G I. E A N I N G S IN BEE CULTURE 



Skptkmbkr, 1918 



have U) luiul their ^raiii to the top of the 

 great hill; and farmers just now do not 

 have a surplus of time nor of horses either, 

 as a rule. Shall they climb uphill, leave 

 their grist, and then again come up after 

 it? or shall a wire bring the power to the 

 home or even down to the valley? I have 

 taken space to make the above statement 

 in order that you may get a fair glimpse 

 of the jH-oblem that awaits us in making 

 the wind store the electricity, or " canned 

 electricity," as the Scientific American 

 terms it. 



Well, one i-eason why I was anxious to 

 have friend Forrest go along was because 

 he is so much younger than 1. I thought 

 he might take me along and keep me out 

 of trouble. When we arrived at St. Paul, 

 the man who had charge of the informa- 

 tion bureau was looked up. There were 

 many people around asking him questions, 

 and I guess he was tired. He said we 

 could not get a train for Wyndmere nor 

 anywhere near it until some time next day. 

 Well, Mrs. Foi-rest not only runs an elec- 

 tric automobile but when Ave planned our 

 trip she traced our route by railroad fold- 

 ers and told us we could get to Wyndmere 

 early the following morning. I went back 

 to the " information " man ; but he was 

 short and crusty, and intimated that he 

 knew his own business, etc. I went to the 

 ticket agent and told him we had been in- 

 formed we could get to Wahpeton that night. 

 He said Wahpeton was away off our route, 

 etc. — there was no way but to wait until 

 the middle of the next day. But friend 

 Forrest still insisted that his wife was 

 right, and he seemed to think she knew 

 more than the information bureau and the 

 ticket agent together. As there were four 

 or five clerks at the ticket-windows in St. 

 Paul, I applied to their man at another 

 window. He too snubbed me by intimat- 

 ing they knew^ their own business. Noth- 

 withstanding all this, Mr. Forrest pointed 

 out by our folders that we Avere right; and 

 I made the chap at the information bu- 

 reau own up ; and he gave as a reason that 

 he had run out of folders for the train Ave 

 wanted to take; and Avhen I applied for a 

 sleeper berth the same ticket agent again 

 insisted that it Avould not do me any good 

 to go to Wahpeton. 



I give the above as an illustration of how 

 important it is when we Avant to travel any 

 long distance that we thoroly inform our- 

 selves before starting as to the route to 

 take, etc. My impression is that if they 

 had had a woman in charge of that infor- 

 mation bureau, or even at the ticket office, 

 she Avould have been sufficiently i)Osted to 



save us a great i^art of a day besides the 

 expense. 



When I started from home Mrs. Root 

 said, " NoAv, don't you go and burdem 

 George's Avif e with her two little children, 

 I knoAV about them, foi: I have seen their 

 pictures. But you insist on going straight 

 to a hotel." 



Well, I tried to obey orders; but George 

 and his good Avife said, "nothing of the 

 sort.'" 



As I was tired from the day's travels I 

 Avas soon off to bed. Perhaps I should ex- 

 plain here that by some blunder our good 

 friend Forrest did not get off the train at 

 Wahpeton, but he arrived at George's place 

 a little after I had retired, and he too tried 

 to go to a hotel, but receiA'ed the same an- 

 swer I did. So, instead of obeying Mrs. 

 Root's injunction I Avent there and stayed 

 over night; and not only that, I brought 

 another man Avith me and Ave both stayed 

 over Sunday. Oh, dear me ! didn't " we 

 three " have a time in discussing windmills, 

 storage batteries, electricity, etc.? 



The town of Wyndmere has about 600 

 inhabitants, and it is lighted by an elec- 

 tric-light ]ilant owned by the Electric 

 Windmill corporation. A kerosene engine 

 operates it. I think it requires toward 

 $2.00 Avorth of kerosene to run it 24 hours, 

 and an expert to take charge of the engine 

 in the night. But this expense could all 

 be saved by electricity furnished by the 

 Avindmill. George thinks about four mills 

 located at the four corners of the toAvn 

 Avould do the Avork; and the reason Avhy 

 these Avindmills are not installed is that 

 they are away behind on orders for the 

 mills. They received three orders for out- 

 fits of $500 each the day I arrived; and 

 two days later they received five more or- 

 ders for outfits. The factory is a one-story 

 one, I think about 140 x 50 or 60 feet 

 Avide. Almost everything in that line is 

 made on tlieir OAvn premises. The particu- 

 lar trouble just noAV is a lack of help. 

 Some of their best men have been called 

 to the war. From a notice I gave of their 

 invention in Gleanings, inquiries have 

 come from almost evei-y part of the world. 

 In fact, George showed me a pile of letters 

 that Avere quite in evidence as shoAving that 

 our journal reaches almost the uttermost 

 parts of the earth. The ManikoAvske fam- 

 ily are all geniuses. When George took us 

 up to " the old home farm " we found his 

 father and mother and sister and brother 

 each driving a four-horse reaper; and a 

 hired man drove tlie fifth, so that each time 

 around the field they cut a SAvath as wide 

 as tlie live reapers. Notliing would do but 



