240 



gleani:ngs in bee cultuee. 



July 



which time he has resided with us, he has 

 not been a member of any of our churches. 

 He was zealous in defending the cause, but 

 not very ctuistmt in his attendance, nor had 

 lie tiiken any part in our Sabbath schools ; 

 although he had, before he ciime to our 

 town, be^n a Sabbath school superintendant. 

 In a talk tliat I had with him in the jail, he 

 stated verv positively, tliat the event could 

 never have happened, had he read his Bible, 

 and asked God to guide him in the right 

 patli. as had been his wont, in former times. 

 I think it very likely that he came to meet- 

 ing that evening, and siwke, for the purpose 

 of leading suspicion away from himself ; for 

 he i>oiu-ed on tlie coal oil, both before and 

 after this meeting. If a man defends the 

 truth strongly, and yet is net a truthful man, 

 what shall we thinkr' or if a man who has 

 been upright and truthful all his life sud- 

 denly gives \^ay to falsehood and crime, 

 what stiall we think of himV It simply re- 

 minds me of the great need there is for us 

 all to remember how wily is Satan, and how 

 gi-eat is the danger of yielding in some un- 

 guarded hour. This man, I do not know 

 out that I can say friend, for we had been on 

 ({uite friendly terms, told me that when the 

 temptation lirst presented itself to him as a 

 means of sretting out of debt and saving him- 

 s"lf froui bankruptcy, he spurned the 

 thought from him as would almost any 

 one but tliat it kept constantly recuiTing, 

 and he linaliy harbored it, long enough to 

 himplv sp^-culate on how it mi^ht be done ; 

 even up to the last minute, he liad not dili- 

 iiitely decided on the crime, but something 

 seemed to urge him on, as if it were in a 

 dream. I^ad me not into temptation. I 

 hive felt, all along, that this occurrence 

 would be brouarlit forward, to prove that ; 

 reli'^ion was not a correctire for crime, and j 

 one'of our readers asked, if I did not fear I 

 the tendency of Sabbath schools to evil, | 

 with such results before my face. My | 

 friends, there is a broad gulf between going 

 to Sabbath school as my fi'iend who has ! 

 been so often in jail for bein^ intemperate , 

 now does, and the way in which this man | 

 did. The former goes to be tuight, and i 

 with a humlile, honest desire to learn, and j 

 to get the strength he knows he so sadly 

 lacks. The latter wentr-I will give you just 

 one illustration. Dm-ing his two years stay 

 in our town, he taught a class just once— a 

 class of boys, and our boy was one of them. 

 During this first lesson, he told the boys 

 tliere was no harm in dancing and card 

 playing of themselves, and that there was 

 no impropriety, or inconsistency in going to 

 a prayer meeting and to a dancing party the 

 s'une evening, if they chose. His very boys 

 r-belled at such teaching, and right tliere, 

 corrected tiieir own te<i,cher. The officers of 

 the school talked the matter over, and de- 

 cided that he should not be asked to teach 

 anv more. Going to the Sabbath sch(X)l, of 

 itself, by no means proves a safeguard, but 

 going with a humble sense of our need, and 

 a sincere wish to do better, never fails to 

 Irdp both oiu-selves and those about us. 

 Keeping the Sabbath day holy, as well 

 as we know how. will never get us into 

 trouble. 



THE $25.00 CHAFF HIVJE. 



eUR friend Foster, of Mt. Vernon, Iowa, 

 has made a chalf hive that is quite in- 

 — genious, even if it does not please me 

 l)etter than my own. It differs very little 

 from our chaff hive, except that the upper 

 frames run the same Avay as the lower ones ; • 

 also the upper tier is set i inch further for- 

 ward than the lower one. Now, in order t<.> 

 remove the lower frames, a portion of tlie 

 back end of the upper story is made remov- 

 able. This piece has the central i)art of the 

 rabbet on its top edge ; it also hangs by its 

 top edge, something as a frame does. This 

 idea is not especially new, for "dummies" 

 in a bee hive are an old device ; but the idea 

 is new, of making this dummy a frame of 

 candy, or a feeder similar to the Dunham 

 feeder. To take out the lower frames, you 

 tirst remove the 4 central frames that hang 

 on the dummy ; the dummy is then lifted 

 I out and laid down, or hung on a nail as our 

 friend suggests. You can now move any of 

 the lower frames under this opening, and 

 remove any or all of them. When you put 

 the dummy back, no bees are killed, because 

 it touches only at the points of support like 

 a frame. Eurthermore, it is not really nec- 

 essary to lift the dummy out, for it can be 

 moved back into a recess, just large enough 

 to receive it. and not large enough to alloAV 

 of combs being built. He writes : 



It is said that every bed-room should have a clos- 

 et We think this one will not come amiss. The 

 rery want of just such a place has induced vis, here- 

 tofore, to cut a hole rujht tlirowjh aU our chaff cush- 

 ions, inserting a small box, without bottom, in 

 which to keep a flour candy brick in wmter, and in 

 the spring a tin feeder filled with g-rape sugar, for 

 stimulatire feeding. We tuck in a handful ot rags 

 on the top of the feeder. It is the "boss way to 

 feed Our bees used the candy all winter, and had 

 hatching bees in 3 and 3 combs in February, etc. 

 You can examine and feed in the coldest weather, 

 without disturbing, can aec when they want more, 

 and you have no large empty space m tne hive 

 when it is gone. Should dysentery occur, the candy 

 j is not stained. 



! The principal objection I should have, i-s 

 i that it is a loose piece to the hive, that 

 , would get out of ''kilter,-' and get lost ; the 

 ! bees would, in time, stick it so tight that it 

 1 would be difficult to pry out, and I fear it 

 1 would in the end be more trouble to get it 

 out, than to lift out the few remauiing 

 I frames, after we had once taken out tlie 

 four central ones as we are obliged to do in 

 either case. I verv much dislike, my 

 friends, to tind fault with all the plans you 

 submit, but 1 cannot but feel that I am do- 

 ing you a kindness, in advising the plain, 

 simple plan, without machinery, that I gave 

 you in the Chaff hive. 



We have got our slate factory goin^, and can now 

 furnish rery nice little slates, somewhat smaller 

 than those furnished by friend Newman, for one 

 cent each. We find them very handy for a multi- 

 tude of purposes, aside from the queen cards. They 

 are useful to note down all about feeding, brood, 

 queens, etc., etc. Also, if you have purchased a 

 queen, vou can note on tlie slate where she came 

 from, and all about it. They have been especiallj 

 hiiudy for us in this respect, for we have purchiisort 

 munv hundred (lueens this season, already. Wet 

 the slate before you write, and the writing will be in 



1 no danger of being obliterated. Price by mail will 



: be 2c each. 



