t87fj 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



253 



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[In this department I bag to be allowed to lay aside the 

 editorial "we," have a friendly chat and feel "at home."] 



CHAPTER XXIX. 



M, FEW clays ago I took a ramble through 

 gS^*V., the woods and fields to see a piece of 

 buckwheat that wag just in full bloom, a mile 

 and a half from our apiary. That our bees 

 might be kept busy during the fall months, I 

 made an offer in our weekly paper of $1.00 per 

 acre to all who would sow buckwheat within 

 the above named distance. It seems but three 

 acres were sown in response to tlie offer, but 

 if the amount of buckwheat honey that is now 

 I'ound in the section boxes be any guide, we 

 might have offered a much larger amount, and 

 i?till have been sure of a good investment. 

 .This was sown as early as June I believe, and 

 if we could depend on the same smount of 

 honey per acre, every season, I should think 

 ^25.00 invested in that way would be a very 

 safe undertaking. The one drawback, is that 

 the dark honey may depreciate the value of 

 such honey as might lie gathered from red 

 clover or other sources that give a lighter col- 

 ored more marketable honey. Now, although it 

 may never pay in dollars and cents to raise 

 crops exclusively for the honey, we feel pretty 

 certain it will pay for the apiarist to offer 

 some inducement to the farmers about him, in 

 the shape of one or two dollars per acre for all 

 the rape, buckwheat, and perhaps alsike that 

 they will raise. 



The bees were at work on the buckwheat, 

 which stood full as high as my head, (it was 

 sowed on a ricely prepared cornfield after the 

 corn had failed,) to my full satisfaction, and all 

 that remained now was to see if the dark hou- 

 ey came from any other source. We passed 

 fields white with the Eupatorium familj' — bone- 

 set, thoroughwort, and white snake root — 

 without finding a bee on them ; a few were 

 found on the wild touch-me-nots, and more 

 whenever I passed a field of red clover ; and 

 now I have come to the incident that was to 

 furnish me with the text for this chapter. In 

 passing through a dense piece of woods, I 

 passed a very pretty, sleek looking horse 

 standing in the shade, solitary and alone, do- 

 ing nothing more than to stamp and whisk at 

 the troublesome flies. As I was bent oulj'', at 

 this time, on the study of nature, I greeted my 

 four-footed friend with words of kindness and 

 sympathy, and soon had him at my side wher- 

 ever I went, nibbling at every flower I tried to 

 examine, and in his eagerness to keep con- 

 stantly at my side, exposing my slippered feet 

 to great danger of being trodden on by his 

 heavy hoofs. He would eat grass contentedly 

 so long as I remained in one spot, but when I 

 raoveei he was at my heels, and as he must 

 smell of the very bees and flowers that I tried 

 to examine, wondering seemingly, if I loved 

 them just as he did choice wisps of grass, I be- 

 gan to think I should have to study horses 

 and not bees, unless I chose another field. 

 We bade each other a reluctant adieu. Pre- 

 suming am I V Well it is true he did not say 



he was sorry, except by actions and looks, but 

 as I have many times durmg the day, felt an 

 involuntary longing to see him once more, to 

 feel his soft nose thrust inquiringly over my 

 shoulder, and even to have him give a mis- 

 chievious nip at my coat sleeve when I seem- 

 ed to disregard his presence, I could not help 

 wondering if he too, did not think of his play- 

 mate of the morning. Do not horses remem- 

 ber? Aye, but they do. Let a colt stand 

 hitched but a few minutes at a post, and in 

 passing the spot months afterward, he will 

 show very clearly that he remembers the cir- 

 cumstance. When first taken from his native 

 fields he is so sensitive to impressions, and so 

 ready to fall into habits taken from his new 

 surroundings, that I have sometimes likened 

 them to soft wax, preserving a faithful repre- 

 sentation of every place, circumstance and 

 event of the day. 



Now if we— both horses and humanity-— are 

 so prone to be melded and influenced by those 

 with whom we associate, how important is it 

 that we either be careful what those are, or 

 guard ourselves against their influence. 1 oc- 

 casionally have a visitor who makes me feel 

 lonely after he has left and whose influence re- 

 main's long after he has gone. Now such may 

 be the case, even if he is a bad man, and it 

 sometimes takes more labor to eradicate the 

 seeds of evil that have been sown, than had 

 they been so much good. The society of 

 those whom we know to be bad, is sometimes 

 very pleasant, and as we get better acquaint- 

 ed with them, we are often inclined to 

 think the things we thought objectionable, 

 not so very bad after all, and to question 

 whether they are wrong at all or not. Taken 

 alone by themselves, and under some circum- 

 stances, almost all the great evils that af- 

 flict humanity, may be voted harmless ; and 

 many times we can only judge of them by the 

 results that in time follow. Pleasant friends 

 have defended the taking of a glass of beer oc- 

 casionally, and I have agreed with them, in 

 deciding that there was certainly no harm in 

 it. Others have spoken of card playing at 

 home with brothers and sisters until it seem- 

 ed hard to condemn anything so harmless. 

 Others argue that the Sabbath should be a 

 day that people should all love, and that it 

 should be made pleasant and cheerful, by each 

 one enjoying it after his own fashion ; that a 

 quiet game of croquet was no worse on that 

 day than at many other times, and that much 

 harm was done by those who tried to be so 

 very strict. Again, a wife will defend her 

 husband in profane swearing by saying that 

 he did it in such a funny good uatured way 

 there could certainly be no harm in it. Many 

 will stoutly defend the custom of using cle- 

 ception when convenience demands it ; that is, 

 of deceiving just a little in harmless matters, 

 and the way in which they put it, looks as if 

 there was really nothing to make a fuss about. 



Now all these things are very little items, 

 not worth making a fuss about, some will say, 

 but suppose you were in the habit of doing all 

 these, would you blame people for thinking 

 you were anything but a fit associate for the 

 youth about you? Suppose you wished a 

 young man to learn a trade, or as clerk in a 

 store, or as teacher for your children, will 



