528 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



July 1. 



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FLORIDA TKAA^ELS. 



There are a good many surprises in Florida. 

 You get a little homesick, and every thing looks 

 dull and dreary; the towns look dilapidated and 

 run down, and the landscape looks like a barren 

 desert. But all of a sudden you come across 

 some exampleof luxuriance and productiveness, 

 like the grape-fruit tree near friend Stacey's 

 house. By the way, I want to say a word more 

 in regard to this grape-fruit tree. In mention- 

 ing the matter, several friends assured me that, 

 especially in Florida, the trees around most 

 houses grow with remarkable vigor, and no 

 theory has yet seemed to explain the matter 

 fully. Some suggest that the shade of the 

 house conserves fertility; others, that the 

 waste and trash from the average family makes 

 the ground rich; and one friend, whom I shall 

 mention further on, goes so far as to gather all 

 the trees, trash, rubbish, and almost every thing 

 he can lay his hands on, to mulch the ground 

 around his orange-trees. He claims that 

 mulching and shading are elements of fertility. 



Well, there are other surprises that meet you 

 in Florida, especially after you have begun to 

 think the little towns and villages do not 

 amount to very much— and some of the villages 

 and railroad stations are, in fact, not much 

 more than a store and postoffice; but now and 

 then you see something that upsets the idea 

 that there is nothing " going on "in Florida. 

 A startling surprise awaited me when I set foot 

 in the city of Tampa. The total population of 

 the place, I am told, is about 18,000. There are 

 beautiful paved streets, fine buildings, a street- 

 car line that runs to Ybor City (pronounced 

 Eebor) ; and, most astonishing of all, is to find 

 away out there in the wilderness and sandy 

 wastes the Tampa Bay Hotel. The hotel — 

 well, look at the picture on the opposite page, 

 and then believe me when I tell you it lacks 

 only a few feet of being a quarter of a mile 

 long. These great hotels in Florida are. in 

 some respects, a sort of manufactory. They 

 manufacture right on the premises, by means 

 of steam and electricity, and skilled artisans, 

 every thing to make a traveler comfortable. 

 The nicest water is hunted up, even if they 

 have to go many miles for it, and a great en- 

 gine sends it where it is wanted. The same 

 engine furnishes power for driving fans, lifting 

 elevators, and helping about the kitchen wher- 

 ever power will help. The kitchen is a sort of 

 manufactory where the best eatables are made 

 in quantities sufficient to supply a considerable 

 town. I have forgotten how many guests this 

 hotel accommodates, but it is something like a 

 thousand; and at the time I was there I was 

 told the rooms were all occupied. The picture 

 gives you some idea of the grounds and sur- 

 roundings, and of the beautiful drives and 

 walks, made of Florida shells, which I have 

 already described; also the trees and tropical 

 plants and shrubbery. In the foreground you 

 have a view of a beautiful iron bridge that 

 leads to the hotel. Various greenhouses and 

 conservatories furnish every thing to make all 

 the rare and tropical exotic plants feel at home 

 that are to be found anywhere on the face of 

 the earth. The architecture is, I believe, what 

 is called Moorish. The building is all of brick, 

 and this was a great relief to me. because, you 

 remember. I had been somewhat disgusted with 

 the make-believe imitations of stone, made out 

 of sheet-iron and paint. There is not any 



whitewash to drop off nor show through on the 

 Tampa Bay Hotel. Some of you may be in- 

 quisitive as to what should make such a thriv- 

 ing live city as Tampa, away down in that 

 part of Florida. Well, I was just thinking 1 

 should much rather say nothing about the 

 principal business of the city and vicinity; for, 

 to tell the truth, Tampa is said to be almost 

 headquarters for the whole world in the manu- 

 facture of cigars. I did not visit any of these 

 factories, although I was invited to do so. 

 When I am an invited guest, and my friends 

 take pains to show me around, I usually feel 

 bound to be pleased and to look happy, learn- 

 ing about things that I never knew of before; 

 but if I should look pleased and happy while 

 being shown over a great manufactory that 

 confines its operations to cigars and tobacco, I 

 am afraid I should not sleep well when it came 

 night time. 



Out a little beyond Ybor City I found some 

 beautiful gardens carried on by a system of ir- 

 rigation, quite extensive, and fully up to the 

 times. Ybor is the name of the most wealthy 

 man in Tampa, and he was greatly instru- 

 mental in building it up. He is a Spaniard, 

 and has extensive tobacco-plantations in the 

 island of Cuba. For some reason, unknown to 

 me. the localitv of Tampa City seems to be better 

 for his line of business than Cuba. 



While I was looking over the big hotel I was 

 greatly surprised to see a strange race of people, 

 unlike any thing I had ever seen before. As 

 the train pulled up, a lot of nicely dressed 

 page«, or waiters, came to take charge of the 

 trainload of visitors. These waiters were 

 mostly young boys, say in their teens. Their 

 style of dress was foreign, perhaps somewhat 

 after the oriental style: and some of these 

 young fellows were sufficiently good-looking 

 (notwithstanding their swarthy skin) to make 

 many of the girls envious. They spoke some 

 foreign tongue that I took to be Spanish. Let 

 me say to their credit I found them to be ex- 

 ceedindgly courteous and obliging whenever I 

 asked any questions of anv sort. 



At Lakeland I found W. C. Green, who had 

 given me a very warm invitation to come and 

 see him. Friend Green is a genius, and an odd 

 genius. His hives are arranged in groups in 

 his dooryard. Some of the hives are very 

 tastily located in an ornamental summer-house. 

 Almost as soon as I came into the dooryard he 

 commenced to show me his beautifully marked 

 Italians. He began opening one of his hives, 

 with so little ceremony that I dodged back; 

 and he laughed at me some to think that A. I. 

 Root should be afraid of bees. I told him I was 

 not a bit afraid to open any hive in his yard, 

 and that without smoke or veil; but if he was 

 going to yank off covers in the way he had just 

 commenced. I thought I would keep at a safe 

 distance. He said his bees were properly train- 

 ed, and would not sting, even if one did burst 

 into their domains without so much as even a 

 gentle rap to let them know you are coming. 

 Well, the bees came out and filled the air. 

 They buzzed around his ears, and I felt almost 

 sure he would get stung most severely; but he 

 did not get a sting. The next day. however, he 

 attempted to do the same thing with a log gum 

 that we found away out in the woods in a 

 neighbor's yard, and both he and the owner got 

 stung until they were quite ready to beat a 

 retreat. Friend G. has a pretty home, and quite 

 a family of boys and girls. 



In the afternoon we started out on an explor- 

 ing expedition. Mr. H. S. Galloway has nine 

 acres of strawberries. His variety, which he 

 calls the Newnan.is a perfect-blossoming kind. 

 I found his strawberry-ranch on ground so low 

 and wet that water stood in the furrows over a 



