Sept. 1", 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOUFNAL 



597 



I Contributed Articles. 



A Bee-Keeper's Vacation Spent in Wisconsin. 



BV C. I'. DAIIANT. 



IT is a nice t-hing to take a vacation if one can find the 

 time and opportunity, but one must feel that nothing- 

 left behind will suffer from his absence, and that the 

 money the trip will cost would not be absolutely needed for 

 some indispensable purpose. When you can reasonably 

 combine these requirements, it is easy to figure, on the 

 other hand, how much health and prolongation of life you 

 can secure l)y a short absence from the daily routine. 



My father is subject to hay-fever — a dreaded complaint 

 with which probably a number of my readers are acquainted. 

 This disease, it appears, is a sort of asthma or catarrh, 

 caused mainly by the pollen of the ragweed. The hay- 

 fever sufferers of the United States have formed an associ- 

 ation, and have ascertained that their premises in this mat- 

 ter were right — that the disease is unknown where the rag- 

 weed does not grow, or grows in such small quantities as to 

 be inoffensive. Sturgeon Bay is one of those privileged 

 spots. 



My readers, who are accustomed to observe the blos- 

 soming of all plants, since their pet pursuit depends upon 

 the blossoms, have certainly noticed that in our middle 

 States the ragweed grows in most abundant quantities in 

 the stubbles, together with the knot-weed, and Spanish- 

 needles, (which by the way, yield considerable honey), most 

 of the growth of those vs'ceds taking place after harvest. 

 But in the vicinity of the Great Lakes, up in northern Wis- 

 consin, the small grains — wheat, oats, rye and barley — 

 grow so slowly, and ripen so late, that there is not time for 

 any plant like these to grow, bloom, and ripen their seed, 

 after harvest. So Sturgeon Bay is immune, and it is that 

 point which my father has selected for his annual outing to 

 avoid hay-fever. For 14 years he has regularly spent six or 

 seven weeks there, in August and September, returning 

 home by the ena of the latter month. 



If the reader will hunt up the map of Wisconsin, I will 

 point to him the pretty spot of which I am about to speak. 

 I do not enjoy reading of a place unless I can " place " it on 

 the map. and I take it that others are like me in this 

 respect. 



If you have the map, start with your finger on Lake 

 Michigan, from Chicago northward. You will soon come 

 to the peniusula which forms Door County, Wis., and which 

 separates the waters of Lake Michigan from those of Green 

 Bay. About half way along this peninsula you will notice 

 a narrow neck of land, with a little bay indenting the 

 shore of (rreen Bay. This is Sturgeon Bay. At this 

 point the neck of land is only I'i miles in width and a deep 

 canal has been cut in the land, joining the two lakes, so 

 that the boats that go from Chicago to Green Bay, Oconto, 

 Marinette, Menominee, and Escanaba, are no longer com- 

 pelled to go up to the point and run down again, passing at 

 the north end. through what is called " Death's Door," (an 

 ugly name), but you run from Lake Michigan through the 

 Sturgeon Bay canal into Green Bay, and vice versa, saving 

 an extra trip of a hundred miles or so, and the peninsula 

 has practically become an island. 



The city of Sturgeon Bay. on the bay of the same 

 name, is thus surrounded by water — Lake Michigan on one 

 side and <jreen Bay on the other. The air is pure and cool. 

 always refreshed by lake breezes coming from either side, 

 and our Illinois. Iowa and Missouri friends must readily 

 realize what a wonderful treat it is to get away from our 

 parched, dusty plains and overheated fields, roasted by the 

 August sun, and reach an oasis where everything is green 

 and fresh, where mosses and ferns grow all over the forest 

 and form a green carpet 'under your feet ; where the water 

 is cool, and the thermometer is considered high when it 

 reaches ''0 degrees in the shade. 



Well, business was dull at home, the bees were idle, the 

 small clover honej' crop harvested, and our boys were will- 

 ing to undertake to do all that had to be done, and talve 

 from our shoulders the home responsibilities. So wife and 

 I accompanied "Grandpa " Dadant on his usual trip. 



The city of Sturgeon Bay is not a fashionable resort. 

 It is a plain, every-day looking little town of 3500 inhabi- 



tants, with plenty of grit and lots of "go." The folks are 

 not spoiled by rich tourists, and are willing to accept reas- 

 onable sums for entertaining the confiding visitor whose 

 pockets are not overflowing with dollars. Fish is plenty, 

 and the water is clear yes, as clear as that of Lake (Jen- 

 eva, Switzerland ; but we miss the snow-capped peaks that 

 form the back-ground in that beautiful spot. 



I found four bee-keepers, two of whom are subscribers 

 of the American Bee .Journal, and all seemed well pleased 

 with their bees and the crops they harvest One of them 

 lives right in the city, and has an apiary of 59 colonies. 

 He is employed as a skilled mechanic in one of the large 

 sawmills of the town, but was unoccupied just at the time, 

 as the mill had closed for a few days. We visited him one 

 evening and found that he follows our plan of running the 

 bees for extracted honey — with large hives. 



"This is the only way in which lean keep bees and 

 make it pay, and. still continue at my work," said he. " I 

 could not expect to run a large apiary and leave to my wife 

 the care of harvesting the swarms, and following the bees 

 in the harvest of a crop of comb honey, while, by using 

 extracting supers, I can be away from home all day and 

 feel sure that the swarms will be few, and that the bees are 



supplied with plenty of room ; and it takes but a short time 

 to harvest the crop, when the bees are through with honey- 

 gathering. This is certainly the best method of bee-keep- 

 ing for a man who is away from his home most of the 

 time." 



The honey resources seem to be very similar to ours. 

 White clover is the main crop, but it seems to come later, as 

 wheat does. When we were there, the crop was just over, 

 and but little more honey was expected, and this only from 

 fall bloom which is. they say, rather irregular. Yet there 

 is an abundance of weeds, and the climate seems mild 

 enough to keep moisture in the ground at all times, for the 

 woods are full of ferns, mosses, and plants that can only 

 live in moist ground. But it seems so queer to us Illinois 

 farmers, to see the amount of labor involved in clearing a 

 piece of ground. After the brush has been either grubbed 

 off or burned off. the big stumps from the ancient pines 

 have still to be extirpated, and. after that, the stones must 

 be carried out. These are usually made into fences, as in 

 New England, and when one of them is too large to be 

 removed, others are piled up on top of it, and stone heaps 

 like this loom up in every direction. Many Swedes and 

 Norwegians have settled here, and have very neat farms, 

 and the women work out-of-doors about as regularly as the 

 men. 



At the point of land formed by the junction of IJreen 

 Bay with Sturgeon Bay, the United States government has 

 established a light-house on the edge of a fine grove, and 

 near to the finest fishing grounds in the country. This 

 spot is called " Idlewild," and on the shore of tlreen Bay 

 almost under the light-house is a projecting ledge of rock, 

 called. "Lover"s Leap." I do not know whether or not this 

 name is connected with any Indian adventure. There are 

 so many " Lover's Leaps " in the country that this may not 

 have any very authentic legend, but it is a romantic spot. 

 Together with a half dozen friends, we visited this spot and 



