1895 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



959 



people; large manufactories of different kinds 

 are running in full blast, presenting a scene of 

 activity and industry much like our progres- 

 sive and growing northern cities. We found 

 accommodation at Hotel Jackson at 75 cts. per 

 day for room and bed, as given on page 901. 



This includes electric lights and steam radi- 

 ators, even clear up into the fifth story, where 

 we found accommodations. An electric elevator 

 is running constantly 10 carry people and bag- 

 gage up and down. 



This was a special arrangement (75 cts. a 

 day), however, made for bee-keepers, with the 

 understanding that they "double up." This 

 means that you occupy a bed in a room where 

 there are several beds. If the house is crowded 

 you are to share your bed with somebody else. 

 Our room contained three beds, and part of the 

 time six occupants. Of course, they were not 

 all bee-keepers, but we managed to get ac- 

 quainted so that we had a very pleasant and 

 social time. Meals are given on the European 

 plan, and you can have a plate of toast for five 

 cents, and a cup of tea or coffee for five cents 

 each, besides various other five-cent articles, if 

 you wish to be economical. You can also order 

 a meal that will cost a dollar or more, if you 

 feel inclined that way; or you can economize 

 by carrying a lunch-basket, and sit down at a 

 table, and order only a cup of coffee. I confess 

 I like this plan very much indeed. For 40 cents 

 I got a good sirloin steak, nicely cooked, with 

 very little delay; and with the zwieback that I 

 brought with me from home I had just what I 

 wanted, and no more, at regular hours, without 

 a bit of trouble. There are various places in 

 Atlanta where you can get very good meals for 

 35 cents; a fair one for 15 cents: and there are 

 even places where yon are invited to come in 

 and try their ten cent meals. We did not try 

 any of the latter, but were assured that many 

 kinds of good wholesome food could be procur- 

 ed, nicely cooked, at tnis low figure. I have 

 taken this pains to particularize, because re- 

 ports have been circulated that one could not 

 get along at the exposition without paying 50 

 cents or a dollar for meals. 



While 1 am on the subject, perhaps 1 should 

 mention that we had a very nice dinner on the 

 exposition grounds, for .50 cents each, at the 

 Georgia barbecue. My first question was. 

 whether I could get a dinner all of meat if I 

 wanted to. The waiter rather smiled at my 

 query, and said he guessed they could hit my 

 wants to a dot Then he brought in a huge 

 platter of mutton, roasted barbecue fashion, 

 that made me feel at once that I should not 

 go hungry. After dinner I was invited to see 

 how they cooked things at a barbecue. Several 

 long trenches were made along a side-hill — that 

 is, they were on a slant. These were filled with 

 firewood, which was kept burning until the 

 earth, bottom, and sides, were as hot as a brick 

 oven. Then the various animals were slaugh- 

 tered, cut into quarters or huge chunks, and 

 through each quarter or chunk two iron rods 

 were thrust, these rods reaching from one side 

 of the pit to the other. Before the meat was 

 put on. however, the fuel was all removed, ex- 

 cept a bed of glowing coals in the bottom. The 

 meat is then turned over on the iron rods, and 

 given sufficient time to become thoroughly 

 cooked all through. lean hardly explain why; 

 but meat cooked in this manner, close to the 

 hot earth, has a peculiar rich flavor. With the 

 meat are served potatoes and other vegetables, 

 and a sort of soup made of tomatoes, green 

 corn, and other vegetables. If T am correct, the 

 food is all cooked in these earth trenches. It 

 makes one think of the Bible stories of olden 

 time, where hundreds or thousands of domestic 



animals were roasted at a single feast; and 

 the barbecue idea certainly seems calculated to 

 encourage the consumption of more meat and 

 less of other things. 



Hdrper's IFeefc/y describes the stew, or soup, 

 by the following graphic account of how it is 

 made, from one of ^he colored cooks: 



" Well, yer see, yer jest takes de meat, de hog's 

 haid, an' de libbers, an' alt surte er little nice parts; 

 an' yer cliops it upwld curn an' permattuses, an' 

 iiijuns an' green peppers, an' yer stews an' stews 

 tell liit all gits erlike, an' yer kain't tell what bit's 

 made uv." 



They add: 



"It is a necessary adjunct of the dinner; and 

 when it is made sufticieutly hot by a sufficient 

 quantity of pungent peppers, it Is indeed a rare ap- 

 petizer." 



THE ATLANTA BEE-KEEPEKS' CONGRESS. 



The gathering of bee-keepers was not large, 

 probably owing to the severe weather; but 

 what we lacked in numbers we made up in 

 quality, for we had some of the best honey- 

 producers present to be found in America, and 

 perhaps some of the best and most successful 

 on the face of the earth. I was much gratified 

 to meet so many of the good friends who enter- 

 tained me so well while in Florida last winter 

 — W. S. Hart, O. O. Poppleton, A. F. Brown, 

 and Wm. P. Wilkinson. Mrs. Harrison came 

 in the second day; and our veteran friend, Mr. 

 C. VanDeusen, of Sprout Brook, N. Y. (propri- 

 etor of the wired flat-bottom comb foundation), 

 was present during the whole session. Friend 

 V. is now 81 years old, and came to the conven- 

 tion quite unattended. He looks quite hale 

 and hearty, and one would hardly suppose by 

 his looks that he was really so old. Like my- 

 self, h<' ordered /lot loater instead of either tea 

 or coffee; and perhaps this may give us a sugges- 

 tion as to the reason why he holds out so well. 

 I noticed, also, that both himself and Mrs. 

 Harrison were choosing mostly the lean-meat 

 diet as I did. Our friend J. D. Fooshe and wife 

 were also in attendance. Friend F. is getting 

 to be a veteran in queen-rearing, as you may 

 remember from his advertisements.* Dr. .f. P. 

 H. Brown, also one of the old wheel-horses in 

 bee culture, seemed to be the prime mover of the 

 whole affair. 



Discussion was opened by a paper from Mr. 

 Charles Dadant, in regard to why bees swarm. 

 Friend Hart told us he had managed his large 

 apiary for several years past with so little an- 

 noyance from natural swarming that it did not 

 amount to more than three or four swarms 

 from a hundred colonies on the average. His 

 principal remedy (together with the proper 

 shade from the great scuppernong grapevines), 

 is to take the honey out of their way, and give 

 both queen and bees plenty of room. You will 

 remember he ;jses a large solar evaporator for 

 ripening his honey. This enables him to re- 

 move it when only a very little of it is capped 

 over. 



Some discussion resulted as to whether hon- 

 ey ripened by the sun was fully equal to that 

 ripened in the hives. Friend Hart gave us 

 pretty conclusive evidence that his product 

 was certainly not very much behind that of 

 other bee-keepers. Friend Poppleton thought 

 the same result could be accomplished by hav- 



*Frieud Fooshe has a contract to furnish Buist, 

 the great seedsman, with 2:^,(XK' ^l>s. of seven-top- 

 turnip seed. The plants are now growing on 32 

 acres; and when they come into bloom all at once it 

 ought to make a boom for a pretty large a|)iary, 

 and then we can tell what honey is like, gathered 

 from seven-top turnip. Providence permitting, I 

 may visit his place when the honey-yield is at its 

 height. 



