1877 



GLEANIJ^GS IN BEE CULTURE. 



279 



very apt to pattern after his teacher ; and we 

 therefore want a teacher, who is the very soul 

 of honor. It is a far more serious thing to 

 have a boy spoiled, than a watch. If the 

 teacher taught temperance and honesty during 

 the day, and then went off and got drunk 

 nights, he would not be worth a very big 

 price would he ?" 



"But we pay a big price, and they are not 

 honest then." 



"Do you think honest people are scarce?" 



" Yes." 



" This makes the matter still worse, as we 

 shall have to pay all the more when we find 

 them, for the laws of demand and supply, gov- 

 ern this commodity as well as all otliers. 

 On the other hand there is the greater induce- 

 ment, for us to be honest. Now, a minister is 

 of still more moment to us, for he not only 

 takes charge of our children, but of grown up 

 people as well, and if we should make a blun- 

 der in our choice of 7«m, there would be great 

 danger of a general corruption all through. 



" If you had 10 hives of bees, and 9 of them 

 were industrious while the tenth was doing 

 nothing bqt rob the others of their stores, all 

 might get along very well; but if 9 were rob- 

 bers and but one honest workers, the whole 

 apiary would soon come to ruin. It is so witti 

 the human family. If a man is so bad as to be 

 a counterfeiter or highway robber, he prefers 

 that the rest of the people should be honest 

 hard workers, or there would be no money for 

 him to steal ; so even he would like to have a 

 good honest minister to set people a good ex- 

 ample; and such men frequently pay hand- 

 somely for the support of a good minister. It 

 matters not what we are, if we employ anybody 

 we want him honest; if honest hands are 

 scarce and command large pay we must pay 

 the price ; and if they are to do very important 

 work, where something of great moment is 

 given entirely to their care, we must pay a 

 still greater price. If, added to honesty we 

 want a man educated and fully posted in all 

 modern impi'ovements, and fully alive to all 

 the affairs of our nation and others, I tell you 

 my friends we ought to be happy if we can get 

 such teachers of the people at any price. 

 Meanwhile, if we crave high wages, let us try 

 our level best to be honest too ; for honest and 

 well informed men are now being sought out, 

 and hunted up, for almost all avenues of busi- 

 ness. 



" But voe are honest ! Are we ? There are 

 quite a number of us, and it has just been said 

 that honest men are very scarce. Is it not 

 rather probable, that we average just about 

 like the rest of humanity, and that every one 

 of us can do a great deal better ? I know of 

 one person at least, that can." 



School is dismissed. 



P. S. — Perhaps some of you would care to 

 know more of the young man whom I men- 

 tioned last month. Well, he is at this very min- 

 ute setting the type for these very words. He 

 is on hand promptly every Sabbath at both the 

 mission Sabbath schools, has a class usually, 

 in each, works as steadily as a clock during 

 the week, when he is not in the tops of the 

 highest trees in the woods cutting out bees. 

 And by the way, it was he who gave me almost 

 my entire lessons in getting the bees from a 



tree. lie has now a swarm of his own that 

 was taken from a tree, and they are prospering 

 most beautifully, with the assistance of daily 

 rations of brown sugar in one of the wooden 

 feeders. In return for the lessons I tried to 

 give him a few months ago, he has taught me 

 — and you, how to take wild bees. It may 

 take some practice however, before we can 

 handle an axe in a tree top as he does, and 

 then climb out on the limbs while said top 

 goes crashing to the ij;round. 



I have good reason to think that while he is 

 doing this dangerous work, he remembers who 

 it was that said " even the very hairs of your 

 head are all numbered, fear not, for ye are of 

 more value than many sparrows," and that 

 the same loving Father is watching over us, 

 whether in the Sabbath school doing the best 

 we can, or «mid the topmost limbs of a giant 

 elm 



DEPOSITORY OF 



Or Lietters from Tbose Wlio Have Made 

 Bee Culture a. Failure. 



FRIEND sent for Gleanings about two weeks 

 AV ago. 1 have read them all through about three 

 !»^ times, and know more about bees than I could 

 have learned in 20 years without them. I had 22 

 hives of black bees last fall ; built ihem a light house 

 lor winter, housed them in Dec. and all were nice 

 and strong, with plenty of brood, the 10th of Feb. 

 when it came cff very warm and continued so until 

 afier the tirst of March. Thinking we would have 

 but little more cold weather 1 tore my house down, 

 and in 3 days my bees were covered with snow, and 

 the weather was colder than it had been before, du- 

 ring the winter. J got 6 into a small cellar and the 

 balance had to stay in the cold; the result was I had 

 9 weak s-.varms the fltst of May. So you will either 

 have to make a sei)arate place for me in Gleanings, 

 that of " blasted tools, " or do as 1 did with my bees, 

 leave me "'out in the cold." I have now 18 strong 

 swarms, wl)ich 1 don't think will be used as roughly 

 as they were last winter. 



When is the best time to get Italian queens? I wish 

 to get 6 or 8 for my hives. I have never had a book 

 on bee-keeping to look at until I got Gleanings, and 



all I have to say is, I wish it came every d well, 



week, at least. 



I have had but little surplus this season. Now, if 

 you put me in the column 1 spoke of, don't leave me 

 there by not answering my questions, because I want 

 to succeed with my bees ; and with Gleanings' help 

 I will succeed. There now ! 



Wm. L. King, Sodus, Mich. 



We sometimes feel that we have made fools 

 of ourselves, friend K., and it may be a good 

 thing to feel so sometimes, if acknowledged 

 ignorance really is the beginning of wisdom. 

 Your experience only illustrates what we have 

 all been learning of late, that the bees need 

 protecting more in the spring when rearing 

 brood largely, than in the depth of winter. I 

 would advise dollar queens for all general pur- 

 poses, and in fact nearly all the queens now 

 sold are of this kind. They can be introduced 

 any mouth in the year when bees fly. Say from 

 March until Oct., inclusive. We usually do 

 the heaviest trade in them in Aug., and Sept., 

 many are sent by mail as late as Oct., and some 

 have been sent safely in Nov. 



1 made the mistake of many bee-keepere, in not 

 adopting tlie Lanpstroth hive. If I were to begin 

 again. I sliould do so. Don't like to change now. 

 Eugene Secok, Forest City, Iowa, Sept. 10, '77. 



