580 



GLEANINGS IN BEEnCULTURE. 



Aua. 1. 



to be exactly what it was bought for. We take 

 pleasure in referring our readers to their adver- 

 tisement on page 443 of our issue for June 1. lZD 



The town of Tnompson, Geauga Co., O., is 

 situated on a sandstone rock. About half a 

 mile west of the town this rock suddenly drops 

 down from 50 to 75 feet. At some points the 

 drop is perhaps 100 feet. This is what is called 

 the " Ledge." It extends north and south from 

 five to ten miles. There is no river at the bot- 

 tom of this sudden fall, as one might expect; 

 but the valley, as it were, stretches off in a 

 level plain miles away. A large portion of this 

 sandstone rock on which the town is situated is 

 composed of white sand and white gravelly 

 pebbles the size of beans and peas. The water 

 from the wells is pure and soft; and after every 

 one of my wheelrides I just delighted in drink- 

 ing it again and again. I spoke briefly several 

 times on the E^'ourth of July; and in one of my 

 talks I told the people that, if they had never 

 thanked God for their beautiful pure soft water, 

 they should commence on that Fourth of July 

 tendering him thanksgiving and praise for this 

 wonderful gift. Somebody told me if I wanted 

 to take a wheeiride of three or four miles out in 

 the country I could find a soft-water spring big 

 enough to run a gristmill winter and summer. 

 I lost no time in making the trip, and was 

 amply repaid. A gristmill and sawmill stand 

 near the highway. By following the race along 

 which the water comes perhaps half a mile 

 back in the lots, I found the spring gushing out 

 of several fissures between the hills. A dam 

 has been put across so that the water that runs 

 nights and Sundays may be stored up for use 

 when grinding. I estimated that the stream 

 was large enough to fill an ordinary stovepipe 

 with a pretty good velocity; but some of the 

 people thought my estimate of the quantity 

 was pretty high. This, too, was beautiful soft 

 water. 



Three or four miles west of this spring I 

 found a bee-keeper whose name was Root. I 

 commenced to apologize for making him a 

 visit on the Fourth of July; but when I told 

 him who I was, you ought to have seen his face 

 light up. I looked over his crops, saw his 

 Thoroughbred potatoes, and pointed out to him 

 one hill of Craigs that must have got there by 

 some mistake. One can tell the Craig at first 

 sight by its rank green foliage, stanaing up 

 almost as straight as a cornstalk uniil it gets 

 to be so tall that it topples over. Then we 

 sampled the Red Astrachan apples, which were 

 just getting ripe on the Fourth of July. He 

 has one colony of bees that had gathered about 

 80 lbs. of honey stored in sections thus early in 

 the season. 



I was interested in a patch of artichokes— 

 perhaps an eighth of an acre. Friend R. says 

 they have been a success with him as feed for 

 pigs. One of his breeding sows got her entire 

 living from this patch of artichokes for a good 

 many weeks. In fact, she had nothing else 

 whatever. She not only laid on HfSh,butgot 

 so fat they feared it would be detrimental to 

 her maternal appointments; but siie and the 

 little pigs came around all right. You know I 

 am great on having either machines or domestic 

 animals that get along without expensive 

 superintending. Well, pigs in artichokes will 

 harvest the crop, prepare the ground, and do the 

 planting for the next crop; all you have to do 

 is to just turn them in and let them manage. 

 Mrs. Root seemed as much pleased as her hus- 

 band, and we had biscuit, butter, and honey 

 for supper. 



Monday morning I was up a little before day- 

 light in order to catch the 6-o'clock tral<n at 



Painesville, 13 miles away. A good breakfast 

 awaited me, notwithstanding the earliness of 

 the hour. Just as I was finishing it, and think- 

 ing what a delightful time I should have spin- 

 ning through the country before it was fairly 

 light, what should I hear on the roof but the 

 patter of great big raindrops? As I noticed 

 the moon shining while I was dressing I could 

 hardly believe my ears. In a little time, how- 

 ever, it slacked up, and I ventured forth. I 

 made barely one mile when more rain drove me 

 into the coal-shed of a country schoolhouse. 

 After a rest of twenty minutes (no refresh- 

 ments) I tried it once more, and made another 

 mile. Then I rested in a stable. Nobody was 

 up, and the dog was inclined to think it incum- 

 bent on him to wake up his master; but after I 

 explained to him that I was orthodox, and did 

 not want to steal the pony, he seemed satisfied. 

 Do dogs really know whether a man means 

 mischief or is just getting in out of the rain? 

 Painfully and laboriously I made another mile, 

 and stopped because I saw a very neat and tidy 

 little apiary. The owner did not appear to be 

 very sociaiale so early in the morning, and did 

 not know that he had ever heard my name. 

 The section boxes in his corn-crib, where he 

 stood shelling corn to feed his chickens, were 

 of our manufacture, notwithstanding. 



I pushed on through the mud. Wlien the lat- 

 ter did not cling to the rubber tires until it 

 threatened to cover even the spokes of the 

 wheels, I got along tolerably well. Some kinds 

 of soil will do very well to ride over just after a 

 rain. Then there are other kinds that will not 

 do a bit ; and the two kinds may both be found 

 in going half a mile. I wanted to make that 

 train, and so I kept pushing ahead, getting off 

 occasionally to roll off the load of mud by put- 

 ting my thumb and finger around the rubber 

 tire just as it rises from the ground. May be 

 you have learned the trick. Finally the sun 

 came out, and things began to improve. Now, 

 would you believe it? half of my journey was 

 done when I reached a point where it had not 

 rained a drop, and I had a most grand ride over 

 the beautiful graded and graveled roads that 

 one finds within four or five miies of Painesville 

 in almost any direction. When I was told by 

 the ticket agent that I had 20 minutes to spare 

 before train time he looked at my wheel and gave 

 a " Whew!" " Why, look here; you don't mean 

 that it has been raining where you came from 

 this morning ? " 



Then several others gathered around me and 

 could hardly believe my statement that there 

 had been such heavy rains only ten miles away. 

 My wheel, however, corroborated what I said. 

 By the time the train came up I had. by the 

 help of a long narrow strip of rag, cleaned off 

 the nickel and enamel, so the wheel looked 

 very presentable. So many other wheelmen 

 gathered around the baggage car that the 

 agent said, "' Look here, boys, there is such a 

 lot of you I think I will have to ask you to lift 

 your own wheels up into the baggage-car your- 

 selves." We were quite glad to do this. Only 

 two or three of the dozen wheels presented had 

 struck the rain as well as myself. 



WOKMS ON SHADE-TREES AND OTHER TREES. 



Ever since the leaves came out in the spring 

 we have been rejoicing over our basswood- 



