1516 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 1 



in my life were round about Spearfish. 

 Beautiful sparkling bal)bling water is every- 

 where, by the sides of the roads and through 

 the fields. 1 always feel happy when I see 

 running water — tliat is, clear sparkling wa- 

 ter. I like to see it hustle along; and where 

 the fall is sufficient it always seems to me 

 as if it were too busy to stop and talk, or do 

 any thing but push ahead. I heard of a pa- 

 per out west called the Daily Pusher. Well, 

 the water in these irrigating canals and wood- 

 en flumes makes me think of the •'Daily 

 Pusher. ' ' My friend, are you one of that sort? 

 I have suspected sometimes that the secret of 

 growing old and holding all our faculties is 

 probably in being a "daily pusher." We 

 talked about almost every thing, even if it 

 was on vSunday, but we did not do much 

 visiting: but early Monday morning we took 

 a trip part way up the celel)rated SpearMsh 

 ■Canyon, and also took in the fish-hatchery 

 belonging to the State. 1 have described so 

 many of these that I hardly need go over it 

 here. This special fish-hatchery has much 

 to do with keeping the mounfaln streams 

 plentifully supplied with the finest kind of 

 speckled trout to be found anywhere in the 

 United States, and may be I should, lie i-ight 

 if I said anywhere in the world. The town 

 of Spearfish is 16 miles from Deadwood by 

 stage line: but by rail it takes 40 miles to 

 make the same distance, aud it is through 

 some of the tinest scenery in the Black Hills. 

 At one place you look over a precipice and 

 see the railroad 1300 feet below where you 

 stand; but a train on that road has to go 13 

 miles to get down those 1300 feet. 



The mining industry, with the recent de- 

 velopments in agriculture, is making much 

 activity there just now. Not only railway's 

 but trolley Hues are i)eing l)uilt between the 

 large cities, and at (m(j place I found a gaso- 

 line trolley line running 60 miles quite suc- 

 cessfully. The impression was that it was 

 -cheaper than electricity. 



A stage ride of twelve or fifteen miles took 

 me over to Belle Fourche, Butte Co., S. D. 

 The fertile soil around Belle Fourche has for 

 years furnished great plenty of cattle. Why. 

 the figures almost make one's head swim. I 

 am told on good authority that the cattle in- 

 dustry of the Black Hills has, some years, 

 reached 5000 carloads, worth something like 

 Jour millions of dollars. Not far from Belle 

 Fourche a great irrigation-dam is being con- 

 structed by the government, and this will 

 greatly increase the present possibilities of 

 agriculture and cattle-raising. I found quite 

 an excitement in regard to what had recent- 

 ly been done in bee culture at this place; 

 and, queer enough, bee-keeping there is al- 

 most entirely in the hands of women. One 

 lady said that the bees got so much honey 

 they were everlastingly swarming; and there 

 were so many swarms that came out when 

 nobody was around to care for them that 

 they clustered in dooryards and gardens all 

 over town; and now almost every home had 

 one or more colonies hived in drygoods-box- 

 es, kegs, or something else; but the women 

 "were taking the lead. 



Tr;iin up a child in the way he should go, and when 

 he is old he will not depart from it.— Pro v. 22: 6. 



OUR AMERICAN BOYS. 



Of late I have been pondering over and 

 watching our boys a little more, perhaps, 

 than ever before. One reason is, may be, 

 that I have been recently appointed guardi- 

 an of a boy in his teens, whose parents are 

 both dead. I am supposed to look after 

 him, see how he spends his money, keep 

 track of his studies and deportment in 

 school, see that he is decently clot.hed, see 

 that he does not contract any bad habits, 

 keep an eye on the company he keeps, see 

 that he is home nights at a reasonable time, 

 etc Well, my honest opinion, after a few 

 months' experience, is that 1 am a rather 

 poor hand at guaixlianship. Perhaps some- 

 body else who is undertaking the office of 

 guardian may feel something as 1 do about 

 it. I have talked quite a little, and I have 

 scolded some; but so far it does not seem to 

 amount to very much. Neither the boy nor 

 I am making mut^h progress. We are good 

 friends right along, and I thank the Lord for 

 thai; but we do not seem to see things alike; 

 and perhaps one ought not to expect a boy 

 of 17 and a man of 67 to have tastes and 

 sympathies along the same line. Sometimes 

 I think I am, periiaps, expecting a little too 

 much of a boy in his teens. And then, 

 again, on the other hand, when I hear of 

 the boy's shortcomings I begin t) think 1 

 have not been strict enough. May GofI help 

 me to (choose the golden mean. Yes, that 

 has been an oft-repeated prayer. I know 

 the promise in our text; but I did not have 

 the care of that boy until he was pretty well 

 along in his teens. In fact, he was born and 

 brought up, until recently, more than a 

 thousand miles away. 



Very often we expect too much of a boy. 

 Years ago, when I used to run a market- 

 wagon, it was thought advisable to take 

 along a boy to deliver goods from the wag- 

 on, as he could save steps for the man in 

 charge, and thus get over more territory. 

 This special boy did not seem to have any 

 idea of business. He was looking around, 

 and wasting his time when he ought to have 

 been busy; and, more than that, in spite of 

 all we could do he would help himself from 

 the heaping boxes of strawberries and other 

 fruits. Now, it was not the value of the 

 strawberries, mind you; but how it looks to 

 offer a customer a box of berries with the 

 box not quite full instead of being rounded 

 up as we usually do! I remonstrated and 

 scolded; but for all that, when no one was 

 looking the boy would make a quick motion 



