1907 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



1093 



HOMLS 



byAJ.ROOT 



And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the 

 children, and the heart of the children to the fathers, 

 lest I come and smite the earth with a curse. — Max. 

 4:6. 



It. has just been my good fortune to have 

 the privilege of spending a couple of hours 

 with Prof. Holden, of Ames, Iowa, the cele- 

 brated "corn man." lean not take the 

 space here to tell you about our rambles in 

 the cornfields of this county; but I wish to 

 give you a part of the closing words of his 

 two-hour lecture. His audience was com- 

 posed largely of old people— perhaps most of 

 them gray-headed. This is a catching time 

 for haying and harvesting; in fact, it was the 

 last day of July when Mr. Holden visited 

 our Medina Co. Chautauqua Assembly, and, 

 as a natural consequence, the young and 

 able-bodied men were most exceedingly busy. 

 Said he: 



"Now, I have got something to say to you 

 old people, and you Want to mark my words. 

 Do not get it into your heads that you will 

 have an easier time by selling out or turn- 

 ing your farm over to the children and go- 

 ing to town to live. Don't do it. The town 

 people do not want you. The country peo- 

 ple do want you. 1 know you think there 

 will be a good many comforts in the town, 

 and that you can take things easier, etc. 

 You are making a big mistake. Look around 

 you and see. The people in town are not in- 

 terested in the stories you tell about the 

 crops you used to raise. And, by the way, 

 please notice that you forget a little, and 

 every time you tell the story you get it a lit- 

 tle bigger. The folks in town laugh at you. 

 They don't know you, like your old friends 

 and neighbors in the countiy, who make 

 allowances. Besides, you are worth more 

 in the country, where you were brought up, 

 than anywhere else in the world, and you 

 will be very much happier there to the end 

 of your days." 



The above reminds me of a letter I just 

 received, striking on this very point; and 

 even though the good lady does say at the 

 end, "This is a strictly private letter," I 

 have taken the liberty to copy a paragraph 

 or two, of course omitting the name and 

 address: 



I wish to express my gratitude to Mr, A. I. Root for 

 his kind advice as to accepting a present of several 

 colonies of bees six years ago. I had given up my 

 lifework; and I have been led to see that, when elder- 

 ly people " retire " they go down mentally; and if 

 they go much beyond their allotted "threescore 

 years and ten '' they become imbecile much sooner 

 than if busy, even if it be " busy idleness." My bees 

 have increased until 1 have more than I can manage 

 very well by myself, and the labor problem is some- 

 thing fearful here. I should like to know from 

 some exiierienced person if one could put a colony 

 '"out of commission " in the fall and get honey 

 enough out of the brood-chamber to pay. I hived 



only swarms that took reasonable places to settle; 

 the rest took to the mountains.* 



During the last years of my father's life, 

 when I saw him working on the farm I 

 thought it was too hard for him, and per- 

 suaded him to move to town and help me in 

 the store. Well, he did so, and he stood it 

 for about two years; but he was not used to 

 being indoors nor to waiting on customers, 

 and he became unhappy and discontented 

 and out of health; and as the farm was not 

 yet sold he went back there, and soon became, 

 I might almost say, young again, with his 

 cows and horses and pigs and chickens. I 

 have seen many such instances. 



Prof. Holden went on to say that when old 

 people decide to stay on the farm they 

 should use a little common sense; and he il- 

 lustrated it by telling about his own boyhood 

 days. By the way, his home was near Trav- 

 erse City, Mich., the locality 1 have told you 

 about so much; and he said, as we were go- 

 ing along through a cornfield, that there was 

 an inspii'ation and vigor out in the open air 

 in Northern Michigan that he never got in 

 any other locality. Now about his boybood. 



He said that, when he was about fourteen 

 years old, one Monday morning his father 

 called the boys out on the poi'ch and said 

 something like this: "Boys, I want you to 

 help me plan about the way in which we shall 

 manage our farm this year. You are going 

 to do a great part of the work, and 1 want 

 you to advise about what crops we shall grow, 

 how we shall plant each particular field, etc. " 



"Why," said he, "we boys in our teens 

 grew an inch or two taller that very morn- 

 ing. We went and told the neighboi's' boys 

 about it. We talked about our farm and 

 what we were going to do and what crops 

 we would raise. In looking back I think 

 that was one of the biggest speculations my 

 father overwent into — making his boys part- 

 ners in the farmwork." 



Now, I wish I could tell you the rest, but 

 I can not take space. The hojs took a course 

 in the Michigan Agricultural College under 

 our good friend Prof. Cook. Why, I could 

 see and hear friend Cook's words and ac- 

 tions in every move the speaker made while 

 on the stage. It was actually Pi'of. Cook 

 over again t — his genial smile, his enthusi- 

 asm, his peculiar gestures, etc. 



Well, after the boys got home from college 

 the father took them out on the porch again 

 and said, " Boys, I am getting too old to 



* Will some of the veterans or others who have had 

 experience in getting rid of bees where there was no 

 sale for them tell our friend how to get the honey and 

 get rid of the bees'? I sincerely hope nobody will lake 

 the back track so far as to suggest or advise brim- 

 stone at the present stage of our industry. 



tBy the way, it is not surprising, and it ought to 

 be encouraging, for our great teachers to know that 

 in after-years their impress is left on men and women 

 scattered all over our land. In traveling, every little 

 while I And men occupying important places who got 

 their first training for usefulness in the Michigan Ag- 

 ricultural College; and the greater part of the time it 

 transpires they were pupils under Prof. Cook. May 

 be it is all right as it is, but it has often seemed to 

 me that he was needed more in the great State of 

 Michigan than away olf in California, where he is 

 comparatively unknown and out of sight. 



