Nov. 23, 1899. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL, 



739 



flint and tried again." " Can you not try nie again, John ?" 

 "Yes, I will pick the flint and try you again." We must 

 pick the flint and try again if we fail. 



Do we want strong colonies with no swarming and 

 much comb honey ? There are those here who do not be- 

 lieve we can have strong colonies and much honey without 

 swarming. I believe we shall yet have these things because 

 some have " a little strength" to work in that direction. 

 Now, there is no such thing as failure, if we have " a little 

 strength," because there is set before us " an open door." 



I love to read Jeremiah, in the 18th chapter. When he 

 was about to get discouraged God sent him down to the 

 potter's house. He saw the potter molding the clay, and 

 just as the potter had it all molded it dropt and went all to 

 pieces. Jeremiah thought it was ruined, but the potter 

 gathered up the pieces of clay and molded it again into a 

 perfect vessel fit for the Master's use. Have you tried rear- 

 ing queens and failed ? What are you going to do? Are 

 you going to give it up ? The queen that cannot be 

 "brought to time " in breeding is not the queen for me. I 

 have been working to bring queens to perfection by giving 

 the maximum number of bees just at the time of the honey 

 harvest. 



I am requested to tell the anecdote I told at the Buffalo 

 convention of this association two years ago. A certain 

 darkey often went to market, but one time it was different — 

 his wife went with him this time. He cried at the top of 

 his voice, " 'T.\TOES, 'TATOES, 'TATOKS!" His wife said, 

 "Keep still, darling, you will wake all the people up." He 

 said to her, " That is what I want to do;" and again he 

 cried, " 'Tatoks, 'TaToes, 'tatoes !" That is what ive want 

 to do — wake bee-keepers up about securing a large force of 

 bees in time for the harvest. 



Do you wish to know about putting on and taking off 

 sections, doing it at just the right time ? Then use " a lit- 

 tle strength " along that line. 



When we entered the bee-keeping ranks we pledged our- 

 selves by thus entering to do our best. Some may not be- 

 lieve we did so. I am reminded of our great ocean steamers. 

 In the middle of the Atlantic one of the stokers was askt, 

 "Are the other stokers all working? Is the vessel going 

 right ?" He answered, " I am not the captain, but by tak- 

 ing this place I pledged myself to do the best I could. I am 

 captain of this shovel." He did his part faithfully, and the 

 vessel landed safely in Liverpool. 



Have you tried wintering bees and failed ? During the 

 winter of 1881-82 three-fourths of all the bees in the United 

 States died. There has been progress in wintering since 

 then, and yet we are not perfect. August is the time to 

 prepare bees for winter. See that each colony has a good 

 queen, bees and food enough. If you wait until December, 

 and then write to Dr. Miller or Dr. Mason about preparing 

 your bees for winter, you will be something like the old 

 preacher whose wife said to him one cold Sunday, " Had 

 you not better put on a thicker pair of pants ?" The pair 

 he put on had hung away all summer in the attic, and the 

 wasps had built a nest in the roomy part of them. After 

 getting into the pulpit he commenced to read the 103rd 

 Psalm : " ' Bless the Lord oh my soul ' — oh, what a sting I 

 ' Bless the Lord oh my soul, and forget not all his benefits ' 

 — Ge-whit-aker,what a sting ! I'll tell you what it is, breth- 

 ren, the word of the Lord is in my mouth, but the devil's 

 in these breeches." 



If we put off preparing for winter until December the 

 word of the Lord may be in our mouths, but failure will be 

 ours. There is no time for sitting around listening to idle 

 gossip. 



A sailing vessel was stranded off the coast of South 

 America ; a signal of distress was run up, and a steamer saw 

 it and askt what was needed. " Water, /;ri/i zt'a/cr, " was 

 the reply. " Do you not know you are at the mouth of the 

 Amazon ? Let down your buckets and you will find plenty." 

 My friends, we are always in the Amazon of bee-keeping ; 

 let down your buckets and dip the fresh water up. 



Moses saw the burning bush and put his shoes from off 

 his feet. There are many burning bushes about the bee- 

 keeping pursuit, but he only sees who "puts the shoes 

 from off his feet." After seeing the possibilities we are to 

 go out and tell it to the world, for there are no possibilities 

 in selfishness. 



Biddy said to Pat one morning, "Go and kill the roos- 

 ter." He came to the door with it under his arm, took it by 

 the head, gave it a few twists, and sent it floundering into 

 the kitchen with the blood spurting about. 



