606 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE 



Sept. 15 



Flirt, and this lake is connected with the 

 Caloosahatchee River. 



On p. 232, March 15, 1905, you will find a 

 description of my visit to Fort Myers, near 

 the mouth of the Caloosahatchee River. I 

 was so much taken up with Fort Myers at 

 the time that I should doubtless have 

 chosen the locality for my winter home in- 

 stead of Bradentown; but at that time Fort 

 Myers and all of Lee Co. were "wet;" and 

 as I did not want my home in a saloon town 

 I chose Manatee Co* I am glad to say now, 

 however, that Fort Myers is a dry town, 

 and has been for some time. Well, I have 

 been having inquiries right along during 

 the past year in regard to buying land in 

 the Everglades. It is true they are at work 

 on the drainage canal; but, as I have said 

 so many times before, do not think of in- 

 vesting money in land, or land anywhere, 

 until you have been on the spot and seen 

 it; and even then make purchases of some- 

 body who lives there and has a fair reputa- 

 tion for honesty. While I can not say 

 much about the Everglades and the vicini- 

 ty of Lake Okeechobee, my impression is 

 there is some very desirable territory along 

 the Caloosahatchee River in the direction 

 of the lake. The principal difficulty is that 

 but few people live in that region as yet. A 

 railroad runs to Fort Myers, and steamers 

 run up to all towns along the river. 



Now, with this long introduction I wish 

 to submit a letter from one of the new 

 towns up toward the big drainage canal. 

 The friend who writes the letter will doubt- 

 less give VIS particulars later on: 



Mr. Root;— A number of your readers have writ- 

 ten me, asking if there was homestead land here, 

 and if this is a good bee country. To the first 

 question I have replied yes. To tlie second one I 

 have said I do not know. No one who has bee 

 knowledge has tried it; but I believe it Is a good 

 honey country. An unusual thing that is happen- 

 ing now may throw light on this last proposition. 

 The bees that are kept in box hives swarmed as 

 usual in January and February. From what I 

 hear I judge that they were more given to that this 

 year than common. At that time oranges and 

 grapefruit as well as pennyroyal were in bloom. 

 Now the cabbage palmetto is in full bloom, and is 

 giving a heavy honey-flow. It is so heavy that the 

 bees are swarming strong, sending out very big 

 ones. The few bee-keepers are at a loss to under- 

 stand it, and the wiseacres are predicting disaster 

 to tlie bees. My impression is that the bees' instinct 

 is all right, and that they will pull through in good 

 shape. Pennyroyal is coming on fine, and the in- 

 dications are a very early bloom. As it usually 

 begins to flower in November, early flowering 

 would mean October. In the present condition of 

 the honey-flow, even a weak after-swarm should be 

 able to gather enough stores to carry them sixty 

 to ninety days. If you think this will interest your 

 readers, I will watch the outcome, and report when 

 the fall honey-flow is on. 



Denaud, Fla.,Aug. 13. Frank M.. Baldwin, 



Friend B., tell the bee-keeping friends in 

 your region they never need fear that a 

 honey-flow any month in the year is going 

 to bring "disaster." I once visited our 

 good friend O. O. Poppleton when he was 

 extracting in .January; and when I left 

 Florida a few weeks ago, down on the island 

 Mr. Shumard was then extracting honey 

 that came from the palmettos; and if I am 

 correct a flow of honey may come in that 



southern climate at almost any month in 

 the year. Yes, friend B., tell us more about 

 the honey-flow in August; and, by the 

 way, I supi^ose a lot of us would like to 

 know something about that drainage canal? 

 How is it progressing? In regard to land 

 for homesteaders, a friend who has spent 

 several seasons in that region tells me there 

 is plenty of it; but the princii^al drawback 

 is that it is so far away from everybody. 



GETTING RID OF THE MIDDLEMAN AND — 

 SOMETHING ELSE. 



Since i)rovisions have become so remark- 

 ably high, much has been said about cut- 

 ting out or getting rid of the middleman as 

 far as possible; or, in other words, letting 

 the producer make a short cut and get into 

 connection with the consumer. The Rural 

 New - Yorker has told us that the farmer 

 gets only about a third of what the con- 

 sumer pays for his stuff. You may remem- 

 ber my telling you about paying 50 cents 

 for a broiled fish on a Pullman dining-car; 

 but when I got down to my own home at 

 Osprey, Fla., the boys were selling just such 

 fish (in ton lots) for only 3 cts. In this 

 ease there had to be quite a few middlemen 

 between the producer and the consumer. 

 Again, if you want an apple when traveling 

 on the cars, three nice apples will cost you 

 a dime; but if you go out into a farmer's or- 

 chard the dime will pay for a whole peck; 

 but you may have to pick them up your- 

 self. 



What I am going to consider to-day is , 

 not cutting out the middleman, but I am 

 going to talk about cutting out the middle- 

 woman. Never heard of a middlewoman, 

 did you? Well, I will try to introduce you 

 to her; and while the middleman might 

 take offense when you talk about cutting 

 him out because of his large profits, I think 

 you will find the middlewoman not only 

 taking no offense, but she will be exceed- 

 ingly glad to welcome you. I have talked 

 to you quite a little about no suppers. Mrs. 

 Root and the children — yes, and the grand- 

 children too, perhaps — laugh when grand- 

 father talks about "no suppers." The rea- 

 son that they laugh is because of my fruit 

 supper (as they tell it) at five o'clock; a doz- 

 en good-sized plums, half as many peaches, 

 and half a dozen apples for dessert. Well, 

 they were not far out of the way. The 

 peaches were quite small, and the apples 

 not very large; and, besides, I was fruit 

 hungry. Now notice. The short cut I was 

 talking to you about, cutting out the mid- 

 dleman and the middlewoman too at one 

 bold stroke, was in making a beeline for my 

 favorite apple-tree at just five o'clock. Mrs. 

 Root was the middlewoman in this case. 

 She did not have to prepare any knives 

 and forks and clean nai)kins to put on the 

 table; no clearing-up of the table nor finish- 

 ing-up of any kind. I just go out to the 

 apple-tree where beautiful luscious apples 

 are getting dead rip day after day, juste 



