456 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



June 1. 



taurant was. there was no place where one 

 could get a comfortable meal at a moderate 

 price wiihont going to the whisky and beer 

 saloons. Of course. I do not give thanks out 

 loud when I sit down in a public restaurant, 

 but I several times gave loud thanks all to my- 

 self for the privilege of finding a place where I 

 could get my dinner, supper, or breakfast, right 

 away — well, say as quick as Mrs. Root would 

 get it herself — and be waited on by good, pui'e. 

 clean Christian women. When I contrast such 

 a place with those I am sometimes obliged to 

 put up with— <av a meal of victuals served in a 

 beer saloon — I should call the temperance res- 

 taurant a little heaven h'-reon earth compared 

 with the other place. Yxu can call the other 

 place what you choose. Now. wh^n you go to 

 St. Petershurir. just go into that Exchange and 

 say an encouraging word to them. Constance 

 think* I am a little extravagant in my praise; 

 but I am just giving you ^4. I. Roofs opinion. 



About six miles out from St. Petersburg I 

 found our friend Charles Norman, whose arti- 

 cles have made him more or less acquainted 

 with our readers. He is located away out in 

 the wilderness, on the shores of the Gulf. His 

 occupation is, bringing in garden-stuff, fish, 

 and oysters to the town of St. Petersburg, espe- 

 cially to the large hotels. He too had suffered 

 by the frost, and was, I fear, somewhat dis- 

 couraged. The oyster-industry, however, was 

 comparatively unharmed, and he and his boys 

 take oysters to town two or three times a week. 

 Right near his residence is a shell mound of 

 pretty fair dimensions that was not made by 

 the mound-builders of ancient time. The 

 oysters are brought in by boat, and removed 

 from the shells near the home I have mention- 

 ed. Now, that these shells may not be scatter- 

 ed all over his grounds, and occupy valuable 

 land, the "shucking" is done on top of the 

 heap. As the shells collect, the tools, etc., are 

 pulled higher up: and finally they sit at their 

 work on a heap of shells that bids fair, in a 

 little time, to reach as high as the dwelling; 

 and T was surprised to see how great an accu- 

 mulation was made in .just a few years as the 

 result of the oyster-trade of just one person. 

 Friend Norman has a very neatly arranged 

 apiary under a great scuppemong grapevine, 

 if I remember correctly. Most of the hives in 

 Florida are shaded in this way during the great 

 heat of summer. 



About half way between friend Norman's 

 and St. Petersbure I had my first glimpse of a 

 good -sized wild alligator. I should have called 

 it a log of wood on a pond of water: but the 

 colored driver told me that this "' gator " had 

 been there for years. He has got a deep hole 

 dug in the center of the pond: and when they 

 try to capture him he buries himself down in 

 the mud. He was lying partly out of the water, 

 blinking his eyes in the sun as we passed by. 

 It was near this spot, on our wav home, that I 

 metThaddeus Smith— see page 319. Mar. 15. I 

 need not tell you that friend Smith and myself 

 had a "bis visit;" and I. at least, am looking 

 forward in anticipation of another visit some 

 day up here in Ohio, where we both live. 

 Friend S., like myself, was accompanied by a 

 grown-up daughter. It seems a little funny 

 that we bee-keepers must wait until we meet 

 each other a thousand miles or more from home 

 before we can become really acquainted. 



Toward night I shook hands with Constance 

 and the cousins, and they started back while I 

 took passage on the steamer for Manatee. For 

 quite a little while I felt homesick again, and 

 consoled myself with studying the winds and 

 the waves. Before reaching Manatee we pass- 

 ed through sea-water which looked almost like 

 whitewash — I suppose owing to the exceedingly 



white sand that was so fine the wind and the 

 waves had mixed it mechanically with the 

 water. At the pier I found my friend J. W. 

 Bannehr, who lives about a mile and a half out 

 in the country. The orange-trees here near 

 the water, the most of them, held their leaves: 

 and although the fruit was somewhat injured 

 it was shipped almost every day to some extent. 

 On account of so much sand I left my wheel at 

 Sanford: but I greatly enjojed my walk out 

 in the country. For almost the first time I 

 found green fields — yes. an acre or two of oats. 

 You will remember grain is raised to a very 

 small extent, and only in certain localities, in 

 Florida. Finally I catne on to a very pretty 

 home with a neat fence around it. bee- hives 

 stationed out among the orange-trees, and 

 every thing so neat and tidy it reminded me of 

 the Engli-^h friends of my boyhood that I have 

 spoken about in our book, "' What to Do." Yes, 

 friend B;innehr"s people are English. They 

 came from London. They first came to Florida 

 some years ago, stayed two or three years, and, 

 got homesick, and finally returned to " Merrie 

 England." But after they had stayed there a 

 year or two they became more homesick than 

 ever to go back to Florida. They came back 

 here and located, evidently to stay the rest of 

 their lives. Friend B. has good substantial 

 fences all around his premises; then he has 

 good substantial gates with corresponding fas- 

 tenings. Why, it brought to mind vividly the 

 gates and fastenings that Mrs. Root's father 

 used to have down on the farm by the river. I 

 was so much pleased with the gate-hinge that 

 I am going to describe it right here. It is sim- 

 ply an iron rod driven in at each end of the 

 stick forming one side of the gate. The bottom 

 rod rests in a hole made in a stone set in the 

 ground. The top pivot simply goes through an 

 auger-hole in a piece of board nailed on the 

 cap of the fence. Here you have a hinge that 

 permits a gate to swing either way. It will 

 never wear out; and if the gate ever sags, just 

 pry out the stone a little that holds the bottom 

 pivot. Right here I have in my notebook, — 



" Five colonies increased to 28, and a big lot 

 of honey." 



I do not know whether friend B. did this or 

 not; but I suspect he did. His hives are all set 

 up on a little pedestal or stake. They are up 

 about two feet from the ground: and in answer 

 to my question he said it was to get them out 

 of the way of the toads, and then he told me 

 the following 



TOAD-STOUY. 



When he first commenced keeping bees he 

 noticed one colony so much depleted that he 

 thought there must be some cause for it. 

 Watching closely he discovered, just at night- 

 fall, a big toad scratching on the entrance- 

 board. You know the rest. Being of a humane 

 disposition he picked Mr. Toad up and carried 

 him away off down to the river, and carefully 

 dropped him in. But there were more toads, 

 and he kept carrying them away. Finally, 

 after he had lugged off 30 different toads, by 

 count, all at once the idea suggested itself that 

 it was a little singular that there should be so 

 many toads possessing such marked family 

 resemblance. Thereupon he took No. 30. and 

 marked him with white paint, for identifica- 

 tion. He was consigned to the waters of the 

 river as all his predecessors had been. What 

 do you think? No. .3i was painted and dec- 

 orated. I do not know what he did — at least I 

 do not remember— with No. 31. but there were 

 not any more toads around that particular bee- 

 hive after that. You can figure out the moral 

 yourself. Either put bee-hives up on posts, as 

 ifriend B. has done, or else .«ee that they (the 

 toads) do not travel back during the night. 