"Pat, didn't I tell you to kill the rooster?" yelled 

 Biddy. "Faith," said Pat, " it's dead, but it don't know 

 it." The selfish person may go floundering about, but is 



dead to the possibilities of apiculture. The first thing for 

 us to do after learning something useful is to go out and 

 tell it to the world. There are no possibilities of a useful 

 thing: dying with ourselves because we only wisht to profit 

 by it. We are to spend ourselves for others if we would at- 

 tain to the highest possibilities, as such expending will 

 react on us. 



You remember the old metaphor, 



" There was a man, his neighbors thouj^ht Uini mad. 

 The more he g-ave away the more he had." 



And so it is with us, if we try to make the apicultural 

 world better for our having lived in it. The Good Book 

 says, " There is that scattereth and yet increaseth ; and 

 there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth 

 to poverty." 



Every time we tell a thing the possibilities are greater 

 thru the reflex action that comes to us, and so by thus tell- 

 ing we keep on g:rowing to the highest possibilities. 



It is said that Capt. Cook, when he sailed around the 

 world, planted English flowers at every place he landed, 

 and so he has, thru these flowers, been growing ever since. 



No, no, brothers and sisters, bee-keeping is not ours. 

 We may think we have the right to hug things up and keep 

 them ourselves, but it is not so. Apiculture of to-day is 

 what it is because of those who came before us. 



Two monkeys discover an apple below a high bank in 

 the water, with the limb of a tree overhanging. They climb 

 the tree ; the first attaches himself to the limb, and the sec- 

 ond attaches himself to the first monkey, but they are too 

 short. A third came, but still they could not reach it. 

 Along came the fourth, and taking in the situation ran up 

 the tree, over the limb, and down the three suspended mon- 

 keys and reacht the apple. Will any bee-keeper present 

 tell me that the apple belonged to the fourth monkey ? The 

 apiarists of the past are the " mother breasts " that furnisht 

 the nourishment for the possibilities of the present. The 

 thought of yesterday is but the inspiration of to-day. He 

 onh' lives wisely who lives for the possibilities of the future 

 — possibilities to generations yet unborn. Others of us in- 

 stead of being selfish are telling things that we don't know ; 

 we get a little bee-keeping — go out and write for the papers 

 and make lots of noise. 



An old darkey was plodding and splashing homeward 

 thru a midnight thunderstorm. The winds were blowing, 

 and the rain was sheeting down. Every other moment a 

 flash of lightning slasht the heavens briefly like a knife of 

 fire. Then followed the thunders, rolling crash on crash, 

 as if the very roots of the hills were being torn from their 

 home in the ages. The lightning would last but a second, 

 and then leave the poor old darkey in blacker night than 

 ever. But the thunders were incessant ; their rollings were 

 without end. At last the old darkey became frightened, 

 and, following a thundrous peal of unusual horror, he 

 plumpt down on his knees in the mud and began to pray, 

 " Oh ! Lord," he cried, " far be it from one so humble as I 

 to tell Thee thy business. But if it's all the same to Thee, 

 an' doan't pester Thee or change too much Thy infinite 

 plans, couldn't this storm be managed to give us a leetle 

 less noise an' a leetle mo' light ? Amen !" 



And so let us, when we do anything, do it for the pur- 

 pose of disseminating light, not to make a noise. 



Again, others of us work with no definite object in 

 view. We should work and toil for a purpose. John China- 

 man was hacking away on a stick, and a neighbor askt 

 him, " What are you making, John ?" He replied, " It may 

 be a god or it may be a bedstead, for all I know." We ex- 

 periment so loosely that, at the finish, if askt the result, we 

 can only reply, "It may be a god or it may be a bedstead, 

 for all I know." Let us work so perfectly that iNe knotv 

 what we are doing, so that we maj' hear the Master say, 

 "Because thou hast ' a little strength ' I have set before 

 thee 'an open door.' " 



Mind has not graspt the possibilities which are before 

 us if we work with the " little strength " we have. Let us 

 not deceive ourselves. This " little strength " must be used 

 intelligently, and for the good of the whole — not for just 

 711 c, if " behold, I have set before thee an open door " of pos- 

 sibilities is to be realized. Understanding it, are vou ready 

 to venture? \i &o. X.h<i possibilities are for you. ' There is 

 no chance of a failure. The power is with our "little 

 strength." The accomplishments of the past are nothing 

 to what there is in store for the apicultural world if we but 

 enter the "open door." Will we do it? 



A certain explorer, with his guide, was traveling up the 

 Alps. They came to a certain place where the explorer 

 could see no place to stop. The guide swung himself into a 

 crevice of the rock and put out his hand ; seeing it the ex- 



