7U 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



Sept. 15. 



pipe out of his mouth while he answers in mon- 

 osyllables. (This. too. on the Canada side.) 



The great project of making Niagara Falls a 

 water-power to move the wheels of the world 

 is already in operation. Away up above the 

 rapids, where I disturbed the children by wad- 

 ing in, a shaft has been sunk, hundreds of feet 

 deep, so as to take the water from the highest 

 point in Niagara River. A tunnel that has its 

 opening near Suspension Bridge runs back into 

 the rock about a mile, connecting with this shaft, 

 utilizing the force of this water from its highest 

 point, and letting it out at its very lowest point. 

 This tremendous power is utilized by means of 

 the latest and most improved turbine water- 

 wheels: and these wheels move dynamos, and 

 the great volume of electricity thus produced 

 is carried by wire cables miles and miles, fur- 

 nishing power wherever needed, and in quanti- 

 ty almost unlimited; and one of the beautiful 

 things that this electric current is just now 

 doing is propelling the cars of an electric rail- 

 way down the gorge from the suspension 

 bridge, through Whirlpool Rapids, Devil s 

 Hole, and ever so many other points of interest, 

 clear to Lewiston, on Lake Ontario. Although 

 our tickets from Cleveland to Toronto covered 

 this part of the trip, we cheerfully paid the 

 small sum of 2.5 cents to ride down in the new 

 street-cars on the Gorge Railway. Let me 

 briefly explain: Lake Superior is considerably 

 higher than Lake Huron, into which it emp- 

 ties; Lake Huron, in turn, is higher than Lake 

 Erie, just below, and Lake Erie is several 

 hundred feet higher than Lake Ontario, the 

 fall in one place between the two lakes being 

 160 feet sheer perpendicular, constituting what 

 is known as Niagara Falls. 



We took this gorge railway and descended by 

 the electric elevator 230 feet down the cliff. 

 But even when we had reached the bottom we 

 found Niagara River just roaring and raring 

 as it pitches headlong still further down into 

 this rocky gorge with the clifl's more than 200 

 feet high on each side. It goes down hill in 

 this headlong way for all of a mile, and this 

 makes the wonderful gorge. The new railway, 

 just completed, is cut in the side of the. rock at 

 times almost down to the water's edge. Mr. 

 Calvert asked one of the managers how long 

 that project had been in operation. The reply 

 gave me a quick start of pain. He said: 



" We made our first trip just two weeks ago 

 last Sunday.'" 



1 nave not the full particulars; but as soon 

 as he spoke I remembered hearing of a terrible 

 accident, resulting in the loss of life, about the 

 time they opened this new railway. God has 

 given us this wonderful new force, electricity. 

 He has given us the new means of rapid travel 

 by these beautiful and unique electric railways. 

 Is it really true that the United States of 

 America is getting into a fashion of celebrating 

 each new gift from the great God above by 

 trampling upon and desecrating his holy Sab- 

 bath ? They start new street-railways on 

 Sunday; and when our American boys and 

 girls want to demonstrate what maybe done 

 with this other new gift right from the great 

 Father above, the modern wheel, they pick out 

 God's holy day on which to demonstrate that 

 they can ride a hundnnl miles between sunrise 

 and sunset. This country professes to be a 

 Christian nation; yet right over the line, in the 

 city of Toronto, a great city of about 200,000 in- 

 habitants, not an electric car or any other kind 

 of street-car moves a wheel on Sunday. I asked 

 some of the people how they managed to go to 

 church without the aid of street-cars. You 

 know folks in the large cities here in the 

 States claim that th{; cars are an absolute 



necessity for the people to go to church. Well, 

 one of the Toronto friends replied something 

 as follows: 



"Mr. Root, if vou will consent to remain over 

 Sunday with us I think I can show you that a 

 greater proportion of the people of Toronto at- 

 tend church regularly than in almost any other 

 city you can find of its size in the world." 



\Vhlle in Buffalo I unexpectedly ran across 

 our big good-natured friend Dr. Mason; and he 

 was, as he always has het^n. a great part of the 

 life of our convention. J. B. Hall, of Wood- 

 stock. Ontario, kept up his reputation, not only 

 as a successful thorough-going bee-keeper, but 

 he has not forgotten his comicalities and dry 

 jokes. He said that, the next time I wanted a 

 milder climate than that of Ohio to spend the 

 winter in, I should come up and live in Canada. 

 He said they would send me back with plump 

 and rosy cheeks, something after the fashion of 

 my son-in-law. Mr. Calvert, and the rest of 

 them who were brought up in Canada.* Father 

 Langstroth, with his accomplished daughter, 

 Mrs. Cowan, was present. I believe, during all 

 the sessions. T. G. Newman; W. F. Clarkn; R. 

 H. McKnight: Hutchinson, of the Review: 

 York, of the American Bee Journal; Holter- 

 mann. of the Canadian Bee Journal, and Frank 

 Benton, from Washington, were all present; and 

 the greater part of our deliberations were char- 

 acterized by brotherly feeling and brotherly 

 bearing. Once or twice, when I was not pres- 

 ent, somebody said there was a little jangle. 

 Matters that did not seem to settle themselves 

 quickly were very soon referred to a committee, 

 so that comparatively little time was wastid in 

 unimportant matters. Father Langstroth gave 

 us a history of the difficulties attending the 

 landing of the first Italian bees on American 

 shores, about the year 18.59. Mr. Parsons, the 

 celebrated florist and rose-grower, made about 

 the first successful shipment. But he was no 

 bee-keeper; and after he got his bees here safe 

 and sound he was so very careful and kind (?) 

 to them that hefirst put them into a greenhouse. 

 After the greater part of them had buzzed their 

 lives out by bumping against the glass he put 

 them outdoors in an antiquated bee-shed; but 

 somebody told him they would surely go ofl" and 

 get lost unless he shut them in. So he covered 

 the beeshed with mosquito-netting. And this 

 was a time when cherry-trees, apples, and pears 

 were all in full bloom, and the common black 

 bees just reveling in the blossoms. The poor 

 Italians were kept inside by the cruel netting. 

 After the six colonies were almost used up he 

 sent for his old friend L. L. Langstroth to come 

 and try his hand at saving them. They had 

 been feeding them honey inside of the netting. 

 The poor bees were daubed up. discouraged, 

 and many of them dead; and, after doing his 

 very best, friend Langstroth saved just a single 

 queen. Somebody from California wanted the 

 Italians so bad that he actually offered .?.500 in 

 gold for the single stirviving queen; but Parsons 



* In his talk about wintering bees in the cellar 

 (for I believe cellar wintering seems to be best dur- 

 ing the long severe Canadian winters) he spoke of 

 the contented iiinn tliat slioukl tell the bee-keeper 

 when every tiling is just right; and even when he 

 was talking— at least so it seemed to me— a clieerful, 

 gentle hum liegan to diffuse itself througliout the 

 whole large room in which the convention was lield. 

 I thought at first it must be an accident; then I stared 

 at our friend, and wondered if it were possilile that 

 he was a ventriloquist as well as humorist. There 

 was no mistake aljout It. The well-known buzz that 

 seemed to be here, tliere, and everywliere, instead 

 of emanating from any particular point, must liave 

 been the result of a ventriloquial effort on the part 

 of our comical and irresistibly quaint veteran, J. B. 

 Hall. 



