326 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Apr. 15. 



saw. We found bananas, date palms, potatoes, 

 cabbage, string beans, and even some beautiful 

 flowers, and nobody but himself to enjoy ihem. 

 You might have known I would have made a 

 protest against such a waste. Why, there are 

 thousiinds of industrious, intelligent German 

 women who would delujlit in tinding such a 

 home, and they would give this poor, lonely 

 man a glimpse of happiness and companionship 

 such as he has never dreamed of; and then 

 there would probably be some reason, in course 

 of lime, for building a neat little schoolhouse 

 away down in those Florida wilds. 



Several times I wondered why it was that 

 everybody in Florida was planting beans; and 

 it was just one kind of bean, too — the Refugee, 

 or Thousand-to-one. They say the golden wax 

 beans do not do well in Florida; but they pro- 

 duce this one kind of string bean. I did not see 

 any beans in Florida, however, with the rank, 

 luxuriant growth we have here on our clay soil; 

 but when I suggested as much to friend Gifford, 

 he replied that they sometimes sold a single 

 crop for $400 per acre, even if they did not get 

 such tremendous crops as we do. His daughter, 

 Mrs. Sprange, here puts in, by way of paren- 

 thesis, that sometimes the crop brings nearer 4 

 cents per acre. 



Ruby's mother died of consumption less than 

 a year ago. They brought her to Florida when 

 it was too late, although her life was prolonged 

 several years, so the friends believed, in conse- 

 quence of getting to Florida when she did. The 

 cook of the family, while I was there, was a 

 boy who had formerly served in that capacity 

 on board of a steamboat. In consequence of 

 dull times he was out of employment, and friend 

 Gifford took him in, and I found him making 

 himself exceedingly handy, indoors and out. In 

 one of our trips through the woods, we came 

 across a deserted plantation, where orange-trees 

 were planted twenty years ago. Nobody has 

 tried to do anything with It for years past, and 

 the place has all grown up to forest; but the 

 orange-trees, mostly the sour variety, grow 

 right out in the woods, and bear considerable 

 crops. I found some of them that had escaped 

 the frosts, and I thought them quite delicious. 



Almost all through Florida, bee-keepers com- 

 plain of the depredations of bears. Once upon 

 a time a bear visited an apiary where there were 

 cases of sections all ready to come off. The 

 bear took off the top of the hive, then took two 

 cases of sections, one under each "arm," and 

 started off for the forest. I presume he was a 

 little bashful about sitting down and eating 

 his honey there so near the bee-keeper's home. 

 The owner of the hives, however, heard the 

 racket, and put out after him. The consequence 

 was, Bruin dropped his cases of honey in the 

 bushes, and put off without them. I asked the 

 owner if he actually s<(i« the bear going off with 

 a case of sections under each arm. He admitted 

 that he did not see the operation, but replied, 

 "But, Mr. Root, how else couUl he have carried 

 them? Please tell, will you? I chased the 

 bear away, picked up my two cases of sections 

 which he dropped on top of the bushes, so as 

 not to break or injure them; and, in fact, they 

 were in such good order that I shipped them 

 both to New York, and sold them with the rest. 

 Now. how did the bear carry those two cases 

 out into the woods unless he had one under 

 each arm and walked on his hind feet? Please 

 tell." 



Now, friends, I am sorry to say that I can not 

 at this very minute tell who told me this bear- 

 story. It sounds very much as if it were A. F. 

 Brown; but if he absolutely declares that he did 

 not tell it, then it must have been somebody 

 else. 



I suggested to friend Gifford that he should 



keep store in connection with his postoffice, and 

 that Ruby would make a tip-top clerk. But he 

 said he had had " store" enough in the North — 

 that he does not want to be bothered any more. 

 Theri^ is not a store or grocery of any sort within 

 six miles of him. I happen to know, however, 

 that he does quite a retail business as it is. for 

 Ruby says they sell oianges for a cent apiece, 

 and honey for .5 cts. a pound, at retail. 



You remember what I said about the Weather 

 Bureau and the oranges? Well, during the 

 freeze of Feb. 7 I had an opportunity of seeing 

 something of the difficulty of transmitting cold- 

 wave messages in the interior of Florida. On 

 the Gth of February, about 10 o'clock in the 

 morning, Jacksonville was notified that a cold 

 wave would reach there during the night. This 

 message was promptly telegraphed to Titus- 

 ville, where they ran up the cold-wave flag. 

 The displayman also mailed cards of warning 

 lo ail the postoffices in the county. One of 

 these cold-wave cards passed Vero postoffice on 

 the train at 7 o'clock in the evening. There is 

 so little mail in the evening, however, that they 

 have decided to let it all go down to West Palm 

 Beach, and come up the following morning at 

 10 o'clock; and, accordingly, at that time next 

 day, we were notified of a cold wave coming. 

 We got the notice several hours after the mis- 

 chief was done. Now, this happened right on 

 one of the main lines of railway too; how would 

 it be several miles away from either railway or 

 telegraph lines? 



THE NEW CATALOGS. 



Look out for the catalog that praises every 

 thing unstintedly, and especially where the 

 good qualities are mentioned of every fruit and 

 vegetable, and none of the objectionable qual- 

 ities. We have catalog men now who report 

 almost as faithfully and disinterestedly as do 

 our experiment stations, and these men should 

 be encouraged and patronized. Take the Tim- 

 brell strawberry for an illustration. How many 

 of the catalogs tell you that, while it is one of 

 the grandest new berries, it has one very objec- 

 tionable feature — a mottled white tip, even 

 when the berries are perfectly ripe? 



VAKIATION IN PRICES OF POTATOES, ONION- 

 SEEDS, ETC. 



If you will look over the seed -catalogs you 

 will see what a wide margin of prices is given 

 on the same article.' For instance, one seed- 

 catalog will put seed-potatoes at !?2.25 per bush- 

 el, while another one quotes the same variety 

 Sit $2. 2~i a hari'el. Again, some of our le-iding 

 seedsmen in the great cities are still asking 

 $2.50 a peck for onion-sets, potato onions, mul- 

 tipliers, etc., while other friends who live out 

 in the country are offering the same thing, and 

 would be glad to get 12.50 for a whole bushel. 

 Perhaps it is no particular business of ours; 

 but I would advise that, before you send off 

 your hard earnings, you look over the agricul- 

 tural papers and see the bargains offered in 

 their advertising columns, and also look care- 

 fully over the catalogs sent out by practical 

 farmers. 



WHITE VICTORIA ONIONS. 



I believe we were among the first to intro- 

 duce and recommend these beautiful fine large 

 onions; but of late there has been more or less 



