26 



THE BEE-KEEPERS' REVIEW. 



years has had the satisfaction of practic- 

 ing the teachings of Mr. Hall in the coun- 

 try where the instruction was received, 

 and as a result of his strict application to 

 business in afield with which he was thor- 

 oughly acquainted, has achieved success, 

 and prominence among hee-keepers of On- 

 tario. 



On the other hand, the writer has been 

 allured by stories of the "joyous hum of 

 bees in midwinter," dreams of "lands of 

 eternal springtime," "visions of floral 

 seas" and such notions, hither and yon, 

 spending his energy to enrich railroad 

 companies. While "John" has been, 

 throughout "The Circle of the Year, " reg- 

 ularly carrying his colonies from the cellar 

 and placing them upon the same old stand; 

 watching for the skunk-cabbage and dan- 

 delion to "start the ball" in the spring; 

 the apple blossoms to come and go, year 



routine of preparing the exhibit for the 

 Provincial fair at London or the Toronto 

 Industrial, and, finally, getting back in- 

 to winter quarters, "Harr}-" might have 

 been seen climbing the foothills of Al- 

 legheny range to see the bees poison 

 themselves (?) mith mountain laurel; 

 chasing a runaway swarm among the sage 

 brush, up and down the precipitous can- 

 yons of California; viewing the broad 

 acres of purple alfalfa bloom in the arid 

 West: standing aghast at the oceans of 

 mesquite which stretches away to meet 

 the horizon of Arizona or Old Mexico; 

 camped in some mangrove swamp of 

 South Florida, testing its producing ca- 

 pacity; or tangled in the bell flower vines 

 of Cuba's south coast. 



The following reflection may afford a 

 fair specimen of those "terrible exam- 

 ples" often so highly prized by parents 



>LiHfc,RN HEH C<>MP.\N\, i- X. I'il.KLl., X'l,.\. I, rAKI \ i UVV. 



after year; building up for the great har- 

 vest annuall}^ anticipated to begin about 

 June loth, when the first white heads of 

 clover peep through the fresh, green 

 grass b)' the roadside; with eyes shaded 

 from the morning sun, peering through 

 the tops of the tall basswoods, as we used 

 to do, to see what the indications are for 

 a July flow, and going through the old 



and Sunday school teachers, in their ef- 

 forts to keep the boys at home and to im- 

 press upon them the adage, "a rolling 

 stone gathers no moss." This is not say- 

 ing that my friend Newton is a "moss- 

 back," but serves to impress the advan- 

 tages gained in sticking to the field with 

 which we may be familiar in detail. With 

 nearly twenty years of study and practice 



