THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



505 



Rend before the Am. Inst. F:irmers' Club. 



Bee-Keeping and Other rmsuits. 



T. SHERMAN. 



In traveling this, the rural districts 

 of New England, at the present day, 

 one is iiaiufuUv impressed with the 

 meUmcholy contrast to the New Eng- 

 land of our father's time. 



Then, jolly, thriving farmers, well- 

 cared for farms, smiling tields and 

 peace and plenty, greeted the eye on 

 everv hand. Prosperity and happy 

 united families was the rule every- 

 where ; now, these are the exceptions. 

 Families are, very generally, hroken 

 up ; the daughters are in tlie factories, 

 and the sons have emigrated to the 

 west, carrying with them tlie snap 

 and grit of the typical Yankee. Even 

 now, the sturdy boys are, by the hun- 

 dieds, leaving "the old crili and seek- 

 ing new homes beyond the ■•Father 

 ot Waters.'' In hundreds of instances 

 that have come under the observa- 

 tion of your— perliaps cynical— essay- 

 ists, while tramping with knapsack 

 and staff, farm houses have been 

 seen in the crazy-looking condition, 

 so graphically depicted on the black- 

 board by our accomplished iellow 

 husbandman. Dr. Gerrish. Farms 

 have gone to waste and are tenanted 

 mainly by the idle and shiftless, or by 

 those" who are as worn out as the 

 farms themselves, and a general air of 

 discouragement and despondency 

 too piev.iils. 



The experienced tiller of tlie soil 

 who presided over the Tribune has 

 been under the sod for many years ; 

 but his counsels to the young man to 

 ■• go west '■ aie still impressed on the 

 minds of Yankee lads, and the papers 

 of yesterday tell us that over three 

 hundred have already gone this 

 spring from the little "State of Ver- 

 mont to Dakota. 



And so this sad state of affairs 

 among the down East peasantry be- 

 comes yearly more and more pro- 

 nounced, and but for her ten thous- 

 and factories Xew England might in 

 time again become the howling 

 wilderness that our progenitors found 

 it. 



The agricultnrist of the West, from 

 his prolUic virgin soil, on his .stone- 

 less prairie, is muniticently rewarded 

 for his labors — labors, too, far lighter 

 than his forefathers knew of. He 

 hnds his prodt in growing wheat and 

 corn, in raising cattle and sheep, in 

 the dairy products of butter and 

 cheese, and in many other industrial 

 pursuits, which bountiful nature sup- 

 plies him with the soil and climatic 

 conditions favorable for. Jiut what 

 is the man in the East to do now on 

 his comparatively sterile lands ':* With 

 him, what with a cold, tliiity, untill- 

 able soil, nnpitying climate, and un- 

 lovable conditions generally, it re- 

 quires severe toil and a " grinding 

 frugality that amounts to a cruel de- 

 privation of the essentials for health 

 and comfort to make both ends meet. 

 He is oftimes forced to subsist on 

 what the storekeepers wont take of 

 him— sour biead, measly pork, the 

 ubiquitous unbaked dough pie (fla- 



vored with dibb), the inevitable I 

 doughnut, and other equally fructify- j 

 ing edibles. , ,. , i 



Such a life and such a fare belittles : 

 the man, and as his prosperity often : 

 depends upon the potato yield, dis- 

 cussion upon that esculent is the one 

 topic dearest to his heart, and the 

 sesthetic tastes of his hard-working 

 wife can find no higher expression 

 than in the pretentious sunHower and 

 tlie ungraceful luillyhock. 



No wonder, tlien. that the country 

 is like poor Ireland, full of absentees. 

 No wonder, either, that the bitter 

 problem is present. " Is life worth the 

 living," under such heart-chilling 

 conditions 'f 



Is it surprising that the young fel- 

 low solves the problem with a " no ':'"' 

 With tears in his eves, but resolution 

 in his heart, his other shirt tied up in 

 a handkerchief, the traditional -50 

 cents and a few doughnuts in his 

 pockets, the revised New Testament 

 in his bosom, and the dear old 

 mother's blessing on his head, he 

 trudges off and helps to build up the 

 Empire of the West. 



But we propose, to-day, to speak on 

 the affirmative of this question, and 

 to try to sliow that " hope may yet 

 spring etenial in the breast" of the: 

 stay-at-home New England farmer, j 

 and that he may even there become 

 again not merely happy and prosper- 1 

 ous, but perchance a bloated capital- 

 ist. 



