1296 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Dec. 15 



for many bee-keepers. Of these more will 

 be said later, always trying to give the bad 

 side as well as the good. 



Guanincsfr^ THE PacificIoas 



: 'By Prop A, J.Cook.'- :i?oMqN A:lG,o;Li.E.c;t 



While on the ocean, en route for Europe, 

 I had the pleasure to read a book that 1 wish 

 to recommend to the readers of Gleanings. 

 It is called 



THE FAT OF THR L\ND. 



The author is John Williams Streeter, and 

 the style of the book is the same as "Blessed 

 Bees," which, it will be remembered, was a 

 fascinating recital of the experience of one 

 John Allen, which was so realistic that many 

 supposed it was actual fact, though it was a 

 too roseate picture of what might possibly 

 occur, but what would be exceedingly im- 

 probable. In this later book John Williams 

 is the chief character and he, because of over 

 work as a successful physician, breaks in 

 health, and so, with abundant means, he pur- 

 chases a farm, makes a thorough study of 

 the principles of agriculture, and achieves a 

 brilliant financial success. He also regains 

 fully his lost health. I do not know whether 

 or not this is the recital of actual experience; 

 but I am sure that the methods described 

 will bring success. I see no reason why the 

 financial success as pictured in the book 

 might not be realized to the full. Mr. 

 Williams kept strictly in line with the prin- 

 ciples of land culture that have been de- 

 termined by our Department of Agriculture 

 at Washington and the several Experiment 

 Stations. He worked to improve steadily the 

 fertility of his soil, and aimed to sell only 

 such products as would not impair such 

 fertility. 



I am the more ready to call attention 

 to this volume, as it is not only full of 

 valuable suggestions that will help to bring 

 success in any line, but I have known several 

 cases in Southern California that have been 

 as striking in the way of phenomenal suc- 

 cess as the experience of John Williams. I 

 believe the success of Mr. C. C. Chapman 

 in orange culture would even distance the 

 fierures given in "The Fat of the Land." Mr. 

 Chapman, to my certain knowledge, has won 

 his proud success by keeping in touch with 

 just such principles and methods as those 

 which pushed Mr. Williams to the very 

 front. All this is most pleasurable to think 

 upon, for, as we know, agriculture is the 

 very basis of all national prosperity, and 

 that, with its advance, progress will be 

 pushed in all lines. When farmers are 

 thoroup'hly taught as to principles and 

 methods, and will practice as best they 



know, then they will leap forward with 

 prodigious bounds, and all other activities 

 will feel the impetus from this progress. 

 American agriculture to-day leads the world b 



because it uses brains more than elsewhere. I 

 We shall go on to better performance with 

 such narration of success as is given in 

 this interesting book. More than this, the 

 pulse-beat of this higher, better life will reach 

 to other lands, and so the world will be 

 blessed. 



THE HIRED MAM. 



One reason why Mr. Williams reached 

 such eminence was the fact that he had re- 

 liable, competent help from his men. They 

 made his interest their interest. The farmer 

 who is thus fortunate in his hired help has 

 a most potent factor toward exceptional suc- 

 cess. Mr. Williams, instead of acting on 

 the principles of "Charge all the traffic will 

 bear," used the golden rule in all his rela- 

 tions with his men. Of course, his em- 

 ployees responded to such treatment, and 

 probably no money expended on the farm 

 brought such large returns as that which 

 gave to the help good — the best — food, pleas- 

 ant rooms, books and papers, and made their 

 lives on the farm pleasurable. Mr. James 

 Mills, of Riverside, California, and Mrs. Min- 

 nie E. Sherman, of Fresno, in the same 

 State, have both carried out the same plan 

 on the large farms which they control, and 

 the tremendous success which they have both 

 achieved owes not a little to their wise and 

 generous treatment of the hired help. I be- 

 lieve that the heaviest tax our farmers pay 

 is that which comes from poor, uninterested, 

 inefficient help. The one thing that will 

 tend most powerfully to remove this un- 

 gracious handicap is to bring more of the 

 golden rule into play in all the relations with 

 our employees. 



ORDERS OF INSECTS. 



A subscriber asks if I will not describe 

 the several orders of insects so that one 

 who has not studied entomology may place 

 them. I am glad to do this, as it is quite 

 easy. The names of the orders come from 

 the wing-characters, and it is the wings that 

 are of chief use in placing the insects in 

 the ordinal groups. But many insects in 

 all orders are "apterous," that is they have 

 no wings, therefore we must look further 

 than wings to find characters that will make 

 us able to classify correctly all insects into 

 orders. 



The kind of mouth organs is the second 

 guide, and is easily used by the neophyte. 

 As there are but two kinds of mouth-struc- 

 ture in general structure, though the details 

 are most varied, and as there are several or- 

 ders, we have to use still a third set of 

 characters in this classificatory work. These 

 have to do with the transformations of the 

 insects, whether they are very pronounced, 

 or complete, as we call them, or not so 

 marked, when we style the transformations 

 incomplete. The locusts and lice are always 

 much alike, though here we find four stages 



