1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



747 



and my half-hour's visit had abundantly satis- 

 fied me for making th(^ trip. At just about my 

 usual mealtime I stood before the landlord of 

 the hotel at Hudson, O., and explained as fol- 

 lows: 



" My good friend, I am under the doctor's 

 care, and eat nothing but lean beefsteak. I am 

 going to make you some trouble, but I am per- 

 fectly able and willing to pay you for it all. If 

 you haven't it in the house, please get me from 

 the meat-market a full pound of their best 

 tenderloin steak. Have the butcher trim off 

 every bit of fat, muscle, and bone, and pay him 

 his price, then have it nicely broiled, not over- 

 done, and call me to dinner. I shall probably 

 be asleep on this lounge here in this sitting- 

 room." 



In less than an hour I was refreshed by sleep 

 and an excellent meal of pure beef. When I 

 went to pay my bill, the landlord said it was 

 only 2.5 cts. 



"Why, ray good friend, 2.5 cts. won't pay for 

 the meat 1 have eaten, let alone your time and 

 bother." 



" Well, our price is 25:cts. to everbody, and I 

 don't see how we could charge you any more." 



Now, friends, when you say the world is all 

 bad. and when people make special strictures 

 in regard to landlords and hotels, please re- 

 member there are exceptions. I had hard work 

 to get this man to take more than the regular 

 price, even after I had explained that I called 

 for something outside of the regular line, and 

 that I proposed in the commencement to pay 

 extra for just what I wanted. 



In a little time more the wheel landed me at 

 the pretty home of W. T. Chamberlain, who 

 carries on his farm a*: a sort of experiment 

 station for the Ohio Farrher, of which he is one 

 of the associate editors. He has about .3(5 acres 

 in potatoes of different varieties. The field is 

 so large I thought it quite convenient to take 

 my wheel along while we made investigations. 

 Besides he has a nice good wagon road along 

 by the side of it. We examined and tested 

 more kinds than I can remember now. But 

 the best of all, with his ground and his man- 

 agement, was the Sir William. It is a rather 

 late potato, like the Craig and the Rural New- 

 Yorker 



Perhaps I should mention that I found friend 

 Chamberlain and his good wife at the dinner- 

 table. As mv time was so limited I was per- 

 mitted to sit down to the table with them so we 

 could talk meanwhile. They had the Sir Wil- 

 liams for dinner, and, of course, they were 

 beauties. The way they cracked open and 

 rolled out like popping corn, exhibiting their 

 floury contents, was enough to make anybody's 

 mouth water, let alone one who had not tasted 

 a potato or any other vegetable for more than 

 six weeks. Of course, the talk was about pota- 

 toes. In the midst of it, friend Chamberlain 

 jumped up like a schoolboy and lugged in a 

 basket containing some that were not used for 

 the noonday meal. Something has given me a 

 wonderful love for every thing in the line of 

 potatoes during the past few weeks. Probably 

 it is because I can not have any. But the doc- 

 tor promises to reward me now before many 

 weeks. Well, friend Chamberlain took along 

 his spading-fork. and we dug into ever so many 

 hills all over the field. The Sir William is cer- 

 tainly ahead of all others in yield. The pota- 

 toes were nearly all large — a large. Ions, white, 

 handsome potato — almost no small ones at all. 

 The Rural New-Yorker, that ran right along 

 beside them, seems to come next to the Sir Wil- 

 liam. 



Before I was half through, my watch re- 

 minded me that I should have to make time 



and let the Rambler "ramble" indeed, or I 

 could not reach my station, seven miles away, 

 in time for the 2:10 train. The road was pretty 

 fair; but as I neared Peninsula it was very 

 much up hill and down. I imagined I could 

 hear the whistle of the coming train; and we 

 (the wheel and I) plunged down some fearful 

 long steep hills in a way that reminded me of 

 those of the Ozark Mountains a year ago. I 

 reached thestation, full of life and spirits, justa 

 few minutes before the train. A brother-wheel- 

 man came close on my heels. 



I reached the doctor's office in Cleveland just 

 before the closing-time .Saturday night. Sev- 

 eral patients were ahead; but after we had be- 

 come acquainted a little in the waiting-room, 

 those who could, kindly gave way for me. 



" Doctor, I think it a little ridiculous to call 

 a man sick who can eat a pound of beefsteak 

 three times a day, and ride twenty or thirty 

 miles over the hilliest roads in Northern Ohio. 

 Hadn't you better turn me off and let me go ? " 



After making some examinations he replied: 



" Well, you are doing tiptop. You need not 

 have any more ground meat unless you choose; 

 but it seems to me that lean meat, and nothing 

 else — that is, if you will be guided by me — is 

 what you need just a little while longer. Yes, 

 you are getting thin in flesh, that is true; but 

 that won't do you any harm. If you should 

 come down to 100 pounds, instead of your pres- 

 ent 115, it would not hurt you a bit. It is not 

 the number of pounds that a man weighs that 

 counts, so much as it is the stuff he is made of. 

 what there is of it." 



I was at home Saturday night just a little 

 after sundown, and not tired out either, from 

 my big day's work. In fact, I had been so full 

 of enjoyment that I felt more like having an- 

 other trip just like it than any thing else. But 

 I slept a solid hour and a half as soon as I had 

 finished my supper. Pure, wholesome food, 

 regular hours, pure water to drink, rest when- 

 ever it seems to be needed— are they not the 

 three great essentials to life, health, and happi- 

 ness ? 



FLORIDA TRAVELS. 



From Lake Helen, on my return trip I passed 

 back again through New Smyrna, clear around 

 to Palatka, making a brief call on our good 

 friend Aug. Leyvraz, at Francis postoffice. In 

 tnis locality there has been rather a setback of 

 late years. Land right around the station at 

 Francis depot was worth $50 an acre ten years 

 ago; but at the time of my visit the whole tract 

 had been sold to a party at $6.00 an acre, and 

 the proprieter was busy clearing up the ground, 

 and planting Niagara grapes. One peculiarity 

 of the way they do things in Florida— yes, and 

 California too — is to launch out in a new en- 

 terprise by planting acres and vines by the 

 thousand. I could not learn that anybody had 

 made a success of Niagara grapes right in that 

 locality; but in some places in Florida the 

 Niagara grapes had been sent into northern 

 markets out of season, and had brought 30 or 40 

 cents a pound. I should start a ';u((?ter o/ a?i 

 acre; and if that succeeded I would increase 

 the acreage, and so on, feeling my way as I 

 enlarged. It may be urged that life is too short 

 for this slow process; but [ think life is too 

 short to take so many chances, and shipwreck 

 a man even before he owns any thing, compar- 

 atively. 



Toward sundown on the same day I was 

 landed in the beautiful townofOcala; and, in 

 fact, it is one of the handsomest and most busi- 

 ness-like places I found in Florida. Just as I 

 stepped off the train, a neat-looking schoolboy 

 about twelve years of age (he attracted my at- 