Having the facts, figures, results. [ 

 and experiences to demonstrate the 

 truth of the statement, we unhesitat- 

 ingly assert that, 



1st. Dairy Farming can be and is 

 made to pay handsomely. Our worthy 

 President and our honored associate 

 Dr. Trimble, gladly testified to what 

 they saw on the Starr Ranch, at 

 Litchliekl, and there are other dairy 

 farms showing equally good results, 

 some perhaps better, why not hun- 

 dreds of tliemV Need we send to 

 Iowa for our butter, when Maine, 

 with her bleak and merciless atmos- 

 phere, carries off the prizes at our 

 agricultural fairs V 



2d. The production of poultry— ay, 

 smile if vou will— can, with proper 

 management, let ns emphasize the 

 words — proper management — be made 

 largely remunerative, and will draw a 

 line under the word largely. 



3d. Pisciculture, where one has the 

 location for it. will we are assured by 

 the Hon. Mr. Roosevelt, rapidly roll 

 in the shekels, and make plethoric 

 the money bags of the fanner. Trout- 

 raising, at any rate, we will subscribe 

 to, from a very limited personal ex- 

 perience. 



4th. Arboriculture will always pay ; 

 but, of course, here the question of 

 time is an important factor ; yet we 

 may say, neglect not to set out trees, 

 for they grow while we sleep, and are 

 ever tlnngs of beauty and utility. 



oth. Fruit trees, as a specialty, we 

 cannot too strongly urge upon you, 

 for with intelligent care and nursing 

 they will reward you with golden 

 fruit. The saturnine idea of our 

 worthy and well-meaning but dis- 

 tressingly narrow-minded Puritan 

 progenitors we have happily grown 



out of. They, dear, good souls, taught 

 that through the apple, in the days of 

 old. came" miginalsin ;" and through 

 the apple of latter days comes the 

 cider mill, and from the cider mill to 

 the gin mill the transition is an 

 easy one. So our good uncle, for once 

 with a fanaticism commendable for 

 its honest self-sacritice, cut down his 

 orchard. 



6tli. Viniculture has not received 

 the attention it deserves, and prob- 

 ably—we may say probably— on ac- 

 count of the same grim Puritan rigid- 

 ity in regard to wine drinking. 



We would remark — en inissant — 

 that the most luscious grapes it has 

 ever been our good fortune to meet 

 with on this continent, were presented 

 to our enraptured gaze and our 

 pampered i)alate, in Canada (on the 

 Vermont line), and the most glorious 

 orchard of apples, [lears and plums- 

 we found near Rrattleboro, Vt., and 

 all these both vines and trees, had 

 been in bearing for years. Why not 

 prolit by such rich e.xperiences "i* Why 

 not export 1,000 barrels of apples- 

 where we now send one ':* 



Then, too, we have been told from 

 this platform, in language positive, if 

 not strictly classical— that silk culture 

 can be successfully carried on in New 

 England, but upon that point our 

 opinion is a little shaky. 



W'e insist upon it, however, that 

 the other industrial pursuits herein 

 mentioned, whilst being refining and 

 elevating to a degree, may also be 

 made remunerative beyond the 

 dreams of^ advice. 



Relinquish then the unequal con- 

 test between the plow and the rocks, 

 the hoe and the potato bug, and let 

 vonr "Jerseys" and your "short- 

 horns" regale themselves in sweet 

 tields and i)astures green, and they 

 will do their part to enrich yoiir 

 tables and vour coffers, bring a wealth 

 of bloom iiitothe cheeks of the bonnie 

 little folks, and help keep your boys 

 luosperous and contented at home. 

 But don't forget the fruit trees. 



All this, however, falls short of our 

 purpose, which was, and is, to direct 

 attention mainly to another and still 

 more lovable industry, and so our 

 thesis is : The apiary, or bee culture, 

 as a source of profit to the New Eng- 

 land farmer. 



Why tlie New England man in par- 

 ticular ":* Because that part of the 

 country was tlie original habitat of 

 the bee. as it was the home of the 

 kind of trees and flowers which seem 

 to have been made for its special 

 delectation, and whose sweets it 

 takes the most particular delight in 

 ravishing. 



Our beloved friend. Dr. Trimble, 

 has so thrilled and delighted us with 

 his exquisite delineations of insect 

 life and habits, that it seems rude 

 temerity to venture into his special 

 Held of investigation ; but, from our 

 heart of hearts, we love our dear little 

 dumb friends, the bees, who so faith- 

 fully play their part in the divine 

 economy. 



Excuse us if we do not go into any 

 wild ielliestic craze over the doctor's 

 fantastic measuring worms and his 



