1909 



GLEANINGS IN BP:E CULTURE. 



1075 



a double hautlful of bees, that would be 

 enough to raise a good queen and start to 

 liuilding up a colony. Whenever you want 

 full-sized Laugstroth frames so as to get liig 

 colonies, just put three little frames inside 

 of one big frame, as has been so many times 

 explained. I think these little hives every 

 season would be good property to l)uy ami 

 sell. I do not know just what the expense 

 is. I think a one-story hive, nailed up. 

 is advertised at a dollar. A dollar more 

 ought to furnish bees enough for a good 

 start: and then you can put in any kiml of 

 queen you like. Of course, this hive is vir- 

 tually the same thing as the Pearl Agnes 

 hive: and I should not he surprised if these 

 little hives, in connection with the gentle 

 Caucasian bees, or a strain of gentle Italians, 

 might prove to be a ncir depai'ture in bee 

 culture. Any one who felt inclined could 

 make a start with two or three dollars. If 

 for any reason he wants to give it up. there 

 would be plenty of people to take them off 

 his hands at cost or nearly that. With these 

 little hives and gentle liees. little girls and 

 boys might keep bees just as well as to have 

 pet chickens or a pet dog or a kitten. 



I almost forgot to add that in Noi'thern 

 INIichigan. as well as in Cuba, the Caucasians 

 were away ahead of the hybrids in gathering 

 honey. As I had only one colony of hyl)rids. 

 however, perhaps the test was not i\\ute a 

 fair one. Just before dictating this article I 

 went down to our own apiary here in Medi- 

 na, and had ^Ir. Wardell show me the colo- 

 nies that came from queens raised early in 

 the spring from our apiary in Florida. He 

 agreed with me that they were fully equal 

 as honey-gatherers to the Italians: and so 

 far as we could determine they seemed, if 

 any thing, to be rather superior. When the 

 Caucasians were building up nicely, without 

 any feeding whatever, we have been doing 

 considerable feeding among some of the Ital- 

 ians which we wanted to build up rapidly. 



Whatsoever a man soweth. that shall he also reap. 

 —Gal. 6:7. 



Give us this day our daily bread.— Matt. 6:11. 

 Dear friends, this Home paper ought to be 

 one of the most valuable that has ever come 

 from my brain: and the more valuable be- 

 cause it is not the production of my own 

 brain. It belongs to the man "whose brain 

 has increased the corn cx'op of Iowa about 

 50.000.000 bushels yearly." You see I have 

 put the above in quotation-marks. That is 

 l)ecause I took it from a little handbill an- 

 nouncing that Prof. P. G. Holden would 



address our Chippewa Lake Chautau(]ua on 

 the 1st of August. I had heai'd something 

 of Prof. Holdeu l:)efore. I think it was the 

 Eural New-Yorker that said the '-corn wiz- 

 ard" of Iowa had not only put American 

 corn on the witness-stand. but that he had 

 succeeded, after years of patient toil and 

 study, in not only making the corn listen 

 to his questions, but in making it give a 

 definite and decided answer. 



When I sat down to listen to Prof. Hoklen 

 I had somehow gotten the erroneous im- 

 pression that he had developed a new strain 

 of seed corn, something in the way Luther 

 Burbank develop.s new fruits, or is reported 

 to have done so. But I was agreeably sur- 

 prised in a good many ways. First, the 

 speaker said we did not want to send off 

 (inijirhere for seed corn — especially not to 

 distant States. Get the best corn you can in 

 your own immediate neighborhood. If you 

 get seed corn more than ten or twenty miles 

 from the locality where it has been grown 

 for years it seems to get homesick. The 

 thing the farmer has to do to double his 

 corn crop must he done in his own home on 

 his own farm: and his own children and 



good wife are to do it or help to do it. Prof, 

 [olden reminded me vividly of Prof. C-ook, 

 especially when he used to give his talks at 

 the Michigan Agricultural College. If I shut 

 my eyes I could almost think it was Prof. 

 Cook who was talking. He is a rather small 

 and slim man: hut his face just beams with 

 overflowing good nature and enthusiasm. 

 I listened to his talk something over two 

 hours: and although it is hard work for me 

 ordinarily to listen to any discourse an hour 

 long. I think I could have continued to listen 

 until dark, going without my supper without 

 a thought of it. He was. of course, cheered 

 and encored all the way through: and more 

 or less questions were ■■fired" at him all the 

 time. His whole audience of four or five 

 hundred caught his enthusiasm: and. oh how 

 he did improve the opportunity to crowd 

 home great and important truths! His ad- 

 dress was a home talk if there ever was a 

 home talk. It caught hold of the women 

 and children just as it caught hold of the 

 men: and every little while, for fear some 

 important matter would be overlooked or 

 forgotten, or might slip from the memory, 

 he would stop and say. "'Now. look here, 

 friends, you are not listening. This is a 

 matter of exceeding importance. If you do 

 not listen intently to every word I say. you 

 will let a cog slip, and your work will go 

 all to pieces." 



Prof. Holden got into Medina Co. one day 

 in advance: and just as soon as let loose he 

 began rambling over the cornfields in our 

 region. Then he visited our experiment 

 station at Wooster: and. oh how he did 

 "roast" the stupid farmers who live within 

 easy access of our experiment station, and 

 yet" never go there to see what is being done! 

 He had the platform where he spoke loaded 

 with stalks and hills of corn that he had 

 pulled up in adjoining fields. The table and 

 chairs were loaded with specimens of ears of 



