1450 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Nov. 15 



places that harbor thieves of all sorts. They 

 are known at the saloons, they are all pat- 

 rons of saloons, and the saloon-keepers have 

 facilities for getting them out of a scrape 

 and eluding justice. 



Our second text tells us something aliout 

 the way in which the police ai'e sometimes 

 linked in with saloon-keepers and the whis- 

 ky business. They laugh at the farmer and 

 his hard work. If a man who steals chick- 

 ens will divide his spoil with the saloon- 

 keeper and with the policemen who hang 

 around saloons they will get him off, no 

 matter how plain the evidence is. I ear- 

 nestly hope Pike Co., 111., will succeed in 

 making chicken-stealing a penitentiary of- 

 fense; but if they do not get rid of their sa- 

 loons I am afraid they will never get the 

 culprit in the penitentiary, no matter how 

 plain the evidence is. Pike Co. should start 

 a big wave of protest and indignation. The 

 people should rise up in a body, and declare 

 that this iniquitous business shall stop. The 

 officers of the Anti-saloon League will glad- 

 ly assist them in working up a sentiment 

 that will make their county a dry one; then 

 the whole State will set to work to start a 

 reform such as they ai'e having in Indiana— 

 ves, and here in Ohio. Let me digress a 

 little. 



Spme years ago, with a friend I happened 

 to visit a very nice residence, recently plan- 

 ned and laiilt by a man of considerable 

 wealth. We stopped to see his greenhouse 

 and his exotic crops; and as we were look- 

 ing over the premises, among other things 

 he invited us into the kitchen. Said he, in 

 substance : 



■'Gentlemen, do you see any tlies here? 

 Now, although this is the kitchen, and here 

 is the kitchen back yard, there is not a tiy. 

 Do you know why? It is because Ave starve 

 them out. There is not a thing to liait them 

 anywhere on the premises, and so there is 

 nothing for them to live on. There are no 

 slops pitched out into the back yard; no 

 dirty dishes are left one minute uncovered; 

 during all our cooking, dish-washing, etc.. 

 our help understands there is not one scrap 

 of any thing to be left to bait and encourage 

 Hies. The slops all go off from the Imilding 

 in a sanitary slop-drain. The dishes from 

 the tal)le are closed up tiy-tight, as you see, 

 in the sink where they are washed. Then 

 they are washed so quickly no tiy gets a 

 chance to take a sip. It is some trouble; 

 but don't you think it is woi'th all it costs?" 



I should mention, also, that his stables 

 were quite a distance from his house, and 

 the manure-piles were so handled that thex*e 

 was no breeding-place for liies there. Now, 

 friends, it is the same thing with rats. 

 Every little while when I come home from 

 my trips I find rats had gotten to be ram- 

 pant again, and the folks say they are so 

 bad that they can not do any thing with 

 them. They will not go into traps, they 

 will not eat rat biscviits, etc. ; but when I get 

 around they do both and get cleaned out. 

 Rats and chicken-thieves and flies and all 

 other like nuisances need energy and push 



and determination. You want to get right 

 down mad. Yes, it is r?"^A< to get " mad ' at 

 rats and mice and flies and chicken-thieves. 

 I was going to add that it is right to give 

 the whole crew a dose of rat poison, but I 

 should have to take it back when I come to 

 the last one of my three texts. That man 

 who kept the flies away from his kitchen and 

 back yard had an easier problem than we 

 have here at our factory. The greater part 

 of our hands bring their dinner in pails. 

 They not only scatter the crumbs where 

 they are eating, but if the good wife puts up 

 more than they need they will persist, in 

 spite of all my pleading, in throwing good 

 and wholesome food around on the ground. 

 While this is going on it is next to impossi- 

 ble to be entirely free from rats. Do you 

 want to know how I manage? Well, we 

 tried different kinds of traps, and smoked 

 the traps. Then we have a dog that makes 

 it his special business to make it "hot" for 

 every rat that comes "out in the open." 

 At times we have had a weasel to c^hase the 

 rats out of their holes. When the boys said 

 the rats would not eat our biscuit I told 

 them to send to the grocery for a tumbler of 

 soft cheese — the kind that comes in tum- 

 blers; but the grocer was sold out of the 

 cheese. Then they forgot to get it. Finally, 

 when they did get it they were " too busy to 

 hunt rats." 



Perhaps I might as well acknowledge the 

 i"ats got into mj winter apples where they 

 were placed in the woodshed before they 

 were put into the cellar. But I took some 

 rat biscuit and buttered it on both sides with 

 the soft cheese, then crumbled it up tine (so 

 children could not well pick it up), and pret- 

 ty soon there was a smell of dead rats around 

 the premises. That is one liad thing about 

 poisoning; Init a dead rat is a far better rat, 

 in my opinion, than a live one, even if it 

 does make a bad odor when you can not find 

 it. Mrs:. Boot keeps mice and rats off the 

 pi'emises bj having wire-cloth screens at 

 every window (especially those in the cellar), 

 and also screen doors. If a rat or mouse 

 should get inside we trap it or poison it. 

 The screens not only keep out rats and mice, 

 l)ut they keep out flies. It is some trouble; 

 but "there is no excellence without great la- 

 bor." The modern way of building houses 

 and cellars with cement floors should effect- 

 ually enable one, without veiy much labor, 

 to keep out rats and mice. It is a disgrace 

 to any home or neighborhood to have the 

 filthy creatures around. You ought to be 

 ashamed of it. In the same way it is a dis- 

 grace to any neighborhood or community or 

 county to have diicken-thieves aroimd. You 

 ought to be ashamed of that too. Form a 

 protective association; offer a reward for the 

 depredators, and hustle them into the jails 

 and State prisons. But even after you get 

 them there, there is another trovible. Satan 

 is wily. That same number of the Rural 

 New-Yorker contains something more I wish 

 to copy. Just read it; 



The Central Protective Association, which recently 

 held its thirty-first annual meeting at Atchison, Kan., 



