um 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1595 



The clapping of hands, and the aniens and 

 the shouts were then even still greater: and 

 when I thought of checking all tliat enthusi- 

 asm liy telling them that 1 meant only foi 

 thousand instead of one hundred thousand, 

 my courage failed me. After I arriveil home 

 I told the boys the predicament I was in; 

 but they just laughed at me, and said they 

 would help me out. Mr. Calvert suggested 

 that 30,000 of the 100,000 could be furnished 

 l^y printing the speech in Gleanings; and 

 then I thanked God to realize that it is real- 

 ly in our power to put such a paper into the 

 homes of 80,000 people where it will be pret- 

 ty sure to be read more or less. Howard 

 Russell made a further motion that, when 

 we got enough copies of the Stainless Flag 

 printed, the United States shall appoint a 

 certain Sunday for temperance, and call it 

 "Stainless Flag" Sunday. The pastor of 

 every church shall be desired to read over 

 the speech carefully, present it to his people, 

 then have the ushers hand a copy of the 

 speech to every one in the audience as the 

 congregation passes out. The sum of $3500 

 was raised for this purpose in less than fif- 

 teen minutes, and there is very little douljt 

 that the money to furnish half a million 

 copies could be raised without any trouble. 

 I will not tell you any thing al)out that speech 

 now; but when you get an opportunity to 

 read the Stainless Flag, go over it thorough- 

 ly and carefully "Stainless Flag" Sunday 

 will probably be the Sunday pi-eceding the 

 Fourth of July, 1907. And, dear lirothers 

 and sisters, it looks now as if the time were 

 near at hand when the stai'S and stripes that 

 float over our heads in this great repv:blic 

 shall indeed be a "stainless flag," unstained 

 by any direct or indirect complicity with the 

 liquor-traffic. 



Before closing I feel that I must express 

 my thanks to our excellent presiding officer. 

 Bishop G. M. Matthews, of the United Breth- 

 ren Church of Chicago. Bishop Matthews is 

 one of the kindest, most genial, and most 

 Christlike or Christianlike men I have ever 

 met in my life. He taught us one thing that 

 I think would be a benefit at our bee-keep- 

 ers' conventions. With that great audience 

 of men whose time was exceedingly valuable 

 it was of the utmost importance tliat no time 

 be wasted. One of his short cuts to save 

 time was to get rid of things that came up, 

 with as little red tape and parliamentary 

 machinery as possible. For instance, some 

 brother would make a suggestion, and he 

 would add, just the instant the lirother sat 

 down, "Friends, can we not all agree to 

 this so as to get on with our regular busi- 

 ness?" and if the response was agreed to, we 

 pushed right on to something else. In this 

 way a great number of things that might 

 have provoked a long discussion were push- 

 ed along out of the way, and everybody was 

 just as well off, or perhaps better. He con- 

 stantly impressed on every one the impor- 

 tance of getting through, and giving each 

 delegate from the various States a chance to 

 make a report of ten minutes. 



BUDDING APPLE-TREES. 



Years ago an aged bee-keeper who was a 

 lover of apples showed me liow to l)ud ap- 

 ple-trees. I had almost forgotten alxxit it 

 till last August, while on a visit to our Ohio 

 Experiment Station, where they showed me 

 a new early apple. It was about the size of 

 and somewhat resemliled the Red Astrakhan, 

 although not nearly as tart. But I decided 

 at the time that it was the "very nicest ap- 

 ple I ever tasted in my life." Perhaps you 

 have heard me say that before. But this for 

 the time being seemed to eclipse all others. 

 I was told that no trees are yet for sale liy 

 the nurserymen; but I was permitted to cut 

 off a little twig of the young tree. It had 

 just commenced liearing, if I am correct. I 

 took that twig home and went to some trees 

 in our dooryard and proceeded much in the 

 usual way of budding peach-trees. I made a 

 T-shaped cut (or, rather, two cuts) on a 

 thrifty twig or limb, raised up the corners 

 in the usual way. then with a very thin- 

 liladed knife took a slice from my choice 

 twig so as to cut out a leaf-bud, taking a lit- 

 tle of the wood right under the bud as well 

 as the bark. This bud was then pushed un- 

 der the corners of the liark where I made the 

 two cuts and the top cut off sciuarely. Then 

 I tied it up with woolen yarn, as that is bet- 

 ter than any thing else liecaiise it will stretch 

 if you should forget to take it off at the prop- 

 ertime. I set three buds in this way; and 

 as I soon left home the matter was forgotten 

 till to-day, Dec. 1, when I went out and took 

 oft' the woolen yarn, and found every bud 

 had taken perfectly; the wound had healed 

 up well and sound, and I have the promise 

 of this new fruit a good deal sooner than if 

 I had purchased trees at the nursery. 



Now, there is one feature about this man- 

 ner of budding that greatly pleases me. 

 Whenever you find an apple-tree that bears 

 apples that' suit you, especially early apples, 

 at just the time when apples are ripe, do the 

 budding. You do not have to have any wax, 

 nor any tools, except a sharp-bladed pen- 

 knife and a little woolen yarn. The bark of 

 an early apple-tree will always raise nicely 

 when the fruit is ripe, so far as my experience 

 goes. I hope our friends at the experiment 

 station will be able to give me the name of 

 this beautiful new apple when they see what 

 I have written about it. 



SUCCESSFUL MUSHROOM-GROWING. 



Frit-nd Root:— On vane ^th'i you ask about succes.s- 

 ful mushroom raising. This locality is about 20 miles 

 from Phihidelpcia, and one of the most succeesful dis- 

 tricts for mushroom-trrowintr in Pennsylvania. The 

 land beinyr used for dairy farms has been heavily ma- 

 nured, and seems to be adapted to mushroom and ear- 

 nation Krowingr. There are within five miles of my 

 home probably thirty mushroom-houses, built ex- 

 pressly for the ^rowinK of mushrooms, and holdins? 

 from five to twenty-live carloads of manure each. 

 There are many farmers who raise them in small 



