September, 1 51 : 



American Hee Journal 



The Home of Mr. Champion, in Gergy, France, Where Mr. and Mrs. Dadant Visited the Last of July. 



hares and wild boars in the neighbor- 

 ing forest. He is now president of the 

 Societe Bourguignonne d'Apiculture, 

 and editor of its Bulletin. It was not 

 my intention to stop here, but his invi- 

 tation was so pressing, so hearty, that 

 we could not refuse, and we have no 

 cause to regret it. We were promised 

 a quiet bed-room, and all the rest we 

 could wish to prepare for further 

 travel. We have found it, and hereby 

 extend our most hearty thanks to our 

 kind host and his wife. He has given 

 me some fine' photographs which will 

 be reproduced later. 



We have been made welcome every- 

 where. We have visited the homes of 

 our forefathers, found their tomb- 

 stones, and met distant cousins, who 

 remembered faintly that some of the 

 family had gone to America over half a 

 century ago. They were highly pleased 

 to see us. They were shown pictures 

 of our great Mississippi, of our big 

 dam. They asked numerous questions 

 about the language, the customs of our 

 States, as well as about the bees. But 

 they wondered how we could make up 

 our minds to come so far, for most of 

 them never leave their immediate vicin- 

 ity, and a trip to Paris, 200 miles away, 

 seems to them a wonderful excursion. 



However, there is a great change 

 coming, for the automobiles, the elec- 

 tric lights, the trolleys are finding 

 their way to the most remote villages. 

 Castles, which 300 years ago resounded 

 with battle-ax, swords and steel ar 



mors, are now supplied with tele- 

 phones and electricity. The armory of 

 the castle of Dracy, as well as its upper 

 rooms, is lighted with Tungsten lamps, 

 and its gentlemanly owner, who re- 

 ceived us with the greatest politeness 

 and urbanity, spoke English as well as 

 French, and had made a visit to Amer- 

 ica, of which he spoke with great 

 pride. 



The weather is now tine, the rains 

 have stopped, and the wheat harvest is 

 on. Fruit is lacking, on account of 

 late frosts last spring. But the grapes 

 are good wherever they have managed 

 to avoid the mildew by the use of the 

 Bordeaux mixture. This is a rich and 

 beautiful country. 



albertville, in savoy. 



I have just visited one of the most 

 carefully kept apiaries of France, that 

 of Mr. Monl-Jovet, of Albertville, in 

 Savoy. This part of France was once 

 considered abroad as a poor country, 

 devoid of fertility. The stories and 

 songs concerning the little chimney- 

 sweeps, accompanied by "marmots," 

 who roamed all over France to earn 

 an honest but arduous living by dis- 

 playing their tamed friend and cleaning 

 chimneys, are nothing but folk-lore 

 and prejudice without foundation in 

 modern civilization. 



No one understands better than 

 does Mr. Mont-Jovet the advantage of 

 advertising. Before reaching his 

 home, I had read in the Guide of 



the French Touring Club, that Al- 

 bertville was renowned for its honey. 

 .•\t breakfast, the hotel waiter brought 

 us each a little round box, holding a 

 tenth of a pound of fine granulated 

 honey. This was marked "Miel De 

 Savoie," with the name of Mont-Jovet 

 as producer. This is furnished by him 

 to the hotels all through that country 

 at $2.-50 per hundred. As the boxes 

 cost 70 cents per hundred, it leaves 18 

 cents per pound for the honey. Of 

 course, it is some trouble to put it up 

 and to sell it, but think of the adver- 

 tising it does, silently, among the con- 

 sumers. 



The honey of Savoy, under the de- 

 nomination of "Miel de Chamonise," 

 has a great reputation. It is mainly 

 composed of sainfoin nectar, with a 

 number of mountain plants, alfalfa, 

 locust, linden, etc. Our friend, who 

 has five or six apiaries scattered among 

 the hills, asserts that the honey pro- 

 duced at high altitudes, tTiough more 

 difficult of production, is o* better 

 tlavor than that of the plains. It is no- 

 ticeable that the plains surrounding 

 the Alps are but little above the sea, 

 while in the United States the plains 

 west to the Rocky Mountains are 

 already quite high. Thus Denver, at 

 the foot of the Rockies, is at over 5000 

 feet, which is reached by slow assent 

 in the 800 miles of slope from the Miss- 

 issippi. So the hillsides of Savoy, and 

 of Switzerland as well, have all sorts 

 of altitudes, from less than a thousand 



