Meanings of need sweetening in English

With El's sourdoughs you don't need sweetening.

You need sweetening to-night.

Because it is sometimes necessary to punish severely slight infractions when the men's tempers need sweetening, they ALWAYS punish slight infractions severely.

The family is not believed to be hostile to the industrial logic of a deal but does think the current terms need sweetening.

All this bad blood needs sweetening.