1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



143 



here, but I am told they are not much used — at 

 least in this locality. 



There is no gardening going on around here; 

 in fact, we have seen nothing I could call gar- 

 dening as yet in Florida — hardly so much as a 

 bed of onions, lettuce, or radishes: neither is 

 anybody planting potatoes, notwithstanding 

 the fact that Irish potatoes shipped from the 

 North bring 40 or .50 cts. & peel; .' neither does 

 any one keep a cow and pig, as we people do up 

 north, and yet milk is 10 cts. a ijuart; eggs. 2.5 

 to 35 cts. a dozen, and other things accordingly. 

 I have several times suggested having potatoes 

 shipped direct from expert growers up north; 

 but people here mostly buy a peck or so at a 

 time; and it takes so many " middlemen '" to 

 get a carload of potatoes into the hands of the 

 consumer that the expense would biidge over 

 the difference between 50 cts. a bushel and .50 

 cts. a peck. Notwithstanding, I am sure there 

 is an opening here, for both sweet and Irish po- 

 tatoes are on the table at almost every meal, 

 and I for one should like the fun of selling milk 

 for 10 cts. a quart. If I couldn't get alfalfa or 

 some other plant to furnish cow-feed it would be 

 funny. I asked one of the milk-men, as he was 

 going his rounds, what they fed theii-cows down 

 south. He looked at me for a moment just as 

 if he thought I was a meddlesome, no-account 

 Yankee; but he finally answered in a sort of 

 surly way. as he turned his back to me, "Cot- 

 ton-seed meal and bian." Now, look here; 

 why can't somebody get that cheap wheat and 

 corn that comes from Missouri for 35 cts. a 

 bushel, you know, down here, and convert it in- 

 to milk at 10 cts. a quart? Why, there is a 

 gold-mine in the speculation. You see, you 

 don't have to lay out a great deal of money in 

 frost-proof stables. Mr Brown said a wire 

 fence around the outside, and a cotton cloth 

 for a tent-like cover over the top would be all 

 the stable the cows would need. 



Oh! just a word more about the moss. 

 Friend Brown says it is an air-plant, and the 

 only reason why it is found on the trees is that 

 it wants a place to hang on, up in the air. He 

 said it would grow just as well hanging across 

 a wire fence as on a tree; but friend Blackmer 

 says it isn't so. Mr. Blackmer is old and gray- 

 headed, like myself, and knows a lot more than 

 these young chaps, even if they have lived in 

 Florida all their lives. I have a private specu- 

 lation of my own. that perhaps we might feed 

 the cows on the moss — that is, we would have 

 the moss take the place of hay while we were 

 feeding them on corn meal and bran. 



THE PICNIC ON THE KIVER. 



Bee-keepers are geniuses, as I have often 

 said before; especially are the successful bee- 

 keepers men of mechanical and scientific at- 

 tainments. Friend Brown has an electric gaso- 

 line launch for running about on the river. 

 The boat is only 21 feet long, and it is worked 

 by a 4>i-horse-power engjne. To-day it pulled a 

 string of three boats, loaded with picnickers. 

 When I first saw the crowd that was to go. I 

 feared the little launch would hardly handle 

 them all; but it took us some eight or ten miles 

 and back in fine style, I tell you. I think I 

 never enjoyed a picnic more. The thing that 

 added to my enjoyment was that I had a place 

 close to the engine, and was enabled to study 

 carefully its working. Almost twenty years 

 ago (in fact, it wa*; at the Centennial Exposi- 

 tion, in Philadelphia) I first saw a gas-engine. 

 In this first crude affair the gas was exploded 

 by a burning jet. and it sent the piston away 

 up with a tremendous explosion. The modern 

 machine occupies veiy little room for the power 

 it generates; in fact, the ei/Z/jide?' is about the 

 principal part of the machine. A small quan- 

 tity of gasoline, measured out exactly for the 



work required, is turned to vapor, then mixed 

 with the pioper proportion of atmospheric air 

 to produce an explosive compound. This com- 

 pound is fired in the cylinder by an electric 

 spark, and the force of the explosion gives the 

 power. It seems almost incredible that all 

 this could take place at each stroke of the 

 piston when the engine made as many as five 

 revolutions per saxnid. I enjoyed most hearti- 

 ly every rod of our trip after I had the hang of 

 the machine enough to .see how it did its work. 

 It really propels the boat by a series of " kicks " 

 —yes, vigorous kicks— and the kicks are at the 

 rate of five a second. Where is the kicker who 

 can beat that? Now, mind you, besides this it 

 occupies such a very small space that it can 

 not possibly blow up, because it really does 

 blow up five times every second — that is. all it 

 can blow up. There is no boiler, and no reser- 

 voir of any thing but gasoline, and this is away 

 oft' at the other end of the boat. Great precau- 

 tions are taken to prevent this reservoir from 

 letting loose the gasoline any faster than the 

 engine uses it. By great carelessness the gaso- 

 line pipe might be broken so as to let the dan- 

 gerous liquid out into the boat. Then if some 

 one should throw a match into it, it might 

 burn. But even in such a case, as the boat is 

 always in the open air there could be no real 

 explosion. The occupants might get their 

 clothing set on fire; but all they would have to 

 do would be to climb over into the water and let 

 themselves down until the fire was out. 



While I was enjoying seeing the thing work, 

 I could not but refiect on the amount of brains 

 and hard study that had, step by step, during 

 these twenty years past, conquered obstacle 

 after obstacle, and brought the machine to its 

 present state of perfection. In fact, it seems 

 almost impossible that any really valuable in- 

 vention can come about in any other way. 

 Not only must one man make it. perhaps, a life 

 study, but other men, and often succeeding 

 generations, work out the.se great triumphs of 

 human intelligence over the forces of nature.* 



By the way, friend Brown proposes, if I am 

 correct, to make this gas-engine launch help 

 him ill his migrat(»ry bee-keeping. You see, he 

 can put a pretty good-sized apiary on a cheap 

 raft, or lighter, and then this litile giant of 

 strength and power, this compact " genii " of 

 boiled-down power and energy, will take the 

 whole apiary and fairly make it skim over the 

 St. Johns River and tributaries, to any point 

 where honey may be coming in. We just had 

 the nicest crowd of boys and girls, in my opin- 

 ion, to be found in Florida, or any other land; 

 and let me say to you confidentially that Mr. 

 Biown's little sister, who presides over his 

 housekeeping affairs in a model fashion, is not 

 one whit behind the rest of the crowd; and. by 

 the way, what a grand thing it is to }i<we a, 

 sister! Of course, you all know I think a wife 

 is about the nicest "thing in the world; but if 

 one hasn't a wife, a sister is the next best thing. 

 Dear reader, have you looked after that sister 

 of yours as you ought? Do you realize what a 

 gift, straight from the great God above, she is 

 or ought to be? Suppose you go and tell her 

 now what I am saying; and you may add, too, 

 that I have had large experience, and am good 

 authority in the matter. 



The St. Johns River is one of the prettiest 

 rivers in the world. Oh! I forgot to mention 



* I liope our readers will excuse me for once more 

 touclilng on Elect lOpoLse rig-lit here. These [tenple 

 have the clieek and effrontery to claim that they 

 too liave "evolved and studied up" some great in- 

 vention and discovery, wliereas they liave lieen 

 only liatchins: up a series of lies. So ingeniously 

 have they built up their cause tliat one miglit well 

 be deluded it lie did not look closely into tlie matter. 



