Ijotato, or I would conceal the fact from the 

 public forevermore — much less go around 

 blowing about it the way you have done in 

 Gleanings. Take that, will you? But, on 

 further reflection, I guess I'll try it myself 

 next spring. 



' * -s * 



Speaking of gardening, leads me on to 

 another apicultural, subject — the cabbage 

 worm. I refer to the very common, green, 

 elongated, pusillanimous, ultra - numerous, 

 dumfudded, hoggish^ polj^legged, industrious 

 child of the common yellow butterfly. He's 

 what you'd call a binger on the cabbage 

 game. I wish the Boots would let me dis- 

 cuss him here with the fervor that the 

 subject deserves. I am full of it. For a 

 month now I have arisen with the sun every 

 morning and have gone out into my garden 

 and looked down into the open, pleading 

 faces of my poor cabbage with commingled 

 feelings of pity, rage and revenge. Then I 

 liave stepped to it. I guess I have. While 

 the cabbage worm isn't really gamey and 

 his mental processes are apparently slow, 

 there is considerable satisfaction in the 

 l)ursuit of him. I think I get the most out 

 of it by pulling him into two parts by slow 

 tractile force applied at both ends. I have 

 a feeling that that modus operandi makes 

 him more regretful that he 's a cabbage 

 worm than almost anything else I can do. 

 It brings out about all that's in him, too, 

 and that's what you should do in all the 

 affairs of life. If I have to dig into the 

 very heart of the jjoor cabbage head, to 

 overtake my game, I am so wrought up when 

 I have got him that I pause, generally 

 squeeze off only one end of him (as being 

 somewhat more disciplinary and corrective), 

 then I interrogate him as to whether he ex- 

 pects to be here for Christmas. Of course, 

 that's just sarcasm, for a cabbage worm 

 with one end squoze off can 't be expected 

 to answer questions about where he expects 

 to spend next Christmas. But you have 

 got to hand it to the cabbage worm for one 

 or two details, tho. He always wears his 

 green suit when dining on cabbage, doesn 't 

 rush panicly about and keeps quite still 

 when hostile man approaches. You reflect 

 a moment and you will see that shows pro- 

 tective color strategy and composure in the 

 })resence of the enemy. His worst oversight 

 is in not covering up his tracks. They are 

 easily identified, being always round or 

 spherical, and my tip to you for successful 



pursuit of him is to hunt above the trail. 

 Never mind the wind as you do when hunt- 

 ing deer, for C. W. 's sense of smell doesn't 

 seem acute. (P. S. — If you ever have the 

 high-gear speed and rare luck to catch one 

 of the suskalooted-cabbage-worm-egg-laying 

 butterflies, after running one lung out of 

 yourself, abolish one of her wings, then the 

 other wing, then delete her legs one at a 

 time seriatim, biff her in the left eye, and 

 ask her how she likes it. I think it will 

 relieve you a lot. I know it does me.) 



Some anonymous sunofagon out in Indiana 

 the other day wrote to " Mau-Around-the- 

 Office" (M.-A.-O.), care of the A. I. Eoot 

 Co., Medina, O., and every blessed thing 

 there was in his letter was this: "Why 

 don't you even once in awhile get a little 

 sense into 'Around the Office'? " Yes, sir, 

 on toj) of all my other troubles, not to men- 

 tion squash bugs, cabbage worms and pigeon 

 grass in my garden, he shot that one into 

 me. Of course, all of the Eoots saw it be- 

 fore I did, and it didn 't tend toward any 

 salary boost for me. If he'd a signed his 

 name, I'd a sent him a letter that would 

 have needed an asbestos mail pouch to have 

 carried it, so I would. I'd have told him 

 as what sort of varmit I regarded him and 

 Vound up by calling him a cabbage worm. 

 But cooling off a little and on reflection, 

 perhaps he 's entitled to know if I have got 

 a specimen of sense on hand. So I am going 

 to try this one on him for judgment: Liv- 

 ing at this very hour down in a town in 

 central Ohio is a beekeeper, who thinks he 's 

 a business whale. So he has to sell his 

 honey the way Heinz sells his 57 kinds. 

 Year after year, he buys bottles, bottles it, 

 buys labels and labels it, hauls it two miles 

 to market and sells it from his wagon retail 

 per lb. at a less figure than he could sell it 

 in 60-lb. cans at his door, — and owes debts 

 all over town. It was exactly that bee- 

 keeper sort about whom Solomon, when his 

 attention was called to it, remarked right 

 off' hand that ' ' there is more hope of a 

 dingbinged fool than of him." (Trans- 

 lators expurgated one word in the King 

 James version). Now you anonymous Indi- 

 ana scrummudgeon, is there any sense in 

 that or ain't there? Do Solomon and I 

 know what we are talking about or don't 

 we? Did Solomon ever agree with you 

 about anything as he does with me on this 

 point? I wot not. 



« * * 



That bee-moths are very like a good many 

 naughty peojile who know what they are 

 after and go to it, and that bees are very 

 like a good many good people who know 

 what is wrong but don 't know how to put 

 the binger on it, is illustrated by the fol- 

 lowing observation sent by Mr. E. J. Ladd 

 of Portland, Ore.: "Did you ever see moths 

 attempt to get into a strong colony? Moths 

 are very iilentiful this season with us and at 

 nightfall literally make attacks on the bees 



